Mar. 1 – La Paz

After another crappy hotel breakfast of instant coffee and rolls (this time with a tiny bit of butter and jam), we try to do some blogging, but the internet cafes, and just about everything else, is closed for Sunday morning. We take a cab to the San Pedro neighborhood of La Paz, which is part of the ‘downtown’ commercial area. Endless markets and street vendors, lots of shops and restaurants. Some of what we see on the main boulevard looks like Chicago or New York; US chains like Eli’s and KFC and Burger King;  lots of signs in English. Pretty strange when juxtaposed to the street vendors and poorer activity on the side-streets. It rains, of course, and we hide out in a fancy ice-cream shop till it slows down. We walk for hours, up and down steep hills, and see lots of cool architecture, and plazas and markets. One large square has 10,000 pigeons, all eating out of people’s hands, and climbing on kids and adults… pretty weird sort of fun, if you ask me.

We catch one of the city’s zillion mini-buses back to our neighborhood; a cramped ride jammed into an 11 passenger van with 14 people, but it cost about $.50 US as opposed to a $3.00 cab ride. After we rest up a bit, we walk back up the hill to San Miguel again for another great dinner; this time steaks at an Argentine restaurant. A bit more blogging, and then the walk, down hill this time, back to Hotel Sur.