September 25, 2018 – October 6, 2018
We decided that we would camp at the secure parking area at the La Paz International Airport, which is technically in the city of El Alto, adjacent to, but high above La Paz. It was not a beautiful spot to camp, there was nowhere really to sit outside, but we had 24 hour security, 24 hour toilet access, and it was nice to be able to sit in the terminal with wifi access and drink a $5 coffee while listening to America’s greatest hits of the eighties….felt like a little piece of home.
We took the teleferico (cable car) down into the city of La Paz one afternoon (3 bol each, about $0.60), giving us amazing views of the city set deep in a bowl surrounded by high, snow topped, mountain peaks. On the way we passed the El Alto outdoor market where you can buy everything from salvaged car parts and hardware to plastic goods, clothing, electronics and food. It is very authentic and gives a very real insight into how people supply their homes and lives and the level of self reliance in terms of keeping things like cars, motorbikes bicycles and all sorts of appliances operational.
View of La Paz and Mt. Illimani, the second tallest mountain in Bolivia, from the teleferico.
We wandered around for a few hours. We were able to chase down some harder-to-find supplies and took in a few tourist sites before heading back to our airport parking spot.
The streets of central La Paz had a strong juxtaposition old and new.
While at Lake Titicaca, we had tried some Bolivian popcorn. It looks very different from our Canadian popcorn, mostly in that a popped kernel is easily 3 times the size and has a wrinkly surface. The taste too is different; we were expecting salt and butter, like you would get at home, but instead this popcorn was covered with sugar (remember the pink popcorn with the elephant on the box…similar in taste). The texture is different as well. The first day we bought it, it was pretty dense and chewy. The huge bag on day 2 had become even tougher and more chewy. We snacked on it as we drove towards Tiwanaku, when suddenly Derek announced that he thought he had broken his tooth.
A large piece of one of Derek’s teeth had broken off and it was obvious that we needed to find a dentist before leaving the big city of La Paz. We wanted to avoid the risk of having a dental emergency somewhere more rural where the local llama veterinarian would be the only option for relief.
We moved our truck and camper to a more pleasant overlanding campsite just south of La Paz, and began a series of visits into the south end of the city to the dentist.
One cool puppy! Piper trying on our overlanding neighbours’ dog’s sun glasses…. Something we thought may be required when we visit the Salar de Uyuni, where the salt flats reflect the bright Bolivian sunlight in all directions. I think she looks a bit like Bono from U2….
I had noticed that I had a cracked filling a few weeks earlier in our trip, so we both made appointments with an english speaking dentist. As we taxied to the office, the homes became nicer and nicer, and soon we were among homes that would fit in well in the most posh neighbourhoods of Canada. A quick consult on Friday afternoon, and it was determine that Derek would need a root canal, and then either an onlay or a crown, and that, if all went well, I could get away with a new filling or an inlay.
We returned on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with both of us requiring more than one visit, and not always being able to get appointments on the same day. We felt that the dental work was of a high standard, the staff were super friendly and well trained and that the office was doing everything possible to accommodate our desire to move on as soon as possible.
Meanwhile we camped at Hotel Oberland in the small community of Mallasa, and enjoyed the surreal landscape that surrounded the small community.
One night we visited Gustu, a restaurant in La Paz the is owned by one of the partners of Noma, a restaurant in Denmark that has been named the number one restaurant in the world for several years.
It was kind of a late birthday dinner for me… we had had our first dentist visit on my actual birthday and had not made any dinner plans in case one of us had had work done that day. At Gustu, you can order the tasting menu or a la carte, and we decided that the tasting menu was going to be too much, both in terms of time and money, and so we ordered off of the menu. The food was good, perhaps a little odd, and featured Bolivian sourced ingredients. The strangest part of the meal was the desert that I chose, which featured mushroom ice cream…yes, that is right, mushroom ice cream. The waitress assured me that it would be delicious….I decided to be adventurous and give it a try. Well you win some and you lose some. I guess fungus ice cream just isn’t my thing….if I ever see it on a menu again in my life time, I will not be ordering it!
Eventually the dental work was finished. La Paz had been an interesting and good city to us but we were happy to head out, and get back into the Bolivian countryside.