Bolivia🇧🇴Six month backpacking trip through Bolivia, Peru and central America: update 1/14

I’ve only been awake for 3 hours in Bolivia, but I feel like I can already ramble on for 3 pages. What have I experienced so far?

The journey
On paper, it seems so simple: Schiphol - La Paz.
But in reality, you first fly to Madrid. The plane was delayed by 2 hours, so we missed our connection, and they dropped us on the last flight to South America, just so those people wouldn’t be in Madrid anymore. Turns out we landed in Santiago, Chile, also a nice city, but I don’t know a word of Chilean, didn’t even know they speak Spanish there, so not ideal. To catch this connection in Madrid, we had to go through bomb checks and all, but the security had already gone home. After a lot of talking, they finally let us (there were 4 of us) go without being checked. In Santiago, we had an hour to check in for a flight to Buenos Aires (the flight to La Paz had just left). That seems more than enough time, but it was too little. “Final call Mr. and Miss Kruseman” (I was actually put on one ticket with an Argentine in Madrid because it was faster). So, without a boarding pass, but with my new wife, we ran to the plane, explained the story (fortunately, my wife speaks very good Spanish), and got on board.

In Buenos Aires, we had to wait 8 hours for my flight to La Paz. A little stopover in tropical Santa Cruz (Bolivia), and then finally, after 40 hours, to La Paz. La Paz is quite high, which means less air, so the planes have to land there at double landing speed. So after the pilot parked the plane on the ground at cruising speed, we had to hit the brakes (HARD) to stop before the end of the runway (seat belts come in handy then). If I hadn’t known that this was the normal landing procedure in La Paz (3.600 meters above sea level), I would have considered it an emergency landing.

Okay, for those still here, that’s the flight. I just love flying, but I’ll shorten the upcoming stories. Woke up this morning in some random $1 hotel. Now I’m exploring the city with my Japanese roommate. Well, she’s my personal guide because she’s been wandering around here for a while. Very enjoyable. Tomorrow, I think I’ll head south. In Europe, south means warm, but in the southern hemisphere, it’s the opposite (I’ll explain when I get back). In short, 10 degrees below zero are waiting for me. Luckily, I got the winter coat from the Japanese girl because she’s leaving for Mexico tomorrow.

PS: I left my wife in Argentina, so I’m single again.

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