Day 120 Dec 1 2014 On a plane from La Paz Boliva

landscape on the way to the zoo

I think Evy should have been the monkey

La Paz Zoo

Reptile building in background

Day 120 Dec 1 2014  On a plane from La Paz Boliva

I have been feeling the effects of altitude sickness for the last few days and have had frequent headaches and periods of breathlessness.  I did not feel as bad in Puno as I do in La Paz, the altitudes are very similar so I am attributing the difference to the smog in the city.  The driving skills of the Bolivians leave much to be desired.  You know it is bad when a taxi driver complains to you about the driving of himself (as he makes an illegal turn in front of an oncoming bus) and the other drives.  A stop sign seems to mean honk your horn and drive on.  Were there would be 2 lanes in Canada there are 4 lanes of traffic cramming in.  The one taxi driver honked at a person pushing a disabled person up a hill in a wheelchair to get out of the way faster and almost hit them when he turned the corner behind them.  We were in one fender bender on one of our taxi rides and seat belts do not seem to exist in taxis.  I would say that the driving habits of the Bolivians in La Paz is probably the worst of all the other South American countries that we have been in.    We went to the zoo, I was expecting a sad zoo but was surprised to find the animals looked good and were housed in fairly large enclosures with a decent selection of exhibits.  When we got to the zoo the temperature was fairly warm and we were quite comfortable with some light jackets.  By the time we left the temperature had plummeted and we were getting cold.  We had all four season of the year in one day.  It started out hot and sunny , then rained for a while with a bit of hail and by the end of the day we were driving though fallen snow on the sides of the road to get to the airport.  After the zoo we went back to the mall to eat and let the kids go in the floating squirrel cage. We went to the hotel for an hour of down time before starting our nightly flights