Crisp twenties only, por favor

Getting the 411 with the most interesting guide in the world.

After 13 hours of travel, amazing airplane food, and the best night of sleep I’ve ever had in the middle seat, we made it to La Paz. And we confirmed, in fact, that Robert Rauch is the most interesting guide in the world.

But before that, we met our world famous magazine writer, Pete, in the Miami airport. As the only one without a Bolivian visa (the visa printer in the Bolivian embassy in Los Angeles wasn’t working), we didn’t know if he’d even be allowed in the country.

Met up with crazy #3 in the Miami airport

Standing in line for 20 minutes, he was able to exchange eight crisp twenties for entry into he country. No document check, no questions, just hard crisp currency.

When I exchanged some U.S. dollars for Bolivianos at a 6.85 exchange rate, a few of my twenties were rejected for not being crisp enough. I think they’re very worried about counterfeiting here.

Robert was kind enough to pick us up at the airport at 5am with this sign.

We were greeted at the airport at 5am by our guide, Robert, and then there were four. Following a 70 Boliviano taxi ride up and down a very hilly La Paz, we made it to our AirBnB on the 16th floor in a building with undetermined structural integrity (AirBnB host: don’t stand too close to the floor-to-ceiling windows).

The view from our AirBnB living room.

We sat around drinking coffee and trying out some coca leaves and listening to Robert tell us about La Paz, Mount Illimani, and the characters he’s met while living here for 13 years.

Getting final gear from Christian the German gear guy.

Ice axes, two each please.

Then we ventured to see Christian, owner of a hiking gear rental shop, where we picked up ice…