A day of downs and ups (13k ft ups)
Arrived at 5am at the Santiago airport so we immediately found some chairs and slept until 830. It’s amazing we slept at all since the air was full blast and they kept making loud ass announcements. I got up to find some wi-fi and see what gate our flight was departing from. I found some wi-fi sitting next to one of the VIP clubs but I didn’t find our flight. At first I thought it was because the screen wasn’t big enough for the later flights, then I found two screens and saw it still wasn’t on there. Went up to LAN and they said the flight to La Paz had to go to Iquique first (in Chile). WTF? Another layover (we already had 2) that I knew nothing about? Santiago is way far south of La Paz so we were already out of the way and on a 7 hour layover, now this?
Oh but it gets better. Since the flight was going to Iquique first it was a domestic flight which meant we had to pay the fucking $140 EACH for a visa to get to the domestic terminal. We couldn’t believe it! We said hell no so we went to LAN and at first they weren’t sure (were we really the first people this happened to?) then he confirmed with his manager that yes we have to pay and we should submit our complaint to customer service. Great, I’m sure we’ll get this money back. Thanks Chile.
Then it gets even better. We pay, deal with the bad attitude workers (because we’re American of course and we’re hated everywhere) and head through customs. Well, we had to fill out a form and we checked we weren’t bringing anything into the country. I still had an apple in my backpack which they found- it’s an apple for Christ’s sake! The lady looked at me with a shitty face and I knew I was in for it. She got someone who spoke English and they proceeded to tell me I now had to pay a fucking $200 fine because apples are dangerous to Chileans. Now I have to pay $500 in one day just to get on a flight that I already paid for? Andy didn’t handle that very well. He backed off and I told the ladies fine, I’ll pay, let’s just get it over with because I have a domestic that’s really international flight to catch to head north which was where I originally came from. Not sure why, maybe because I was travelling with someone who has a bad temper, but she let me go. She said they don’t have quick pay down there so I could go catch my flight. Wow, being nice can get you somewhere boys and girls. Not sure why anyone would go to Iquique anyways, there’s nothing, truly nothing, here but huge sand dunes.
It gets better (no sarcasm this time). We landed in La Paz (Alto to be exact) at the highest airport in the world (13.4k ft). Planes have special tires to land here and they have to land really fast since the air is so thin. We were a bit frightened but all was OK. We didn’t have money to pay the $135 for the Bolivian visa. I knew there wasn’t an ATM before customs so this was going to be interested. The dude just shook his head and told me to go outside the airport and get cash. 20 min later I showed up, they took our money, didn’t ask for proof of hotel, photos, or bank statements- probably because they wanted to go home and we were the last ones there.
Jumped in a cab for the $7 ride to The Prado section of La Paz. Along the way the cabbie stopped so Andy could take some awesome pics of the city since La Paz is down from Alto where we landed. La Paz is built around a river (that you can’t see) so the city goes up the sides, it’s pretty amazing. Right away we were light headed and we started to get headaches so I bought some asprin. Our hostel, Cruz de los Andes, is pretty nice with murals on all the walls and a winding staircase with plants that try to grow. I of course picked the room on the 4th floor. Do you know how hard it is to walk up 4 flights of stairs at 12k ft altitude? We were gasping for air. It was 6 so we unpacked and headed out. We walked around the Prado where all the street vendors are. We saw the electricity vendors (Andy was loves to see what they carry), clothes, fruit, flowers, hardwear, you name it. We ate some hotdogs first with ketchup, mustard, salsa and guac- yes we did, it was the only food we could find at first and there were a lot of vendors. Later we ate soup (broth with chicken) and meat and potato on a stick. There was a parade going on to celebrate Jesus. We stopped to watch it and that’s when the first jacking attempt took place. I was down from Andy and someone hit my hair/face with something sticky/icy. I didn’t realize it was meant to hit me. Then two girls started bumping into me. The first time one of them bumped me I didn’t think anything about it. The next time I looked at her in the face and grabbed my purse. That made her leave. They managed to open the front pocket of my purse, but since I’m not dumb enough to leave anything in there they were empty handed. We later left to see what else was going on.
Men were so drunk they were falling down everywhere. Sometimes their wives (dressed in traditional clothes) helped them, sometimes they were as wasted as their men. We found the after party and the music was still playing so then we had a cervesa to join them. We sat with a father and his two kids who were wasted. The boy didn’t speak any English but he could say ‘mother fucker’ without an issue. Trying to understand someone speaking Spanish while wasted and loud music playing is not easy. It didn’t matter because they asked me where we were from 5 times. The father fell down and the daughter told her brother to go take care of his. We were done with our cervesa, my headache was pounding so we left. We called it a night just in time before my migraine started. We passed out from exhaustion- what a long crazy day!