I've spent this trip loving places that other people have hated. I was expecting to fall in love with La Paz instantly - it is, after all, a big dirty city. But when I arrived, I wasn't enchanted. The first thing I saw (and smelled) was an open sewer running through El Alto, a suburb where country people struggling to make ends meet live in squalor. Liz and I made it through the bus station without getting our bags snatched, which is apparently an accomplishment, and arrived at our hotel early in the morning. The day's wanderings revealed a rather ordinary (by Bolivian standards) city. Almost all of La Paz is a marketplace. Even the stores are organized like a market. We walked down a street of toilet stores (really! a whole street with sidewalks lined with toilets!), a street of lightbulb stores, and a street of hairstylists before we found our Israeli felafel place. I'd been craving felafel for over a month, so it was great to find some.

    My most vivid memories of La Paz involve a blackout and Harry Potter. The blackout happened the day before I left. The whole city was without power. I tripped down a flight of 3 stairs in the internet cafe, so the owner escorted me out as if I were an old woman. How embarassing! Outside was chaos. Since there was no electricity, everyone got off work all at once. Did I mention I was in the downtown financial district? The streets were choked with pedestrians and cars. No electricty means no traffic lights, so police officers stood on the sidewalks frantically trying to subdue traffic with their whistles. Vendors appeared on the streets selling glow-in-the-dark necklaces, but no flashlights. What should have been a 15-minute walk home turned into an hour-long uphill slog. Without streetlights, I couldn't figure out where to turn and took the most indirect route possible. I got "home" just as the power came back on.

    During the blackout, by the dim light of a vendor's glow-in-the-dark necklace, I spotted something I've been longing for since June 19: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't care that it was in Spanish - I bought it and knew I'd figure out a way to read it. The good news is that even though it was in Spanish, it was very easy to read. I tore through it gleefully, amazed at how just a month of traveling had improved my Spanish. The bad news is, it was completely fake. Someone actually went to the trouble of writing an entire fake book, in Spanish! So, I guess it's back to waiting for me. Rumor has it that the real Harry is now available in Chile, so two more weeks to go!

~Meredith