La Paz to Lima to Home

On our walk in the centre of La Paz on Tuesday afternoon, we took a few pictures of the steep canyon of the city, a few rural people in their traditional clothing resting in the main plaza and the police in full riot gear blocking a pedestrian foot bridge for some reason. La Paz isn't always pleasant but it's interesting.
On Wednesday morning, May 4th, we had a cab waiting for us at 7 am at our hotel in La Paz. It took less than an hour for the last ride up out of the La Paz canyon and onto the flat plain of El Alto to the airport. After exchanging the last of our Bolivian money for US dollars, we checked in with Peruvian Airlines for our flight to Cusco. Security and customs were easy and we took off on time at 10:40 am. It's only an hour flight and there's an hour time difference so we landed at 10:40 in Cusco.
We had to collect our luggage and check in with Star Peru Airlines for our flight to Lima. The Cusco airport is very busy because many international tourists fly to Lima, then straight to Cusco, go on a tour to Machu Picchu, turn around and go back to Lima and leave the country. There's one big waiting area past security but not waiting areas at each individual gate. It's very difficult to hear any flight announcements. We were lucky not to miss our flight which boarded and left 15 minutes early.
Our flight to Lima was about an hour and a quarter so we were there a little after 2pm. At the Lima airport it's important not to get in the wrong taxi or bad things could happen. One of the official taxi services is Taxi Green so, for 60 soles ($24 CA) we arranged a ride to our hotel, the Inti Killa, in the Miraflores area of Lima.
After checking in to our hotel, we walked to the centre of Miraflores where there are lots of restaurants. Miraflores is much nicer than the historic centre of Lima. There are lots of nice apartment buildings and hotels, fairly wide sidewalks and a general feeling of prosperity. There are still beggars and heavy traffic but the area feels much safer. We ate at a traditional Peruvian restaurant listed in our guidebook before buying water and returning to our hotel for the night. Our room was small but clean and comfortable.
The included breakfast on Thursday morning was simple but filling. We couldn't extend our checkout time so we slowly packed up and finally checked out at 11 am. We left our bags at the hotel and walked a few blocks to the park which runs several kilometres along the top of the cliff above the seaside highway and stony beach. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day. We spent several hours walking through the park and met several gringo tourists killing time like us, either on their way to or from Machu Picchu. The only excitement was watching the paragliders who have a launch spot from one point. There wasn't a lot of wind so few of them could take off. One launched but couldn't get enough lift from the sea breeze coming up the cliff. He started drifting lower immediately and had to land on a little point about halfway down. He came very close to hitting the cliff side, which might have been disastrous.
Eventually we bought more water and wandered back to our hotel and then took a long walk past the centre of Miraflores to a recommended restaurant. There we each had a quarter chicken. The walk there and back killed more time. In the evening, we sat in our hotel lobby for awhile and read our books. Finally at 8:30, we had the desk clerk call a cab to the airport for us. This time it cost 40 soles ($16 CA) for the hour ride through heavy traffic to the airport.
The Lima airport was quite chaotic. We discovered that the Air Canada check-in wouldn't open until close to midnight so we found a seat and barricaded ourselves in with a luggage cart so no-one could run over our feet with their luggage cart. Eventually, close to midnight, the check-in opened. Although there were lots of tired, cranky tourists lined up, we got through that and then through customs and security without incident. At our gate, we even managed to sleep for a few minutes before our plane took off at 2:55 am.
On the plane we managed to sleep for a few hours and arrived in Toronto about noon. Again customs and security through to our next flight was easy. However, we then discovered that our 2:10 pm flight to Ottawa was now delayed until 3:40. We eventually managed to send an email to our son Dylan who was picking us up in Ottawa. Finally, at 4:45, we arrived in Ottawa and in a few minutes met Dylan and his partner Kasumi, picked up our bags and were on our way home.
After a stop for Vietnamese food at the Oxhead in Kanata and a few groceries in Renfrew, we were home by 10 pm. It was a long trip getting from Sucre, Bolivia on Tuesday morning to home on Friday night.
We loved our 2 months in Canoa and our month travelling through Peru and Bolivia. The altitude and the cold nights in the Andes were a bit of a struggle sometimes but we saw some fantastic places and had another great trip. At the end of a trip it's always good to be home.
A few final pictures from La Paz and one from Machu Picchu:

Holiday Monday in Sucre and back to La Paz

Tuesday, May 3rd 2016, La Paz Bolivia
Yesterday, our last full day in Sucre, we wanted to try to visit some museums and cathedrals again. First we went to the Museum of Ethnography, which apparently has interesting displays about Bolivia's indigenous culture. Unfortunately it was closed.
Then we went to the Cathedral Museum. In the Cathedral is a painting of the Virgin Mary, painted in 1601. It was subsequently "coated with highlights of gold and silver and adorned in robes encrusted with diamonds, amethysts, pearls, rubies and emeralds donated by wealthy colonial parishioners. The jewels alone are worth millions of dollars, making it the richest Virgin in the Americas." (Lonely Planet). Everyone conveniently forgets that the Spanish colonists got wealthy by enslaving the indigenous people and destroying their culture and religion. Anyway, we never got to see it because the Cathedral and Museum were closed too.
We walked up to the central market. While everywhere else in town was quiet, it was busy. Pretty much everything was for sale, including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
By then we had decided that everything we might want to see was closed for the day. Just for the walk, we went down to the cemetery. It was open, but closed from noon to 2:30. We got there at 12:10 pm.
At least it was a sunny warm day, about 25C. We walked back to our hotel, packed for our return to La Paz and enjoyed the sunshine on the rooftop terrace for a couple of hours. In the evening we returned to the Cosmo restaurant and even had the same meal as last night, the "Plato de Carne para 2 Personas" - the meat plate for 2. It was delicious once again and, with a beer and tip, came to 135 Bolivianos or $27 total. No wonder we rarely go to restaurants at home. Before we returned to the hotel, we walked around the square a few times until we didn't feel quite so full.
This morning we were ready for our last big breakfast at 7:30 am. By 8:30 we were in the lobby waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport. This time getting in the taxi, driven by a young guy, was like stepping into a 70s disco. He had big speakers taking up the whole back window; a rack of CDs on the sun visor; big dice, a crucifix and a picture of his girlfriend hanging from the rear view mirror; blacked out back windows; and fringes hanging here and there. Fortunately he didn't play his favourite tunes for us and he got us to the airport in one piece for 30 Bolivianos ($6).
The Sucre airport is very small. Again, we met the young couple from Vancouver whom we've seen in La Paz and several times in Sucre. They actually live in Langley and own a rental house in Chilliwack, where we've camped a couple of times when our sons were whitewater slalom racing. Our flight took off on schedule and in 50 minutes, we landed in La Paz. It's sunny here as well and about 20C.
We shared a cab with the Vancouver couple so it cost us only 30 Bolivianos to get back downtown to the Sol Andino Hotel from the airport in El Alto. We said goodbye to our new friends and now we're back in our hotel room. We'll probably go for a walk before dinner and make it an early night.
Tomorrow we have to leave our hotel by 7 am to get to the airport. We fly to Cusco, switch airlines and then fly to Lima. The journey home is on.

We Love a Parade

Sunday, May 1st 2016, Sucre Bolivia
After stuffing ourselves at the breakfast buffet again, we decided to look at cathedrals for the day. Today was sunny and about 25C, much warmer than yesterday. We walked 1/2 block from our hotel and, just by chance, met a couple from Vancouver whom we had met at our hotel in La Paz. Since then, they had biked the "world's most dangerous road" but didn't see anything because it rained all day. Then they flew to Uyuni and spent 3 days driving to and through the salt flats. The scenery was incredible but the driving was a bit much. They had just arrived in Sucre this morning after taking a night bus for over 7 hours. They told us that tomorrow is Labour Day here so not much will be open.
After talking to them, we heard a brass band playing up by the square, so we walked up to see what was going on. As it turned out, the big Labour Day parade is today. We lost count of the number of marching bands preparing for the parade by drinking beer bought from a beer truck at the parade start. At first, there was a sort of battle of the bands before the parade started. Then, we got a good spot with a little shade and watched bands and dancers/marchers including many Cholitas in their finest parade by us around the square. Many of the participants either had a beer in hand or in a pocket.
After 2 hours, we retreated back into the centre of the square for some shade and quiet. Eventually we went back to our hotel and sat on the rooftop terrace to enjoy the sun. We could hear bands playing from noon until 3 pm. Big parade. This is the sort of unexpected travel experience we enjoy and would never get if we were home sitting on the couch.
This evening we walked back up to the square to eat dinner at Cosmo, a restaurant recommended to us. From the amount of beer drinking going on early in the afternoon, we expected a crowd of drunks in the square. However, there were just families and teens enjoying the mild evening. There was a lot of litter left after the parade but all the participants seemed to have moved on to party elsewhere.
Our dinner at Cosmo was the best meal we've had in some time. We'll probably go back there tomorrow night. We're loving Sucre.