La Paz, Bolivia - Food

The Usual Routine
The day we arrived we went straight to the central market, which in La Paz is a sprawling maze of buildings and street stalls perched on a steep hill.  We walked the market looking for a food stand or makeshift restaurant but didn't find any.  Dodo stopped at a street vendor and ordered something unknown.  It turned out to be a deep-fried potato that had been stuffed with onions and veggies.

While on our teleferico journey we stopped off at a famous stall which sells Tucumanas.  They are deep-fried pastries filled with meat and potatoes.

The stall was named "Sofi's Tucumanas" and Soft was there in person making them.

They are very similar to Singaporean curry puffs, minus the curry powder.  Same kind of flaky crust and meat stew.

In a different part of the city we tried a similar type of breakfast food - called Saltenas.  Rather than being deep-fried, these are baked and have a seam which runs along the top.  Similar kind of filling but these are a lot juicier.

In the touristy side of town we had lunch at a bright, contemporary cafe.  We ran into a few people from our bus ride, the one where we inconvenienced everyone for two hours.  I winced out of embarrassment when I saw them but they smiled, came over, shook our hands, said hello.  People here are so much friendlier....

Since a lot of coffee is grown in South America, you'd think there'd be a strong coffee culture.  On the contrary, they export the good stuff and drink instant.  When we found this cafe in the corner of a bookstore I ordered the good stuff, my first decent coffee in weeks.

I savored it, knowing it would probably be the last for a while.

My favorite food by far was the bread, freshly baked and sold on the street for pennies a loaf.  It's got a substantial crust and is as good as any bread I've had in Paris.