Next Stop La Paz

Timing can be everything in life but today ours was right out. Arriving at the airport which was very quiet, apart from a huge queue for one flight, our flight. Despite insisting we had checked in and just wanted to drop the bags off we were shown to the back of the huge queue. About 45 Koreans on a South American tour. In 20 minutes the queue had moved about 5 yards, at which point the staff took pity on us and let us use the empty priory lane.

Near the end the flight as we flew over lake Titicaca we got talking to an American girl who had Bolivian family. She gave us some recommendations of places to go and things to see. She then said that the official exchange rate was around 7 Bolivians to the dollar, however if you used some of the smaller money exchange places you could get 11 Bolivians to the dollar. We'd not seen this anywhere on the internet so it came as a complete surprise.

Our hotel told us they could change money for us at 7 Bolivians as the nearest money exchange was a 40 minute walk, all up hill and we are at an altitude of around 3,600m. But little did they know they were dealing rainbow mountaineers, so we set off in search of the 11 Bolivians.

When we got there all the exchange shops were advertising 6.96 Bolivians. However, we did notice several man and a desk in a shop doorway set ups, offering exchange but showing no rate. On enquiring they did offer 11 Bolivians. The question was, as we'd never even seen a Bolivian note, would they be genuine. So for 120 us dollars we took a punt. We then immediately went into the bar next door and had a pisco sour. I went to pay with the dodgiest looking note he gave us, I gave the girl the note, she smiled at me, put it in the till and gave me some change. What a relief!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening feeling rather snug about the extra 57% we had got on the exchange rate by pure luck and wandering the tourist area and witches market, one of our recommendations.Read more