Back to La Paz and see-you-later-Jes

Jes and Mikkel decided to set the alarm for 5:30 in order to see the sunrise. It was dark when the alarm went off but they staggered out and watched the whole show from next to the house enjoying the show of light as the sun crawled over the horizon and over the mountain tops.

We got picked up as planned this morning. The driver was there at dawn so he managed to get some breakfast as well. Topoco didn't find somebody to look after his llamas so he had to stay with them not going to La Paz this time.

We had time to one last farewell to the llamas and a few pictures. Then we got all our stuff on the car and rolled down the gravel road. We stopped a couple of times on the way back. A short stop at a place where they mined salt from a lake. Not salt flats like other places in the country but a more modest production in small ponds. It looked impressive in the morning sun with all the white crystals reflecting the light.

Then we continued a bit until we finally made it to a tarmac road. What a relief not bumping around in the car. Our second stop was in the the village of Comanche. A small village in the middle of nowhere - but the desert surrounding the place has one unique species of tall cactus that blossom once every 100 years. Not today though.

Instead we saw the makeshift trolley bus passing through town dropping of a couple of passengers - and then two bands arrived. It turned out that the local school had some kind of celebration which required not one but two bands. We saw them get ready and when they started to play and walk down the road we followed in the car.  Those Bolivians really love their music.

Getting closer and closer to El Alto and La Paz just meant more buildings and more trash. The last hour of the drive was a combination of going through endless El Alto garbage and construction sites and traffic jams. We made it to the airport in good time for Jes to catch his flight and said goodbye. What an epic vacation we managed to do together.

Malene and Mikkel continued with our driver going back to a booked hostel in Rosario. The traffic was jammed a bit more than ususal so he did a small detour to get around the worst pile-up and got pulled over by the police. After a long discussion it turned out that the car lacked some kind of 6 AM - 6 PM permit to go into La Paz city. Nothing that couldn't be handled with 50 Bolivianos cash to the nice police officer. Welcome to the third world. We just forgot about you.

We arrived at the hostel, had a really nice room - and our own shower. Much needed after the days without running water. And then we realised we were a bit tired from all the fun at Topocos place.

We went out for pizza and soup, had siesta and then using the last energy we found a tour agency to book a trip for tomorrow down "Death road" on bike. A now unused gravel road that used to be a main connection between La Paz and the eastern part of the country. We wanted to bike down the road. We booked, went out for dinner at a new pizza place for pizza, soup and pasta.

When we got back to the hostel there was a note from the tour company that the tour tomorrow was cancelled. We wanted to go so Mikkel ran around at 8 PM to get the money back, find a new tour company and get us on a tour tomorrow. Success. Maybe it's a sign. Who knows.

Break of dawn the moon still shining

First light on the volcano

Last breakfast - driver included

Group photo with Topoco and the llamas

Llama hugging - not easy

All packed to go

Luggage ready

Salt mining

Comanche cactus

Tram in Bolivia

Bands getting ready

Full music

Sending a clear message to thieves in El Alto

Bye bye, Jes

At the hostel

Pizza, pizza, pizza

Back to La Paz (Blog posting #200)

We didn't book the early morning flight to La Paz. There was a much better departure for us at 10 in the morning so we had the morning to have breakfast and not hurry too much. The taxi took us to the airport and there we found 19 persons waiting for the early morning flight.

It turned out that it had been snowing in La Paz during the night so the plane couldn't take off. So we were looking at spending at least two hours in Rurrenabaque airport. Or more if the plane didn't come. It did arrive - two hours late. The 19 passengers boarded and we got a chance to see the plane leave from the dusty airstrip. And then more or less nothing happened for the next two hours. Other that some of the guys from the hostel arrived only to find their departure two hours delayed as well.

Eventually we left and did one long climb all the way over the mountains and a very short descent to El Alto airport. Got our left luggage from the other day and were quite happy not to have brought big bags of stuff to Rurre and back again.

Then it was just business as usual. Get a taxi to the hotel and arrive there only to find out that the neighbourhood was being converted to one big party. We just managed to see the Dragoman truck leave the hotel next door when we got out the taxi.

Hotel Rosario was recommended by our friend - Topoco - who we were going to meet up with in a couple of days. A super nice place according to our standards and it happened to be located right next to the Church of Virgin Rosario. One of the most important virgins in Latin America. In fact the whole neighbourhood of Rosario is named after her.

The hotel had politely informed us in a mail that we could expect a lot of noise during our stay and let us cancel they stay free if we wanted - of course not, we had no problems with noise. Instead we got ear plugs when we checked in.

Got our stuff in place and headed out for some lunch - pizza and soup and then headed home for a siesta. When we woke up the whole street was one big party with one group of dancers and musicians following each other. Lots of noise, lots of dancing, lots of confetti and lots of beer. We had to join.

Standing just outside the hotel entrance provided a good view point since all dancers and musicians walked right past. Occasionally there was fireworks to increase the noise level a bit more. The whole street was alive and it seemed to continue. We did a walk up and down the street and had some street food and then we headed for one of the stalls that served what seemed to be a local drink.

Mikkel being the brave one that night bought one complete with lots of foam on the top. Warm, sweet and full of alcohol. Great. We found a place to sit down and have a few beers and watch the locals pass by. A lot of them seemed to very drunk staggering ahead with empty eyes. A local woman danced with all of us one at a time - even Malene got a dance with her.

Noise, alcohol, three days on the pampas - it all started to settle in so we headed home for our beds at the hotel - and the earplugs. The party continued all night.

Always good to know your own name

Waiting for the taxi

Plane delayed for two hours

Lets explore Rurre airport and some of the state of the air equipment

Rurre Main terminal

Rurre Airside

Morning nap

Check in and all airport offices

Finally

Working our way across the Andes mountains

Made it to La Paz

Spice shop next to the hotel

Local food - well we needed those pizzas

View from the hotel courtyard

Let the parade begin (including the next 50 pictures)

Stirring and cooking up a local drink

Street food

Having a party