Buenos Fucking Aires

Ok, so my outrageously overpriced bus ride was quite nice. i had seats that recline almost 180 degrees and the movies were in english and dinner was a slice of cold meet in a pretty good sauce with bread as a first course, followed by hot chicken breast and mashed potatoes, and i had red wine to drink, all gratis. then at around 11 they came around with whisky, champagne or tia maria for a nightcap, gratis. so it was a pleasant change from the bumpy bolivian buses (nice alliteration there) where your lucky if the person sitting next to you doesnt have a live chicken in a plastic bag pecking at the sleeves of your shrit. i got to my hostel in BA with no problems and that night was hanging out with some of my new roomies. the next nights were tranquilo, and then christmas came round. well, i guess i should say christmas eve, because thats the night that they celebrate, not christmas day so much. my options were pay 40 US dollars to get into some fancy nightclub, or have some beers with some israelies at the hostel. i went with the latter, keeping in mind my financial situation. the next day, christmas day, EVERYTHING was closed. mcdonalds was closed, the mall was closed, the 24 hour phramacies were closed, it was crazy. i decided to head south to the atlantic coast the next day.

so i got to the small-ish town of Villa Gessell, which is really similar to any town on cape cod. its very strange. it even seemed to have the same kinds of grass and trees, it was wild. my two days here were very relaxed. unfortunatly surfing didnt end up happening, as there wasnt much surf. the waves just werent breaking. the first night i had a terrific seafood dinner, with every kind of shell fish you can imagine. and although it was good, it wasnt really up to the quality of what i would have back home. which is fine, since i have been down here, i have come to realize that i probably wont have food as good as what i could get when i worked at the country club until i am back on vashon, or at least in the US. that changed 2 nights ago. i sat down at a very expensive looking resturant, just cause they had artisanal beer (i had a dark wine beer that was very good) and looked over the menu. i was gonna leave but something caught my eye, "salmón del pacifico" in a lemon sauce. it wasnt much more that the seafood at the other resturants around, so i decided to get it. the whole dining expierence was delightful, except the uncomfortable chair i was sitting in. it was a massive salmon filet over a pile of mashed potatoes and cooked spinach on the side. lemon sauce was poured over it, and it even had a light almond crusting. unbelieveable. it was so good.

i got back to BA last night and it must have been 10:31, because they stop running the subway at 10:30 on sundays, and i saw the last train leave as i walked down onto the platform. so i got on bus that someone told me was going to the right neighborhood and got off after 5 people all were giving me advice on how to get to my hostel in fast castellano. after wandering around a few minutes i got in a cab and the cab driver didnt know where the hostel was, but that didnt stop him from asking police officers on the sidewalk and other taxi drivers while we were stopped at traffic lights. finally i got out by an internet cafe, and within 2 minutes of being on a computer had the address. i took another cab there. keep in mind now that the day before i emailed them making sure there was room, they responded yes, and i confimed the response, saying i would be there around 11 pm sunday night. i got there just after 11 (not bad for the hassel it was to find the place, which is in an unmarked building, have you) and was told to wait while they check the room. the guy (who spoke english) came back and said they didnt have room. i said i emailed them, they said they would have a bed, yadda yadda yadda. he said since i didnt pay a deposit it wasnt a real reservation, and they gave my bed (the last one in the entire hostel) to someone who walked in just a few minutes ago. i withheld my anger, and asked if there would be room tomorrow. he said he need the computer to help someone else, wrote down the name of another hostel, and practically kicked me out the door. i was a bit upset, especially when the hostel he told me to go to informed they were also full, and told me of another hostel, which had room, thank goddness. anyway, i got the hostel buisness squared away today.

Well, thats all for now, im off to explore more of the city that i havent already seen. its massive, so this could take awhile.

Salta

So after walking just 2 blocks--during the course of which i stopped for a fabulous ice cream--i found another hostel. it had dorm beds and all the same emenities (although the computer is a bit slower) for 10 pesos less per night. its been very tranquilo. as i was walking towards the square Marie-Louise and Tom, the Irish couple i had befriended on the salt flats tour walked out of a bookshop. what a coincidence. i joined them for a couple beers and we decided to meet later for some more. i went home and had a delicious spinach and cheese ravioli in a homemade (by me) alfredo sauce. it totally hit the spot, after a lot of cheap local food and street hamburgers. and i had the rest the next day for lunch. i ventured out at 10:30 or so and promplty found the irish where we decided to meet. we had few drinks here, a few there, and before we knew it, it was 3 am and the bar was closing, so we ventured back to our respective hostels, after exchanging emails and facebooks. the days have kind of blurred together here, and not cause i have been constantly drunk. quite the opposite, im saving my party money for christmas in Buenos Aires. either way, what counts is i had to buy an outrageously overpriced bus ticket (although the trip is 20 hours) to BA, and that i talked to a friend who is living there and i may have a bed in a house for as long as i want, when i want. we´ll see. so im off tomorrow, not much else to say now, although stories should be coming soon. its bloody hot here too, almost too much so. i wouldnt mind 7 inches of snow right now...maybe...

¨Well, we are in Bolivia¨

Wow, so its been awhile, and i have a bit to cover. I think this will be a pretty good post, although dont get too excited to read it, just know that im excited to write it.

So after accomplishing nothing but relaxation and a wierd prison tour in the La Paz area for a week, it was time to move on. Our last night in La Paz was Natasha´s (one of the girls from london) birthday. Unfortunatly that day and the night before i had developed a bit of a belly bug, so much so i was forced to call home and seek advice. And here´s my piece of advice: never doubt the amazing ability of Cypro. it cured my problem in 3 days instead of 3 weeks. But before i was cured i came down with a bit of a fever as well, and with the help of my madre/doctor and the people i was with i became quite convinced that i very may well have malaria. everybody gave me malaria pamphlets and info about doxy, the drug you take for malaria. that night i decided that the next day i would go to a clinic. however, 10 hours of Vicodin induced sleep did me well, and instead i made the 20 minute walk across town to the brazilian embassy. the woman gave me a list of visa requirements and the forms to fill out. all i had to do was go back to the hostel, get a photo, my yellow fever paper, and a printout of my bank statements and $130. the only complication: the embassy was closing in one hour. so i hoped a bus back to the hostel, ran around finding everything and finishing the forms, and went back out looking for a bus. i got one going the right direction, but not to the exact street. after sitting in the aweful La Paz traffic for a few minutes, not moving at all, i jumped out and ran the last few blocks to the embassy. i got there at 12:42, three minutes before the closed, and the woman who worked there saw me come in. i dropped off my papers and ran across the street to an ATM, waited in a short line and ran back with the money. the doors were closed, but all my stuff, except passport and debit card, were inside. i pointed and mouthed to the guard that i had to get my papers, and he opened the door. i picked up my stuff and ask the woman if we could do it. she said they were closed. i looked at the clock, it was 12:47, two minutes late. i tried to explain what happened, and she said in very slow and rather loud spanish, ¨we close at 12:45.¨ so that was it, i walked out with everything i need for a visa but not able to turn it in. the next day was thursday, and they take 48 hours to go through, so if i did it then i would have to wait till monday. screw that. when i get to Buenos Aires, ill go to the brazilian embassy there. oh, the reason i even want this visa is that everybody i met in La Paz is going to Bahia de Salvador in brazil for carnival. this city has the biggest carnival celebrations in the world, and i figure that im down here, may as well not miss this event.

so that night i took a bus to the colonial town of Sucre, hoping for warm weather. it was raining when i got there, and there isnt much to do in sucre, so after 20 minutes in the bus station, i got a bus to the once prosperous silver mining town of Potosí. it was raining there, too, but i wanted to visit the mines, so i got a hostel and slept and read the rest of the day. the next day i had a tour starting at 9, and after doning our mining clothes (just nylon pants and a jacket and helmet to cover our regular clothes), my private guide and i set off. i asked him if i could leave my jacket (with passport and debit card) in the locked closet with our other clothes, and if it was safe. his reply to that wasnt reassuring: ¨Well, we are in bolivia,¨ was all he could say. so i grabbed my passport and card and shoved them in my jeans pocket under the nylon pants, nice and safe. the outside of the mine was bad enough, ill put photos up when i can, but the inside was insane. they are working in the same conditions as they were when the mine opened, many, many, many years ago. there is no map, the tunnels are only about as high as my waist in some places, and almost everything is done manually, with a shovel, axe, wheel barrels...they miners work 10 hours a day with no lunch break, and with the price of silver down they are only getting 50 bolivianos a day, about 7 dollars. last year they were making 300 bolivianos a day. anyway, you cant really get the idea reading about it.

i took a bus from 7pm to 2am to a town called Unyni, where the world´s highest and largest salt flats begin. i set up a tour leaving the next day, and bought a train ticket out of town the night we would get back, it worked out perfectly, something that doesnt happen very often, and got me really excited. having banana juice served to me in a plastic bag with a straw sticking out also got me excited. the tour was cool, the salt flats go on for-EVER. we took a couple funny pictures and drove on. this tour cancelled all the tree planting i have ever done. there were 6 of us plus our driver in an old Toyota Land Cruiser, with a big rack on top with our bags. we drove something like 600 km in 3 days on 2 full tanks of gas. anyway, the next day we saw some cool lakes and load of flamingos. that night was very cold, but we had lots of blankets. day three we were up at 4:30 to see the sunrise by massive geisers and nasty sulfer pools and vents, producing an aweful smell but were a brilliant thing to see. that day was ALL driving, for 10 hours almost. the group consisted of an irish couple, a brazilian couple, and a swiss guy. the brazilian couple was from Salvador, where i am planning on being for carnvial, but they wont be there when im there, unless i stay longer or come earlier. the irish couple joined me in going to the argentine border, but they had emergency passports because their real ones were stolen in La Paz, and i guess argentina doesnt accept emergency passports without a visa, so when i walked across the border no trouble, they had to go back to town and get a visa from the consulate. so we would meet at the bus terminal, where i waited for a few hours with no sign of them. i got my bus to Salta, where i am now, and where its very warm, and unfortunatly havent seen them since. maybe in BA, cause they were planning on being there for xmas as well.

ok, im getting kicked out of an overpriced hostel and have to find somwhere else to stay, so, chau.

The official translator

so ive been hanging out in la paz for almost a week now, its a great place. i met some british girls who i knew from peru and we met 2 more british girls and 2 aussie guys. so the 7 of us have been kicking it around la paz for a while. we took an aweful 3 hour mini-bus ride to this little town that is on the edge of the rainforest, with hopes of going mountain biking and horseback riding. well, niether of those happened, but we did lounge by the pool for a couple days, and drink lots of wine. a nice little trip away from the city, but with all the bugs that were there, we are all very happy to be back in the city. tomorrow is one of the british girls birthday, so we are going to bbq or go out to a nicer resturant. after that ill move on south to the salt flats and then into paraguay, so that i can get to buenos aires by christmas, which is my goal, we'll see if it happens.

oh, i know what i did that exciting. i was about to be quite depressed if the previous paragraph was all i had to talk about. ok, so after a couple days in la paz, i heard that the San Pedro prison is a cool place to check out. its in the middle of the city, and from the outside you wouldnt even guess its a prison. so the 7 of us waited around the gates for a few minuets, and a south african woman who worked there came over and told us it was 250 bolivianos to see the bolivian side, and 300 to see the gringo side. there is one part which is massive and thats where the bolivians that smuggle drugs or murder go. then there is a smaller gringo side where the foriengers that get arrested for smuggling or whatnot get sent to. and this is why: you have to pay for everything. your cell, your food, your protection, whatever. so there is a fund that the foriengers put together and they buy a new forienger a cell on their side, cause a young guy in the bolivian side would get ripped up, or so they say. so the whole thing is corrupt. the money we paid was to pay off the guards. then we had to tip our guide and our body guards, and pay extra to take photos. inside its like a housing market, you pay everymonth for your cell, and you can get cable tv, a fridge, anything you want if you have money. and the property value changes. you can also buy a cell, and rent that out to others, its all done very formally. if you dont have money they put you in a cell with no bed, no toliet nothing, and with a bunch of other guys. but the cells dont have bars, they are just doors. everybody is free to do whatever they want inside. there are shops that prisoners have started, and resturants, and all that. families come into the prison to live with the father/husband who is in prison. so its more like a community than anything else. there is soccer pitch (cement) several rooms of pool tables and all that. and heres the doozie: they make and manufacture cocaine inside. its supposed to some of the best in the world, 96% pure. and they send it out to be sold, or they sell it to each other, or to tourists. its crazy. there is a book called Marching Powder all about, i want to get it, cause it sounds fascinating.

anyway, so thats what i have done in la paz. oh, and im the only one that really speaks spanish in the group, and thats why i am the official translator. and the only god damn american, but i wont be for long, and not becauce somebody is joining us, but because i have become more and more british and aussie everyday. they're converting me.

Bolivia

So i went to the consulate on monday morning and the man told me he couldnt give me a visa. they only give 15 per month, and they used all of novembers visa stickers. i reminded him it was december 1st (with this i thought i had won straight off), and he told me the new stickers for december hadnt arrived yet, it might be a day or a week or two weeks until they came, he said. so i would have to pay $135 at the border anyway. sonofabitch. so i copied my pictures to a CD for backup, had a delicious alpaca steak in a wonderful sauce, and went to get my bags from the hostel. they had let me store them in the security place. i had about 45 minutes till my bus left, and your supposed to be there about half an hour early. well, when i got to the hostel and asked for my bags, the guy working started running around swearing under his breath like a cracked out man with terets. it turns out he lost the key and couldnt find it. i examinded the heavy metal door and decided it would be unwise to attempt to kick it in like a bad ass. now i have half an hour to get to my bus. i was calm. a few minutes later he proclaims it was in his shoe. i got my bags and got a cab to the station. we got to the border, i had to photocopy my cedit card, yellow fever form and passport, and fill out an application (which i dont think they even looked at) and had to pay $135. but other than that it was an easy crossing, and the bolivian visa is cool.

the rest of the bus ride was interesting. i talked with a resident of La Paz for a while, he told me what to see and all that, and then we stopped by the shore of lake titicaca. we all got off the bus, onto a little boat, and crossed from the peninsula we were on to the other side. the bus drove onto a flat wooden rickety barge and crossed as well. we got to la paz by 10 and i walked to the hostel, called the Adventure Brew Hostel, because...noah, nathan, keller and corey, you'll like this...they brew beer there. its a micro brewery, and you get one free beer every night. tonight i think ill try their english stout, it looks pretty good.

tours and excursions are expensive here, although everything else is cheap, so in a few days all have some things to talk about...hopefully.

also, i posted new pics, all of peru thats worth looking at, and some that isnt.