Tuesday, February 17, 2009

at 3600m

Well, today is my last day in La Paz, with plans to make it to la valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) and exploring the markets. Then packing everything up again for an early morning flight to Lima.

My time in Lima was extremely limited on the way here, as I landed at about 22:45, lined up through immigration, got my backpack, went to the hostel, slept, went back to the airport. The flight to La Paz is only about 2 hours, and Sonja met me at the LP airport.
Sonja took me around the city a little on Thursday, changed some money and things, then I napped at high altitude. The air doesn't feel any different here, but the lower oxygen levels certainly make a difference. Other than the odd headache and the inability to walk carrying a heavy bag, I don't feel like I've adapted too badly. And the coca mate helps. Seriously, that's what my doctor "prescribed". And carrying a bag wasn't too much of a problem, as Sonja acted as my sherpa :)

Friday morning we took a bus to Coroico, a sort of resort town about two hours from LP. Coroico is at about 1800m, so half as high as LP. It's also neat since it's cloud forest--that is, rain forest at altitude. So it doesn't get too hot, but is a lot warmer than La Paz, and it's a lot more humid too. Coroico is also at the end of the "Death Road" one of the world's most dangerous roads. It's a narrow track not wide enough for two cars to pass each other, prone to erosion and land slides. Fortunately for my parents, a new road (that took over a decade to build)was opened about two years ago, and the old road is now only really used by crazy extreme cyclists.
We stayed at a lovely little hotel with a pool (in a country where water is a major concern, pools are something of a rarity). Friday afternoon was nice and sunny, and we moved from lying by the pool to lying in hammocks, to lying in the sauna. It was really tough...
Saturday was cloudy/foggy/misty most of the day, so we alternated napping with the beginning of our own cribbage tournament. We were 2-2 by the end of the day. We slipped our way down the extremely muddy hill to go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, accompanied by Paceña, the main Bolivian beer. The walk back up the muddy hill was also something of an adventure, since the municipality of Coroico is not very into streetlights. We took a minibus back to La Paz the next morning as it was still cloudy. I couldn't tell if it was raining or not--if you get wet in the middle of a rain cloud, does that count as rain?

1 comment:

  1. Looks as if you are having a wonderful time! Have fun.....

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