Apr 14 rest day and travel planning

Yesterday when I reached La Paz famished, the guy in the mountain gear shop recommended a restaurant for quick eats.  It resembled little Jerusalem.  There is a lot of hebrew writing in my neighborhood, but I have successfully avoided contact with Israelis by a difference in travel preferences (restaurants, activities, etc.)  I was about to walk out of the restaurant, when an Israeli approached me who remembered me from Cerro Castillo (2.5 months ago).  I  had tried to help him with directions.  Actually, I gave him very specific directions to a trailhead, but he confessed that he could not find it.  Hmmm.  In any case, he told me that passover was on Monday and that there are 3 seders within a 2 block radius of my hostal including the omnipresent Chabad.  I may just have to stick around to experience a seder in La Paz.  Yes, mom, I know that this makes you happy.

The travel company I used for my Choro trek offered me a climb of Huayna Potosi (6083 m) for $90 USD.  The owner seems to like me and she knows that I am experienced and therefore am a low maintenance client.  I will be going up with a Norwegian team who I will meet in high camp on Friday.  I will go for the summit then return to La Paz on Saturday.With the climb plan in place, I wanted to have a mellow day.  My agenda consisted of going to the supermercado to buy food for my trip (2 miles away in Sopocachi), eating lunch in my fav Thai restaurant, Maphrao On (also in Sopocachi), setting up a tour for Uyuni (Topiza Travel in Miraflores barrio), and getting a ticket for passover seder.

I walked down the main drag in the center of town towards Sopocachi.  The street was closed to traffic and there were lots of demonstrations.  I asked a passerby about what was going on.  Evidently the teachers are on strike for a 15% pay raise.  It was a good day to be out walking since there was no traffic as one of the hardest things to do in La Paz is to cross the street.  Like in Peru, all traffic signs are optional and people claim right of way by honking their horn.  The demonstrations and marches were a little unsettling because the Bolivianos show their passion by setting off a lot of firecrackers.  It was a little confusing for me, but the gentleman sitting next to me in the Thai restaurant said it was harmless and remarked that it was a good day to be out walking.  I also walked by a colorful little celebration of Quinoa.

I walked by the Quinoa fair today

When I sat down to lunch it was sunny, but when I went to walk to Miraflores it began to rain and the winds picked up.  I ran.  I made it to the travel agency to find that they were closed.  I waited for them to reopen and waited out the weather in an internet cafe (see previous post).  They never did reopen, so I went food shopping and had a mini siesta.

Illimani peaks out for a few brief moments before the rains came

I had a 6:00 briefing for my climb tomorrow and then went to a Morrocan restaurant which proved to be too spicy for me.  

On my walk back to the hostel, I asked some Israeli guys about seder and they gave me directions to Chabad.  I went to buy my ticket (180Bs or $26 USD) because I was leaving to go climbing in the morning and didn´t want to pay a late registration fee.  I got on line with my laminated photocopy of my passport and I was the only non-Hebrew speaker and the only American. ¡The horrror! When I tried to pay, the guy looked at me gravely then called someone else over who tried speaking to me in Hebrew.  He called a third guy over who pulled me aside.  For security purposes, I had to demonstrate that I was Jewish. What do you want to know, I asked¿ (cant find the right side up question mark on this keyboard).  He told me to say something in Hebrew and about passover.  Laila Tov (good evening) I said.  What else¿  He didnt speak very good English, but it was better than my Hebrew.  I told him I was bat mitzvah-ed.  Then I started to recite the order for the seder hoping it would help ¨kadesh, urhatz, yachatz, karpas, magid, ... but then I realized that I didn´t really remember the order.  Oops.  After 20 minutes they decided I checked out ok.   Someone warned me to eat in advance.  Davening starts at 6pm and seder starts at 7:00.  I was told that we would cover the whole haggadah.  So I have now signed up for something that should prove to be quite the experience- seder with Chabad of La Paz and more than 600 guests. 

After all that excitement, I´m now back at the hostel.  Seeing that the one computer was open, I decided to finish updating today´s post.  Now I need to finish packing for Huayna Potosi and Glee is on at 10:00 (love that cable tv!).