Megacentre & British Indian

We woke up early as there is no curtain at the window so the light fell straight on us as well as the fact that other people in the dorm were moving about getting dressed etc. By 9.30 we were eating breakfast which is included in the price of our room but consisted solely of tea, coffee, bread and jam...of course we made sure we had plenty to get our moneys worth! After doing a few bits on the internet we got some info from the front desk and headed out into the rain to get some laundry done and for a bit of an adventure...we had been advised that we could buy an Ipod from a shop in the MegaCentre in the south part of the city which is about 45mins away by taxi and were going to try and find it. We started off looking for 'trophy' taxis which are collectivos but the only ones we saw were already full of passengers :( Next we saw that some of the minibus collectivos headed that way so jumped on one and spent the next hour hoping we were going in the right direction and wondering where to get off (collectivos pick up and drop off anywhere along their route, no official stops!) when luckily I spied the megacentre out of the window and shouted to be let off which is the done thing. We made our way into this large shopping mall and were instantly surprised at how few people there were, although after walking round the 3 floors and finding that actually there was b***** all there, its not that shocking! The second floor is mostly taken up with fast food restaurants and a cinema, the top and ground floors have a few shops, the odd cafe and not much else to our great annoyance as we'd come all this way, even if the ride did only cost us $0.60. After huffing and puffing for a bit we decided not to waste the time and to go to the cinema while we were here instead, we had looked at prices earlier and seen that it was only $3 each and so after a quick coffee we went to see what was on. It turns out luckily that there were a number of films with subtitles meaning that they hadnt been dubbed over and we could happily watch them in English, we opted for the next one starting as didnt want to be here all day which turned out to be The day of the Apocolypse - The Crazies. The other thing we found was that we were only charged $3 in total for both of us which made us very happy, maybe they have 2 for 1 wednesdays or something, anyway we hung around until it was time to go in and got a seat in the deserted screen right in the middle at the back. The seats were much nicer than the standard ones you get back home, more like the premier ones really. A few more people came in before the film started and we enjoyed a typical 'jump in your seat' horror before trying to find our way back to the centro area of town. After waiting for ages looking for a collectivo with names of places we recognised we eventually enlisted the help of some police who were watching the traffic and they put us on the right one. The journey back was more pleasant for the simple reason the sun had come out and we could admire La Paz through the windows, the soaring cliff faces with houses clinging to them, the odd rock formations, the winding, colourful streets, it was all part of the adventure! Once back to a part of town we knew, we got off and began a hunt for a street the girl at the reception had mentioned as a possibility for Ipods, though not holding out much hope as we walked through a street selling solely potatoes and eggs! We were wrong to doubt however as at the top of another street we turned the corner to see 40 or more technology shops lining both sides of the narrow street with names like Samsung and Sony on big signs outside. We spent the next hour or so asking in every little store of which there were many more than we 1st thought, for prices of Ipods to come away resolving to speak to Matt back home about costs before buying one. Leaving the street with food for thought we decided it wa time for food for our bellies and found our way to a British run, Indian Restaurant called The Star of India that was recommended in the guide book. On the way there and the whole time we'd been walking around we noticed that the streets are generally particular to only one or two things...for example...one street we named sport street as it was full of sports shops, another tour street as thats where all the tour operators are...so far we've found..hardware street, fruit n veg street, wedding street, bike street, llama foetus street, potato and egg street, fabric street, traditional clothes street, cake street, bathroom street and many more!! Anyway we went into the restaurant not a moment too soon as within the next 10 minutes it filled up completely with other tourists, I think there was only 1 table of Bolivians! We guess they are probably like us and have been away from home for ages and dying for a curry..its been 6 months since we last had one!!! It was a big splurge budget wise but so worth it as the food was really delicious and afterwards we took our time wandering back through the streets looking at various stalls until we made it back to the hostel to write a couple more blogs before going to bed.