Cheapest meal ever in La Paz

For our first dinner tonight in La Paz, Chris, Pascale and myself found a great local joint, that gave us soup, juice, and a plate of steak and rice, all for just Bs. 3.50 (about $AUD0.50)! Not bad tasting, either (and we didn't get sick from it, as a further bonus). As Chris said: "I think that this is the cheapest meal I've had. Ever. In my whole life." I can probably say the same for myself. Apart from the weird payment system, it was one hell of a cheap and awesome dinner.

The weird payment system at this restaurant involved paying for your meal first, at a little booth at the front, and then receiving various-coloured tokens for your meal. The waiter then simply came round and took the tokens, and returned promptly with the meals. It wasn't really that weird: it's just that it took us a while to work it out when they tried explaining it to us; and it did seem rather unorthodox, because it looked like a proper sit-down restaurant. Anyway, turned out to be pretty good, because we didn't have to wait for the bill at the end. We could just walk out.

It actually took us a while to find anywhere at all decent to eat, around the place where we were staying tonight (Hostal Tambo de Oro, an overpriced place away from everywhere you'd want to be in La Paz — blame Pascale the French girl, it was her idea). Most of the restaurants in the area just looked downright dodgy — hole-in-the-wall places, with a menu scribbled on the front door in chalk, and with one old guy sitting watching a football game on a tiny TV, and eating something that looked most unappetising. And as for all the other "restaurants" that we looked at: when we went in and had a look at them, it turned out that they were actually more pubs than restaurants, since everyone inside them was just drinking beer! One place actually only served one dish (as well as only one drink — Paceña beer). And it said "restaurant" outside. Um, yeah: I don't think so, guys.