The Mask(s)

Visit to the folklore museum which hosts a collection of masks from all over the country:

And a couple of cool rugs

Weird Stuff You See in Bolivia

Onwards to the capital, La Paz, which even though it has a couple million of people, still kinda feels like a rural town somehow...

The streets are super chaotic...

 And then you see some unique stuff...

Memo to all Bolivian marketers... Fundamentalist muslim terrorists tend NOT to project the right brand image...

Again, unfortunate branding for a travel agency...

My personal favorite is the government´s slightly surreal, sword-rattling propaganda... Despite being a landlocked country, Bolivia does have a navy (stationed on lake Titicaca). But apparently Evo thinks he can grab back access to the coast from Chile. Good luck mate... It's probably just some demagoging for reelection though...

 And then we have the people in zebra costumes at the zebra crossings. I'm totally serious... these guys have flags to facilitate crossings... They're very friendly zebras, eager to high five everyone...

But things get REALLY weird at the witches market...

And downright grotesque...


And the quintessential Bolivian image of a Cholita selling stuff on the street...

Bolivia is a trip...

Bolivia

Well, Bolivia isn't off to a great start...

As we stop for a toilet break/money change in a village right before the Peru-Bolivia border, I walk out of the bathroom to find that the bus has left without me, my backpack is on board and everything...

After a couple minutes to recover from the shock, i flag down a cab and chase the bus to the border. Ten minutes later i've caught up with the bloody thing and accept the driver's sheepish apologies...

To make things worse, I started coming down with some kind of bug leaving peru and have to spend a couple of days nursing myself back to life. Not only does it suck being sick on the road but heating is not a concept that seems to apply to hotel rooms around here...

Staying in the other Copacabana, Which is by lake titicaca (I assume that explains the quotation marks below). It's the usual business of no working ATM in town... After another half day trying to sort out some cash, i'm ready to explore the world outside of my refrigerated hotel room...

Bolivian cholitaS (women in traditional clothes) selling stuff on the main square.

 

Loads of houses still being built with adobe bricks

The Wood Canine Development Index

So there´s a lot of stray dogs around Central and South America... which has led me to perfect the Wood Canine Development Index. Basically, the idea is that the street dog population tends to mirror the level of human development and quality of life. Factors weighing into the index include:

- Number of stray dogs = Generally, more dogs means poorer region, BUT health of dogs is also important as it could mean the region is able to support more dogs, hence indicating decent conditions.

- Shabiness of the dogs = A pretty key factor. No matter the number of dogs, if they look underfed and flea ridden, that´s an all-around negative. A country with more pets on leashes generally tends to have higher level of development.

 - Age of the dogs = Older dogs surviving generally indicates a better quality of life, while a lot of puppies is rarely a good sign. At least for the dogs...

South Peru

|Making my way through Southern Peru I hit Arequipa a cute little town that´s on the way to Bolivia -- my next destination.

There's actually a little bit of social unrest with a student strike + anti-mining demonstrations that are going on daily... Road blocks all over the region and some violence in other towns...

ROCK it...

In the cathedral...

But maybe the highlight of my trip, this amazing (and still working) convent right in the center of town

 

that s so big it has its own streets

 Its own bakery

Its own cemetary...

With an early toilet...

++