Despite the fact that I was well aware I only had four days left of my trip, I just wanted to relax, so my first day on my own I did. I met three of the girls for breakfast from the yolo trip ( same route as our tour group, but different age group) and actually got to know them a bit. Our tour group had six people, while their’s had 14 so getting to know any of them was a intimidating endeavor. It turns out I got along quite well with these girls, and we chatted the morning away. At around lunch, my old tour group plus a few of their new members came to my hostel to watch the Ireland vs England rugby game. None of the bartenders were Irish, but since they worked at an Irish hostel, they were required to cheer for team Ireland. I mostly had no idea what was going on, but it was still fun to cheer on England with my friends. In the end it was 21-10 for England. I had to say my goodbyes shortly after the game, there were only just barely no tears. I spent the rest of my evening with the three yolo girls, playing cards sitting in the bar. Two of the girls were leaving that night, so it was just Elaine and I the next day.
I woke up bright and early at nine the next morning to prepare for our walking tour. It was raining when we started off, but eased off shortly before we began. We started our walking tour right across from San Pedro Prison. San Pedro is unique because it is basically a town within a city. Inside the walls prisoners are free to roam around and live with their families. The wives and children can leave during the day for school and work. On our tour we visited one of the first churches in La Paz (they put mirrors in the church and told the locals that their souls were stuck in the mirrors, and they had to come pray every day if they wanted to keep them) several important governments buildings, the largest market in La Paz and several other places. My favorite place we visited had to be the Witches market. Llama fetus are a very common sight, as they are used in a special ceremony to ask Pacha Mamma (mother earth) for permission to build new buildings. There are candies, potions and candles, doing everything from creating love to creating erection (for horses, many men had heart attacks and died).
I spent the afternoon wandering around the city and writing my last blog post, and getting distracted by new friends. That night was spent again at the bar, where Elaine and made friends with some Swedish guys. I got into an argument about hockey for probably the first time in my life, about who had a better Olympic hockey team, Sweden or Canada. Pretty sure I won. Elaine left to the airport around midnight, and I was sad to see my friend of a day and a half go. Monday morning I got up and just wandered around La Paz. It was my last full day before I began my journey home so I hit up all my favorite haunts. I visited the square across from San Pedro prison, went for lunch at the Melting Pot (fondue place), wandered around the handicraft market and the witch market, read in the courtyard at my hostel and finally had a rainbow trout in a white wine and lemon sauce at the steakhouse. I went to bed early so I could get up at six for my flight.
Bright and early Tuesday morning I went to the airport for my flight to Lima. I had a quick stopover in Cusco, but got to Lima by three pm. Luckily traffic was pretty low and it only took an hour to get to my hostel. I checked in, and went straight for a walk. I walked to the ocean side mall, and just enjoyed the view. The mall is on the side of a cliff so unfortunately walking to the water was not and option. I went to my favorite restaurant for dinner and had the most Peruvian meal I could think of: Chicha Morada (a drink made from purple corn) and Ceviche de pulpo y pescado (raw fish and octopus marinated in lime juice).
I began my trip back to Canada Tuesday morning, the same time as the previous day. Ate some eggs on toast at the airport and tried to use up the rest of my soles. I flew from Lima to Bogota (Columbia), Bogota to Toronto and finally Toronto to Edmonton. Unfortunately upon arrival in Toronto, I discovered my bag was still in Columbia. Even worse, the Tim Hortons in the airport didn’t have a working hot chocolate machine! I had been awake for 22 hours at that point, but I spent most of the rest of the night trying to ensure my bag was going to continue on to Edmonton without me there. I managed to get two hours on a bench at some point during the night and around 5:30 I was 100% sure my bags would make it to Edmonton, so I checked in.
My lovely Grandma Vi was waiting for me at the airport, and it turns out, when your luggage is lost, reporting it missing is a lot faster then waiting for it to get off of the conveyor belt. I had my first AW meal on the way back from the airport and slowly got used to not being surrounded by Spanish. Now I am awaiting the arrival of my baggage before I get ready to head home.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Ciao!
Alex
PS-Last song! Listen to Half the world away by Aurora, and a big shout out to Best Friend for showing me that song!
Sweet!
Welcome home…