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what have the Romans ever done for Bolivia ? let me tell you dear readers - absolutely nothing ! ! if they could have been bothered to invade and conquer a couple of thousand years ago, we would now have not just straight roads, but ones that are not merely dried up river beds. in fact these ones are almost motorways compared to those that are just tracks across fields. There are times however, that one would wish for even a track rather than just having your bus drive across fields !!
to be fair, there is a new road being built which will help dramatically. the only slight drawback that I noticed, is that rather than built one part of the road and then move on to the next stretch, the Bolivians came up with the plan of doing several individual stretches at once, with a plan to join them all up at some point in the future. this means that just when your body has settled down to ten miles of smooth travelling on a new road, it then faces ten miles of nerve jingling and bone shattering hell.
altitude sickness is another aspect of Bolivian life that one has to take notice of on a daily basis. those of you who know your reporter, have the knowledge that my normal walking speed would shame a snail with arthritis who has been chained to a gate. Here, my pace is even slower, in fact this morning I had stopped for 5 minutes before I realised I was standing still. My first plan was to drink a lot to overcome this, but I came to reaalise that it is the only thing that cannot be cured by beer. quite a worrying revelation.
Even the weather in Bolivia is mad. This is July, the equivalent December in the UK and today it was almost too hot to go out. Of course, this is after a journey through snow on a bus to get here. Public transport is a joy to behold. Firstly a ticket is negotiated from a lady in the office who really doesn't know what time the bus leaves and if there are any seats on it. The whole responsibility is with the passenger if they want to buy a ticket. All luggage and packages are delicately placed on top of the bus by the simple process of throwing them up from the pavement and see where they land - the same method happens in reverse when arrival, ie delicately thrown from the top onto the pavement. Only the foolhardy and brave dare to question such practice.
In shops there is a strange occurrence that you do not see in the UK on a regular basis - people smile at you and are happy to have a chat with you. they are fascinated to have a customer from faraway countries and will do anything to help. the most exciting aspect of shopping here is of course the price. the shop owners will vary prices often, usually just coming up with the first number they think of !!!
Bolivia and Bolivians are quite mad but very special. I could live here.
Bolivia is a mad but brilliant place. I could live here.
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kathy
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i want to hear about the salt flats!