Tuesday, March 8th - Sucre to La Paz, Bolivia

Well, this was certainly an exciting day.  Not!

Today we were leaving Sucre and flying to La Paz.  We had breakfast at the hotel and checked out about 8:30 and headed for the airport.  We all got checked in, cleared security and went to the boarding gate.  We waited and waited and finally our tour guide found out that the flight had been cancelled for technical reasons.  She then went to work trying to get us on another flight to La Paz.

Once we had our new flights all confirmed everything seemed settled.  We would have to fly from Sucre to Cochabamba and then to La Paz but at least we would get there.  This was more important to some of us than to others as this was the last planned day of our tour and some people were flying out very early in the morning.  But everyone was rebooked on the new flights so all was well.  And the whole group is pretty well mannered and not easily ruffled (frequent flyers obviously) so no one was too perturbed by the delay and extra flight.

We waited a bit longer than expected but eventually our flight to Cochabamba was called and away we went.  The flight was very short and soon we were there.  We had to claim our luggage and go out and check in again for our next flight but that was okay.  It was actually good because it gave us a chance to get some fresh air and it also gave us the opportunity to see in the distance the large statue of Christ that dominates the city.  This statue is even taller than the one in Rio de Janeiro which is so famous so it was good to see it.  However, it was so far in the distance that if our guide hadn't told us what it was we might not have recognized it, and most of us didn't have cameras that would actually make it look like anything other than a fuzzy blob.

Once checked in we went through security again and to the gate to board our plane.  Once again we sat and sat and then suddenly everyone else in the room seemed to get up and get in line and everyone got quite loud and unruly.  Security came a couple of times and tried to calm down a few very loud people.  Since we didn't know what anyone was saying we didn't really know what was going on so our guide had to go up and try and sort things out again.  It seems that another plane had been cancelled and some of the people in the room had been waiting a long time and they decided they should be the ones to fly out on the currently available plane even if it was ours and not theirs.  They didn't seem to care how many of us had been waiting all day and been rescheduled.  Eventually the airline made the decision to let everyone else go first and hold us back for yet another flight.  I can't imagine that ever happening in Canada but, as I mentioned before, most of us really weren't in a hurry so we really didn't care.

Eventually we did get on a flight and arrived in La Paz about 6 p.m.   We were originally to arrive around noon so it was a rather wasted day.  Because we were so late, some people did not get to do the last bit of touring in La Paz that they were hoping for and others did not get a separate tour booked to do something the next day.  However, those who had to catch international flights were there in time so that was the main thing.

The whole group gathered a bit later to go off for our final dinner.  The restaurant was quite a ways away.  It was an Italian restaurant and we had the front section to ourselves.  The meal was excellent and it was a great way to end the trip.  It was only an eleven day tour with day one just being arrival and day eleven being departure. But the the nine days in between were fantastic.  The time went very quickly and yet it was full of a lot of great memories, people and pictures.  Bolivia is definitely a beautiful and diverse country.  We only saw part of it but it was an amazing part.

Once back at the hotel we said our final goodbyes to some of the people who were flying out that night or early the next morning.  Then we went to bed and for the first time in a long time didn't have to set an alarm.  It might have been a bit sad knowing the tour was over but it was a wonderful feeling knowing we could sleep in.