Bolivia: 39 hours total. That's enough time to see one country, right?

Bummer, man. I really wish I had had more time in Bolivia.

I guess this is what happens when you're traveling around alone. You meet people at one place, you stay longer than you intended, and then your whole schedule is off. It's generally not a big deal unless, like me, you've already purchased 70% of the flights that you'll need along the way and you're locked in...

I already had moved my departure date from La Paz to Santiago once last week, moving it from Monday to Wednesday. That cost me $50, which in the grand scheme isn't HUGE, but it's money I may want in 7 months when I'm down to pennies. I almost moved it again, from Wednesday to Friday, but at the end of the day, I realized I was just throwing money down the drain and had to suck it up and stick with the Wednesday flight.

So what happened during my less than 2 days in Bolivia? A lot of partying.

The hostel I stayed at in La Paz was incredible. It is a converted old hotel with a converted ballroom serving as the bar (that has a stage, pool table, and tons of tables.) There is also a movie room with big screen tv and couches, a computer room with 9 computer stations, an oxygen room, a video game area, and a large "quiet room" with bean bag chairs. Who needs to leave? I kind of didn't...

Well, I did. Once. The one afternoon that I had there, I convinced 2 of my new friends to come out to the Witches Market with me. Unlike most markets I have been to so far on my travels, this one had some more, um, unique things on sale such as dried baby llama fetuses (photo to the left), mason jars of some animal urine, and drying pieces of peyote cactus. Good times.
That outing was sandwiched between two nights of partying until 4am. The bar at the hostel is too awesome to not hang out at! And that of course leads to going out once that bar closes at 1:00am. It sounded like a good idea to stay out that last night but waking up the next morning was beyond terrible. With my eye makeup form the night before halfway down my face, I packed up my stuff and got a cab to the airport. Goodbye Bolivia, hello Chile!