Border Crossing

Something out of this world.... Apparently Friday is market day at the Peru-Bolivia border, with goods being exchanged between traders from Peru and Bolivia (like wholesaling<9 - bringing items into Bolivia for markets on Sat and Sunday.

Streets were clogged (both sides of the border) with stalls, women (mostly) carrying large bundles (I mean HUGE), and long lines of traffic.

We drove past the lines of cars and buses, and stopped amid a throng of people and stalls - to get passports stamped. We then had to walk across the border (a rope across the road) and into the Immigration office on the Bolivian side. More paperwork (to enter Bolivia).

This area looks even poorer - buses, trucks etc all heavily loaded with goods for La Paz

Entry inot La Paz was as expected from our exploration on Google Earth.... did you see us Grandma?

But it was chaotic .... unbelievably chaotic in fact... Picture very narrow streets, lots of people and market stalls which both encroach onto the road. There was roadworks taking place outside our hotel and the street where they would normally turn left and park to unload had, just 2 days before, apparently, changed traffic direction. We were not able to turn left, nor proceed ahead. Only thing possible was to turn right ... into a narrow, windy street chocked with traffic, all honking horns, and people and market stalls .... and low power lines. (Remember our shock at the power lines in Santiago .... well La Paz is worse...) We could hear power lines scraping along the top of the truck as Sail negotiated the narrow windy street. Locals were all agaze. If you haven´t realised it, Peggy is HUGE!!!! Because we could only crawl along, one of the power lines got caught (and we broke another one). Zac had to climb up on top of the truck with a stick that Sail calls ´the persuader´and release the caught wire, stepping over some power lines and under others!!!!! Meanwhile all locals were out on the street trying to tell him what to do, and since no traffic was moving, all cars banked up behind us were honking furiously!!

SO SICK OF LOSING ENTRIES!!!!!!! Where was I?? This is so frustrating, especially at $1.50US for 15 mins Will try to finish this later.