Coroico = Bolivian Paradise!

Where did I leave off? I had better go back and check! Just a minute!
Oh my goodness, I am sooooooo far behind in my travel tales! Here is the short version, I may come back later and add more.

We left Potosi in a cab with Neil and Katie (London) to Sucre (the capital of Bolivia). After a 3 hour ride twisting and turning with our crazy cab driver we finallz made it, unharmed. We splurged on a nice hotel as Lindsays B-day was coming up (Feb. 7th). Hotel San Francisco. We had our own bathroom, a TV (what a luxury) and an upstairs terrace. It was very clean and beautiful. We spent a bit of time exploring the market and trying out different restaurants. I bought 2 pairs of funky glasses, one blue pair and one red! Very fun! Together they cost me all of about 70 or 80 canadian dollars. (Good thing, because I have already lost my blue ones! I am hoping they are at our hostel in La Paz)

Lindsay turned 29 on Feb. 7th and we had a wonderful day helping her celebrate. I was up at the crack of dawn to sneak away to the market to find all kinds of good things to help her celebrate! I found cake, flowers, a plastic childrens party set complete with plates, cuttlery and champagne glasses. I ran around for an hour to every little shop I could find, looking for champagne, but apparently they dont like to sell it at 8am!! Por que? So, next best thing, orange juice and sparkling water! (we drank them seperately!)

I got back and had a little table set up with a happy birthday table clothe (made from wrapping paper) on the upstairs terrace. When it was all set I went and found Linds and made her follow me to the terrace. I think she was happily surprized, so it was a success. We had a pre-breakfast of cake and little cookies, then Neil and Katie came up to join us. (They had found champagne!!! We saved it for the evening though!)

That night we went for an excellent Mexican dinner. I had bought Linds a party set with the Incredibles on it. We had paper plates, cups, straws, party hats, party bags . . . the works! So we first enjoyed some wine on the terrace, then out for Mexican, then on to JoyRide Cafe for more drinks. The guests were myself, Neil and Katie, and our good buddy Dave (the drunken english miner!). We all put on our Incredibles party hats and set off down the streets of Sucre. We got many looks and waves of encouragement! We brought a few extra hats and passed a few out to various waiting staff and a drunk aussie or two! The intention was that by the end of the night we would all decide on a "super power" for ourselves, however, we ended up drinking too much and forgetting all about that great idea! Whoops! All in all it was a success.

Okay, so other than me leaving my VISA card in a bank machine in Sucre, that was about all the excitement we had there! At least all that I can remember now (its been quite a while since we were there, I am very behind).

No, I didnt get my VISA card back, it is gone forever, but no money is unaccounted for and I was able to transfer the remaining balance to my bank account, so all is well and I still have money!! No worries! You see, in South America, the machine gives you the money first and then your card and receipt! I was just so excited to get my money, that I forgot about this little detail and didnt realize it for a few days (until I went to use it again and my card was gone). Whoops!

Well, lets see. After spending a few days around Sucre, Linds and I decided to go to Santa Cruz. However, it was to be a 20 hour bus ride and that didnt sound like any fun, so we looked into flights and found one for 60 canadian dollars. Badda boom badda bing, we were in Santa Cruz after an hour in the air. I love flying!! (Except for the screaming baby sitting directly in front of us the whole way!) The poor baby, and the poor poor mother! What do you do. Ahh, so we arrive into Santa Cruz and it is VERY HUMID!! Wow! Its a bit of a shock after being quite cool in Potosi and Sucre. We could finally wear shorts!! Yippy! No more jeans for a while.

In Santa Cruz we had a few good nights meeting various people, ususally in the Irish Pub on the plaza! In a nutshell we shopped, explored, drank, met other crazy Canadians, Argentinians, an Aussie or two, a Yank, a few English and many other terrific people! It was fun times, but soooooooo humid. Oh, we were able to see a Pre-Carnival parade from a rooftop. We went to a Salsa club (didnt dance!), a bar called Shotz (5 Bolivianos a shot, dangerous), and many other places (where we did dance). Our hostel was called Hostel Boliviar and there were two resident tucans living in the courtyard. They were very cool to watch and take photos of! They also had hammocks there, which we took the ultimate advantage of! I dont want to get into too much detail because there is so much else to write about! Maybe I will add more later.

After a big night out we had to decide what we were doing. We really wanted to see the rainforest, but time was coming to a crunch. We eventually decided to come to La Paz, so we bit the bullet and bought a ticket. We left at 7pm (well, actallz 8, they werent on schedule) and thought we would arrive into La Paz at 10am. Nope, wrong. We didnt get into La Paz until 4pm that afternoon, so we were lucky enough to get a 20 hour bus ride after all!! Lucky us!
La Paz is high up, so altitude was a problem again. The streets are all going either up or down hill! We stayed at Hostel Austria which had warm showers and crappy beds. Stayed a few days there and spent a lot of time at a bar called Mongos. Very fun, lots of stories. Email me and I will go into more detail!! Linds and I did one hard core day of shopping in La Paz. We started early in the morning and loaded up until we had to make a trip back to the hostel, then go again. After lunch we had another load of shopping! It was a long, hard day, but somebody has to do it! Spreading it all out over our beds was good fun. It felt like Christmas! I love buying people presents! We hit the post office the next day to send it all home! It cost a bit, but was worth not having to pack it all! Okay, so I am nearly caught up, but I have to go because my time online is running out and I dont want to loose all of this.
Over and out for now. I will tell you all about Copacobana, Isla del Sol, and Coroico (the worlds most dangerous road) at another time.
Ciao Ciao!!!