Friday, 1 February 2019
La Paz, Bolivia
Arrive at Uyuni airport to see, what must be most of the staff, playing football on the airport apron. Proper goalposts and all. For those that haven’t been to Uyuni airport, it’s tiny. It’s a few strides long. Everything is manually done. Including security. No X-ray scanner here. Just a bloke with purple latex gloves having a quick rummage amongst your undies and that’s it. Job done. He might as well have asked, “Anything to declare?” for what good his search has done.
Final pee before boarding. The urinal is right up next to a wall so no room for shoulders. Stand diagonally. A hand drier at elbow level is right next to urinal and part of it is over urinal. Cramped. Accidentally activate the hand drier. Airflow plays havoc with liquid flow! I’ll leave that to your imagination.
Very slow taking off as we ascend over the salt flat. Almost as if there’s something wrong with the aircraft. Flying very low. Lower than normal after take-off. So low in fact that you can wave to tourists having a picnic on the salt flat. And then. The aircraft suddenly banks tight right and takes a dip. Chinese tourists at the back let out screams. We’re all going to die. And for a split second I wonder myself. Before the aircraft corrects and continues ascending. Probably the pilot having a laugh.
Arrive La Paz. The highest international airport in the world. Driver takes me to hotel in his 1970s beige estate car. Wind the window down for some fresh air and handle comes off in my hand. It’s that decrepit.
Wander around the Witches Market. Last time I came here in 2001, I seem to recall there were animal foetuses for sale along with other Macbethian eye of toad ingredients. Don’t seem to be able to find anything untoward here. When building a new house they put a gift of foetuses and other such stuff as a gift to the Gods/good luck charm. La Paz hasn’t changed since 2001. Still a chaotic mess of unfinished buildings and locals selling wares by the roadside. Hundreds of minbuses act as the main form of transport and there’s also a new-ish cable car system that links La Paz to the higher town of El Alto.
Dark black clouds loom so scurry back to the Hotel Rosario (https://hotelrosario.com/la-paz/) just in time to avoid another mammoth rain storm.
One response to “41. Anything to declare?”
Like you we have also travelled to La Paz. Mervyn was suffering altitude effects on leaving the airport and later that day required an oxygen tank, which became an almost permanent fixture in our room on the 13th floor of our five star hotel. I love the ladies bowler hats. I fell in love with the tablecloths with rich, vibrant colours, which hang in our study room. I also bought a colourful backpack. Tourist items hard to resist!