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Well what an experience with an international terminal. On all our travelling we have never come across a international terminal quite like Cuzco´s. For the first time in South America we had a proper security check of our bags (Helen even had an almond split open in her bag of trail mix!) and the usual no liquid over 3oz. Although it could have been worse. Met an Australian guy in the line, he was the typical dreadlocked been here for a party type guy who only had a t-shirt as all his jumpers had been stolen?! and he got stripped searched. I think he was expecting it although as he said he was still worried and he knew he wasn't carrying anything on him.
Getting through immigration in record time we walked into the international terminal to find . . . NOTHING. . . Not a single place to buy water, coffee or anything. All it consisted of was chairs. Of course by this stage you can´t exit either. After waiting an hour it was onto the plane to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at 4000m.
La Paz stands out to be a very brown town - all the buildings are shades of brown and there are no trees or vegetation really. It is located in a valley and has about 880000 people!
The most amazing thing is the women in traditional dress wearing bowler hats. The more surprising thing about these hats is they don´t appear to be attached and sit on their heads at interesting angles without falling off. Very hard to get photos of the local women though. They definitely know when to turn away.
After arriving at the Hotel it was time to unpack and then organise tours and bus trips to Isla del Sol (Island of the sun - Lake Titicaca) and to the Uyuni Salt Flats. After speaking to a number of tour agencies - they are everywhere- we determined it was just easier to do it ourselves and booked the bus trip to get there. We also determined that the salt flats in Uyuni had snow and as such most of the 3 day tours were now only 2 days as they are unable to get to the bottom of the salt flats. With this in mind we decided to do the 1 day tour as it took us to the places we wanted to see and the second day would just be a long travel day.
With these booked we wandered around the markets - not hard considering they were at our doorstep and all along the roads!! The strangest thing we have seen so far is the Llama foetus´ they sell here. They are supposed to bring good luck and people buy them to put under their houses before moving in. We managed to restrain ourselves. . . .
Had tea at Angelo Colonial. As we wandered in we almost wondered what we were getting ourselves into. Dimly lit but as it turns our quite fascinating. The whole place is adorned with 'old' things including weapons. Phil had a good look around before our meals arrived with the number of swords on display I was surprised.
We (we're back travelling with Helen) were all pleasantly surprised to find the vegetables were hot. Now this might seem a bit strange but we haven´t had hot veggies since Ecuador. Not sure why but Peru in particular serves their veggies cold.
Had a nice sleep in the next day before heading to the Coca Museum. Unfortunately for both Phil and I we are sick yet again. Not the food poisoning we have expected but the flu. In particular me who nearly fainted while we were at the museum. Damn cold wet weather and brazilian germs. Knew they were going to come and bite me.
The Coca museum is a museum based on the Coca Leaf. Yet again not allowed to take photographs. It was pretty much information overload. We were given a book which we read as we walked around the exhibits. It was actually pretty interesting in parts in particular when the church banned it because they believed that anything that made people hallucinate or see their ´spirits´ was against the catholic faith but then reallowed it when they realised it had the ability for the local people to work harder with less food and water in their mines.
Also quite interesting how the local people have no control really over the coca trees and plantations (All are owned by international companies) and how they are blamed for the cocaine problem of the western world when they never refined it and don´t consume it as cocaine rather only chew the leaves to help with altitude and for health reasons. Turns out the Coca leaf is one of the most nutritious plants in the world.
I then decided to purchase some sugar glazed peanuts from a street stall. Phil was a little concerned but I figured anything covered with sugar can´t be too bad and nuts are ok. . . I think. . . Turns out a small bag of about 40grams cost 1 boliviano or 15 cents!! They were delivcious and needless to say we have purchased a few more packages. All to help the local ecomomy of course :)
We wandered around our local area and found so many areas under construction. I guess with a city as big as La Paz and the population growing so fast it can only be expected. It is funny that they just knock buildings down and work around the rubble.
We have decided to fly to Uyuni. Amazonas has it's first flight to Uyuni on the 12th so would be cool to be on their first flight ever to Uyuni but then concerning in another way. We booked and am hopeful it will go as planned.
We wandered around La Paz mainly to look for a poncho for Phil. It's fairly easy to find everything as it is all pretty much on the one street. Mostly exactly the same things in each place but occasionally a bit of original stuff.
Straight to bed after tea at Sol and Lunes. It's damn cold here, as expected it is Bolivia, and looking forward to going to Isla del Sol tomorrow :)
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