so....La Paz

So it's been almost two weeks since I got back. Where has the time gone?  So I figure it's now or never if I want to write about it. Otherwise I'll probably forget. And if you haven't seen them, I have all my pictures up on Flickr.

Day 1
I'll start by saying that I really don't speak any Spanish and Kristin (my travel partner) has some from high school and college, but was pretty nervous about having to speak it again.  We were waiting in the Oakland Airport for our flight, when an airline employee started speaking English with an accent and we couldn't understand a word we knew we were in trouble! 

So the trip down to La Paz was very smooth. We took a small plane (only three seats across and 18 rows) down to LA and the same type of plane on to La Paz.  We had a very fussy-yet-clueless woman sitting in front of us who we named Princess Silver Feather who demanded a lot of attention, but other than that it was fine. We landed at the La Paz airport, got to take the stairs off the plane to the ground and went inside. We went through "customs" and were on our way. We took a cab to our hotel, gave our taxi driver an outrageous tip (what's the conversion rate again?) and checked into El Angel Azul.

This hotel is great. Its  B&B so they serve breakfast every morning and have a happy hour every evening. It had a beautiful courtyard full of plants, and a cat, dog and birds. Our room had two twin beds and its own bath (although strangely with no ceiling). We also met the largest fly we'ver ever seen on our wall. We named him Clyde. He didn't move so we let him be and we were soon out of the room and down to the Malecon.

The Malecon is a strip along the beach where you can walk, check out the many public sculptures, shops and restaurants.  We had some fabulous "avocado dip" (a.k.a. guacamole, as my waiter helpfully pointed out. well duh!) and checked out the shops, the local skate park, and contemplated the bars. But it was Monday night, and very quiet, so we went back to our hotel and chilled. Clyde got a little wild, and tried to shoo him out of the room.  Unfortunately there was an accident and Clyde didn't make it. Sorry Clyde. R.I.P.

Day 2

The second day we slept in, despite some hammering and sawing going on outside. We stopped at a coffee shop where I got an ultra sweet vanilla chai, and then we decided to walk in the other direction on the Malecon. There we discovered that the pelicans rule the waters. They took over a few of the boats and were just perched out there, or near the guys who would occasionally throw them a fish.  We then walked over to the Restaurant Bizmark that we heard served pabil and had lunch. Sadly there was no pabil, but there were these beautiful glasses of sangria with fruit juice that were delicious! After that, back to the Malecon for more shopping, and ice cream in these cute waffle bowls called liria (best idea ever!). 

We went to our hotel to check out the happy hour.  We were greated and offered margaritas. "Si!" we said!  And they were real margaritas - no mix. They were good and strong. And we also got to meet some of our fellow hotel dwellers, which was nice.  But then we were hungry again, and went out to this great looking taco place that we had walked by a dozen times already that was cooking the meat right on the sidewalk. They were excellent, and we sat at tables on the sidewalk an enjoyed the atmosphere.

Day 3

This was beach day. We took a bus out to Playa Balandra, which was a beautiful secluded little beach with a famous rock they call la hanga (the mushroom). The waters were really shallow and sandbars soon popped up everywhere, so you could walk out into the middle of the cove and still only be up to your knees in water. It was beautiful.

However, when we took the bus out there, we weren't really sure how we were going to get back.  It's still unclear whether this beach was a real stop or if they just went there because we asked.  Anyway, we flagged down a nice Canadian couple who drove us to the next beach where there was a restaurant. So we had lunch and a few beers and met Manuel, who was pushing boat trips to Isla Espiritu Santo the next day. We were game, so he said he'd pick us up the next day at the hotel.

We took a cab back to the hotel and this is how we met Javier our amorous taxi driver. When our trip began, he had a girlfriend.  As the trip went on, all of a sudden he was single and wanted to take us out dancing or something (I just got the Pictionary version of all this - Kristin was doing all the talking, and apparently, telling Javier I didn't have a boyfriend. Thanks Kristin.  So Javier goes in for a kiss on the cheek (eek!) and still wants to pick us up at 10 for dancing, but we "forget our room number." Once again he goes in while shaking my hand, but he wasn't going for the cheek this time. As i turned my head, Javier managed to kiss a tooth. Ewwww. Needless to say we did not go dancing with Javier that night.

Day 4

Manuel shows up bright and early to pick us up for the boat trip.  Unfortunately that wasn't meant to be. The other couple who made the necessary four for a trip never showed. But we hung out on the beach for a while with Manuel and his friends and ultimately he gave us a ride back to town. Oh well.  In the afternoon we got to go to the biblioteca and met Victor, the local librarian, who had us write down our names for "statisticos."  Ahh yes, we're very familiar with those.  We also went to the local museum and saw a saber toothed tiger skull with sharp pointy teeth!

Later we went to Restaurant Tres Virgenes.  We had a little trouble finding it ( trouble finding three virgins in La Paz? hee hee. yes, I'm silly), but it was sooooo worth it. I had an appetizer of roasted baby octopus. Very yummy!  Babies always taste the best.  And then I had three steak medallions on avocado risotto.  That risotto was worth the entire trip to La Paz. It was delicious! I almost didn't want the steak because it was interfering with the flavor of the risotto!  I'd go back just for another trip to Tres Virgenes.

Day 5
The last day was just getting everything together, some last minute shopping and heading to the airport.  I actually left out a lot of stuff, but this post is already too long. It was a good trip and I'd go back again in a minute. Our hostess at the hotel was fabulous, and the people were friendly, although sometimes too friendly.  But it's all good.  Next time, I just need to learn Spanish first.