Got ourselves a pretty miserable hotel to stay that morning. Central heating is a bit of a foreign concept so we were shivering in our rooms. The place had prety much zero atmosphere and felt like there was nobody there but us, but it was clean and central so we weren´t too bothered.
We had to go straight off to the hospital under orders from the specialist in Sucre. It was a holiday in La Paz (May 1) so luckily there was very few people there adn Tadgh got seen very quickly. They checked out his eye, diagnosed a corneal ulcer adn sent him sraight upto a bed in teh one of the wards. of course, me being a complete tower of strength in a cisis situation...fell to pieces and Tadgh ended up having to console me instead of the other way around! Think it might have been the whole idea of having to travel around La Paz on my own amidst all the horror stories.
Got back to the hostel to get some stuff for tadgh and the lads were really great. They basically took me under their wing and came back out with me to visit tadgh. At this stage he was well settled in with his tight blue regulation PJ´s (bolivians are quiet small!), and having the crack with all the nurses. Unfortunately we were getting much info from the doctors and none of them spoke english so we were really in the dark on the whole situation.
Went back to the hostel that night with the lads feeling pretty wrecked after the whole drama of the day. Next day I was back out again and things were looking up, a bit more info and the treatment was hourly so we felt like there was some thing happenig at least. Anne came out again with me to check out the situation and make sure they were treating him properly. We had to sort out all the paper work as well and ended up with a bill of a whopping 7 euros a day for Tadgh´s hospital stay! Although we were a bit worried when they billed hm for a full week. He was gettig fed well and the place seemed very clean and well run....was half thinking of moving in myself to save a few bob!
Had a bit of a stroll around the city that afternoon checking out the witches market. Its bascially just a street where they have loads of craft shops and a few stalls with Lama foeteses and armadillos....and all sorts of potions claiming to do everything.The place was a lot livlier than the previous day wen everything was shut úp for hte holiday. It was pretty mad city....all hills adn steps...a killer with the altitude. The whole city is built in a valley and climbs up teh sides of the surrounding mountains,the overall view is pretty impressive, with the snow capped mountains over the city.
The bus service consists of thousands of little mini vans with someone always hanging out the side screaming the destinations. They also love to use the horn...to say hello to other drivers, to beep at other buses, to beep at pedestrians....its a whole symphony of noise all the time. Like other cities in Bolivia its all markets..they have a market for food, one for electrical goods, one for shoes....you name it. And with the markets are all the mingin smells...the whole place smells like one big bad fart!Whatever these people are eating it defiately doesnt go down well with their constitution!´
Also the women wear chullas which are long dresses, this is handy for them to squat in the street and go to the toilet (nice).
Thankfully tadgh got out of hospital in 4 days, just in time because his new room mate was like an animal...he stank, he spat, he snored, he had the manners of a barn yard animal so Tadgh was glad to be leaving his company. The nurses were all sorry to see him go as well...they got a great kick out of the tall gringo with the short tight pance!teh lads stayed with me for the week, which meant I had company all the time, really nice of them. We had a few nights out in the typical tourist joints, Olivers Tavern and Cafe sol y Luna....whoever said we´d starve in Bolivia was wrong...we were dining on curries and burger king and feeling right at home!
Luckily we had absolutely no problems saftey wise adn started to thing the whole deal with La Paz being one of the most dangerous cities was a load of crap. Sure, the shoe shine boys were a bit daunting with their balaclavas but once we got used to them it was fine (they cover their faces to avoid the stigma of begging, their often earing money for school etc.)
We decided to book a trip to Coroico for the weekend. had to be back for an appointment on the Monday. Sean adn the two girls from the UK decided to brave the Death road on teh bikes....its the raod from La Paz to Coroico and is supposedly one of the most dangerous in teh world. We were told they dont even bother looking for the bodies if a bus goes over cos its too much trouble. with Tadghs eye being a bit of a hindrance we decided to bus it with Anne as well. Got a little mini van with the locals and started the trip thinkning it was all a big hoax, we were up pretty high, probably over 4500m but the road was fine. But next thing we turned a bend onto a dirt raod and I was staring at nothingness over on my side of the bus. The road was barely winde eough for one van let alone all teh trucks that use it. My nails were dug ito the seat with fear....the drop is completely sheer ádn 1000´s of meters and at times you cant see the road under the bus so its terrifyng. Our only consolation was that it was cloudy so instead of seeing the bottom we could just see fog, but knowing there was nothing below us was enough to put the fear of God in us!
Thankfully we made it to Coroico 3 terrifying hours later in one piece.
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