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So were still in La Paz and weve had an extremely busy week of doing not much of anything at all and its great! Every morning our first priority is a smoothie from the market. Although the past couple of days our clock hasnt worked so sometimes we dont make it out of the hostel until mid afternoon! A couple of days ago the clock said 10.30am when we were heading out, we were so proud of ourselves for waking so early and planned to use our day fully by having a nice breakfast and then going shopping and taking in some city sights. On our way out we met a friend in the street, a yank whos name escapes me, hes been here for a couple of months so we asked him to recommend a good place to go for breakfast. He looked at us funny and then informed us that it was 3.30 in the afternoon! whoopsie! Weve met quite a few cool people while weve been here. they all seem to have been here a long time though. Most planned to visit for a couple of days, just enough time to see everything and then theyve ended up
staying for weeks and even months! It seems as though were heading that way too!
Were sharing a room with a reasonably hansom Argentinian whose name escapes both of us. However he is a total fruit loop so we call him "the fruit loop." He's a really lovely guy but likes to sit on his bed reading, listening to CDs and singing, out of tune and the wrong words. One of his favourites is "Angels" by Robbie Williams sung in perfect spanglish. He´s really tidy and particular about making his bed. However he never makes his bed in the morning so he wont disturb our lazy arses but always comes back in the afternoon to make it! Strange! so one day it was getting quite late and he still hadnt made his bed so we made it for him and left a note saying Bien Sueño (Sweet Dreams) from the bed faries! When we got back to the room later that day he had left us a bunch of flowers each! And can I just add that my bunch was considerably larger than lauras! he he!
La Paz is really quite a poor city and once you're out
of the city centre the buildings and streets deteriorate rapidly. El Alto, the outer city slums which cling to the side of the canyon are fast becoming part of the city and markets selling everything imaginable spread steeply up the main streets and alleyways. Its also extremely busy, I have no idea what the population density is but its very high! La Paz meaning "The Peace" is certainly anything but!
The other day we ventured further up the hill from where we live on the edge of the city centre into the Mercado Negro (black market) since my camera broke in the Salar de Uyuni I've been using disposable cameras which are relatively expensive and the quality of the photos is terrible so I decided to invest in a digital camera. We spent all day shopping around for the best deal and haggling our hearts out! I ended up getting a really good deal on a camera and memory card so now I'm snap happy! As soon as I've filled the memory card I can download my photos on my blogs so you can also see what im up to! I'll also have to send a picture of me
becasue I've had all my hair chopped off!
Our street has no less than 12 hairdressers, its crazy, and a hair cut is only 7 bolivianos! thats 50p! So the otherday I went for a haircut. She didnt wash it, she just cut it dry. The fruit loop taught me how to say "layered" and "shorter" and " a little more off the back" all sorts of hairdresser lingo so it didnt end up a disaster. The woman ended up doing a really good job so I gave her 10 bolivianos and she was delighted.
While I was waiting for my appointment the guy on the radio kept saying "Escocia" "Escocia" "Escocia" (Scotland Scotland Scotland) and then Bob Geldof came on and started droning on but then was dubbed over with a really feminine spanish voice which was quite funny, it was a news story about all the marches in Edinburgh and it made it all the way to Bolivia! However, no one ever knows where Scotland is. They always asked "Que es tu Pais?" What is your country, and then I say "Escocia" and they always go, "Ah, si, Escocia" in an agreeing tone so I say
"Tu conozces?" You know it? and they always go "No" It's quite funny and sometimes if I say its near England or London they know. Its even worse than when I was in the States and no one knew!
The fruit loop also escorted me to the Sunday markets. Every Sunday the main street is closed off and theres live music and handicraft markets in the afternoon so we had a daunder round and I managed to get one of the stallholders to make my crystal that Carole gave me into a bracelet! We went to a posh coffee shop while we were waiting for it to be made. (Posh meaning a capuchino was 70p instead of 50p!) When it was finished I practically squealed with delight, its fantastic, exactly what I wanted and I also managed to get a couple of photos of her making it! But I have to stop wasting time daundering about, I still haven't visited any churches or museums and I think I've been to every market in La Paz, even the dodgy ones! But then I like to pretend I'm local, and by eves dropping on conversations between locals and stall holders you
pick up some quite good haggling lingo!
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Jackie
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Fruity
Ready to find some fruit loops in Los Angeles when you get here :)