I keep seeing these things being recommended as they are real food, wrapped in a leaf, help old ladies across the road and don’t kick puppies.
Anyone tried them? They look expensive AF!
There’s only one Colombian energy product including a leaf that someone should be paying that price for 
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Have you tasted Colombian tea? It’s bloody awful! 
My sister brought some mate de coca back from Peru. I did ask what the hell she was thinking doing. She had been in the Andes and bought it for helping with the altitude.
I got stopped at Edinburgh airport on return from a trip to Bolivia and Peru and asked if I’d bought any Coca tea. We had lots of it in the office so I was surprised and said no, but why is it illegal? Sure is she said. I was let go without a search surprisingly.
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have you tried mata?? jeezus - it’s rank.
have you tried everyday Colombian coffee? that’s not good either as they keep the best beans for export as it makes more money for the country that way
Yeah, I lived there for 11mths. Colombian coffee isn’t all that for the very reason you say and had better coffee in Argentina.
Maté is disgusting for sure, right up there with chicha 
Argie coffee is pretty good - especially when served by a dark haired, slim hipped Portena!
don’t think I’ve had chicha though. the other one I tried (in Peru) was chewing coca leaves - fuck me, that’s gross as well.
Yeah i did that once, it wasn’t great and I think it was a set up from my ‘friends’ 
I felt really bad after trying it.
You should try chicha morada, mmm . Not a corn beer but a purple corn soft drink.
Chewing coca leaves or even drinking mate de coca isn’t really done for pleasure though. For tourists it’s generally for helping to deal with altitude and for natives to work more, eat les (AFAIK).
frankly, I’d stick to Diamox rather than mate or coca leaves!!
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I lived in Bogota and was warned about the altitude sickness but the diesel fumes were are a bigger problem than the altitude but I didn’t go high into the mountains. (we were very travel restricted due to political ‘unpleasantness’)
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when we did the bike trip in Colombia in 2011 we started in Bogota and the day after landing we all went out on a group ride outside the city to get the legs turning over (it was also a Sunday so had the benefit of some closed roads - great idea!). I suddenly realised why I felt so shagged out - we were at over 2600m so the altitude effects kicked in. I think we climbed to over 3000m during the 1st week of riding with some loooooong ups and downs with stinking trucks chugging diesel fumes out on the climbs as they slowly crept past - but at least we managed to overtake the buggers on the downs.
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Wow, they still do the closed roads on Sundays? That was an amazing idea. When I first arrived I lived right down on carerra 24 which was a bit skanky but quickly moved to 96 in the Zona Rosa.
That massive 8 lane road is called Avenida Septima and when I was finding my way around I thought ‘if I follow the traffic, I’ll be heading the right way’.
I kept getting lost and it was about 3 days before I realised they change the direction of traffic morning and evening! 
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I flew from Santa Cruz into La Paz on business. Immediately felt ill on landing but toughed it out and took a taxi to YPFB’s offices (then they were Bolivia’s oil and gas agency). Walked into their big marble lobby, spoke to receptionist, walked towards the lifts and then spewed my life out all over the floor. I mean hands and knees Exorcist style all over the floor. I was mortified but certainly felt better for it. They seemed non too bothered and took me to a wee meeting room and a doctor appeared to do a check up. They kept one on standby in the building for this sort of thing. Apparently it’s not uncommon for people to step off the plane at 4000m and then collapse. Turns out I had a stomach bug that I was able to cope with at low altitude but exploded at altitude. To cut it short, I skipped the meeting (I was with a colleague), slept it off in the hotel and flew out the next day thankfully. I’ve never been back to La Paz.
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afaik - they still do so.
Bolivia often get at least a draw when playing football at home.
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