Text: Peter Johansson
Editing: Christer Lundstedt
Photos: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
Videos: Christer Lundstedt



Thursday 18th of July

08.30 It's yet another morning in Bolivia, La Paz and here at Hotel Monte Carlo (https://hotelmontecarlolapaz.com). It's hardly summer and sun out there. However, a cheerful melody is played. Does someone want to sell something? Maybe ice cream?

08.50 The thoughts about ice cream aroused our interest for breakfast. But I think it would have been here anyhow. Breakfast should we eat on an upper floor here at the hotel.

09.30 Breakfast is eaten and I don't want to be filmed. Christer says there's no snow outside. A mix of rain and snow has fallen during the night. There is a thin layer of snow at a higher altitude.

10.25 A creaking sound was first heard as from shots. Is there a coup d'état going on? This country has had some of these over the years. Then a lot of demonstrators appeared on the street outside the hotel. They carried banners and chanted. There's more going on. It´s more fireworks than gunfire.

10.41 The group of demonstrators seems to have no end. There are large numbers of people on the move today. From the banners it seems to be textile workers among those who protest. Many of the protesters have come here from El Alto, the city that sits with La Paz but is at a higher altitude. In El Alto there is the airport and there live many workers who came to La Paz from other parts of Bolivia.

The breakfast room, Hotel Monte Carlo.

Demonstrations on the street outside of our hotel.

The snow is still on the ground on higher altitudes.

Calle Ingavi, a street behind our hotel.

Uphill streets in La Paz, exhausting at this altitude.

11.00 Enough with people demonstrating. Most have passed down towards central parts of the city. Here in La Paz it is so that the lower down in altitude one comes, the higher is the status and standard. This has to do with the climate. It is toughest up in El Alto at over 4000 metres above sea level but more pleasant further down in the centre of La Paz. We are now looking around in the Colonial Quarter near the hotel. We have walked along one of the oldest streets in the city, Calle Apolinar Jaén. The name is from one of the martyrs of the revolution July 16, 1809. Before, the street was called Qawra Cancha, The llama's market.

11.27 Plans to make it to Plaza Murillo Square and the Alexander Coffee have been temporarily cancelled. All the streets to the square are blocked by the police. This is probably due to the demonstrations in the city. The police don't want the outraged workers outside the parliament. What do we do? Some may show identification at the police detentions while others just pass by.

11.44 It went fine to pass without any control at the barriers. The cops thought we were totally uninteresting. Now we have documented the square Plaza Murillo with pictures and video clips. It's a nice little square filled with pigeons. A TV team has just made a feature from here. Now a church bell clings. The café then, well it is located outside the barriers. The parliament, the Palacio Legislativo de Bolivia, is also on the square.

12.04 We have finally found Alexander Coffee (http://www.alexander-coffee.com). We just made our orders. It will be espresso doble for me and a cafe destilado doble for Christer. It's the same kind we finished yesterday's dinner with. What does destilado really mean?

Calle Jaén in the colonial heart of La Paz.

Nice atmosphere in old La Paz.

Iglesia La Merced.

Lots of pigeons on Plaza Murillo.

Guards outside Palacio Legislativo De Bolivia.

13.00 We have come home to a room that has not yet been cleaned. Pretty soon it knocked on the door, now they're going to clean up. We have instead gone up to the terrace outside the breakfast room. Here we have a beautiful view of the city. The sun has looked out a little so it is quite pleasant. However, it is not hot, only just over ten degrees today.

13.45 The room is again around us, tidy and fresh. Good! The Internet has told us that café destilado is made on distilled water. There are indeed several ways to make coffee! Now we have a task to solve. It is high time to have lunch. Get back on the streets of La Paz.

14.50 Songs in Italian and a WiFi code that is Lasagna123. That's what we hear and try to remember here at our lunch restaurant. We are at Little Italy to delight the stomachs with Italian cooking in a Bolivian version.

16.20 After lunch we have strolled around in the most tourist dense part of La Paz in the vicinity of the restaurant on Calle Tarija. Here there are lots of travel agencies and souvenir shops along with restaurants, exchange offices and all such tourists need. We have strolled along the streets west of the San Francisco church. After that we have gone the tough hill up to the bus terminal. Here we have located a small restaurant and thye office for our upcoming bus company. These facts will be of great benefit to us when we leave the day after tomorrow.

16.41 Home Sweet Home. Now let's relax and wiggle our toes for an hour.

Peter at Plaza Murillo.

Coffee and a light meal at Alexander Coffee.

The wonderful La Paz.

Views from the hotel terrace.

Christer with La Paz as background.

18.17 We are lying here and, as I said, mostly wiggle our toes. What more than that and maybe read a little in our books is there to do a winter evening in La Paz?

19.47 Enough, with the exercise of the toes. Now we need to get things going and find a suitable dinner restaurant. Unfortunately, we do not have so many close to the hotel, at least not those who are open late in the evenings.

20.26 It feels simple, but yet the best solution for tonight. We did not find some suitable restaurants nearby and we did not want to wander further away than this. We're back at Alexander Coffee where we had coffee stops earlier today. This is what happens when you're not prepared. We spent the most energy on not doing anything during the evening instead of looking for a more interesting restaurant.

21.15 It was simple but tasty. We ate in the flutes (flautas), meat-stuffed rolled tortillas. Now a solid plan will be made for tomorrow. What do we do, how much money is needed, where do we eat lunch and dinner, how are these paid and more.

22.46 All is timed and planned down to the smallest detail. On top of everything else all is written down. Tomorrow we'll see if it goes as planned. This detail plan does not depend on any hasty personality change. We simply need to know how much Bolivian cash we need before we move on to Chile.

Peter is awaiting the lunch at Little Italy.

Lots of souvenirs for sale in La Paz.

Calle Sagarnaga, La Paz.

Basílica de San Francisco.

Gustave Eiffel did not only create towers in Paris. He also designed La Paz bus terminal.


Friday 19th of July

08.18 The night has moved further in the world. It's time for a new day here in La Paz. Let's see how much goes according to plan. Our plans today are to see more of the city with the help of the interesting public transport in the form of cable cars that have been here in the city since 2014.

09.40 Breakfast is not entirely wrong but we would love more in variety and content. The main thing is that we start the day with a nutritional intake.

10.22 Bangers can be heard from outside again, just like yesterday. More protesters appear to be on the move.

10.29 What we thought turned out to be true. Protesters from El Alto have made their way down to La Paz to show what they think today as well. We planned to go in the other direction, from La Paz up to El Alto.

10.35 Mother Nature and the weather put siokes in the wheels of our plans today. We had hoped to get to ride the cable car and from there see beautiful views of La Paz with surrounding mountain peaks. Now, unfortunately, there are clouds, haze and fog. We thought for a while about whether it might be better visibility later in the day but it feels doubtful.

10.51 Screw nature and weather. We have headed out. Avenida Merica is a street that goes strong uphill, a challenge at this height. We are foot ward heading towards the most nearby cable car station.

11.14 We are going with the cable car Mi Teleférico (http://www.miteleferico.bo) along the red line from Gran Estación Central up to the station 16 de Julio in El Alto.

We had protesters outside our hotel this morning as well.

Iglesia La Recoleta.

We have arrived at the main station Estación Central. Now we will try Mi Teleférico.

Beautiful painted houses on the hillside.

Peter is traveling with the red line.

Nice views of La Paz.

11.22 After we made a short stop at Cementerio station, we are now proceeding towards the peak of the cable car in El Alto. In front of us there are houses painted in cheerful colours. The view of La Paz is absolutely stunning. One should not miss this means of transport if you are going to visit this city. The cable car is state of the art and cheap to use.

11.30 After 2,4 kilometres of air travel, we got off at 16 de Julio station in El Alto. We notice that we're at a higher altitude. It's chillier up here. We are now 4150 meters above sea level. Now let's find Línea Plateada (Silver Line) for further journey.

11.52 The trip on the Silver Line came to an end. We have travelled 2,6 kilometres south to Mirador station. Now we are above the city and unfortunately also above the haze. We have nice views of central La Paz but completely miss the view of the mountains, such as the volcano Illimani.

12.09 We have, via Línea Amarilla, the yellow line, now begun the journey down again. We will not go the entire length of this line. We plan to go down to Sopocachi, a station near the heart of La Paz. From there we intend to walk the remaining distance back to the hotel.

12.40 After getting off at the yellow painted Sopocachi station, we started by walking in the wrong direction. After correcting that mistake, we came pretty soon to the square Plaza España. Here I will go into a store (Ketal) to shop juice for us and wine for my parents. Christer's waiting outside.

13.01 We are now at Alexander Coffee at Plaza Avaroa. It's not the same café we visited yesterday, just another branch in the same chain. On the way here, my travelling could have stopped abruptly. On a downhill street, I moved my left leg to the left to avoid a hole. My left leg was about to catch the right leg of a running police. I don't think the police would have appreciated being tripped. Outside, the square (Plaza Avaroa) is packed with protesters. They like to demonstrate in this city.

We have arrived in El Alto.

It´s time to use Línea Plateada (Silver line).

Jesus is enjoying the beautiful view.

View from El Alto towards La Paz.

Christer is traveling on the yellow line down to La Paz.

The yellow station Sopocachi.

13.42 Alexander Coffee is a really good coffee chain. They have good service and a good range both in terms of coffee and light meals. After finishing the coffee break, we left on a three-kilometre foot march north through the city towards our home. There are a lot of people on the move, so it won't go fast. Next we are heading for a lunch restaurant.

14.04 We have reached the square Plaza del Bicentenario. There were plans to have lunch at Café Ciudad nearby but that was not quite what we expected so the hike continues.

14.20 The pavement becomes wider and there are more stores. We have arrived at the Plaza del Obelisco, which really has an obelisk. We'll try to find a suitable restaurant in the quarter where we lunched yesterday. First, however, we must cross the other side of the traffic filled Avenue we walk along.

14.38 In the speakers you will hear the Australian unofficial national anthem, "Walzing Matilda". We're back at Little Italy. It's nice to have it quiet, calm and to sit down after a long walk. When time flies and it is a little panic to have lunch, we often you return to restaurants we are familiar with.

17.00 It began to rain just as we had finished lunch. We decided to have some coffee and hoped that the rain would come to an end. On the way home, we exchanged 10 000 Chilean pesos, around US$14, each. We also bought bread to have at the arrival in Chile tomorrow night. This we found in Mercado Lanza, a market building in different floors and departments near our hotel. It's good to be home again. We've seen a man that tune a pan flute. He had to use sand paper. The British flagged Swedish-owned tanker Stena Impero has been confiscated by Iran, all according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. It is confirmed by the Swedish shipping company that says no Swedes are on board.

Plaza España, La Paz.

Coffee and a green cake at Alexander Coffee.

Christer is walking through La Paz.

Plaza del Bicentenario.

Plaza del Estudiante, La Paz.

Sagrados Corazones, La Paz.

19.50 We sure have a good and nice place here at home in the room in Hotel Monte Carlo. It's also winter and a chilly night outside. But all we want we can't unfortunately get in this room. We're off for one last Bolivian dinner.

20.24 A few steps above the Italian restaurant Little Italy on Calle Tarija is the meat restaurant The Steakhouse. Here we, the other guests, the staff and a guy playing the pan flute. It's not the same man who we saw earlier today. Now let's see what quality the meat has here in La Paz.

20.58 What we had read in the reviews is correct. It's great meat here but there were some cooking fumes in the restaurant part. On a wooden tray we have received delicate grilled meat. As an accessory, we had beans and rice in a consistency that most closely resembles rice porridge. To this we treated ourselves to beer, Prost.

21.40 We are home again, very pleased with what we were served tonight. The next dinner will be in Chile. The vehicle with the cheerful melody is not an ice cream truck. We have discovered that it is a garbage truck, a certain difference.

23.47 After listening to a, to say the least, odd theory about the murder of Olof Palme on Youtube, we are now going to bed. What was odd? Well, apparently Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was never murdered. He had HIV, and to protect his reputation, everything was made into a theatre. The actor Jan-Olof Strandberg should have been the one who was "shot". Everything about the conspiracy theory is in a book and as a lecture by Claes Hedberg.

Peter is visiting The Steakhouse.

Tonight´s dinner was served like this.


Saturday 20th of July

08.04 Today it is a small anniversary; it is fifty years since the lunar landing. Today it is also the time for us to leave Bolivia and travel on to Chile. Shortly after noon, the bus that will take us from here goes La Paz to Arica by the Pacific Ocean in northern Chile.

10.19 I think we have done all we need to do. All are belongings have a places in our luggage. Soon we will say goodbye to Hotel Monte Carlo, La Paz and even Bolivia. I know it's nice here, but I really want to get down to sea level. I hope I don't get as breathless down there.

10.59 Our possessions are in the backpacks. In my pocket I have the coins I might need for all the minor costs, in my head there are some thoughts about what should happen today.

11.36 We are, after certain puff and groan from me, now finally at the bus terminal. The uphill street leading up here is not to play with. It's a real challenge. Here at the terminal there will be a simple lunch at El Rincón de Placido.

12.18 Now that we have filled our inner with food and also the small backpacks with things to eat from a kiosk, we will soon check in to the waiting bus. At the restaurant there was also a hungry beggar who went around and wanted money for food.

Christer is having a quick lunch at El Rincón de Placido.

Waiting inside La Paz bus terminal.

We have found our bus company.

13.11 We are on time and at the platform specified at the ticket booth. Unfortunately, the bus from the company Trans Salvador (http://www.trans-salvador.com) is not here yet. However, the beggar is back. He still wants money.

13.22 An older lady and some tourists from Poland have together with us been waiting for a while without having seen any bus. The only bus that appeared went to Copacabana at Lake Titicaca.

13.27 The bus was for sure at its platform. However, not the one to which we were referred and stood. We and the rest of the passengers were picked up. Now we leave the bus station with Gustave Eiffel as an architect. The beggar reappeared before we left. Now he wanted cheese.

13.58 Hey and Ho! We have hastily and less amusing switched bus and rushed with the luggage across the street to another. We traveled with a nice bus from La Paz up to Trans Salvador's office in El Alto. Then there was a change. This is not as comfortable but it goes where we are going and that's good. The first bus would go to Iquique further south in Chile.

15.19 The journey proceeds calmly. Via Patacamaya we have begun to travel west towards the border with Chile. The surrounding landscape is dry and profitability. On the horizon, mountains appear. The clouds have begun to gather.

Beautiful landscapes in western Bolivia.

Afternoon near the border between Bolivia and Chile.

16.07 Lightning shunts and thunder thunders. We note that lightning strikes here and out there outside. In fact, it's a little uncomfortable to slip into the bus when it's offered for this weather. Sometimes our vehicle is perhaps the highest point. Isn't that where lightning strikes? There's a little more variation in the views. Mountains appear on the horizon.

17.21 Once again, exit and entry documents have been filled in with a to say the least shaky handwriting. It's hard to write nicely on a bus that shakes.

17.46 We are very close to the border and have exchanged more Chilean pesos for our last Bolivian banknotes and coins.

18.00 After handing over various papers at the Border Post Tambo Quemado, we have now left Bolivia and reached Chile's border station. What now?

CHILE

18.45 A lot happened at the border station, Chungará. A detection dog marked at a lady's luggage. It turned out to be nothing illegal. She might have used the bag to carry coca leaves at some point, who knows? Three of the poles were asked to hand over their fruit. My Bolivian wine bottle aroused the interest of customs, but I was allowed to keep it. Nice customers, by the way, they listened to Queen. Let's move on in the dark. What can hinder us or get wrong now? The mountain pass where we pass between the countries is located at 4680 meters above sea level, a new record for our part.

19.09 We have for some reason been standing still in the dark with the motor running for the last ten minutes. I wonder why we're standing here.

19.26 Since last, not much has happened. Are We ahead of schedule and need to wait? No information is given to the passengers.

20.05 Now we finally got information. There has been a road accident down the road. Bad news for the people involved and also for us.

20.26 An emergency vehicle has passed and come back. We'll see what happens. It's getting cold in the bus. Out there it's freezing and starry.

20.37 Two more flashing vehicles came at us. We have reversed to make room for oncoming vehicles. It's the bus and not Christer and I that I'm talking about.

22.13 There's talk here on the bus about an hour. Is that the wait we're talking about? It's cold and dark on board now that we're not idle anymore.

23.04 We're actually moving. Is that really true?


VIDEOS


You can see 58 photos from July 18 in this photoalbum.
You can see 52 photos from July 19 in this photoalbum.
You can see 12 photos from July 20 in this photoalbum.


CONTINUE


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