06.07 - Day 17 - Uyuni to La Paz, BOL

Uyuni to La Paz, Bolivia

Tuesday 6th July

Despite sleeping for nine hours on the bus, 6am is still 6am. In La Paz we taxi with Anita and Jaykar to their hostel which they recommend highly. Sadly for Krish and me it’s booked out but our English friends very kindly walk from hostel to hostel asking in Spanish if there is a room available, costs etc. We stumble across (blissfully) a twin room for the princely sum of 35 Bolivianos (£3.25) a night.

After some internet admin we wander the streets amongst the hustle and bustle of local street vendors. Lonely Plant recommends the Bolivian snack Saltenas from Saltenas Las Plaza – who are we to object? Compared to an empanada they’re a little smaller but made of sweeter pastry and contain a juicer filling. Saltenas 1-0 Empanadas. two of these gems with a coffee = £0.65. No wonder backpackers like this city. 

We fall into the local markets with seemingly each street specialising in one area – from fruit to children’s clothes, from raw meat to miles and miles of fabrics of all colours and textures. Considering Lonely Planet’s success with the Saltenas we take a lunching tip – Laza. A narrow passage way and up some back stairs into a room crammed with tables and people. After a short wait we secure a table and order local food surrounded by local people.

The food is staple – beef, fried egg and rice; plentiful if not glamorous. Amusingly an old man invites himself onto the spare chair at our table. Rather than trying to strike up conversation he simply stares at each of us in turn (maybe it was his table?). Unamusingly it turns sour when is sick in his own hand but carries on eating. We up sticks and leave.

All tourist itineraries in La Paz involve at some point the Witches Market, famed for its herbal remedies, ill famed for its lama foetuses (believed to bring good luck if put under a new house or building). These sometimes unnervingly large carcasses hang from the doorways ready to be taken home. Slightly to very disturbing.

World Cup Semi-Final time at Oliver’s Travels, run by an Englishman and self-claimed 5^th best pub in La Paz. I reckon 6^th place and down must feel hard done by. Holland triumph over Uruguay 3-2.

After postcard writing and scarf buying we meet up with Anita and Jaykar for a local Cerveza – Paceña at Blue Note café. For three days on our trek they’d been raving about a vegetarian Indian restaurant so we crash their dinner plans and join them there too.

Back to the hostel – it feels odd not to have been in some form of transport for fully 15 hours.