So, another adventure started this past weekend. I flew to La Paz with 2 of the medical students and the other attending. La Paz is the capitol of Bolivia, and I think is the highest capitol in the world at 14,000 feet. We had decided to fly the national airlines, aerosur. I had trouble getting my credit card accepted, so had to book through a travel agent (which is an important detail later on in this post!). So we thought our flight headed out at 8:30. Turns out that airlines schedules here are just loose suggestions. People show up for the flight about 5 minutes before scheduled take off. They also can´t fill their planes with people because the engines can´t handle the weight! Anyway, we finally arrived after midnight in La Paz. Because the airport is so high up, the runway needs to be extra long, 5km, because it takes planes longer to stop because the air is thin. It also takes a really long time to get enough wind speed to take off. Therefore, when I finally left La Paz, our take-off terrified me because you are speeding down the runway for 3 times the normal amount of time, and you barely lift off!
Anyway, La Paz is absolutely breathtaking! The whole city is built into a crater in the Andes mountains. I loved it! When I stepped off the plane, I wasn´t sure if I was going to feel altitude sickness right away. Luckily I started taking diamox (great stuff) and didn´t get sick at all. I was huffing and puffing much more than normal! Anyway, we made our way to the hostel, the world´s highest microbrew. Unfortunately, they were no longer serving beer by the time we got there :( The next morning we got up early and headed to the buses to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. The public bus took 5 hours, but the scenary was breathtakingly beautiful! Mountains, Lakes, and rural Bolivia. It makes me really regret some times living in a really flat city!
In Copacabana on the edge of Lake Titicaca we found a nice hotel and explored the town. There was probably more gringos there than I´ve seen the entire trip! Most were German, man, those people get around! Ï´ve seen German tourists in every third world country that I´ve worked in, including Ghana Africa! Anyway, after enjoying the afternoon in Copacabana, (carnivale was still going on), we settled in. The following morning we headed out on a boat to Isla del Sol, an old Incan site. The boat ride took 1.5 hours, then we had only 1 hour on the island and had to return! It was fine with me, the boat ride was more beautiful. I got really burned on my face and arms, though! I forgot, it was cooler, but we were closer to the sun!
Next we headed back to La Paz. I loved La Paz. It was like being in a completely different country than Santa Cruz. The indiginous are closer to their roots. The women wear shawls, skirts, derby hats and carry their children on their backs. We walked around at some of the markets, including a witches market which sold really weird stuff like llama fetuses. Next we went down to the cosmopolitan area, which was like any other city. We visited the museum of contemparary art. To our surprise, all of the art was for sale, and affordably on sale. I fell in love with a painting of La Paz and bought it! I got a certificate of authenticity and everything!
We were suppose to leave that night. When we arrived at the airport, we found out that my flight supposedly left the day before, even though we had confirmed with the airlines. It was a whole debacle. There was moments when I thought that I was going to be staying by myself in La Paz, knowing very little spanish. Turns out the one of the students stayed with me. We flew back the next morning and made our way out to clinic, very late! I hope to get some pictures up so everyone can see how breathtaking it was, but time is tight now. I leave for Sydney next Wednesday. We plan on heading to Samipato this weekend, it is a dutch settlement in the middle of Bolivia. Should be interesting!
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