We had a day in La Paz on our own – but we managed to fill it up with shopping. Things in Bolivia are very cheap ... particularly if you earn your money in Au dollars and spend it in Bolivianos. Thee exchange rate of Bolivianos to US$ is about 7 to 1. So a meal costing around 45 Bs would be less than $8 US so a bit more in Aussie money.
Also seems ridiculous to be bargaining the price of items down ... such as reducing thee price of a bag down from 45Bs to 40 Bs ... but we do it. Item is still less than $10
Streets in certain areas of the city are huge market areas – some selling tourist type items, but we also went through a huge area of local markets selling clothing, food, shoes as well as grog. Stalls selling similar items or services are all grouped together. Some traders have shops but many, many more are set up on stands in the street. At night, everything gets packed away or wrapped up using plastic tarps.
Many street traders are selling drinks or juice. They usually have a few glasses filled ready to go. These need to be consumed at the stall, but if you want a take-away, you get it in a small plastic bag tied at the top – was reminded about these this morning at the bus station, when I saw a girl with plastic bag full of yellow liquid and a straw sticking out of the top. Seems to be common in Peru and Bolivia.
No comments:
Post a Comment