Bienvenida a Bolivia, Cien dolares por favor

Hola again armchair travellers! So here I am in Bolivia! After paying my $100, giving a copy of my financial statement, yellow fever vaccination, airline reservations, hotel reservations and right leg, I was allowed entry into this great country. That´s right, the new visa requirement for US citizens just went into effect last month, so I got to participate in that whole drama. But cash aside, I have to say I am really enjoying Bolivia so far.

As I was sitting in a cafe in La Paz today, I enjoyed the best nachos I have had since arriving in South America, and also got to hear one of my favorite songs, which was sandwiched right in between the biggest hits of Leo Sayer and Air Supply. In general, Bolivia seems to be about a decade behind in the music scene here, so enjoying hits of the 80´s let me know this cafe was a really hip spot.

So far I have enjoyed some time at Lake Titicaca where it is just damn cold (albiet beautiful), a week or so here in La Paz, and a few days up in the Bolivian jungle-- where I did my best to sweat all over everything and feed as many mosquitos as possible. I got lucky and flew up to Rurrenebaque and back on the days that my flights were actually scheduled! It being the rainy season and them having a large grass football field for a landing strip apparently causes many cancellations. I got to hear and see the howler monkeys (the coolest sound ever!), a few mackaws, and even spotted a caiman that is between 5-7 feet long. I am pretty sure they told us that the caimans live in the lake only after we went swimming though.......

Anyway, La Paz is a great town--everything you are looking for in a Latin American city: complete chaos, dogs sleeping in the middle of busy streets as cars swerve around them, a guy on a unicyle juggling swords, and the smell of fried chicken permeating over the whole town owing to the fact that there is a chicken shack about every 5 feet. These people know and love thier fried chicken like nobody´s business.

Some Bolivian observations so far:

It is obvious we are in the south because in an instant all the travellers went from Aussies and Europeans to Aregentine and Chilean tourists. Although there has also been the stark reappearance of the dreadlocked gringo travellers as well. Must be because that Bolivia is cheap that the travellers who can´t afford shampoo and soap congregate here. That said, I have also met a number of great European, Aussie and Kiwis here as well.

Secondly, not only is the vocabulary we know and love such as palta and anteochos back, but also back is the fact that everyone needs to get a room. If there is a spare spot anywhere, people are making out.

I got the best haircut here--although it was expensive, coming in at right around $15. I also got goat cheese! I almost cried, it was so lovely...although it is Bolivian goat cheese so not the best in the world, but still! It went down well with that Bolivian wine of varying quality.

Anyway, I have a lot of other observations that as usual I can´t think of when I sit down at the computer. But maybe I will get into that bottle of wine I have upstairs and have some inspiration and upadte this thing again later. Here are some photos for you people to drool over:


http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Lake%20Titicaca/?start=0

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/La%20Paz%20y%20Chalalan/

On our next episode we will discuss the art of chewing coca leaves and enjoying your cocktail simultaneously as it turns out this can in fact be done!