Well I promised I would write about everything, so it wouldn´t be true to form if I didn´t create an entry about the past few days in La Paz.
However, let´s first go to happier times, 4 days ago...
Trishy and I left stinky, dirty Puno, Peru on an easy bus journey to Copacabana, Bolivia. Copa is a sweet little town just on the shores of Lake Titicaca. A fantastic jumping point for visiting Isla del Sol(which we did) where creation and the sun began, according to Inca legend. Copa is mellow, albeit freezing cold at almost 4km above sea level, and we had a great 2 days there. However I came down with a raging fever which I´m convinced is due to piling on the clothing at night and then waking in a sweat. The contrast of cold and hot was too great and it caught up to me. Needless to say it was an agonizing bus ride to La Paz when all I could think of was lying in bed, preferably a non-saggy one. Finally after 4 shivering hours my wish was granted. Though the bed at the hostel wasn´t as non-saggy as I had hoped. Oh well, it did the job. Trishy explored the neighborhood briefly while I spent the entire day in bed. She kindly brought bread and cheese back to the room so I wouldn´t go hungry. She´s a fantastic nurse.
Miraculously I felt 100% better when I woke up on Sunday so I was ready to explore La Paz. Everyone had been raving about the cheap shopping and worthwhile museums so we were looking forward to the day. First on the agenda was the incredible Museo de Coca, all about the history of the coca leaf and how the Western world (specifically the U.S.) has completely destroyed the image of the leaf due to the popularity/creation of cocaine. It´s quite heartbreaking how many farmers have lost their livelihood due to the ineffective ¨War on Drugs.¨ The coca leaf is not a drug! But this isn´t really new information for any of us....
After the museum we did a little shopping but mostly scoped out what we wanted to purchase in days to come when we´d return with a little more cash in our pockets. Our lovely Sunday came to a shattering end in the mid-afternoon when we were walking back to the hostel to drop off some things. A mere two blocks away from our hostel, on our street, we were robbed by four powerful men. We tried to struggle and scream but before we could do much of anything our money and things were taken. I stupidly brought my backpack with me so they snatched the entire thing. Luckily we don´t carry our passports, credit cards or much money on us so the most valuable possession they got were our cameras. Oh, and my cellular phone. What irks me most is that I had two memory cards in my bag since I was looking to burn my photos on to a disc so all my photos from the last month in Ecuador and Peru are gone. Not to toot my own horn too much but I think I took some amazing pictures of the wildlife on the Galapagos and impressive Inca stonework at Machu Picchu. However, we have plenty of friends that can send us their photos of our trips so it´s not entirely a lost cause.
After the men dashed away a very nice Bolivian couple came to our aid and walked with us to the police station. There we tried to mime and interpret ¨We´ve just been robbed, we want a police report.¨ However instead the mime act was intrepreted as, ¨Let´s return to the crime scene and go over every detail.¨ We hopped in the back of a police van and led the way to the entryway of the university where the robbery took place. The police officer was very kind and even grabbbed a university employee to ask if anyone was around at the time. Oddly enough there was someone just on the other side of the door, but they couldn´t see or hear us. After wandering around the university grounds for some time, getting nowhere, we returned to the station. We were motioned over a few different times by a few different officers until finally we watched an officer create an entire account of what happened on his computer. I asked for a copy of the report yet he said we´d have to return on Tuesday to get the certificate. Um, no....we want this certificate now. No can do, he said more or less in Spanish. We had to come back on Tuesday or at best Monday afternoon. We left aggravated and annoyed that La Paz didn´t have more on-duty police officers on Sunday to take care of the report then and there. I suppose criminals take note of the advantage of robbing folks on a Sunday since there aren´t as many officers in the streets like the rest of the week. Now we know better as well.
We had a restless night´s sleep and were determined to go to the tourist police in the morning. We figured they would be more helpful than the local police. So that´s just what we did....we braved the city streets and watched our backs as we headed over to the tourist office to finish the police report once and for all. Fortunately (or rather unfortunately) the tourist police is quite accustomed to dealing with these cases so we were able to convey everything in English and walk away with fully detailed reports in less than 30 minutes. Now I can hopefully see a refund for some of the possessions stolen. Glad I got that travel insurance after all.
We lost our desire to go shopping but had a hot breakfast and purchased a few things to replace the lost items. Now we hope to hole ourselves up in the hostel for the rest of our time in La Paz. We will be on the first tourist bus out of here in the morning. I can´t wait to get out of La Paz, but I´m not letting our experience ruin Bolivia entirely. Mostly everyone we met said such fantastic things about this country so I´m going to give it one more shot to prove itself to us.
I´m still recovering from this bug that won´t seem to leave me alone. I think my body has decided to check out early. Perhaps my body is telling me it´s had enough of traveling. But we´re pushing on....4 1/2 more weeks to go. We´re hopeful (and perhaps a tad stubborn) that Chile and Argentina won't disappoint.
Hope all of you that read this had a far better weekend than we had. Ciao!
