For new year's eve, we were hesitating between a trip to Cuzco in Peru or to Copacabana at the shore of the lake Titicaca...we finally decided to go to Copacabana since it was only a 12h bus trip while the trip to Cuzco would have taken more than 20h. So we went buying the bus tickets on Tuesday 28th...8 hours to La Paz in a (hopefully) comfortable night bus and another 4 hours from La Paz to Copacabana.
Unfortunately president Evo Morales had announced the abrupt stop of the subsidies for gasoline on Christmas, resulting in an almost 100% increase of the gasoline prices. He was probably hoping that the people, being in calm and peaceful christmas mood, would not mind a lot. His plan seemed to work the first days after Christmas, on Wednesday 29th, however, the atmosphere on the streets changed and people started rioting and fighting with the police. Moreover the busdrivers all over the country went on strike, which meant that we had to bury our plans for new year's eve...
Instead of Copacabana, we finally went to "El Poncho", an eco restaurant, serving only organic food, situated in the hills outside Cochabamba with a wonderful view on the city...we really had a lot of fun, with bolivian music and dances all the night, and a shaman praying to Pachamama, the Mother Earth, and giving us good spirits for the new year.
At 6 a.m. they finally served Fricase as breakfast, a speciality from La Paz. It is a very spicy pork stew served with corn and Chuños - small, black, dehydrated potatoes. As I've been told, Fricase is a very popular hangover cure in Bolivia, often eaten early in the morning after a party. Afterwards the restaurant shuttle brought us back to the city from where we took a taxi home. As soon as we entered the taxi, the driver turned around telling us with a big smile on his face: "Hey folks, have you already heard heard? The Gasolinazo is over. The government will continue subsidizing gasoline and the prices will stay as low as they used to be..."
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