Much of today was spent simply wandering the markets of La Paz looking for Christmas presents. We were all doing a secret Santa gift and also buying a joke gift to be distributed on Christmas day. We had a budget of $10 US for the secret Santa gift and $5 US for the joke. I ended up buying what I thought was a tacky coaster set, all bright colours and bad leather, and a carved toucan pen for the joke. I had drawn Lucy for the other present and eventually found a nice solid silver pendant that I thought she might like.
We spent quite a bit of time in alcohol alley, a road lined on both sides with liquor stores, looking for a present for Rhys, the person Keryn had drawn out. We managed to find the last two bottles of Cacique rum in La Paz and also bought another nice bottle of rum. The Cacique was for us and Billy, the driver we would have when we swapped trucks in Santiago, the other rum for Rhys.
Much of the rest of my time was spent typing, though I did take time out to buy some DVD’s for us to watch in quieter evenings. In the evening we were given some money by Vanessa to buy some Christmas decorations for Tranquilo and the girls had a good time wandering the Christmas market and picking out tinsel, a tree and other little bits and pieces. We had a cheap and cheerful dinner at a fast food chicken restaurant and then went back to the hotel to pack everything up once more, an early start coming for the departure from La Paz in the morning.
