Food Coma

What a wonderful bus ride! Soft, cushy seats that fully reclined. I know there's a picture of my demonstrating the comfiness, but I seem to have misplaced it. Damn. The baggage check was quite odd, though. We had to go upstairs to the bus office to drops our bags, which were then lowered to the bus with a harness-like thing. Kind of inefficient, no?! But then again, Bolivia is probably not know for its efficiencies.

As soon as the bus started moving, Nicole and I chowed down on our cured ham & cheese baguettes. Yummy! That's all I remember. I must've passed out immediately afterwards, because we were already in La Paz when I regained consciousness.

Our few days in La Paz revolved around food. It's good. It's cheap. So here's the rundown of our "main" meals:

- Buffet late lunch at the Plaza Hotel. For about $8, you can have an all-you-can eat buffet at this 5-star hotel. Good variety. Well-known among the Japanese backpackers as a place to splurge once in a while. I was hooked on the ceviche and grilled meat. We munched and munched for a couple of hours. Forget dinner.

- Japanese food #1. Nicole felt like sushi. I wanted plain, white rice. The Japanese restaurant close to our hostel was closed for the day, so we headed into the more upscale business district for Wagamama. Seeking comfort food, I got the chicken kara-age set. I know. Boooorrrriiiiiiinng! Nicole, however, went for the trucha sushi. I think it's some sort of trout-like fish. Pink meat, so could be rainbow trout.

- The famous apple strudel at Kuchenstube. Very un-Bolivian, but it just sounded too good to pass!

- Japanese #2 at the ultimate Japanese hangout in La Paz - Ken-chan. Located inside the Japanese Association building, they have great Japanese food and comic books! Nicole let me read an episode of Golgo 13 while I ate every single bite of my 50BOB grilled fish (yes, tried the trucha) meal : ) Incidentally, today happened to be Nicole's birthday, so I got a little cake to mark the day:

And you won't believe this, but I ran into a familiar face. This guy looked sooooo familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where I met him. He must've felt the same way, because he came up to me before leaving and said that we met somewhere. A short exchange of conversation led us to Turkey. The cave room hostel in Goreme. That was how many months ago?!?!?!

- Official b-day cake for Nicole. We went to this huge, cheesy place (Brosso) to celebrate with some cheesecake. Sort of reminded me of Chucky Cheese in the US, but this one had more focus on dessert. AFTER we finished our cheesecakes, they brought out a special cake for Nicole. Cuuuuuuute:

- Take out pizza and Bolivian beer for a quiet night in. I didn't like the pizza very much. A bit too soggy...

- Curry at the hip Blueberry Cafe. The atmosphere in there was wonderful (think hanging vines), we had to give it a shot. And of course, the blueberry yoghurt dessert was delicious.

- A cup of coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice here and there. Being the capital of Bolivia, La Paz was lined with pretty nice cafes - a pleasant surprise for me. I must've gone into one at least twice a day to re-energize myself after walking up and down the hills in thin air.

Fine. So this entry isn't the most interesting. Nothing Bolivian about it…sorry. I'll try to post something more travel-related next time around. In the meantime, hope you enjoy the exciting view from the second hostel window!