I'm in Bolivia!

After eight or so hours of flying with a layover in Bogota, Colombia I finally arrived in La Paz Bolivia at around 3 a.m. I had spent the week preceding this trip freaking out thinking that for some reason I wouldn't make it past the Bolivian immigration authorities (for no particular reason). But when I arrived at the little desk all I had to do was hand a nice man $135 dollars and he gave me a sticker and I was good to go. So after getting through that affair and exchanging my money (however they would only take bills that were in really nice condition for some reason so I still have $90 in manky US dollars) I took a cab down from the airport to my hostel.

The airport for La Paz is actually in El Alto, which is a separate city that sits on the ridge-line above La Paz. So the drive down is a perilous winding road descending thousands of feet down the mountainside. While the drive was quite harrowing I was just happy to make it to my hostel (at 4 a.m.) and not get kidnapped or robbed.

But my adventures did not end there. I then came to realize I should have probably booked a room for that previous night so I'd have somewhere to sleep when I arrived in the wee hours of the morning. Instead I slept on the floor in the lobby until my room was ready at 9 a.m. Then I immediately proceeded to return to sleep until 1 p.m.

After that I got up and began exploring La Paz in search of a Sim Card to put in my iphone so I could use it in Bolivia. However, this proved harder than expected because I realized I need a micro sim card and those aren't particularly available. The other part of the problem is that cellphone companies don't really have stores here. Instead they contract out the cellphone business to basically anyone who wants to get in on it. After a series of failed attempts at this I gave up and began walking around.

This is the presidential palace that sits on Plaza de Murillo. While it is beautiful and gleaming, I think what is more important to take into account is how ramshackle the building adjoining it is. Development and progress is often, and especially in Bolivia, quite uneven. 

This is the front of Church San Franciso in central La Paz. It was built by the Spanish during the colonial era. I eventually walked pretty far south in the city to a bougie neighborhood with a good supermarket where I got some groceries to bring back to the hostel. 

In my many and long wanderings I cam upon this mural which I really liked. There was a lot of graffiti in La Paz, much of it very political, but there were also these wonderful murals on many public spaces. It really brightened up a city that is seems caught between western modernity and unfinished buildings. 

Ché makes a lot of appearances in the public art around La Paz. I thought this one was pretty great. 

Hopefully tomorrow my cell phone quest is more successful and I can actually eat some Bolivian food.