All who travel know that there are highs and lows at times. AA low happened for
us as we were leaving La Paz in Bolivia that made me very anxious.

We came into La Paz by bus from Peru. It is at a very high altitude and I was
worried about my health because I had had severe nausea in Ecuador.
We were also worried about the cold weather because there was snow on the high
mountains around the city.

Those worries proved unfounded thankfully, tho the weather was uncomfortable in
that it rained for the entire afternoon and evening of our full day there.

I had a good parka (thanks again to my wonderful PA in Brazil, Vanessa) but
John only had a woollen sportscoat. We had set off for the day up the very
steep hills of La Paz - a third worldy city with no real gutters and narrow
streets. We had started with what´s called the Witches Market - a small section
of stalls where native women sell spells and lotions and potions and have big
umbrella stands full of strange things like llama foetuses (yes truly!).

We then walked through the myriad of stalls selling everything including the
kitchen sink and toilet seats.

The rain started to get heavy so we found a restaurant where we ate hamburgers
(well the Bolivian version) and listened to some live folk music.

It was still raining and John was wet so we did some internet to pass the time
and then happened upon aa cinema. We dashed in and found ourselves watching
Spiderman2 in English with Bolivian subtitles. At one joke, we cracked up
laughing but no-one else laughed - it must have been lost in translation???

Next morning we had planned a lazy beginning with John hanging out for eggs and
bacon - he had spotted an American breakfast place (a rare find indeed).

However as we were leaving the hotel, the owner chased us and said there was a
strike and there would be no taxis to the airport. He was so kind and helpful.

We quickly changed plans and packed and spent an anxious hour trying to coax aa
taxi driver to take us to the airport. At last an intrepid soul agreed to try
to get us close to the last barrier.

The journey was surreal as we were one of the few cars heading out on the
freeway and the other side was full of queues of pedestrian Bolivians walking
towards town. The snow was very close so if we had been stranded it could have
been very uncomfortable.

Thank goodness the barricades were not fixed because we were so early and we
made it to the airport with hours to wait but at least we were there.

Truly a flight out of La Paz that I was glad to see the end of.











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