A Rushed Account of Bolivia and Argentina

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The reason this will be cursory and brief is firstly that it has been a while, and secondly because I am horribly ill and have consumed a grand total of one solid piece of food (which was chundered up a few hours ago) in about 48 hours. My tummy is not happy with me.

So Bolivia, which is infinitely less polished than Peru (but after nearly two centuries of military dictatorship, who can blame them?) was where I visited the world´s biggest salt flat, the world´s highest city, hooray. I also went into a mine that killed over 8 million African slaves, knee deep in mud that contained the piss of thousands of sweaty underpaid labourers. They worship the devil in the mines, because he keeps them safe underground. They light cigarettes and put them in the mouth of his stone statue. We were meant to buy alcohol and cigarettes and drinks as gifts for the miners, and when we visited the shop, we were shown the alcohol they prefer: It´s 96% ethanol. The smell made my lungs burn. I think ´I hate my job´, here, is a redundant statement.

Argentina is great, but regrettably I have been mostly very ill here. I visited Iguazu falls today, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. But then after I was forced to walk through the rainforest for want of a timeous train, I vomited up the coke I had managed to consume and felt bad that I had done so in a UNESCO world heritage sight. Other than that, I went horseriding for the first time in many years in a beautiful estancia in Salta. I also went white water rafting and canopying over a cliff.

This is a necessarily brief account I´m afraid. Just to let everyone know I´m still alive, that I´m in Brazil tomorrow, and that I went on a course of antibiotics this morning prescribed by my tour group leader who insisted I don´t need to see a doctor and that antibiotics can be obtained over the counter here. Fingers crossed.

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