la paz
i then made my way back to buenos aires and am currently in la paz. bolivia is beautiful! i have been here for the last week with in la paz are really dark skinned and indigenous looking, and there are a lot of homeless people. it is completely different from buenos aires and uruguay, where most of the locals were of european decent. the women here wear traditional garb with bright skirts, and this hat that looks like a top hat rested crookedly on the top of the head. it is also so busy here but busy in a different way than a city like buenos aires or tokyo….hard to explain.
there are also a million stands along the road where you can buy everything-clothes, underwear, batteries, knives, phones, cd´s candy, water, tv´s. and all for super-cheap. i have been able to stock up here, and was also able to buy a charger for my phone for only $2! i have also not seen a convenient store yet…
it took me two days to get acclimated to the high altitude ( the highest city in the world!), but i am doing fine now. the city is literally in a bowl, so there is A LOT of walking up and down the street. i swear we walk like 5 miles a day, but i don´t seem to be losing weight. dammit. yesterday we climbed up the city hills and drank beer watching the sunset. it was so so so pretty.
it was also ´”the day of abundance” on the 24th, and the whole country celebrates by buying things like miniature cars, houses, fake money, etc that they wish to have. they then have it blessed and hope that it comes true in the upcoming year. there were like a billion little stands selling the same things but some of it was actually really funny. the funniest has to be a little ceramic guy with an alpaca beanie, with just tons of luxury items around his neck, while smoking a cigarette. it is just ridiculous looking. you can also buy llama fetuses for good luck to put under your house. maybe i will try and smuggle some back home!
there are also a billion police and guard men in uniform, so it is kinda intimidating to walk around. we were at the sand pedro prison yesterday, and took a picture of the guards. we thought we did it stealthily, but i guess not because a guard carrying the biggest gun i have ever seen came over and told us to erase it. there have not been any riots while i have been here, but i am kinda excited for one to happen. i haven´t had anyone hassle me for my passport, documents, etc, but i do walk around with a bitchy face. i have heard some horrible stories of people getting robbed,. but i think it can happen anywhere… but i guess if we get robbed, we get robbed, and there is nothing we can do about it. so we are being careful.
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