Edd's Travels: La Paz, Bolivia

I left Puno on a 7am bus, too early to have a proper breakfast beforehand, but I consoled myself at the bus station with a sugary treat in the form of a packet of Nerds. (A long-forgotten pleasure. Can you still get Nerds in the UK?) After crossing into Bolivia, we had to get out of the bus to cross the Tiquina strait – the bus went by barge and the passengers went by motorboat. See pictures for the alpacas by the waterfront, and also for the interesting war memorials. Bolivia used to have a Pacific coast, but lost it to Chile in the war of 1879-1883, and never got it back. As you can see from the picture, they’re still not entirely happy about this.

Anyway, Bolivia…it’s a fairly poor country, with an average income per head of just £3000 or so. Rotten bit of luck for the locals, but looking on the bright side, those are the kind of low wage expectations that enable me to rent a very comfy apartment with a well-stocked kitchen, spectacular views and a big walk-in shower, plus newly-baked bread and freshly-squeezed orange juice brought to my door every morning, all for £35 a night. And having my own kitchen makes it easier to indulge my particularly English culinary tastes. You don’t get far asking for ‘dippy eggs’ in restaurants round here.

I realise I’ve rather overdone the altitude-related statistics recently, but it must be noted that La Paz is the world’s highest capital city. Actually it’s only the administrative capital of Bolivia: the formal capital is Sucre, to the east, but never mind. La Paz spreads all around the bottom and sides of a huge mountainous bowl, and altitudes range from 9,840ft to 13,450ft. It’s spectacular, if exhausting. See photos.

Notwithstanding my recent problems on the gastric front, I was determined to be open-minded and try some Bolivian cuisine. So I went to a French restaurant called La Comedie. My main course was an interesting mix of culinary cultures: grilled llama, served medium rare, in sauce bordelaise. Call it Franco-Bolivian fusion. Llama meat is I think best described as halfway between beef and lamb: lighter and more gamey than beef, but less oily than lamb. Delicious, and highly recommended.

I realise that eating llama may be morally questionable, just as eating guinea pig was a couple of weeks ago. Llamas are arguably at least as cute as guinea pigs, if not more so. But I’m fairly sure that nobody reading this has ever had a pet llama.

So a good day overall: a fine meal and a good win for SAFC, which I was again able to watch live on ESPN, complete with the excitable gabbling Spanish commentary (“gooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaal…………..San-dair-land!!!! Hhhhhrrreeeee-chardson!!!!!”).The gabbling was non-stop, except for one amusing bit of perplexed silence when the camera zoomed in for a moment on Jimmy Montgomery, sitting in the stands. You can’t say ‘who the f**k’s that?’ on the telly. Not even in Spanish.

I’m moving on again tomorrow, as always.