We initially figured we would spent 3-4 days in La Paz. We knew that Mihai wanted to visit his friend Marco (an ex-work colleague from a project in Haiti), both bikes needed some maintenance, and we wanted to see a bit of the city. In the end, we stayed there for over a week, mainly because Marco and his family made us feel so at home. It was tough to leave!
Marco and Mihai know each other from Haiti, where both have worked last year on a road construction project. Nowadays, Marco works on another contract in Trinidad, and every 2 months he gets to go home for 10 days. The timing worked out good, and we arrived in La Paz when he was there on his holiday.
Upon our arrival, we met Marco at his house, and then proceeded to book a hotel right around the corner. Later that evening, we were invited for supper to a nice restaurant, and we got to meet several members of the family: Marco's wife, Patricia, their daughter Valentina, Marco's brother, Miguel, Patricia's cousin, as well as Marco's and Patricia's parents.
The next few days were a change from our nomad lifestyle. It almost felt like we had a home again. We would go to the house almost every day and have lunch with the family (break is from noon to 2 pm; most people go home to eat). In the afternoon, we would hang out with Marco, and either do some sightseeing, look after motorcycle related stuff (rear tires, and Mihai's bike need to have the fork seals replaced), or look after other stuff Marco had to take care of while in La Paz (a lot of it had to do with preparing Valentina's - his little daughter - birthday party :)
Around 5 pm, we would pick up Valentina from kindergarten, and we would hang out the four of us until dinner time.
In the evening, we would head out with Marco and Patricia for dinner and drinks, and/or more sightseeing We had some memorable nights out! We also discovered a great local alcohol called Singani - specifically Etiqueta Negra - which became our favorite drink during our evenings out in La Paz.
La Paz is a city with character and many faces. During our stay there, we got to see the best of it as much as the worse of it. I loved the nice and trendy Zona Sur, which somehow reminded me a bit of California. Other neighborhoods, especially at night, are very shady and straight up depressing. It is always sad to see people live in such bad conditions (poverty, alcoholism, etc..).
A few pictures from around the city:
Valentina, Mihai and myself in front of the presidential palace.
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La Paz by night:
Marco brought us to the Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon), a very scenic place located only a few kilometers from downtown.
Mihai, Valentina and Marco posing for a photo in la Valle de la Luna.
A few memorable nights out:
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| Mihai, myself and Singani, and Marco |
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| Marco, his wife Patricia, and Mihai. Sipping on some Singani :) |
We did a day trip to the well known Road of Death, which is around 65 km north from La Paz. The road used to be deadly back in the days, when a lot of truck traffic was going through there; it is narrow, and every year, many vehicles would disappear down it's ravines. Nowadays, a new road has been built, so there's very little traffic going on: mainly mountain bike tours and their support vehicles, as well as a few locals. The road is no longer dangerous, but you can still die there if you act stupid ( a few tourists on mountain bikes did, in recent years).
The cherry on the sundae... We got to see a World Cup qualifying game between Bolivia and Argentina. Mihai and I had hoped to see a soccer game in South America, but we never imagined that we would get to attend a game of such caliber. Even Lionel Messi was part of the show! It was great to see the sport's biggest star at work, but of course we cheered for Bolivia! It had been an exciting game, and the final score ended up being 1:1.
Messi seemed to have a bit of a hard time with the thin air in La Paz..hehe.
All in all, we had a great time in La Paz. A big thank you to Marco, Patricia and their families for their exceptional hospitality!
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