Columbus Palace Hotel La Paz

... but what ya gonna do?<br><br>Reconstructing my face (Day 3):<br>After a painful night, I left Hotel Austria at 09:00, as I figures that would be when dentists opened. I headed for Dr J in the posh east side of La Paz, among all the embassies and so on (Amex were paying, not me).<br><br>The dentist was amiable, had a pleasant level and was a PP (very rare for Bolivia, I think, maybe she´s from some neighbouring country.) She took the first x-rays of my life and said "you´re very lucky ...

... proceeded with their scary tales of "the death road", as they filled our pants with horrific stories. The only way to deal with this was a few cocktails and a spot of dressing up. We proceed to the dressing up cupboard and cue - 15 spidermans slithering around La Paz, girls as cinderella and little bo peep, taxiing around various night spots, and the rest as they say is history (partly because we cant remember)...<br><br>

... usage significantly).<br><br>So while Gill did a Spanish class and some flower arranging or sewing or something, I took off on a mountain bike for 64km worth of downhill fun. I'm here writing this so I made it! That was after overtaking lorries, avoiding rock fall, getting soaked through waterfalls and having a local kid throw a stone at me. At the end there was a hotel where I soaked away my aches in their pool had a great lunch and then put the bike on a truck for the ...

... hoogte van Bolivia de zolen doen splijten. Ook zijn we naar een ander hotel gegaan voor de komende veranderingen, dus nog meer afscheid nemen...<br><br>Maar daar is veel voor terug gekomen. Ninka hebben we donderdagnacht van het vliegveld opgehaald, en de nacht erna Jan Peter. We stonden klaar met een grote taxi waar een fietsdoos opgezet kon worden. Na een 25-urige reis hoefden ze ...

... we arrived at this animal sanctuary where we were to have lunch, and where I could shower and get cleaned up. <br>Despite being in almighty pain the sanctuary was pretty cool, with rescued monkeys, parrots, dogs and a raccoon! The monkeys were fairly playful and one even jumped on my head and seemed to beat it like a drum the cheeky git!<br>The drive home wasn´t much fun, about 3 hours, though we were able to pick up some beer to help relieve the pain. Depìte this we went out ...

... of cheaper places and we are here, at Hostal Austria. It needs a lick of paint, and probably new (less saggy) mattresses, but it is relatively clean and half the price of Arthy's. ok so it doesn't have a dvd rental service, or fruit soap in the bathroom but hey, it's fine.<br><br>First impressions of la Paz, Indian women wearing tall bowler hats perched very precariously on top of their heads, I keep thinking they are going to topple off! narrow, hilly streets ...

Back here again for one night before starting the journey back to Lima.<br><br>The flight back from Rurrenabaque was interesting, due to wet weather our strip of grass was closed and we got transfered to the next ´dry´ strip of land in one of the neighbouring towns....about an hour away. NB for most of you who have never been to these parts, the runway or strip of grass is much better ...

La Paz<br><br>Die dünne Luft im 4000 m hohen La Paz machte uns nach einer Woche im Amazonaswald ganz schön zu schaffen. Wir blieben daher erstmal zwei Stunden am Flughafen, nutzen das kostenlose Internet und dabei wurde leider Betânias Sonnenbrille gestohlen. Es war eine besondere Überbrille, die Betânia über ihrer Brille tragen konnte und die gerade der Mode der riesengroßen Brillen entspricht. Solch eine Brille war in La Paz dann aber leider nicht zu bekommen. <br><br>