Curries and Cocktails

17^th September

We arrived in La Paz after 12 and the view driving into the town was amazing. La Paz is built over 15 hills at around 3600meters high. When you drive in from the mountains you get a view of the city sitting in the valley and it is stunning. It also looks bigger then any place we have seen in Boliva so far.

We got a cab (cheap) and check into our hotel called Cruz de la Andes it is an ok place with Wi Fi, private bathroom but not heating...hey you can't have it all. We were given a room on the 4^th floor with a balcony..that's nice but Neil doesn't go to near the edge and there is no lift so climbing 4 flights of stairs in high altitude is the way to go. We chilled out, cleaned up, watch some cable TV in english and then decided on what to do that evening.

We didnt need to discuss it long as one of the reasons for heading here was for the British owned Indian Resturant Star Of India.....it is in the lonely planet guide and it has been 4 weeks and 5 days since I had something remotely spicy. So we headed there for dinner, the walk, though short, was hard work as every where there is a hill to climb. City is busy, cosmopolitan, lots of gringo's, shops, cafes, restaurants etc. The Indian was pretty full when we arrived, bollywood music playing, indian fabric on walls, pictures of Buddha (?) and the Queen. We looked at the menu, though pricey, it was worth it. We had starters of poppadams and chutneys, pakora (not really so good more like a corn pancake) and vegtable somosa's (again tasty but really spicy veg saltinas..a Bolivian pasty). We had beer...you can't have beer without a curry...espeiclally on a Friday night. For main we had Chicken Madras, Nan, Rice and I hasf the special which was a lamb Briyani (fist bit of lamb since we left the uk) and Chappati. The breads were not great and did not look like what I would call Naan but the curry and briyani were great. Me and Neil ate so much we were stuffed.

We headed out and went walking (uphill!!!) to have a look around and bumped into tour buddies Kate and Lizzy and they said they were meeting Maria and Michael from the trip in a bar, we were going to go but were not sure where it was, they showed us a map and we said we would meet them in a hour or so. We went to the Blue Note Cafe where cocktails are said to be good and met them all there for chats about our travels, where we are going next, backpacking in Oz, the killings in Oz a few years back and the film based on it called Wolf Creek...Kate was not amused as she seemed quite scared by the factual details. We had a variety fo cocktails and late into the night we headed home. It was really nice to go out on a Friday with friends and go drinking...we felt slighty normal again.

18^th September

It is mine and Neil's 2 year and 8 month anniversary (yes we celebrate monthly...sad I know) and so we slept in till really late (it was the first proper bed and sleep since before the tour) and then headed out for a walk and for drinks and dinner, We went to a place in the guide, the drinks and food were expensive but we treated ourselves with cocktails and microbeer, the place was too smoky so we left...That is right in Bolivia you can smoke in places. We then headed to yes the Curry House again where we had beers, saw a group of boys from Oz not finish the Ultimate Vindaloo (appartently the hottest one around and you get a free t-shirt at the end!) we this time had Ilama Kebabs..which were fantastic...we love Ilama and then a Sag Aloo Paneer and a Lamb Rogan Josh with rice and Naan which was nice...we are getting our Indian fill while we can. We then headed to a place called Olivers Travellers which is a British Bar..they show football, have cocktails, do a british breakfast with Linconshire sausages and all the british classics. It was expensive and loud with leary brits getting drunk...which is ok but both me and Neil didn't enjoy it that much so after a few drinks we left and it was late so we headed home for the night.