bolivia...

hey guys i´m in La Paz, Bolivia at the moment. what can i say, i was in puno and decided that i´d had quite enough of being in peru and that iwasn´t totally enjoying the tourist experience so i decided to take a walk on the wild side and come to bolivia. and the wild side is completely apt. this is the south america that everyone is worried about. it´s poor, it´s dirty, the food isn´t that crash and the traffic is absolutely insane. the shoeshine boys here (and they´re everywhere in south america) wear balakavas and hats to hide their identity. so there are all these young men running around and all you can see are their two eye holes. they do it because they´re working to support their family or to finance their educations and there is a huge social stigmatism attached to it, so they prefer to be totally anonamous. which doesn´t make them look any less ominous! i feel a lot better about being here because i met up with another aussie who is helping me out. he´s called scott is 28, married (so no cracks please guys!) and he´s been travelling around since april. his wife has gone back to london to get them set up again but he´s still cruising around. a fact that i am eminitly grateful for! he speaks spanish and is fun so we spent yesterday hanging out in copacobana (not the brazillian beach or the hottest place north of havana) but rather a quaint little town on the shore of lake titicaca. where life is cheap! and now coming to la paz and having to pay a stack of cash for things again i am not well pleased! i had a really great time in copacobana and i´ve really enjoyed the travelling around bit, rustic buses where your luggage is strapped to the top of the bus, a boat across lake titicaca and more buses and taxis!

anyway, i´m going to stick it out in la paz for a few days and see how it goes. if it gets a bit much here i´ll head back down to argintina and then to santiago in chile, where i have to be by the 17th anyway!

ok, i´m out guys.. talk to you soon,
love,
simone x