One more from Halloween (party the third I think) with my friend Mark.

Hail in Bogota on the day after the rainy season ended supposedly

Baking in Bogota

two of my friends, Kelly and Nuria, when we were at a crazy Israeli party in the mountains near Bogota

Near the villa where the party was held

Tayrona national park during not so good weather

Just before we started our walk out of tayrona after 6 days in Paradise

My friend Ehud on the balcony of the house a whole bunch of us rented in cartagena in order to recreate the crazy israeli party in our own style

Watching the sunset out the back of the house on the beach

Jack Sparrow greets the morning on our little bit of beach

The sunset again from the villa beach

Cartagena Wall

Mas Cartagena

Un Ciudad Bonito

The girls at the beginning of one of our nights out. It´s probably better that I don´t post more of the night.

Playing Risk in Bogota. Xavier, Phil and Ella. It was an intense game of Skill and Wit, where Ella´s Israeli army training turned out to be of no use, Phil didn´t succeed in his mission of killing all my little soldiers and Xavier was a ridiculous Spaniard.

La Iglasia de Candalaria

Bogota Corner

Afternoon light in El Centro

El Nuevo case de Mark, Adam and Ed. Mark from Melbourne at the entrance to the little private lane that their house is on.

HALLOWEEN
We may not celebrate Halloween in Australia, but that´s not going to stop me going all out for crazy celebrations when I happen to be in a country smart enough to celebrate it. Unfortunatly, It happened to be a Dry Weekend because of elections (imagine of they stopped people drinking on election weekend in Australia), so we had to pre buy filthy Ron Jamaica and have a house party at Mark, Adam and Ed´s place.
Haloween is actually wednesday, so mas fiesta then, plus Friday a bunch of us are going to see a band called Sidestepper in a big halloween concert thing. I love Bogota.

Superheros and Chucky
At this point Flash Gordon was still in a one piece costume.

this is how we roll in Bogota
And now Two Piece.
Finn is in the skimpy swim suit, Jaimie is Flash and Eli didn´t bother, because that´s how the man mountain rolls.

Saucy Cat face
I went as a gatito but the low quality facepaint didn´t last long.

Alix, Me and Carolina

Xavier´s mad Skeleton make-up thanks to Yours truely and dodgy facepaint

Montserrat and the Moon
The mountain/Hill that overlooks our part of Bogota

ALSO
A big Congratulations to Johnny, Monique and Bailey! I´m now a sort of Auntie in a cousin sort of way!

I have to go and play football now (try calling it soccer near the British, Spanish or Colombians).

Oh!
I have a ticket to Modest Mouse in El Paso, Texas, on the 12th of November, so I´m definitly leaving Bogota, though don´t blame me if I get lost in Texas.

I took what felt like a billion busses to Caracas in Venezuela where I spent time catching up with my friends Kiraz and Fred who have moved there from Sydney. It was very interesting and I saw heaps of protests and polotical stalls and graffiti and even public debates about the constitution on the street. From Caracas I hightailed it to the coast and then took another Billion busses back to Colombia and Santa Marta, a small city on the Carribean Coast.

It´s actually really surreal (and hot, really really hot) to be on the Carribean caost, it´s somewhere I´ve always wanted to come and it´s just as fantastic as I hoped. From here I´m going to Taganga today where i will try not to get Dengue fever and then to Parque National tayrona, a beautiful national park just near here where you can sleep in Hammocks and enjoy the perfect beaches.

So I must go, and i would say that there´s a possiblity that I won´t be able to blog for a while, but it´s not like i´ve been consistant anyway.

The Falls

BRAZIL
Marianna and her Mum drinking Guarana (national soft drink of Brazil) at the supposedly best Brazilian style Empanada place in Santos, If not the state of Sao Paulo, If not Brazil and therefore probably the world apparently.

A canal in Santos

The Sprawling Metropolis of Sao paulo

Sunset on IlhaBela

BOGOTA
One of the designer horses that can be found around Bogota

Sculptures inside the Salt Cathedral

Part of an exhibition in the Museo de Arte by a Contemporary Colombian Artist

Out and about in Bogota with Antony and Stewart

SOLENTO
The view from the top of the mountain

Child Soldiers/Colombian Cadets

At the Finca (coffee farm)

Palm trees in the Valle de Cocora

BACK TO BOGOTA
Stewart fighting the Hostel cat, Sue (pronounced sway)

More fun in the evening with Carolina, Alice, Antony and Adam for Adam´s birthday

Bogota
Bogota ia a cosmopolitan and modern city with a very cool old town, a seemingly endless supply of students and excellent museums and nightlife.
When I was in Bogota for a little more than a week i stayed in an excellent layed back hostel and met lots of very cool people.

I think Colombia attracts a different type of traveler to other parts of South America and there was a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere around, less of the slightly manic `lets go out and drink all night then tell everybody about it the next morning in very dull detail then get into arguments about silly things because we`re tired and annoying` that some big hostels get.
Bogota has lots of great Museums, including the National Museum that is in a building that used to be a gaol, a money museum with some excellent contemporary Colombian art, The Botero Museum that holds over 200 pieces of art donated by Fernando Botero, probably Colombia`s most famous artist. Lots of the works are by him and the rest are by a large range of international artists including Henry Moore, Pissaro and Picasso. Though you may not know the name Botero, you probably know his style. All of his works show objects and people on a massive round scale.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero

There was also a light exhibition on at the library that all of us from the hostel repeatedly went to. It was a whole lot of different experiments with light, hard to describe but one of the best things I`ve seen in South America.
There is also a Police Museum with a whole lot of stuff on Pablo Escobar, including a blood stained jacket, his sunglasses and a picture of him dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_escobar

The week I spent in Bogota was one of the best of my trip, therefore, that`s where i`m headed back to! I`m going to spend another few days there then go east and north.

Salt Cathedral
The Salt Cathedral is part of a salt mine in a town about half an hour from Bogota.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Cathedral_of_Zipaquir%C3%A1

I went with Kelly, Elisha and Eva, some girls from my Hostel. It`s really hard to explain how good it was but again, it is definitely in my top 5 of things i`ve seen or done in South America.
We had a really excellent guide who took us into the conference center, a section that other tours don`t go to.
It was a fun and exciting day. Earlier we all went to the British Consulate to help Elisha figure something out and i got to read an English Language newspaper and watch a little BBC. That night about 10 of us from the hostel went out and had a bizarre night out.

Night Time Activities
I`ve only really experienced the night life of Bogota so far as I haven`t been out in Medellin yet and the other places I`ve been are little towns.
Bogota has some most excellent places to go out and a bunch of us went out a lot. I went to a Hamburger Bar with live pop-rock-funk music, a house party with a live brass band, a club where a guy we were with knew the owner so we hung in the VIP section, a live electronic music thing by an Argentinian guy who I met playing Poker at the hostel and a bunch of other places. One of my favorites was Escobar for it`s excellent music.
Colombians are very very friendly and it`s easy to make friends when out and about. Though some of them will express a disbelief that we even came to travel in Colombia. I was in a liqueur store with a few others buying Aguardiente, a fiery Colombian alcohol, when this really dark and cute Colombian guy comes up to us, well, comes up to our shoulders and starts chatting, he asked us if we were scared of him because he was Colombian.

Zona Cafetaria
Colombia`s second most famous export is Coffee, and they have a big coffee region east of Bogots where there are lots of Coffee farms. i stayed at a cool little Hostel after taking a gruelingly hot bus from Bogota with Eva from Germany and Mark from Melbourne. We stayed in Solento, a perfect town, literally, it`s perfect. Try to imagine a Colombian colonial coffee town in the most beautiful place in the world and it`s probably not as good as Solento. Again, an excellent Hostel with excellent people.
The coffee region is all rolling hills and stunning green. We went to an exciting Coffee farm run by Don Elias, as coffee farmer who looks like what a coffee farmer should look like but with a bit of Cowboy thrown in. We also did a hike in the beautiful Valle de Cocora where the top of the trail is this little house where there are heaps of hummingbirds that are impossible go get good pictures of.

Then I stayed a night in a strange hotel IN a bus station and now i`m in Medellin, where i didn`t really mean to be.
I`m sure i`ve forgotten a lot, but i`ll try to update soon with some photos or something when I get back to Bogota.
Oh, and don`t worry, Colombia is safe. Last night was the first night there were no murders in Medellin for 15 years.

Here is a taste of the type of music I’ve been hearing a lot of, when Reggaeton isn’t blaring out of every speaker:

http://www.espacioblog.com/colombianos/posts/view/560897

The song is Que Bonita esta Vida and is very popular right now.

http://www.ilhagrande.com.ar/

So I´m psyched about that.
I think i need to tell you about Foz de Iguazu onwards. For those of you whatare slightly confused, that´s the Iguazu falls. They sit on the bordar of Brazil,Argentina and Paraguay, though it´s mostly Brazil and Argentina,I never heard of a Paraguayan side.

ba ba baaaa
I´m now writing later and the situation has changed, I´m pretty much being deported… very…. very… slowly.
BUT back to the falls.

The first day we went it was cloudy and dreary, but the falls were still amazing. To my vague knowledge, they´re bigger than Niagra but with less water, butimay be completely wrong. We went to the devils throat and did the upper track as we wanted to leave stuff to do the next day. We also saw many guinea pigs and a tall French man.
That night we had a lot of fun with a German-English couple, an American guy and another British guy. We played pool (which is how I won the single bed with my super skills, because of a mix up at the hostel and we were in a double room with an extra single bed instead of a dorm, so we played pool for the single) which then deteriorated into Killer with Beer which then deteriorated into our own vengeful brand of Killer where you gambled whether you thought the person after you would get it in by pouring the drink they drank if they didn´t get it in and you drank if they did. Hope that made sense. We all get very drunk as we are NOT that good at pool, a lot of beer also went to the floor and there was atime when the gambleddrinks were a mix of red wine and beer. It was a really good night though, good people.

So the next day we left later than planned and had to go into town to get money to go back to the falls. After this taking ages,Nik decided not to come to the falls for a second day, but Henry and I powered on. It was good that we did as
a) It was a beautiful day and everything looked amazing and very different to the day before. I think some sections of the falls look like Never Never Land, that sort of fantasy pretty.
b) I ran into Stefan who I had been hanging with in La Paz and Cuzco.He´s the one who looked a little like Charlie Chaplin when dressed up. He was with another guy from his hostel and we all arranged to meet up that night for some chow.
c) I saw a bunchof there funny hairy ant eaters.

I also took billions of photos at the falls that you will get the pleasure of seeing when I get accesstoadifferent computer that doesn´t have crazy virus software.

So a bunch of us went to dinner and then got ONE drink at a nearby bar as we couldn´t let a night like that go uncelebrated as it was a rangeof ´last nights´ for people who were heading home or to different countries. It was in fact the last night that Henry, Nik and I would be hanging together as they were off to BsAs and I was heading into the wild unknowns of Brazil, plus I actually got to say goodbye to Stefan this time as last time he had left before I woke up.

Sothe next morning the boys were off to the airport and I wasleft to make more friends, which feels like a daunting prospect when you´ve been with some people forover two weeks, but is actually less of a big deal when youremember that that´s exactly how you felt before meeting the people whojust left. And it wasn´t, I almost immediatly met David, a guy from Sydney who had onced lived one block from me. So we went to the Brazilian embassy together.Instead of all the hoohah of the La Paz consulate, this consulate literally look half an hour with nothing required except a new form and my passport. I was very happy and all the more angry at the La Paz people. So now I could go to Brazil,which meant leaving Argentina, which was sad. I spent the rest of the day wandering and shopping for Argentinian things (like a mate cup and mate,but i think i lost my straw which sucks) and having some cheese,salami and olives from the cheese salami and olives market.

That night I hung with a bunch of Europeans, lots of Germans,a french guy and a swiss guy, which was interesting. As a note, there are heaps of Europeans in Argentina.
In the morning i packedmy bags and was off to the bus station to get a bus to Foz de Iguazu, the city on the Brazilian side.
Here´s where things went wrong. We stopped at the Argentinian Immigration post, but not the Brazilian for some reason. WHich meant that Ileft Argentina but never went into another country legally. I was a bit tired and kinda sick with a bit of a cough and just thought it would be easier to go to immigration in Sao Paulo.This was probably a silly decision, but hell to that. I was on a bus to Sao Paulo half an hour later with an english language magazine and Harry Potter (which I had swapped with David for).
The bus journey really gave me an idea of how beautiful Brazil is.It´s all green and open spaces and has a very good vibe. Plus, all Brazilian people seem to be friendly and willing to help you, I think they´re the friendliest people I´ve met so far.

In Sao Paulo I got confused, got some help, got on the metro (I was very impressedby my mastering, or at least using of the public transport system), got to the centre of town, got on the internet, got a phonecard, called Marianna, got back on the Metro, got a bus, got thoughful about how nice Sao Paulo is and also how big it is, got to Santos, Santos is 40 minutes from Sao Paulo and on the beach, this is where Marianna lives. It has the longest beachfront park in the world and is in the guiness book of world record for this.
Marianna is a friend of mine from when I went to deepest darkest Canada on exchange and we bonded over our confusion.
In Santos I´ve been staying at her place with her family. Santos is a nice place to walk around, it has canals.
I´ve walked along the beach, been to Guaruja, the island next to Santos where we had lots of fun hanging with some of Marianna´s cousins and friends. i´ve bought some things, which made it even more urgent that I send stuff home.
My living conditions are drastically different to the rest of my trip. I have my own room with a TV (they have what about Brian here and i keepon feeling compelled to watch it, darn you Luke) and hot water and homecooked meals (no more Pollo Spiedo!). It´s very comfortable and a good break before i head straight back out there. Well not straight back out there, I´m now not going to Rio or Ilha Grande and instead I´m going to Ilhabela and then flying from Sao Paulo to Lima for a night, then onto Columbia. This is because when I finally went to see the federal Police they gave me only 8 days more in the country. I Felt this was strange,good for me but strange; they give illegal immigrants 8 days to leave the country of their own accord. I could stay, but then would get a fine.
I´m bummed about not seeing Rio but psyched about Columbia, so all is good and I feel quite badass; an outlaw fleeing from the country to a place where my kind are more welcome.

Today we went to Sao Paulo to go shopping for things and I got an excellent belt and a sarong with the Brazilian flag on it. Tomorrow I go to IlhaBela, and probably back tuesday to fly out on wednesday. I´m a bit worried about Lima after the earthquake, but I´ll check it out.
I´ll probably next update in Columbia when I have more of a tan.
Again, sorry for spelling, still struggling with keyboard.

Uyuni is a depressing and uninspiring town, nothing but the gateway to the Salar. On the other hand, we did have good Pizza and I bought some excellent gloves from the cold ahead.
The two things people say about the Salar is that it´s beautiful and bloody cold. With this in mind, when we were checking out agencies for the tour we wanted Sleeping Bags, an English speaking guide, a connection for Ipods to the car for music and Wine (which somebody had told us they got on a tour). We found one with 3 of the above so instead invested 65 Bolivianos in a bottle of Bacardi oro rum (about $12 Aus).

In the morning there we complications. Ouyr car didn´t have an Ipod connection, but did have CDs, so the boys went and bought a selection of fine music for us to listen too, plus Helen and I had some CDs. As a result we ended up with an eclectic selection including Hard Fi, Latin american pop and folk, Michael jackson, Manu Chau, Madonna, Beethoven, Nirvana and some of the drivers CDs that we discovered on the last day. This led to the odd and wonderful experience of listening to Like a Virgin as we sped accross the salt flats, Paint it Black as we cruised through moonscapes and Billy Jean as pink and grey clouds sat accross one of the best sunsets I´ve ever seen.
Also, we lost our english speaking guide and as a result I actually don[t know that much about the Salt Flats or the lagoons we visited.

Our little band of Heros grew to expand Antony, a french guy who I had met in Potosi and Lena an Israeli girl. So the 6 of us set off.

The first day was all Salt Flats, We glided accross this strange landscape and stopped quite often to take photos. Alas, we missed the Train Graveyard where they put dead trains because we left Uyuni an hour late. Helen and I weren´t particularly concerned but Henry and Nik had wanted to see it.
We were getting to the point where we were a little frustrated with the company because of their filure to live up to expectation, but when we asked the driver if we could call them he said he didn´t have the number. This didn´t sound good in general; we wondered what would happen in case of an accident, but later experience led us to think it was probably true.
We stopped at a little town that sold salt-made-mechandise, the Salt Hotel (that the guidebook says not to stop at as it is an Illegal Structure) some sort of mineral springs and the Fish Island (lack of guide means I don´t know the exact name) where we had munch and took trick photos.
because of the lack of Perspective in the Salt Flats everyone who goes takes funny photos where people look like they´re standing on each other´s hands etc…
We did our fair share (though saw some others later that made us with we had had more props, all we had was Mr Salt, a salt shaker we pilfered) and I assure you, you´ll be seeing many of them as soon as I figure out which CD they´re on.

The wierd thing about the salt flats, especially near the isalnd (which had cacti on it) is that it feels like you´re underwater, well I think so anyway.

We drove off into the beautiful sunset and to San Juan, where our HUMBLE abodse was waiting for the night. It wasn´t that it was that dirty or dodgy or anything, but rather that the electricity went off at 9 pm. i think that´s when you can call somewhere humble. So we had to play drinking games by candle light. We also met some irish girls and a british guy from one group and a Canadian guy from another. I think we polished off about 7 bottles of wine, a bottle of Lemon Vodka and the Rum. Therefore the morning was not welcome, especially as the night had been cold for me and i was a bit sick with a head old sort of thing.
I´m going to share with you the wisdom of the best drinking game in the world:
It´s simple, go around in a circle saying names, the next name always has to begin with the last letter of the previous name. If you can´t think of one, say one that has already been said that round or are too slow then you drink.
It may have been more fun than usual in our case because people kept coming up with obscure names then saying it was from their native country.

The next day was Lagoon and Rock day,in which we saw many beautiful lagoons, some flamingos in a lagoons and some rocks that are excellent and famous because Salvador Dali saw them and incorporated the formations into his paintings. We also ate outside for lunch next toa very windy lagoon whereourfoodblewoffourplates. Almost every other group ate inside. We also met a group that had a drunk driver and had comandeered the vehical from him and were driving themselves.
That night was ~the cold night~. But we were not cold as we made our own hot water bottlesout ofempty water bottles and pushed all the beds together (genius), and we were all toasty, even though there was no spooning action.
We got up VERY early the next morning to see the sunrise,which was nice, then we were off off and away to some geysers which were amazing and then to some hot springs. At the hot springs Nik was the only one to get in, but Henry and I put our feet in. There wasalso an old german guy with heaps of tattoos who got naked and jumped in… twice.

From there it was on to an ice covered lake and then to the Chilean border where ourgroupsplit as Lenawas going back to Uyuni and the rest of us forged ahead into new teritory.
In Chile we were in the town of San Pedro de Atacama, We had alot of fun, good food and drink (mmm… wine) met some interesting people, marvelled atthe attractivnessof the Chileans, andspent way too much money. I´m not going to give you an exact figure, but let´s leave it as CHile being ultra expensive. One Thousand pesos isroughly equal to one pound, and you´repaying about 2000 pesos for a beer, 5000 for a setmealor 1000 forasoft drink. This was a shock coming from Bolivia, but all worth it, much fun was had.

The next day,after a big bus befuddle, we got on ourown little hired bus to Argentina, there were 10 of us at this point and welistenedtoMadonna as we glided accross the driest desert in the world.
We got to Salta at 4 in the morning.
Salta is a beautiful city in Northern Argentina. I actually fell in love with argentina very quickly and have resolved to come back for more than a week another time. We had BBQ and steak and attracted even more people (went out to dinner with 14 people) (and had wine in glasses as big as yourhead (wellnot quite, but they were massive)) and had REAL coffee (my first down here).
But the fun and excitementonlylasted a couplefo days,as Nik, Henry and I took the 26 hour bus to Puerto Iguazu. The night before, Henry and I went out with some others to the ´clubbing district´ of Salta and wentto a cool club, saw a manu chau and bob marley coverband and met cool Argentinians,then got straight on the bus.

The bus ride wasn~t too bad, i think i slept for 15 of the 26 hours.
THEN! we were in Puerto Iguazu, and that chapter will have to be left for another day, probably next week as I am going to a beautiful island for the weekend with my friend Marianna.
I knowI promised photos, but i am struggling with Portuguese computers, but they will come soon and be amazing.

I wouldn´t have returned to La Paz for more than a few hours if not for the necessity of a visa for Brazil. Unfortuanatly, I arrived back into La Paz off my exciting bus ride right into a public holiday and very little was open. Still, I decided to venture out to the Brazilian Embassy just in case and to find out where it is. I caught a micro (private mini vans that serve as buses ) down to the swanky end of town where lots of the apartment buildings and embassies are. Unfortuantly it was not open, but at least I had discovered where it was so I could venture out bright and early the next morning and stun the Brazilians into giving me an extra speedy Visa with my earliness.

It did take me ages to find the exact location of the embassy, in guidebooks the only information given is the street name of a long street called Av. Arce. I must have asked 10 Bolivians, and was given a huge range of generally incorrect information as they (i hope) attempted to help me. My experience so far is that even if South American people don´t know where to direct you, they will give you directions anyway just to be helpful, this leads to many a walk down incorrect streets, but is a good way to practice spanish.

Spoent the rest of that day sitting around the hostel, reuniting with folks I had met the precvious visit to La Paz, Saying goobye as people moved on (probably never to be seen again) and watching DVDs as very little was open. The night before had been a big night at the hostel as two guys I know (one was Jeramy from Machu Pïcchu) had started working at the hostel bar and worked together that night. So it was a very relaxed mood that night. I did watch some of Saw 3 with a British guy who had broken his collerbone on Death Road. That morning 3 other people and myself had peer pressued him into letting us watch Napoleon Dynamite when he was tyrying to watch Lord of the Rings, so he was suprisingly friendly.

For a while I thoght I lost my wallet, but it was found behind one of the couches in the bar, I also spoke to a guy who lost his passport behind the bar and only found it when Immigration came to hassle him. I have on the other hand lost my Footprint guidebook, probably to another traveler (who else would). I plan to go on without it (they are bricklike and expensive) and then get a lonely plant Brazil when I get there as I know I´ll need one then. It´s pretty easy just to go on reccomendations and checking out other people´s guide books if necessary.

So the next morning I was up at 8 to be at the Brazilian Embassy at 8:30 am when the Lonely Planet claims they open. Luckely I got distracted on the way by coloured pencils and didn´t get there til 9:15, as they actually open at 9am. I took along my passport, thinking this would be a relativly simple process, and was given a whole list of things I would need to return with, including my Yellow Fever vacination certificate and a photocopy, proof of funds (bank statements) , Gypsy Tears and a photo of David Hasslehoff (ok, the last two maybe not, but there were other things I had to get on this quest). The task at hand id not seem to bad at first, annoying, but not too bad. So I returned to the Hostel to fill out forms and lie to the Brazilian governemnt about my Australian work address. I spent a bit too much time in the bar chatting to folks, and as a result, by the time I got back to the embassy, it was closed. AT 12 MIDDAY. Yes, they´re only open for 3 hours a day. As a consolation I went to see the Harry Potter Movie. It was excellent, by far the best of the movies.
As a note: do not tell me anything about the next book, I have a sneaky plan to read it in English, soon hopefully. I´m hoping that heaps of people buy it for flights then leave it in book exchanges, so hopefully i can get a copy in the next few weeks. Hahaha, what a sneaky plan.

So the next morning, I was up bright and early again to be at the embassy . I go there, presented my completed forms, Gypsy tears and photocopies, only to be told that no, I had not provided sufficient evidence of funds and they would not be giving me a Visa. This is might frustrating. Just to let you know, the only countries that need a visa for Brazil are Australia, Canada, Nigeria, the UAE, the USA and a few other eclectic countries. At least Australalians only pay US$35. Americans pay US$100, not for the Visa, that´s free for them, but as a processing fee. There´s a funny note down the bottom of the form explaining that for Americans, it is a reciprocal ageement, a you charge us we´ll charge you sort of thing. Good for them.
Luckely, I did discover that there are other embassies in smaller cities, so I´m going to try my luck in another office. If need be, I´ll buy a ticket out of Brazil and then the funds issue will be non existant.

At least now I could leave La Paz, just in time too, the next day (friday last week I guess) was the biggest strike and protest in La Paz´s history. The hostel basically told people not to go outside, and of those that did venture out into the streets, half were mugged as all the police (usually a very noticable and machine gun carrying presence) weren´t working apparently.
Unfortunatly, because of crossed wires and limited means of communication, I didn´t get to meet up with Viv´s friend.

Left La Paz on the thursday for Cochabamba. The bus ride was ok, spoke to a Bolivian Woman about Cochabamba being dangerous and warm and how Chilean accents are loco (crazy). Also watched Van Damme´s INFERNO in spanish, but i don´t know if it made any less sense than normal (they seem to be fond of The Damme in Bolivia, 3 other people told me they saw a movie of his on the bus over the next few days) . I was very stupid arriving in Cochabamba, as I had not booked any accomodation and was arriving at 10:30 at night. Fortunatly, though it was a dodgy situation, I found a hostel accross the road from the bus station. But I have learnt my lesson about booking accomadation if arriving at night.

Just to let you know, I have developed the great and impressive super power of being able to sleep on busses no matter the time of day, how much sleep I´ve had the night before or movie playing. You may scoff at the usefulness of this particular super power, but trust me, it serves me well.

Cochabamba was nice, I saw some art sort of accidently, and the new Harry Pottr film again sort of deliberatly when some Germans I met were going to see it. The plaza is Cochabamba is really nice wih lots of trees.
I kept on being told that Sucre was the place to be, so that´s where I wanted to bus it to next. Assuming that there would be busses at all times of day, I tured up at 8:30 am only to be told the next bus was at 8:30 pm. Because I didn´t have a book, I spent much of the day in a quest to find somethng on the internet to print out and read. I ended up with some of one of the sequels to Hitchhickers guide to the galaxy, a bit of Catcher in the Rye and (because I am uncool and feeling a little intellectually stunted because of too many crime novels) some Noem Chomsky. It was mostly the quest to find them that proved time consuming, but it was also good to have.

Caught an overnight Cama (sleeper) bus to Sucre. In the seat beside me was a woman and her two boys; they only had one seat for all 3. Luckely the boys (1 and 3) were lovely and very freindly. I think I slept almost the whole 10 hours (though it´s never that good sleep).

In Sucre I ran into Henry who I had met in the Hostel in La Paz, he was wih a bunch of other people who he had just met and we all went on a tour to the indigenous markets in the next town (they weren´t very good, though apparently they are reccomended by Footprint as a highlight of Bolivia) and all stayed in the same dorm at the hostel, went to a gringo bar called Joyride and generally had a good friendly day. It was Henry (NZ) and I and 4 brits.

The next day was really nice, just chilling around Sucre. In the morning I bought some Snow-Pea-like green beans and some water and took them to the plaza to eat while I read (now reading Inca Cola, a travellers tale of Peru, which is very funny). After a while I was approached by 3 shoeshine boys who wanted to polish my thongs/flip flops. I said no, but gave them some beans. They hung around for a while, asked me what country I was from etc… (though Austalia is in Europe, Austria maybe…) . Then I gave one of them a little chocolate bar I had on me, as an appology for not requiring shoe polishing, and the others wanted some too, so I went to a stall and got some for them, then they asked for some of my water (and how can you say no to anybody asking for water), so I gave them the bottle. After a bit more chat where they instructed me on the best place to get vegies in Sucre, they left. Not too long after I was approached by a woman selling woven bracelets, as I have enough bracelets as it is, I declined, but she was stubborn so I gave her some beans. Then a little boy came over and wante some beans too. They both got so into the beans that I ended up giving them half of my remaining beans each, and had no more. So I ventured off to the food market the boys had tol me about, where I got a massive Avocado, two custard apples that vthe woman convinced me to buy saying they were ´bolivian fruit´, some tomatos and bread, all for the equivilent of aound $2.50 australian dollers. Sat in the hostel courtyard an had amazing sandwiches, met a guy from Sydney who said he could pick that I come from Newtown (which is a great improvement over South Africa) and discovered that we have common friends. More Gringo Bars that evening.
It was a lovely day with much amusement.

The next day I left Sucre for Potosi with Henry. Luckely we were able to get there, there have been a lot of miners strikes around Potosi recently and people have been stuck. Interestingly and annoyingly, It is very difficult to get information on the strikes in the International Media, the BBC for example has so little on Bolivia it´s embarassing.

So now I´m in Potosi, but leaving tomorrow for Uyuni.Yesterday, Henry, Ingrid (NZ) and Erma (Estonia) ventured to some hot springs. Rather than go on a tour, we caught a Micro there, it dopped us off seemingly near no hot springs but the driver directed us up the hill. So we walked up a rocky hill with barey a path , found some small pools, walked up another hill and found the real hot sping. It was pretty nice, but like many things in South America that they just let gringos do, dangerous. Apparently, if you swim into the middle of the pool then you get sucked under, 6 people died not too long ago. So we stuck to the edges. For some reason, there is no signpost stating this and you basically have to rely to somebody telling you or the old man who collects your 5 Bs. being there.

Today I did some shopping for Bolvian things as I am leaving soon. Got some presents for people etc…
I´ve found my love of Enrique Iglesias again and if anything my love for that particular Latin Love god has grown. This is beause I keep on seeing and hearing him on the Latin American equivilent of MTV EVERYWHERE. Ádvesrtising works, I´m totoally going to buy a blackmarket (the only available) copy of his new album.

I´ve changed my plan by the way. I´m now going south into Argentina, then accross to Brazil Via the Iguazu falls. I was thinking of going to Chile to San Pedro de Atacama but I don´t think I will. I can hopefully get a visa for Brazil at the embassy in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side. Then accross to Sao Paulo and Santos where marianna is, then to Isla Grande which is apparently paradise, Rio for a little while and either fly out of there or Brasilia to Venezuela, from there to Cuba, and if possible, after cuba to Nicaragua where I can then make my way up to Oaxaca in mexico for the day of the dead through Guatamala and Honduras. Or just Cuba to Mexico.
It will be interesting to see how much of that I stick to.

That brings you up to dte without missing too much. I´ve met some really cool people in the last week, but explaining how cool they actually are can´t be explained.
Next update might be in Argentina, as after Uyuni I´m going to the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) for a few days, so the next internet might be in another country.
Hope all are well, especially Tash.

Patrick, Owain, Stefan and myself (l to r) at the very beginning of the hostel costume party, those moustaches didn´t stay like that foor long. I think Patrick looks a bit like Luke did at my 18th.

(not real tottoo) getting a bit further into th night and the bar

Be glad you can´t see the costume of the guy on the left. I think i ended up with the Corona bunney ears that Simon, the guy in the middle is wearing.

posing with Owain, the playboy mansion and a bunny.

Just to let you know, that was not a typical night for my trip….

Me not singing at Love City Karaoke bar after one of our adventures to the stadium without soccer.

Patrick and Owain singing (maybe Bohemian Rhapsody) as Stephan looks on.