bolichori

Good news: I managed to find a tourist bus to get me back to La Paz, so no hitchhiking/donkey riding for me! (Hitchhiking IS on my South America bucket list, but I guess that will have to wait for Patagonia.)

It was so nice to not be on a bondi lleno de bolitas stankin’ up the place. I was a bit nervous crossing the lake in San Pedro de Tiquina, as the little boats just didn’t seem strong enough to carry such a large vehicle. But alas we made it, after waiting for forty minutes with bolichori all around us. We arrived in La Paz around 5:30pm on Saturday afternoon and got right to mercado wandering and pirated DVD scouting. La Paz, on top of being 3,200 meters above sea level, is also an incredibly hilly city, so you can imagine our exhaustion after walking around for three hours. We came back to a delicious meal of SPICY chicken (yes, spiciness actually exists in Bolivia!), arroz, and “fried potatoes,” according to the menu. (Also known as French fries…I love broken English translations.)

The sights in the actual city of La Paz are rather limited, so Sunday was devoted to lots of salteñas and more mercado browsing.  Taking advantage of the boliviano-dollar exchange rate was beyond epic.  Sunday night, dinner at the hostel was bolichori…obviously I went for seconds.  So good.

All in all, Bolivia was amazing.  Ten days was by no means enough time, so I definitely want to go back soon.  Uyuni, Potosí, and the Amazon are on my Bolivia part two checklist.  Being back in BA has been great though, lots of parciales so I have been rather busy.  Today I got my first Argentine haircut!  I was beyond nervous going into it, but they did an amazing job!  It feels amazing having my hair short again.

I am about to walk out the door to head to the bus station.  This weekend I’m going with Jenny and some of her UBA friends to Villa General Belgrano, in the provincia of Córdoba, for some Argentine Oktoberfest!  I am beyond excited, but also a little nervous to see how all of this goes down.  Details to follow.

Chau,

audgentina.