Bolivia
Jampaturi Chico

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    • Day 707

      La Paz

      April 23, 2018 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

      We drove around Lake Titicaca until we hit the point of a peninsula and the only way across was a small wooden ferry. It creaked scarily as we drove on and the thing twisted as the waves lapped into the side of it. I was pretty relieved when we drove off the other side and shortly afterwards we stopped for a delicious trout lunch at a deserted lakeside hotel.

      We knew petrol was going to be interesting in Bolivia, as the locals can buy it super cheap (under half a buck a litre) but the gringo price is nearly 3 times that, if you can buy it at all. Then there's the whole jerrycan vervus direct to the tank conundrum, so the whole thing is a bit of a lottery. The first place I'd tried with my jerrycans said there was no gasoline, but promptly filled a local when I was leaving. The next place's pumps were broken and the third really didn't have any petrol. Eventually I found a place 'mannned' by 3 local women, who giggled a lot when I asked but did fill my jerrycans at a midway price, pocketing the difference. I then had to decant them into our small jerrycans so we could get it into our tank without spilling lots of it. The giggly women did refill my two big jerrycans one more time so we were good for a while, but we have to find an easier way than this!

      A couple of hours later we hit the outskirts of the capital, La Paz. Its a sprawling place but with the city centre constrained within a deep bowl with narrow streets and we didn't fancy driving in. Rather bizarrely we camped in the long stay section of the airport, which was much better than it sounds. The car park was pretty small and it was only a minutes walk from the terminal, with clean toilets, wifi and lots of reasonably priced eateries.

      The following morning we took a microbus into town and went straight to the tourist area around the Witches Market. They still have the llama foetuses for sale (used in building foundations for good luck) and lots and lots of tourists shops selling all things llama. We hunted out some of the places we visited last time around. We even found the home of the legendary Oreo Cheesecake, but were very disappointed they didn't have any. We did find an English pub showing the unbelievably entertaining Liverpool vs Roma game (5-2!) but the full English breakfast we ordered had to be sent back FOUR times as it was cold.

      The next day we left Maya with our friends Sam & Don so we could ride the brand new cable cars into town. We spent hours exploring the Mercado Negro, a vast locals markets that must have covered a few square kilometres. It was much more enjoyable than the tourist shops that basically all sell the same thing.

      We were very excited to see the 'safety zebras' of John Oliver fame so of course had to get our photo taken with them (nearly getting run over in the process....!)

      Although the airport wasn't a bad place we were in need of showers so decamped to a lovely campsite on the other side of town where we met our friends Sam & Don again, ate some good food, wandered around the nearby valley of the moon and most importantly had hot showers!
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