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Published: February 2nd 2010
La Feria!
The streets were absolutely packkeeddd with people, food, potions, and miniature everything!I crossed the border from Puno into Bolivia... it was quite the pain in the butt. Everyone from the US needs to get a visa (which I took care of beforehand) but the bolivian consulate in Puno said that I could use my credit card to pay the $135 entry fee... wrongggg. There is no credit card machine and no atm anywhere in sight. I ended up having to get a taxi from the border into Copacababa (the closest atm machine), get out money, taxi back to the border (while they held my passport) and then anotherrr taxi back to Copacabana where my bus was taking a break for an hour before continuing into La Paz. Fortunatly, I got back to the bus in time and got into La Paz as scheduled!
I loved La Paz. Though it isn´t the most beautiful city I have ever visited, it´s fun. I met a girl that is also studying in Santiago and we went out the first night with a girl that she knows from La Paz. The next day was the first day of a big fair; everything is sold in miniature and you buy what you are hoping for this
The chant and potion
This is the old woman that chanted and put potions and flower petals all over my dollar bills. Hope she did a good job... I need the dinero to keep traveling!! year. I bought a fistfull of dollar bills, in order to continue my travels! After you buy the little things that you want, you give them to one of the old women on the street so they can hold them over a little fire, sprinkle flower petals and chant. The obligatory next step is heading to the foot of the church where guys in white robes are throwing water out at the crowd. When you have finished each step, you give some random person on the street some dollar bills (in order to pay any leftover debts from the year before) and wha-la! You shall obtain your wish sometime within the year!
As I was walking through the packed streets of the fair, I ran into my friend Paul, whom I also ran into in Cusco, from that point on we decided to travel a bit together. Later that night I ran into a friend from Santiago whom was staying in the same hostel as I and the next day as I was checking out I ran into my old roommate (same one that I ran into in Cusco)... small world huh??
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Pete
non-member comment
Becareful with that miniature fake money! US customs has detained people for several days for carrying those into the US, it is ilegal to do so!