Carnaval!

We arrived in La Paz finally! It was two pretty long and boring days across some pretty flat and windy desert to get here since ¨the worst cycling day ever¨ It felt great to arrive! It was a little bit of a culture shock when the monotonous boring desert road quickly converted to a four lane highway and we were greeted by a walmart and sam´s club on the outskirts of town. All in all, La Paz is a very happening city and it is quite abuzz with excitement right now being that it is Carnaval.

On our way here, we came to a realisation of just how desolate the desert is. There were two towns that were named after the kilometer marker where they were situated. So we camped in a smattering of buildings called ¨el cien¨ (one hundred). Economically, we were not quite sure how there seemed to be 3 identical shops selling the exact same things (water, cookies, junk food, soda, burritos, batteries, etc) and they all seemed to be doing pretty well. We got an early start to the morning and I fixed hopefully my last flat tire of the trip before heading out of town. I currently have 9 patches on both tubes!

Within an hour or so after arriving in La Paz searching for our typical slightly run down cheapo hotel arrangement, we ran into another american that is working on a sail boat down in Cabo but was up in La Paz for the party weekend. We split a super cheap room for rent only about two blocks from the beach and the party. We hit up the party last night soon after getting cleaned up. And a party it was! There is a street right along the beach about 2 kilometers long that was full of food vendors, carnival rides, games, stages, beer tents, and crammed with people. It was really really fun. Some highlights included the worst corndog that I have ever had, dancing with a group of full grown men wearing mexican wrestling masks, and Jeff using a bathroom labeled "M" for mujeres (women), not men much to the dismay of females in line outside upon exit.

Today we kindof walked around the older part of the city and generally hung out. It felt great to not have to get on a bike, I must say. We feel a little more normal also with some much needed clean clothes. We will see if people notice that we are wearing the same thing that we were last night and probably will be wearing the same tomorrow night too!

We may head back to the party again tonight and we plan to stick around tomorrow for an evening parade that sounds pretty rad. Monday, heading south in two days along the Pacific ocean side beach down to Los Cabos!

Hope everyone is enjoying the olympics and has a great valentines day!

PS...We finally found a computer that accepted Jeffs camera memory card, so some picts are up on facebook! I will put some on here as soon as I can. As far as my personal camera, it fell off of my bike while riding about 5 days into the trip. Jeff has fully taken on the role of photographer though, and with gusto.