Bolivia

La Paz
We spent a couple of days in the capital of Bolivia, which is about 3600 meters over the ocean. To us it actually looks very similar to Peru. We stayed in a nice hostal close to the “Gringo” area. This means that we have been able to get good coffee! It is amazing how obsessed I have become over coffee. If I have a bad one it can really put me in a bad mood. If we ask for coffee with milk we have often been given a cup of luke warm milk and some coffee on the side to add to it. I don’t know about you guys but I do have a limit to how much milk I want in my coffee! Well, like I said, we don’t have that problem in Bolivia.



One of the greatest things about Bolivia is all the women who are dressed in HUGE colourful, glittering skirts and hats. All of them have long hair. Some of them have gold teeth, and most of them look like they have hip problems when they walk. I wish I knew more about their clothing, because I am sure that it has a lot of identity connected to it.

The receptionist at our hostel told us a very interesting story. We have seen many tiny, dried lama babies being sold in stalls around town. She told us that people bury them on construction sites because this is supposed to bring good luck to the buildings. Well, she then told us that some corporations do the same with drunk, homeless people!! There are houses in Bolivia where people have been buried alive underneath. That was a horrible, horrible fact. I doubt that it still happens. Can it?




We went to a coca museum in La Paz. I can now drink coca leaf tea without feeling like a drug abuser! Hurrah! The tea tastes like green tea, and it does not really have any effect on you, however, it can help prevent altitude sickness. The people in Bolivia and Peru chew the leaf. It has a mild euphoric effect on them, and it keeps them from feeling hunger. Apparently coca leaves are really nutritious and full of protein. Back in the days miners in Bolivia used them so they could work for hours without feeling pain or hunger. The big problem with the coca leaves is off course cocaine. They have to add some other ingredients to it to make cocaine. Did you know that the US consumes 50 % of the worlds cocaine? A lot of it is probably made from coca leaves from Bolivia although it is illegal. It is not nice. Stop using drugs people please! Whenever you do you are supporting terrible working conditions, smugglers who risk their lives and gang members who fight to get control over the goods. That was a very spontaneous moral lecture from me. Have a cup of green tea instead

Uyuni



After la Paz we took a bus down to Uyuni. The bus ride was cold and very bumpy! We could not believe how much the bus was vibrating. It made it impossible to sleep for most of the journey. We were disappointed when we arrived in Uyuni. It looks like a ghost town in the middle of nowhere. Luckily our hotel was good, and they served the most amazing pizza in Minute Man Pizza which was the restaurant of our hotel! The most disappointing aspect of Uyuni though was that there were hardly any buses going out of there! Not when we needed them to anyway. We therefore bought tickets back to La Paz. We did not want to go back up there, but we didn’t feel like we had any other choice.



The night before we went on our salt flat tour Matt and I went out for pizza. I wasn’t very hungry so I only ate half my pizza. Both of us thought it was a little bit strange, but we didn’t really react to that. But HELLO! If I am not hungry for dinner something is wrong! That night I spent more time hugging the toilet than hugging the bed. Or at least my butt did. I was not very happy about going on the salt flat tour the next day. However, I took lots of Imodium-type drugs and I hoped that I would be fine. The Imodium didn’t work very well. I was stuck on this jeep for hours! It was a pretty tour though. On the tour we met a guy who was going to San Pedro on a 4wheel drive the same evening as we were going back to La Paz. Our driver called that company and they had tickets for us! That meant that we could get to Chile, and it would only take us 8 hours. Going back to La Paz would have lost us so much time and money.



When the tour was over Matt went to see the agency, while I rushed back to the hotel for a toilet break. When I came out of the toilet Matt was out of breath “We’re leaving in 10 minutes”. Talk about quick turnaround! So a few minutes after that we were in a jeep on our way to Chile. We did not get a refund for the other bus tickets. It was horrible for me on the ride. I took more Imodium than I should have, but nothing worked again! Now we are in Chile. We got ourselves a nice room in San Pedro with a private bathroom. I have been sleeping all day. So now I look forward to meet the world as a normal person without gut problems soon.

Matt&Betta