Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: 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.