There is a great report about the last 3 days in Bolivia by my friend Luke who travelled with me, he also did fantastic photos as usual.
As I spent quite a few days here in La Paz, I thought I quickly write about a typical day.
I stay in the Hostal El Solario in the old part of town new the San Francisco church. My single room without bath is 35 Bolivianas, which is 3.50 Euro or 4.2 US. First thing in the morning, I go down the street to the market to Susanna, one of many ladies offering desayuno (breakfast), which consists of a good cup of coffee and a big roll with either egg, avocado or meet. That's another 3.50 bs (35 Euro cents).
After that I walk over to work at an internet café. After a long search I found a place that just opened and has fairly good computers with enough memory.
There are literally hundreds of internet cafes in La Paz but most of them have computers that are 5 to 10 years old.
For lunch I usually go for a cheap local eatery. The most basic lunch still consists of soup, meat or chicken with some rice and chips. You can get this for 3.50 bs. I usually go for Melaneza al pollo, which is a big chicken schnitzel with salad, rice and chips, costs 8 bs.
Back to work for a few hours, an hour internet costs 2 bs. Cheaper than anywhere in South America so far. Bolivia is the cheapest country on the continent.
After two weeks of great weather with blue skies all days, it seems the wet season has started now, it is gray and it rains a few times every day.
Back at the hostal I have a chat with Jamie, an Australian who lives in Hong Kong. He is the other long-term resident. The majority in the hostal are Japanese and French, as their guide books recommend the place.
For the last week my evening entertainment consisted of one or even two German films at the Cine Teatro Municipal 6 de Augusto. The German Goethe Institut put on a film festival with films around the topic "20 anniversery of the fall of the Berlin wall". It is a nice cinema in the better part of town down the valley, a 25 minute walk from my hostel. Surprisingly I never see any other Germans at the cinema, only locals. I don´t often get the chance to see German films and I really enjoy the ones they showed.
For dinner I spend a bit more, around 20 bs, Chinese, Italian or better Bolivian food.. Sometimes when going with some people from the hostel we go for Indian, Thai or Moroccan, that costs 50 plus as it usually also involves more beers than when I am by myself.
Back at the hotel I usually listen to a podcast in bed before falling asleep.
Why do I spend such a long time here?
It is the last cheap country before heading into Brazil and Argentina, so it makes more sense to hang out here rather than there, and I am addicted to programming, so I have to do it once in a while.
25-Oct-2009: Puna into Bolivia and on to the Isla De La Sol (Isla De La Sol, Bolivia)
26-Oct-2009: Trekking with Zuzana on Isla De La Sol (La Paz, Bolivia)
27-Oct-2009: Exploring downtown La Paz with Zuzana (La Paz, Bolivia)
28-Oct-2009: Exploring the lower rich parts of La Paz (La Paz, Bolivia)
29-Oct-2009: Looking for a good internet cafe to work and meals with Jessica (La Paz, Bolivia)
30-Oct-2009: Back to work, porting web-forms to AJAX based forms (La Paz, Bolivia)
31-Oct-2009: Back to the lower parts of town (La Paz, Bolivia)
1-Nov-2009: Lazy Sunday (La Paz, Bolivia)
2-Nov-2009: Holiday, everything is closed (La Paz, Bolivia)
3-Nov-2009: Sick in bed, most likely market food. (La Paz, Bolivia)
4-Nov-2009: Shopping (La Paz, Bolivia)
5-Nov-2009: Hanging out with Oliver and Tom (La Paz, Bolivia)
6-Nov-2009: Working on static TweeNet home page (La Paz, Bolivia)
7-Nov-2009: Long walk to Zona Sur, it is a different world down there. (La Paz, Bolivia)
8-Nov-2009: Back working, added many small features. (La Paz, Bolivia)
9-Nov-2009: To the ruins at Tiahuanacu with Tom, Jamie and Oliver (La Paz, Bolivia)
10-Nov-2009: Work on the Visited countries tool (La Paz, Bolivia)
11-Nov-2009: Started looking into asp.net mvc (La Paz, Bolivia)
12-Nov-2009: More work on the Topas CMS (La Paz, Bolivia)
13-Nov-2009: Work on Ajaxifying page editing (La Paz, Bolivia)
14-Nov-2009: Work on Page preview (La Paz, Bolivia)
15-Nov-2009: Work on Minify action for Kampot (La Paz, Bolivia)
16-Nov-2009: Work on File Browser and new Content Tool (La Paz, Bolivia)
17-Nov-2009: Work on Content tool and testing new features. Build 500 (La Paz, Bolivia)
18-Nov-2009: Work on Faq tool (La Paz, Bolivia)
19-Nov-2009: A day in La Paz (La Paz, Bolivia)
20-Nov-2009: Work on cleaning up and fixing database schema (La Paz, Bolivia)
21-Nov-2009: Work on Record label management module (La Paz, Bolivia)
22-Nov-2009: Work on adding JavaScript minifying to the build process (La Paz, Bolivia)
23-Nov-2009: Started work on the releases module (La Paz, Bolivia)
24-Nov-2009: More work on the releases module, over 1000 lines of JavaScript for one page. (La Paz, Bolivia)
25-Nov-2009: Work: finished work on releases, started testing (La Paz, Bolivia)
26-Nov-2009: Finished a whole bottle of rum with Jamie at the hostel. (La Paz, Bolivia)
27-Nov-2009: Work: more refeactoring and work on Radio Sessions (La Paz, Bolivia)
28-Nov-2009: Work: finished porting of Bands module (La Paz, Bolivia)
29-Nov-2009: Work: Introduces Lib.BizResult object and refactored lots of stuff to use it. (La Paz, Bolivia)
30-Nov-2009: Work: started on tasks, some style sheet work. (La Paz, Bolivia)
1-Dec-2009: Work: Testing and fixing some issues (La Paz, Bolivia)
2-Dec-2009: Work: Datatable transfer to classic asp, json date problems (La Paz, Bolivia)
3-Dec-2009: Work: remove last upload panels in shop and directory (La Paz, Bolivia)
4-Dec-2009: Work: testing and refactoring (La Paz, Bolivia)
5-Dec-2009: Long walk to the valley of the moon. (La Paz, Bolivia)
6-Dec-2009: Election day, very quiet of the streets, everythings closed (La Paz, Bolivia)
7-Dec-2009: At the tourist police, started shopping for bag and camera (La Paz, Bolivia)
8-Dec-2009: Bought a new camera and studied the manual. (La Paz, Bolivia)
10-Dec-2009: Worked on contact messages and finished of insurance papers (La Paz, Bolivia)
11-Dec-2009: Booked a flight to the amazon region (La Paz, Bolivia)
12-Dec-2009: Work: clean-up and back-ups (La Paz, Bolivia)
13-Dec-2009: Flight was canceled, stuck around in town (La Paz, Bolivia)
14-Dec-2009: Flight down 4000m into the Amazon basin (Rurrenabaque, Bolivia)
15-Dec-2009: Feeling a bit unwell from the local water (Rurrenabaque, Bolivia)
16-Dec-2009: Relaxing day in the hammock (Rurrenabaque, Bolivia)
17-Dec-2009: Looking for Anacondas in the Pampa (Amazonian Pampa, Bolivia)
18-Dec-2009: Watching alligators and other wildlife in the pampa (Amazonian Pampa, Bolivia)
19-Dec-2009: Swimming with pink dolphins (Rurrenabaque, Bolivia)
20-Dec-2009: Goodbye to Veronica and the Brits on a very hot day (Rurrenabaque, Bolivia)
21-Dec-2009: Waiting in the rain for the bus to leave (Rurrenabaque / Road, Bolivia)
22-Dec-2009: On the death road up into the Andes (On The Road, Bolivia)
22-Dec-2009: 17 hour bus ride back into the Andes (La Paz, Bolivia)
23-Dec-2009: Relaxing in sunny La Paz (La Paz, Bolivia)
24-Dec-2009: Trying to get into Christmas mood (La Paz, Bolivia)
25-Dec-2009: Christmas day (La Paz, Bolivia)
26-Dec-2009: Day trip to Chacaltaya, 5380 m, a new personal altitude record (La Paz, Bolivia)
27-Dec-2009: Day trip into the south of the city, canyons and mountains (La Paz, Bolivia)
28-Dec-2009: La Paz to Oruro (Oruro, Bolivia)
29-Dec-2009: Oruro to Potosi (Potosi, Bolivia)
30-Dec-2009: Checking out the cool town (Potosi, Bolivia)
31-Dec-2009: Bought a new MP3 player for 15 Euros (Potosi, Bolivia)
1-Jan-2010: Recovering from a great New Years Eve party (Potosi, Bolivia)
2-Jan-2010: Potosi to Sucre (Sucre, Bolivia)
3-Jan-2010: Exploring the old Bolivian capital (Sucre, Bolivia)
4-Jan-2010: Back to the great Koala Den hostel in Potosi (Potosi, Bolivia)
5-Jan-2010: Around town with Luke and a visit to the dentist. (Potosi, Bolivia)
6-Jan-2010: Trip into the mines, very tough for 2 hours, but locals work there for 40 years. (Potosi, Bolivia)
7-Jan-2010: Potosi to Uyuni (Uyuni, Bolivia)
8-Jan-2010: Trip in a jeep to the Salar de Uyuni salt flats (San Juan, Bolivia)
9-Jan-2010: San Juan to Laguna Colorado (Laguna Colorado, Bolivia)