~6am: The overnight bus has arrived in La Paz. We are all pretty tired, especially Max and I as we got the worst seats in the bus.
We try to get breakfast at the Bus Terminal, but for some reason people don't want to serve us just a cup of coffee/tea. We had breakfast at these same stalls a few days ago, and they were happy to serve us. Weird.
We decide to take off to the city and find our new hotel called "Espana hotel". Quick taxi downtown, and we're there.
6:45am: The hotel doesn't give rooms before 12pm, so we leave our bags at the reception and walk around the neighborhood to find a breakfast place. Everything is closed at this hour, including "Blueberries", the breakfast-place we went to last time, so we wait patiently for something to open.
7:00am: a fresh juice stall opens, so we jump on the occasion and order 3 massive fresh juices. The lady operating the juice stall points us to "Alexander", a cafe that is already open on the street... Guess we missed it!
We decide to have a quick coffee/tea there, waiting for "Blueberries" to open.
8:00am: Blueberries is finally open! We rush in, order 3 American breakfasts: hashbrowns, eggs, bacon/ham, croissant, toasts+jam, tea/coffee and fruit salad. Pretty yummy.
As we eat, we watch a sketch from French stand-up comedian Dieudonne on my laptop, but we are quickly asked to turn it off by the staff... Maybe the censure against Dieudonne reaches even Bolivia! Haha!
9am: We decide to take a mini-bus to Calacoto/Los Pinos, which is a richer part of La Paz. It will be interesting to compare it to the neighborhood we already know.
9:30am: we are now in Calacoto, and the difference is massive! The shops look more like american shops and the people are dressed in fancier clothes. The sidewalks are built in a better fashion, wider and with less potholes/gaps etc... We walk around for a bit and stop at yet-another "Alexander" cafe for yet-another coffee/tea.
We also stop at a "Stabilo" shop, randomly installed in a residential street. The interior is brand new and modern, pens everywhere but displayed in a very attractive fashion. We are very very far from the messy stalls operated in the other parts of town. I bought a pack of pens for my desk at Kanopy.
11:30am: time to go back to the hotel and get our room. I'm pretty exhausted from the not-so-good night in the bus, so I'd love a nap.
12:00pm we are stuck in traffic on the way back to the hotel. We exit the mini-bus early and walk the rest of the way. One of the main street is blocked: locals on one side, police on the other. We aren't sure what is happening, but clearly the locals are protesting something. The policemen have riot-gear and look like robocops. The atmosphere isn't too electric between the two groups though, so we walk in between and reach our hotel.
12:30pm: ahh... a bed, finally! I fall asleep while Camille writes down the events of the day in her diary, and Max goes outside for a quick run in the streets.
3pm: I woke up feeling like a new man after sleeping 2h30/3h! Time to pack our bags and go shopping.
3:30pm: we take a mini-bus to the "San Francisco place" (where we used to sleep at Hotel Fuentes) to go to all the tourist shops and buy gifts. Most shops sell the same gifts... magnets, Alpaca socks etc... We spend quite a bit of time looking for gifts before heading to the "witch's market" where you can buy weird potions, dead baby llamas etc... I bought a couple of random pouches with crap in it for the laugh.
6:30pm: Camille found a restaurant online "Luciernagas" with great reviews. It's in another part of town, so we hop back in a mini-bus.
7:00pm: We exit the bus, locate the right street and start looking for the restaurant. The street is weird, there are a ton of appliance shops (as in crappy shops with old fridges with missing back panels etc...). This doesn't look like a restaurant street at all! We continue anyway and finally locate the restaurant a few blocks later.
7:15pm: There's a dog waiting on the restaurant stairs who looks like he really wants to get in with us, but knows that he's not allowed. We are greeted by the owner who doesn't look Bolivian (we'll learn later that he is from the Netherlands) and show us to our table. The restaurant layout is very unconventional with several rooms that snake around each other. We sit down and order cervezas while we look at the menu. Unsure what to order, I ask the owner what I should pick. He recommends me a speciality that contains 4 types of meat which is "great to taste different things". I decide to play along and orders this dish. Camille and Max order their own dishes as well as 2 soups. Camille and I agree to share the soup, knowing that the plates will be massive, bolivian-style.
7:30pm: the soups arrive: veggie & cream with potatoes floating in it, really yummy, but so rich... after half a soup, I'm already almost full!
7:45pm: the plates arrive... God... what did we get into? We just broke some kind of record here.... Each plate could feed a family of 4. The amount of food is absolutely ridiculous.
8:15pm: I give up, my stomach is close to bursting, yet it looks like I barely touched my plate. Camille and I resort to pushing the food around to try to make it look like we made a dent in it. We feel really bad thinking that all this food will go to waste.
The owner comes back and isn't surprised that we couldn't finish. He explained that it's in Bolivian culture to drink and eat a lot. We ask what will happen to the food, and are very pleased to learn that the restaurant redistributes the left-overs to locals every day.
After a cup of herbal tea, we roll down the street to find a taxi. The owner gave us instructions: Walk down the street to the next intersection and wait there for a taxi, but don't follow the perpendicular street as it's not "safe". Even if we haven't had any issues in La Paz, the insecurity of the city always looms around you.
9pm: We are back at the hotel, bursting at the seams with food, tired, and ready for a good night of sleep. The last one actually... Tomorrow we have to catch our planes!
We try to get breakfast at the Bus Terminal, but for some reason people don't want to serve us just a cup of coffee/tea. We had breakfast at these same stalls a few days ago, and they were happy to serve us. Weird.
We decide to take off to the city and find our new hotel called "Espana hotel". Quick taxi downtown, and we're there.
6:45am: The hotel doesn't give rooms before 12pm, so we leave our bags at the reception and walk around the neighborhood to find a breakfast place. Everything is closed at this hour, including "Blueberries", the breakfast-place we went to last time, so we wait patiently for something to open.
7:00am: a fresh juice stall opens, so we jump on the occasion and order 3 massive fresh juices. The lady operating the juice stall points us to "Alexander", a cafe that is already open on the street... Guess we missed it!
We decide to have a quick coffee/tea there, waiting for "Blueberries" to open.
8:00am: Blueberries is finally open! We rush in, order 3 American breakfasts: hashbrowns, eggs, bacon/ham, croissant, toasts+jam, tea/coffee and fruit salad. Pretty yummy.
As we eat, we watch a sketch from French stand-up comedian Dieudonne on my laptop, but we are quickly asked to turn it off by the staff... Maybe the censure against Dieudonne reaches even Bolivia! Haha!
9am: We decide to take a mini-bus to Calacoto/Los Pinos, which is a richer part of La Paz. It will be interesting to compare it to the neighborhood we already know.
9:30am: we are now in Calacoto, and the difference is massive! The shops look more like american shops and the people are dressed in fancier clothes. The sidewalks are built in a better fashion, wider and with less potholes/gaps etc... We walk around for a bit and stop at yet-another "Alexander" cafe for yet-another coffee/tea.
We also stop at a "Stabilo" shop, randomly installed in a residential street. The interior is brand new and modern, pens everywhere but displayed in a very attractive fashion. We are very very far from the messy stalls operated in the other parts of town. I bought a pack of pens for my desk at Kanopy.
11:30am: time to go back to the hotel and get our room. I'm pretty exhausted from the not-so-good night in the bus, so I'd love a nap.
12:00pm we are stuck in traffic on the way back to the hotel. We exit the mini-bus early and walk the rest of the way. One of the main street is blocked: locals on one side, police on the other. We aren't sure what is happening, but clearly the locals are protesting something. The policemen have riot-gear and look like robocops. The atmosphere isn't too electric between the two groups though, so we walk in between and reach our hotel.
12:30pm: ahh... a bed, finally! I fall asleep while Camille writes down the events of the day in her diary, and Max goes outside for a quick run in the streets.
3pm: I woke up feeling like a new man after sleeping 2h30/3h! Time to pack our bags and go shopping.
3:30pm: we take a mini-bus to the "San Francisco place" (where we used to sleep at Hotel Fuentes) to go to all the tourist shops and buy gifts. Most shops sell the same gifts... magnets, Alpaca socks etc... We spend quite a bit of time looking for gifts before heading to the "witch's market" where you can buy weird potions, dead baby llamas etc... I bought a couple of random pouches with crap in it for the laugh.
6:30pm: Camille found a restaurant online "Luciernagas" with great reviews. It's in another part of town, so we hop back in a mini-bus.
7:00pm: We exit the bus, locate the right street and start looking for the restaurant. The street is weird, there are a ton of appliance shops (as in crappy shops with old fridges with missing back panels etc...). This doesn't look like a restaurant street at all! We continue anyway and finally locate the restaurant a few blocks later.
7:15pm: There's a dog waiting on the restaurant stairs who looks like he really wants to get in with us, but knows that he's not allowed. We are greeted by the owner who doesn't look Bolivian (we'll learn later that he is from the Netherlands) and show us to our table. The restaurant layout is very unconventional with several rooms that snake around each other. We sit down and order cervezas while we look at the menu. Unsure what to order, I ask the owner what I should pick. He recommends me a speciality that contains 4 types of meat which is "great to taste different things". I decide to play along and orders this dish. Camille and Max order their own dishes as well as 2 soups. Camille and I agree to share the soup, knowing that the plates will be massive, bolivian-style.
7:30pm: the soups arrive: veggie & cream with potatoes floating in it, really yummy, but so rich... after half a soup, I'm already almost full!
7:45pm: the plates arrive... God... what did we get into? We just broke some kind of record here.... Each plate could feed a family of 4. The amount of food is absolutely ridiculous.
Here's the plate BEFORE I was finished...
8:15pm: I give up, my stomach is close to bursting, yet it looks like I barely touched my plate. Camille and I resort to pushing the food around to try to make it look like we made a dent in it. We feel really bad thinking that all this food will go to waste.
The owner comes back and isn't surprised that we couldn't finish. He explained that it's in Bolivian culture to drink and eat a lot. We ask what will happen to the food, and are very pleased to learn that the restaurant redistributes the left-overs to locals every day.
After a cup of herbal tea, we roll down the street to find a taxi. The owner gave us instructions: Walk down the street to the next intersection and wait there for a taxi, but don't follow the perpendicular street as it's not "safe". Even if we haven't had any issues in La Paz, the insecurity of the city always looms around you.
Here's the plate AFTER I was finished...
9pm: We are back at the hotel, bursting at the seams with food, tired, and ready for a good night of sleep. The last one actually... Tomorrow we have to catch our planes!
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