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This morning I caught a lift into the city with Nyrzha as she had an early surgery. First thing I did was head to the tourist office and book my 3 day climb of Huayna Potosi for Friday. Huayna Potosi is over 6000 meters high and this one of the highest mountains in the world, the summit is snow and glacier covered and therefor we need to use axes, crampons and ice climbing equipment. As I have no experience in glacier climbing I opted for the 3 day which includes a day of learning. The summit is far from easy and a minority of people don't make it but I am feeling strong and confident so hopefully I make it. Next I headed up the hill (La Paz is set in a valley and the poorer suburbs are all up hill) to the street markets to buy a few last things for the climb and hopefully try some new foods. I have been wanting to try this strange fruit by the name of Chitymoto; an ugly looking green fruit but everywhere that sells it is quiet expensive. I wondered the streets finding some strange and interesting shops and eventually found a nice lady that let me sample and buy the Chitymoto at a third of the price of the other stalls. The taste of the fruit is like nothing else, imagine a sweet soft candy with a unique and addictive flavour. I came across the woman who i had brought an avocado from the other day and literally on her little mat on the side of the road she had another strange fruit I had not seen before, she gave me a sample and wow another really sweet and candy tasting fruit with a soft white flesh, I grabbed a few of the strange fruits and Ofcourse some more avocado. I headed back down the hill and on the way stumbled across this indoor market with loads of cool little gadgets and managed to pick myself up a new phone cover. I had to meet Fra (fellow Couchsurfer from Italy) at mid-afternoon so I continued on down the hill to the main square. Meeting Fra was a blast she is a world traveller and currently living in La Paz doing her PHD on Political Sciences, she has just been in Cuba and some other unique and less frequented places. Anyways the reason I met up with Fra is we are planning to head to jungle next weekend together and do an Amazon tour; to swim with pink dolphins and crocodiles, find an anaconda, fish for Pirahna, see loads of unique wildlife and get a real taste of the Amazon. We sat down for lunch and worked out the best idea is to sort the actual tour out in Rurrenabaque when we arrive and now just work on getting flights and buses sorted. I headed back to Nyrzha's on dark and surprisingly she arrived back early (she usually works crazy hours as a doctor) so that we could finally have a sit down dinner together. I took care of the salad and she showed me how to cook pork chops Bolivian style and without drying the meat out (something very common back home- dry pork chops). Instead of frying the chops she made a broth of fresh lime juice, soy sause and various spices, letting the pork simmer ever so slowly. The result deliciously moist and tender pork chops with a unique lime twist. Nyrzha is off to Sucre tomorrow for a conference so I will go to her folks for lunch so I have some company and then spend rest of day resting as the following day I will start my epic trek up the famous Huayna Potosi.
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