Bolivia 8 – Another Delay then La Paz

We had a fantastic hotel in Santa Cruz but didn’t really get the benefit of it as we were up so early for our flight to La Paz. From there were we going on to volunteer at Senda Varde Wildlife Sanctuary.

Only it didn’t happen right away because our flight was cancelled….. Hmmph! It was very confusing, there was a suggestion of a refund and we were trying to find another flight. I visited the airport information desk and she told me there would be another flight the next morning. So I went back to the airline and they offered us a hotel for the night food included and the next day’s flight.

Sounds OK doesn’t it! Hmm well obviously people here have rather low standards. It was grubby although the sheets were clean, the food was bought in and takeaway standard. It was probably preferable to the kitchen being used, we peeked in it was disgusting. There was poor parrot partially covered in another room, at the back of the hotel.

The only upside was it was close to the airport. We were still exhausted from the San Miguelito excursion so we just stayed put and rested for the day, checked over Jaynes bites and I got my admin in order then we watched a documentary about an octopus on my phone and just chilled.

Jayne who meticulously planned the Bolivia part of our trip was getting into the Mañana mentality! Not!

The next day our flight was straightforward, a short time to La Paz to be collected by the Animal Sanctuary taxi.

La Paz is a city at 4000 meters above sea level We were a bit concerned because neither of us had ever been to that height and landing at that height with no acclimatisation were worried about altitude sickness. We didn’t intend to stay long but I had tablets just in case we were delayed going down.

We both felt a bit weird but we were fine. The taxi was waiting and we set off down the “Death Road” a popular tourist route although it has many fatalities apparently.

La Paz is a red brick City, most of the buildings are similar to the earthquake resistant ones in Nepal. Again this is an active earthquake zone. So I’m guessing these have taken over from original buildings. The shops lining the roads were similar to Nepal but the clothing worn by the people was different (many with bare feet despite the cold). Also the area on the top is a plateau. After a while we start to go down the winding roads and get amazing views.

Then as we go through a tunnel Jayne has a funny turn, she feels faint and her lips are pale. She recovers and as we are going down rapidly, I’m not too concerned, however before we come back up at the end of our volunteering we will both start altitude sickness the tablets. We might even get the chance to chew coca leaves, who knows?

It begins to become more forested and we are gradually coming into rain forest. Eventually we arrive at Senda Verde our stop for the next ten days and at only 1100 meters above sea level Phew!