Meeting the locals

Hello All-

Justin and I are doing well, we have spent the past week in a couple of Bolivia´s nicest cities and some of the small towns around them. Our first stop after La Paz was Cochabamba, a university city. We came there with two other backpacking couples that we have been hanging out with for a little while. We hung out in the city for a day and then went for a day hike outside of the city. We were hoping to hike to a couple of lakes, but in classic Bolivian fashion no one told us accurately how far away from the lakes were. Upon arrival at the check in point for the hike the trail ranger told us that the lakes were actually about 30 miles away. So we did not make it to the lakes on that hike but still had a nice time.

After Cochabamba our friend Roland suggested traveling to a couple of small towns that were not very touristed and making our way to Sucre, another large city. We packed up and left to the middle of nowhere, a small town where we did not see any other tourists. It was quite pretty, but not much was going on. Roland came down with a stomach bug, so Katalin, Justin, and I headed off to explore some of the other small towns. We visited a small market and another small town where there were not any attractions or much to do, and then decided to give up on finding anything to do and leave the town. We were waiting to take a shared cab that left when it was full (full meaning two people to every seat) to another small village, and a couple of locals joined us in waiting as well. After a few minutes they got up to leave, and the man with them approached us. He spoke very quickly and all I caught was ¨una copita¨which means one little cup. He was motioning to the house across from us, and we realized that they were inviting us to come have a drink of chicha with them, which is the local alcohol made from corn. So for the next half hour while waiting for the cab we found ourselves having drinks with the locals which was no mild event. They were very welcoming though and we had a good time.

After these small towns we headed to Sucre, Bolivia´s other capital and another very pretty city. For our 2 year anniversary we got a nice hotel room and splurged a bit, meaning we spent $30 on an hotel room instead of the usual $7 or so. It and the city were very nice. The next day we met up with Trevor and Laurine, backpacking friends we met in Galapagos and have not seen since. Justin and I watched the Rugby World Cup with them and unfortunately saw Argentina lose in the semi finals. If they had won we could have seen the finals on TV in Argentina, but oh well. Later that night we went to the movies for the first tome on our trip and saw Die Hard 4, a ridiculous but entertaining film.

We are now in Potosi which was a very affluent city in the 1700s because of its silver mines. We are going to take a tour of its Mint museum and then we are going to tour the mines where the miners still work in very primitive conditions. We were a bit hesitant at first but we have heard that it is amazing to see and that the miners enjoy having visitors, as they bring gifts and break up the monotony of the day. Tomorrow we are headed to Uyuni to do a salt flats tour so we are porbably going to be out of internet access for the next 5 days or so.

Best wishes to all,

Jess