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.