We're not getting any Yunga

Hey hello gringos. I hope everyone is going well?

I am sort of curious about how actually reads this blog. Word on the street is that there are more than two of you, but I am not certain whether this is. If you read you should comment. It makes us post more when we feel we are not alone in the universe.

I had a great great great birthday! Thank you for asking. Ro and I went for a wonderful old hike down into a valley in Coroico. There was a river at the bottom thick with butterflies, including those enormous bright blue ones fringed with black around the edges of their wings that you think only exist in documentaries or something. A butterfly even landed on my shoe and chilled out there for a while which I am pretty sure means good luck. It was a lovely little patch of river; we only saw two other people and found a delightful watering hole to swim in, and then just lazed around in the sun.

The walk back up to town was kind of tough. It involved a spot of bushbashing our way up a steep hill. But it was worth every second of it. And it was a perfect day, probably the sunniest and warmest birthday I have ever had.

We were pretty beat by the time we climbed back up to town, so we went straight to Cafetál, a hostel restaurant that apparently does the best food in Coroico. I myself can only report on the quinoa casserole, but I can unreservedly say that it was extremely tasty. We also befriended a very nice girl, a student of art history from Amsterdam wearing a red poncho, and invited her to join us at our table. We had heard from someone in town that there was a fiesta on the top of the mountain that night. So we asked her if she wanted to check it out with us, which she did.

It was a very odd sort of celebration. When we arrived there were cars and taxis parked everywhere. The top of the hill was mainly bare, except for satellite towers and a church. And obviously cars and taxis, and lots of people, and little stalls, and a band playing pachanga music (this rubbishy genre that I truly hate, not entirely dissimilar to Michael Crawford singing Cat Empire songs, or maybe Ricky Martin's ¨Cup of Life¨ on repeat play) on a little stage.

Coroico is a wonderful place, one of my favourites that we have been to. It is lush and green, and we stayed at a beautiful hostel. The sort of place that calls itself an ¨Eco Reserve,¨ but unlike most ¨Ecotourism¨ it only cost $7 a night for a beautiful spacious double room, with enormous windows through which you could see hummingbirds and big squirrels and mysterious enormous rodents.

But nooowwwwww we are back in La Paz! Staying in a slightly less gringo part of town. Before we were on Jiminez, which is so gringo that stores in the surrounding streets have everything written in Hebrew to support the outrageous volume of Israelis in alpaca jumpers.

Tomorrow we hike again! A nice little three day baby called the El Choro trail. It leaves from high up in the mountains, almost 4700m, but then runs downhill, almost down to Coroico again in fact. We were both a bit worried that it might be a bit tough on our knees, all that walking downhill. So today I bought a walking stick and I think now I can officially announce that I am the sort of person who hikes! Congratulations me. And it was only $20 (a pair of poles is usually five times that amount, I don't know what kind of jerk blows that kind of money on glorified freakin' dowelling rods.) So those mountains should WATCH OUT.

One wacky thing about La Paz is that there are some quite decent restaurants of the Asian persuasian. Sorry, I will never say ¨Asian persuasion¨ again. Or will I? Before we went to Coroico I ate some pretty rad tenpura at an Asian fusion place (they accidentally served me shrimp at first which was odd since I ordered ¨Tempura de Verduras¨ off the ¨Menu Vegetariana¨ but boy were they apologetic when I embarrassedly pointed out that I don't eat seafood), and last night I got pad Thai at another Asian fusian place which was even better, and then tonight I ate tofu yakisoba at a modest yet enchanting Japanese place! BELIEVE IT OR NOT. Mannn it's great, being able to afford to dine out.


We'll be back on Saturday. Just in case you are wondering.


Love love love
Lion