la paz, puno

la paz has been quite relaxing compared to the previous days in the cold and on the 4x4. as cheryl says, it is nice to feel human again! we got to run a bunch of errands, eat some good and highly inexpensive food, do some el cheapo souvenir shopping, and had some time to ourselves.

the adventure brew hostel was great! in the morning we had free all-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts accompanied by jam and you guessed it, DULCE DE LECHE. you could also special order breakfasts for about $1-$2 - bargoons. the woman who made all the meals was super nice.

i think one of the most traumatizing things that we have done so far on this trip is go to cholitos wrestling, which is essentially midget wrestling (sometimes with women). we were told that it was a must see! i beg to differ, after seeing it. we got so called VIP seats at the front, right by the ring - which was entertaining at first, as there were a lot of hilarious male wrestlers (not midgets) who wore nacho libre type masks and wrestled. they were very choreographed. however, when it came time to the women - that is when it got really scary. one lady, dressed in ripped spandex, was INSANE. she wrestled with a reporter, who clearly had not done it before and was left crying. then, she threw another wrestler pretty much into me and kavitha, then ripped into a bottle of orange pop and sprayed it all over keith. keith, the lucky man he is, ended up with one of the wrestlers on his lap during the evening (just before he was sprayed with orange pop by the crazy spandex woman) and of course, the only wrestler that was a midget got insanely injured - we think her neck was broken (and there was some blood! eeek.). :S not good! the night was pretty much over for us then. after this, this is pretty much the first and last time i will ever support anything to do with fighting. oy!

one of the days we were here, we went our separate ways - bossi and cheryl tried food from all the street vendors (ice cream, empenadas, saltenas, sweet empenadas, etc), while kavitha and i hiked up to the top of la paz (we were insanely winded) and then did tons of souvenir shopping - alpaca stuff is super cheap! we cleared one store of all their scarves and an array of mittens. keith ended up taking in a hip hop show (one group was terrible, one was good, he said).

it was also nice to do some laundry - although i had a huge scare when last night, as we were going to leave the next morning, my laundry didn´t come in! AHHHH! thankfully, just as i was about to lose it, the laundry delivery people came in with it, all clean and folded. amazing.

we also went to go see movies on our last night. cheryl and kavitha went to see indiana jones (they said it was so bad it was funny) while smutty, keith and i went to go see street kings (aka reyes de la calle) - it was a bit too violent for me, but i quite enjoyed all the hilarious rapper cameos in it (the game and common, anyone?!?!) and i also finally got a chance to talk to andy on the phone. phew!

strangely enough - we have not seen ONE mcdonalds in bolivia. i think it is great that the country is so patriotic - however i do miss the dulce de leche cone!!! similarly, there seems to be a devotion to the country´s president, evo morales, to the height of fidel and che. if t-shirts and political graffiti are any indication, they love the man. (note also, that he is indigenous, which reflects 60% of the population in bolivia)

this morning we got up to take the bus to puno, in peru. the ride was SIGNIFICANTLY more comfortable than the overnight bus we took to la paz. for one thing the road was not so bumpy, there was some sort of climate control (aka warmth), and our seats could recline at variable heights. however, it was a bit of a gong show at the end when a pan flute band came on board and played in the aisle. with my luck, the band member with significant BO and playing both the pan flute and guitar was right in my face. A-MAZE-ING.

tomorrow we are going to see the uros floating islands. can´t wait!!!