La Paz At Last

After waiting in Tumbes for 12 hours I finally got a flight to Lima. With the help of Mom I was able to shower and get some sleep at the Ramada hotel attached to the Lima airport. The next morning I was still feeling sick but was able to eat some toast and eggs from the continental breakfast. When I went over to check my bags they said I no longer had a reservation. Great, this meant paying another $600 to get to La Paz.

Once I arrived at the La Paz airport I was expecting it to be a bit bigger. There was no tourist information center and only one terminal. After paying $130 for my Bolovian visa (American´s are pretty much the only nationality that has to get a visa) I found myself outside of the airport with no plan. I spotted a rough looking backpacker smoking a cigarette down the road a bit so went over to him to ask him what his plan was. We were both in the same boat...no clue how to get into town or where to stay. This fellows name was Tim and he was an Aussie who had been camping in France for 4 months then hitchhiking through Mexico for 2 months. He had his backpack and a surf board and wore some very holey skinny jeans rolled at the ankle, by the look of his beard it seemed as though he had not shaved (or perhaps showered) in months...he later told me it had been since August that he had shaved, not sure about the showering part!

Anyways, the 2 of us plus some crazy german backpackers, who looked equally as rough, piled 6 bodies, 6 backpacks and one surfboard into one tiny taxi. We got dropped off at some tiny little hostel that one of the German´s friends owned. When we arrived the doors were locked with no one in sight. We sat around and ate mango´s on the side of a very busy street for about an hour before a lady came and unlocked the door. Once I was shown a room I was determined not to stay there. It was dirty and had a very strange layout with the most disgusting bathroom I had ever seen. However, it was only 55 bolivianos a night for a single room, about $7.

Tim and I walked around the city for a bit looking for an ATM and a new hotel for me. He couldn´t believe I didnt want to stay, it was the nicest bed he had slept on for 3 months. Becuase it was getting late I setttled for one night at this random hostel and made a promise to myself that I would stay somewhere nicer tomorrow!