Sunday, September 9, 2007

Flight Home

Day 17-18: September 7-8, 2007.

La Paz and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and Miami and New York, USA.


I didn't bother getting up early since there seemed to be little point. All I needed to do was pack up my stuff and get to the airport around 2PM. It didn't take long to get all my stuff organized, but shutting the zipper on my backpack was another story. It's soooo much easier to close an overstuffed bag with two people; one to hold it shut and the other to zip. Finally I managed it by pushing the bag up against a wall with my knee and using both hands to zip. A few things still wouldn't fit so I tossed them in a plastic grocery bag. It'll work as a carry on.


Had breakfast at the hotel again. This time another group was there, they seemed to be mostly from New Zealand. Throughout the trip I ran into very few Americans. Seems like we don't travel in the US anywhere near as much as the folks across the pond or down under.


I took a last walk around the town and used an internet cafe before my taxi arrived at 1:30. A bit of a harrowing ride; Bolivian drivers are fairly crazy. MAde it to the airport around 2PM thinking my flight was sometime between 4-4:30. Turns out I read the itinerary wrong and my flight wasn't until 8:20PM. Oops. Camped out in the airport and started reading the autobiography of Clarence Darrow. After shlepping it all over the world at least now I had the time to read it. Pretty beaten up book after all the travelling and a lot of the pages were falling out. No big deal though.


The flight was a little delayed even for 8:20 so I went for a spin through the duty free shop. Picked up some Frangelico and a bottle of the Merlot I'd had for dinner the night before. Good prices, but in retrospect I never paid tax on anything I bought in any of the markets in Peru or Bolivia anyway. I wonder if there is even sales tax.

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