Journey to the Andes: February 2006

Monday, February 27, 2006

I hate bolivian food SO much

Next trip I´m going to India where I will actually WANT to eat.

Today I ate the shittiest plate of shit I have ever consumed. The problem is that it wasn´t unlike most Bolivian food. Cuban food is far superior to this, and as me and my parents both know, Cuban food is also shit. The difference is that Cuban food doesn´t taste like MUCH, but a lot of Bolivian food actually tastes BAD. For example, they have these crappy little black potatoes that look like lumps of dirt that just taste AWFUL. And the SOUP!!! I will be happy if I never eat soup again, at least not in this country. THERE IS MORE TO MAKING SOUP THAN BOILING VEGETABLES IN WATER!!!

Typical Bolivian meal:

Hunk of meat or chicken deep fried in oil (no spices, no sauces, just the meat)
Crappy rice
Lettuce (no dressing)
A slice of tomatoe

But what´s worse is when they TRY to make it taste good, I.E. adding spices or different things, it usually ends up tasting AWFUL, like today, when the cook at Alalay (street kid home) made some pitiful attempt at making a currey sauce for the chicken (with a far-too-large side of maize and crappy black potatoes) which just tasted like a bit of tomatoe paste and currey mixed with water.

I discussed the crappiness of Bolivian food with my friend William and he totally agreed. He said that he´s willing to "go local" anywhere and eat what the local people eat, but Bolivia crosses the line. It´s just crappy.

Today I was actually thinking about what I´m going to order from Theo´s when I go there when I come back (rosemary chicken and domatés)...as well as from Ishin (octopus sashimi...*drools*)

In more positive news, parades in South America are approximately 293048230948230 times better than parades in Canada, at least Carnival parades. Between every section of beautiful south american cultural dancers (not crappy "corporate sponsors" and "grad 2005!" floats unlike home) there´s a massive water balloon fight between the people sitting on either side of the street. I got hit in the nuts but an unexploding water balloon and everyone laughed at me. The entire main street is actually DRENCHED and COVERED in water balloon reminants. In all seriousness, all you UVIC folks, we´re going to get a monthly water balloon war started up on campus.

We need Carnival in Canada.

posted by Ben @ 4:31 PM 8 comments

Saturday, February 25, 2006

EMERGENCY!!!

You all may not have heard it on the news yet, but yesterday civil war broke out in Bolivia. In fact, from what I gather, it´s broken out all over the continent of South America. I can´t speak for any other cities, but La Paz has decended into complete anarchy. Armed gangs that roam the streets have become the main authority. Foreigners, or "gringos" as they are called, are specifically targeted...and I nearly met my demise on several occasions. The distinguishing factor of this war is that it is not being fought with guns, but with water balloons. Welcome to Carnival season in South America.

This morning my buddy William and I (a "bloke" from the UK who´s been living here for a little while) decided to go out for a beer today, but the specific pub he wanted to go to was about a 5 minute walk on El Prado (the main drag) Initially I questioned if it was a good idea, knowing that we were prone to being attatcked (due to the color of our skin...). He said "Nah, they usually only attack you if they know that you´re playing." He couldn´t have been more wrong. The entire upper half of the 6-lane-wide El Prado was, I kid you not, absolutely packed with people; kids, parents, teenagers...most of them holding water guns, large bags full of water balloons, or a silly-spray-esque soap substance in a can. It´s simply anarchy. We were attatcked probably 30 times in our way to the pub...it was unbelieveable. Water balloons fly at you from seemingly nowhere. One hit me right in the nuts. And then, surprisingly, every so often a middle-aged woman will spray you right in the face with the soap stuff and laugh at you...you´d think only rowdy teenagers would attack you, but no!!! Will and I couldn´t stop laughing the whole way!!! I couldn´t believe it!!! We got to the pub (in fact the same pub that an escaped Nazi war criminal would go to every day to plan his military coups when he was working for the CIA...which was pretty amazing to think about when I was sitting there) and washed all the soap off our faces and sat down in the safety of the indoors for an hour or so and talked politics (so happy to have like-minded people in my midst...)

I met Patty and her/my friend Tanya at El Prado at 4:00. I havn´t had so much fun in my entire life. We promptly bought a few water-resistant panchos, which was best 2.50 Bolivianos I´ve ever spent in my life. There are people on every street corner selling water balloons, usually for 1B (about 20 cents) a dozen...and you run around for your dear life and chuck balloons at whoever you can. It´s freaking incredible. What was amazing to me was that there was about 2 groups of, I kid you not, 100 or more teenage males who roam El Prado, destroying everything in their path. Every time I hear all their yelling I can´t help but recall the battle scenes from The Lord of the Rings (it actually sounds like that). But it is in fact the sound of one of the raging hoards of teenagers annihilating their current victim. They will choose one person or a group of people and just blow the shit out of them with balloons. Sometimes war breaks out between groups, and an enourmous barrage of water balloons ("globos" as they´re called here) fills the sky.

As I mentioned before, gringos are a favourite target of people here. I don´t think I´ve run so fast in my whole life. There are three sidewalks in El Prado, two on each side and one large plaza-esque one in the middle seperating the two sides of the street. The huge gangs roam in the middle...so obviously me, Patricia and Tanya walk on the sides. Sometimes when you´re walking past and they see you, one of them will yell "GRINGO!!!" and they all look, and then they all start bellowing their war cries. You run for your dear life as you dodge, literally, dozens and dozens of water balloons. For the next 30 seconds before you can get out of distance, all you hear is the sound of explodsions and shrapnal around you (and sometimes, if you´re unlucky, ON you...) hitting every surrounding building, tree, and lightpost. It´s a war zone here.

What I find incredible is that apparantly Saturday is NOTHING compards to Sunday...as I am sure to find out tomorrow. Patty and co. are meeting me tomorrow and we´re going to go roam the streets and join in the fun once again (I almost, ALMOST wish that I hadn´t quit baseball...I can´t throw worth shit) I havn´t had so much fun in my life. Anyone game for starting up Carnival at UVIC when I get there?

PS: Brianne, is Chile´s new president a fluke too? That´s too bad...I knew that she wasn´t a radical leader like Chavez, but I didn´t know that she was one of the typical "socialists" governing today...that sounds a lot like Lula in Brazil. Everyone was super stoaked when he got into office, but he ended up bowing down to pressure from the USA, IMF, and World Bank and he´s turned out to be WORSE than the conservative leader that preceded him...which is a shame. But she did in fact sign the South American agreement against American Imperialism, so she can´t be all that bad (what´s the official name of that agreement, I just heard about it today from William...). Congrats on your getting accepted to that school in europe! Did you end up getting that scholarship that I wrote that letter for? Oh, and how about that write up on the World Social Forum from Hands Off Venezuela? I wouldn´t mind reading that. Oh, and could you send me that marxist reading list again? I´d appreciate that.

PSS: Get your own drum Mom!!!

PSSS: Ellie, you want more pictures? How about you fly down here and spend the 2 hours it takes to put the damn things on here...

posted by Ben @ 5:37 PM 9 comments

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Rowdy kids...

Hola amigos, I have officially commenced my volunteering adventure for my South American journey! My former spanish classmate Chris (from Denmark) knows a bunch of people who are in Bolivia with this organization "ICYE", who is affiliated with ANOTHER organization (which I dont know the name of) who organizes volunteer trips for gringos around the world. They stay with families and volunteer at houses for street kids. One German girl who I talked with, named "Bieta" (I have NO idea how to spell it, and honestly I dont really know how to pronounce it right) is working at a house called "Alalaly" which happened to be super close to my hostel. She showed me around and I talked to the directors there, and as of monday this week I have been acting as the "hermano" of these kids! Hermano means brother, by the way. Theres about 20 boys that live there...the youngest is 8 and the oldest is 20. They all spent at least some of their life living on the street...presumably as shoeshine boys (of which there is a rediculous number of in La Paz) its a big house that they live in, and they all eat together and hang out together. In the mornings they do their homework, play soccer, watch tv, whatever, and in the afternoon they all go to school. School starts at 2:00 here and goes until 6:00. Its an all boy house that Im working in, and theres an all girl house about 10 minutes away belonging to the same organization. The group also has houses in El Alto and Sucre, and I think Cochabamba. From what I gathered they get most of their money from donations and some sort of thing in Austria or Germany.

The boys are a rowdy bunch. Haha, the kind of kids that I HATED to be around ten years ago (I hated playing rough) but theyre all such nice kids. They play rough because its how theyve been raised, on the streets. But underneath theyre just nice kids, and Im beginning to love them all. I dont have to do much, just (try to) talk with them, help them with their homework (little Beto tries to get me to do his homework for him all the time..."No puedo esto!!! Lo haces!!!" I cant do this! You do it!) walk the little ones to school, and sometimes do some chores around the house (though the kids do most of them). Theres two much older kids that live there, ones 20 and the other is 19....and theyre sooo awesome. Super nice guys....one of them they call Aflac ("flaca" switched around, which means skinny) and hes a cook at a restaurant (he got instantly in my good books just for that) and hes trying to learn english so he can travel to the USA, and then he wants to go to Japan so he can eat sushi and see girls in kimonos (I told him to come to BC...he can save money on airfare and with all the asains that live there its pretty much going to the same place) the other I cant remember his name, but hes also a super nice dude...its really inspiring to be friends with kids my age that have been delt such a shit hand in life but have been able to come out just fine.

Im planning on staying here for 2 months more, working with the kids 9-5 monday to friday and partying on the weekend, ooooh yeah. After that Ill probably go around Bolivia a little more and then to Peru....Id like to stop in Venezuela for a little while while Im down here as well. But Im not even going to try to make plans at this point because everything changes when youre traveling Ben style.

Yesterday I drank rum with Patricia and her friends while we watched the Brazil vs Bolivia soccer game at a smokey pub on El Prado (main street). Bolivia got their ASSES KICKED. But it was a lot of fun to watch....Bolivians (as well as the rest o f this continent) LOVE soccer (or "football" as they call it here...pfffft) and they get really in to it, its super fun.

Take care everyone! I havnt gotten food poisening again yet, so Im doing good so far.

ps: On the right hand side of my blog there is a list of websites that Ive set up. Theyre there for a reason. Go to them.

posted by Ben @ 5:41 PM 4 comments

Friday, February 17, 2006

Rockin Paceña

Hello all, it is I. I´ve really enjoyed not using a computer very much for the past little while, but my evening plans didn´t work out and I was passing by an internet cafe so I figured why the hell not. For the past week I´ve been shitting water bombs. No, really. Last Saturday I was out for a morning stroll to a part of town that I´ve never been to, and I popped in to a pretty typical Bolivian restaurant, which was full of people. It was totally untouristy, hence the price of 5 Bobs(the equivilant of about 75 cents) for soup, rice, salad, and chicken. It was alright, and I continued on my strole. I went to a local guitar shop and bought myself a pretty nice classical guitar for 550 Bobs ($80 more or less), and returned to my hostal. I was sitting on my bed strumming my new baby when I started to feel really cold and shivery....like when you get really sick..."Eff me..." I thought to myself. I crawled under the covers and started to shake...I got myself some food poisening!!! I almost knew it when I was eating the damn stuff too. I was literally thinking to myself "If I´m going to get food poisening anywhere, it´s going to be here. In fact, I won´t be surprised if I do." And boy, wasn´t I. Every two hours for the next day I straggled my way to the toilet to do my business....and it was super tough to sleep as well. What´s worse is that I didn´t have any one to take care of me, so I was by myself the whole time, thus sin comida (altavista translate that, friends) Fortunately, though, I did have a big bottle of water and juice to keep me company, but that was it. And, to rub salt in my wounds, that was the one night where Patty had goten special permission to stay out past 11:00 on a weekend to go out dancing with me. I was going to meet her at her house at 10:00, but instead I was gleefully cleaning out my bowels. Just thought I´d share. I´ve made a few friends here that I´ve been spending lots of time with. I have my buddy William from the UK, my spanish classmate Chris (though I´m done classes now) from Denmark, and a new friend from the States (though I don´t hold it against him) named Marc. Additionally I know a few people that are volunteering at the local orphanages (through Chris and his girlfriend) who are really great people. The other day Marc and I were having coffee and talking about South American politics. He´s living here, has an apartment and is teaching english, and he spends a lot of his time doing political work with the Bolivian unions. He was telling me about what´s going on in Bolivia right now, and it was very interesting. We had pretty much the same perspective on the situation, and I was compelled to ask him what his political alignment is. Turns out that he´s a Trotskyist, just like a lot of my socialist buddies back home, and a title that I´d call myself if my specific knowledge of the ideology wern´t so limited. So, since I want to raise a little awareness about what the 4-1-1 here in Bolivia is, I´m going to rock the current (and distant) events for you. Any further reading you want to do on any subjects mentioned just click on the links beside them. In december 2005 Bolivia had presidential elections. The winner was a former coca-farmer and Aymara citizen by the name of Evo Morales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales), head of the MAS party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_toward_Socialism_%28Bolivia%29) (Movemiento al Socialismo, in english "Movement Towards Socialism" if you couldn´t figure that out yourself). Evo got about 54% of the popular vote, which is by far the largest margin of victory any president has ever had in this country in half a century. Previous to his victory, Bolivia was rocked with a series of sometimes violent protests against the neoliberal and pro-USA economic policies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberal) that were being forced upon this country. Bolivia is the poorest country on this continent, yet it has the second largest reserves of petrolium and natural gas in all of South America, as well as a shit load of minerals. Because of the free-market neoliberal economic policies forced on this country by the International Monetary Fund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMF) and the World Bank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank) (needless to say Washington as well) Bolivia has managed to get next to nothing for the huge amounts of materials that it exports every year. Foreign petrolium companies extract gas from Bolivia with paying hardly any taxes whatsoever to the Bolivian government, and thus hardly any money whatsoever going to Bolivia. What brought Evo to power was his campaigning against Washington and against the current form of economic globalization which has left Bolivia with nothing. The largest issue in this election was the issue of nationalizing the gas industry of Bolivia, similar to what Hugo Chavez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Chavez) has done in Venezuela. Venezuela is also a very poor country (with most of the wealth concentrated in the hands of a few elite...like most places in the world, but especially in the global south) With the money generated by the nationalized gas industry, Chavez´s government has been MASSIVLY combating illiteracy, poverty, homelessness, and disease in his country with tremendous success (which says something about free-market economics, doesn´t it kids?) It also should be mentioned here that several years ago there was tremendous controversy in Bolivia over the privitization of the national water services. This was called the Water War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochabamba_protests_of_2000), when the Bolivian people fought back against the government (who had privitized the services, thus allowing the delivery of clean water to be a FOR-PROFIT business, which caused prices to skyrocket, leaving ordinary Bolivians without clean water) and re-publicised the water services, putting it back in the hands of the people. So its not just gas and oil, its all industries here that are at risk of being gobbled up by huge foreign multinationals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporation). South America right now is undergoing a tremendous swing to the left, politically that is. There are currently left wing leaders of state in Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Cuba, and probably more that I´m not familiar with. There are elections schedueled for much of Latin America this year, and left wing leaders are set to win most of them. In Bolivia Evo is fresh off the press, and everyone is poised to see what he is going to do. By that I mean that he´s either going to go the way of Hugo Chavez, a radical left wing leader unafraid to say NO to Washington and go ahead with what his people really want, pursuing a very left wing adgenda like he said he was going to. Or, on the other hand, he might become a Lula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luiz_In%C3%A1cio_Lula_da_Silva). Lula is the president of Brazil right now. The general populace of Brazil was THRILLED when Lula came into office, the leader of the socialist party of Brazil, but the IMF, World Bank, and Washington put tremendous pressure on Lula to become more "moderate", which he did, and consequently under his rule, despite his moderate efforts, less land has gone to the poor, more environment has been destroyed, and poverty has increased more than under the right-wing leader before him!!! There seems to be somwhat of a mentality in Evo´s government that they can´t be as radical as Chavez because they don´t want to piss off the united states, because if they do that, then they risk being alienated, having aid reduced, etc. But the fact is that just Evo´s PRESENCE is pissing off the United States. For example, Bolivian´s military is almost completely funded by the United States. Or, at least, it was. The US used to give 1.7 billion dollars annually to Bolivia in military aid, but congress in the states in currently putting through a bill that is reducing that figure to less that one million dollars. So, basicaly destroying it completely. AND EVO HASN´T EVEN DONE ANYTHING YET! Just the fact that Evo is not going to bow to Washington´s wishes entirely and is even somewhat of a threat to the current form of international capitalist globalization is enough to piss them off. So Evo, and any other South American leader for that matter, really has no reason NOT to pursue the adgenda that the people want and need. The people of Bolivia are desperate for change and most are hoping that Evo will follow the path that he really said he would. Most people are on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens, but there are some who aren´t holding their breath. Whether he becomes a Lula or a Chavez, we´ll all see pretty soon.

In other news, on Monday I start volunteering at a house for street kids. My friend who volunteers there showed me around, introducing me to some of the kids and whatnot. I´m really excited for it...I played soccer with street kids the other night with a few of the people who volunteer at these houses, and it was pretty fun.

As of today I´ve also finished my spanish lessons! Am I fluent? Hell no. But I know a lot more than what I did before, and I´m making myself a spanish textbook and trying to learn 5 words a day (my vocabulary is my biggest problem)

Next weekend I´m also going down to Oruro for Carnival. The carnival in Rio is by far the biggest (and holey hell is it BIG) festival on the continent, but the carnival in Oruro, held at the same time, is number two. Which is strange, because I hear Oruro, unlike Rio de Janero, is a freaking hole. But the Patt-Meister and I are going to be going down for that.

I´ve also been reeeeally missing my music for the past few days. In this order:

1. Dream Theater
2. Liquid Tension Experiment
3. Meshuggah
4. Zero 7
5. Strapping Young Lad

I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally miss Dream Theater. Soooo much....I bought their Live at Budokon DVD on the street the other day, but I don´t have a freaking DVD player to play it on. Reid, please listen to some DT for me. And LTE. I miss my babies. I miss cooking too, I want to fry up some bananas with cayane pepper and some coconut milk and cinnimon and pork...mmm...

So, I´m still a little sick, and I have to go back to my hostel to take a dump. Have a wonderful evening, I will talk to you all later!

posted by Ben @ 4:12 PM 6 comments

Thursday, February 09, 2006

DEATH TO ALL INDIRECT OBJECT VERBS

I hate them. They´re the most confusing and stupid words in the spanish world...not to mention not at all like english.

In english we say

"I like those socks."

In spanish you say

"To me gives pleasure those socks."

And that´s just the tip of the iceberg. When you want to say something with another of the same type of verb like "Those socks are really exciting because of the material they´re made from" God....

*dies instantly*

A Dane has taken up spanish lessons with me, he´s a nice dude. They´re going well. And it seems like a dream of mine is going to come true. He´s here with his girlfriend and she´s working with an NGO down here...and they know some people working with the same NGO at some local orphanages. Me and him took a visit to one and they showed us around and introduced us to the kids, and they´re always looking for some help, so it looks like I´m going to be volunteering at this orphanage for a few weeks...which is exactly what I wanted to happen when I was traveling.

I´ve been hangin out with some new friends down here...guys from Germany, Oregon, and the UK. It´s been really good, they´re super nice people, and it´s nice to have people to talk to while I´m learning spanish! And I´m thinking about getting a guitar made for me, as my german friend did when he met a lutie (guitar maker)...which would be incredible.

Two days ago my teacher taught me how to say "wanker". It´s "pajero". Make note.

So I bid you all ciao....

posted by Ben @ 6:22 PM 5 comments

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Mas fotos.

Just killin time...thought you guys would appreciate this :)

Women in Copa.

My buddy Carlos at copacabana.

El Alto.

Me at a bar with my friend carlos.

Sunset at the lake

On top of a mountain overlooking Copacabana.

Lake Titicaca

A little treasure I found wandering the streets of Copacabana.

posted by Ben @ 11:52 AM 7 comments

Monday, February 06, 2006

ABC Espanol, Lets Practic!

I had my first spanish lesson today with my nice teacher named William. Fortunately he speaks fluent english, and we reviewed some basic stuff today that I already know as well as some other simple phrases that are new to me. So, lets review, shall we!?

La Paz es una bonita ciudad! = La Paz is a great city!
Que magnifico guitarra! = What a magnificent guitar!
Steve Vai, que fantastico humano! = Steve Vai, what a fantastic human!
Esta es la primera vez que vienes a Sudamerica? = Is this your first time in South America?
Si, es la primera vez que vengo a Sudamerica. = Yes! This is my first time in South America.
Juan es muy guapo. = Juan is very handsome! (little Spanish 9 joke thrown in there...everyone remember Juan?)
Es Canada mas grande que los Estados Unidos? = Is Canada bigger than the USA?
Si, Canada es mas grande. = Yes, Canada is larger.
QUE!? Canada es mas grande que Estados Unidos incluido Alaska? = Canada is larger than the USA, including Alaska?
SI! = Yes!
A cuantos kilometros es Tel Aviv a Tehran? = How many kilometers is Tel Aviv from Tehran?
Tel Aviv es a 2,000 kilometres de Tehran. = Tel Aviv is 2,000 kilometres from Tehran.
Que te parece Stephen Harper? = Whats your opinion on Stepher Harper?
Stephen Harper me parece una fascista sin un pene. = To me, Stephen Harper seems like a fascist with no penis. (somebody please put that on a t-shirt)

I certainly have a lot of vocabulary to learn...fortunately spanish is very smilar to english (its probably a good thing that I decided to go to Bolivia and not China...) Im taking lessons for 4 hours a day for two weeks, maybe more if I think that I need it. And Williams (my teachers) house is right in the middle of a gorgeous little market in La Paz, and a veyr short walk from my hostal. So, things are going well!!!

posted by Ben @ 10:22 AM 8 comments

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Parrot in his own Sauce

So Copacabana has been pretty fun. It´s a really special little place...and the people seem to be very happy here. And it´s a very poor town as well...and it´s been nice to get away from the westernization of La Paz for a couple days. This morning I climed to the top of a mountain and watched the sun rise over the city....it was probably one of the physicially hardest things I´ve ever done. Imagine climbing up giants head mountain, except with half as much oxygen as you´re used to, running on 3 hours of sleep, and totally out of shape like myself. But it was very beautiful and very worth it. I hung out with my buddy Carlos yesterday again...he´s the one who travels around South America selling necklaces and bracelets to tourists. He introduced me to his nice english-speaking Russian friend, who was super nice. We all went to the bar last night and danced to the salsa music, it was great fun. But despite Copacabana´s awesomeness, I´m ready to head back to La Paz, as I havn´t had a lot of people to do things with often. I start spanish lessons on Monday, and I´m really looking foreward to not looking like a stupid gringo whenever I try to order food! But things are, overall, going well so far. Talk to you all later, take care!

posted by Ben @ 4:11 PM 4 comments

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Co. Pa. Ca. Ba. Na.

Whilst all of you were at work or at school milling about in the rat race of regular life, I was sitting on the beach, eating dinner, drinking beer, and watching the sun set over Lake Titicaca in the gorgeous little town of Copacabana. Life is hard. Sorry, I felt like stroaking my ego for a minute :) I made it to Copacabana!!!

The bus ride here was very moving...we drove through El Alto, the giant slum above La Paz, and numerous other deeply impoverished towns on the way. Dirty children playing in the streets, people living in half-complete and crumbling buildings, garbage in the streets, open sewers...it was very sad. People are not miserable there, as you might expect...they are strong...they are very strong people...and they make it through everyday with just the shirt on their backs and the few dollars that they can bring home. I want to spend more time in El Alto...I plan on going up there when I´m more fluent in spanish, so in a few weeks when I´m done my lessons.

Copacabana, on the other hand, is a beautiful little town right on this beautiul lake. Yes, it is very poor, like most of Bolivia, but it isn´t drenched in urban poverty like La Paz (particularily El Alto) is. Lake Titicaca is freaking enourmous, by the way. BIGGEST. THING. EVER. Copacabana also houses Bolivia´s only public beach...and it isn´t really anything to behold...not the south america you see in post cards, that´s for sure :) But its nice, and its full of on-the-beach cheap restaurants where you can eat and just chill out. Theres tons of freaking gringos here, as well.

I met a guy on the street today who makes and sells necklaces. He´s from Peru and he makes a living selling jewlery all over south america to tourists. I also met a girl from Seattle...we 3 hung out on the street for a bit, and we´re going to hang out in an hour.

Patty couldn´t make it to Copacabana with me today, but it´s posible that she´ll be coming tomorrow or Saturday.

There´s also a festival going on here...what it´s about or for I don´t know, all I know is that it involves a lot of alchohol and badly rehersed marching band music. It´s been going on all day...firecrackers, dancing, drinking, you name it. It´s certainly a spectical! And this city is very beautiful...very small, but very beautiful. Tomorrow morning I´m going to hike up to the top of this nearby mountain and watch the sunrise over the lake...I´m super pumped. So pumped I could kick my....never mind. Inside joke...sort of. So I´m here until Sunday afternoon and then reutrning to La Paz to rock the spanish lessons.

Adios amigos!

posted by Ben @ 3:49 PM 3 comments

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Some photos...

So, I have taken a few photos thus far. Theyre mostly of places...not so much people...and this is because I want to be able to talk to people in spanish before I go asking to take their photo. Without spanish I just look like a stupid gringo. UNA FOTO POR FAVOR!!!

So hopefully these will curb your collective photo lust for the time being. Theyre backwards, by the way.

Patricia at La Plaza San Francisco

Music group playing on the street in the evening.

Intimidating police officers hang out with a throng of pigeons in La Plaza Murillo.

A family walks in La Plaza Murillo.

Patty and I (with my new adventure hat)

La Plaza Murillo at night.

La Plaza San Francisco, threat theater, and a small market. The church there is almost 500 years old.

Residential district.

My buddies having lunch.

The church again.

Huge socialism-endorsing banner of Che Guevara on a building.

Place where the poor go to eat lunch (the food isnt very good...)

Sorry for the wind on this one. This is the univeristy in La Paz where Evo Morales (the new socialist president of Bolivia) met with Hugo Chavez (socialist president of Venezuela) to discuss cooperation between their governements. It says something like "Welcome, friends.Together we are with Fidel, Chavez, and Evo. Until the victory, always!" And you cant see it in this picture, but theres a big drawing of Che Guevara on the left.

People walking near the Plaza San Francisco.

The view from my hostel room, El Solario.

Beautiful colonial statue in La Plaza Espana.

Another shot from my room.

Street in La Paz.

The Andes from my plane seat.

Im heading to Copacabana on Friday and returning Sunday. Then I start spanish lessons, hopefully. After all of this I will likely head south to the southern antiplano, then make my way east, then north, then back to Titicaca and then into Peru. Thats the (very) tentative plan, anyways!

posted by Ben @ 8:05 AM 7 comments

Ben Martin's log of his 6-month journey to the South American Andean nation of Bolivia.

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