Back in Bolivia

It is definitely nice to be back in Bolivia where idiomatic phrases are familiar, things are much more inexpensive, and petty theft is a widespread occurrence. Start with the bad news and end with the good, right? Anna and I crossed the Argentinean/Bolivian border and then jumped on a bus headed for Tupiza. A short two hour bus ride from the border to Tupiza seemed easy as pie compared to the fifty some odd hours of bus rides the previous five days in Argentina we paid about three dollars total, fell into our seats exhausted but glad to be back.

I had put my backpack on the shelf above my seat, a horrible traveling rookie move, and then I fell asleep, another awful rookie move. To say the least when I woke my bag was not there and of course no one on the bus saw anything. The best part was that the entire busload of people, about eighteen people, all started looking for my bag and telling me to get off the bus first and watch everyone while Anna stayed on the bus to look for the backpack, but I’m sure the bag was taken earlier on in the trip by the random passengers that busses pick up along the route. It could have been much worse but all that was lost was a couple of good books, my leatherman, some good travel food and a GPS receiver, luckily no important documents or large sums of money where absconded. I have spent my entire Peace Corps service without a robbery incident and there I was back in Bolivia for less than two hours and I lose my backpack, so it goes.

After Tupiza we did a four-day salt flat tour, which was absolutely amazing, and I think Anna is writing a blog on this one and it should have tons of great pictures, as Anna is an incredible photographer/documentation-er.

Just outside of Tupiza.

Top to bottom and left to right: Anna, Tiff, Helen, Diana, me, and Emily, yes thats correct five girls and one boy for a four day trip, we had a blast. Human pyramid at 13 K feet, on our way to the Salar from Tupiza.

Currently, we are in Sucre, a beautiful town, with seven other former Peace Corps volunteers. We’ll be throwing an election party this eve and hopefully we will all be in high spirits at the end of the evening. After the election we will be heading towards La Paz and then onto Maddidi, which is a Bolivian rainforest destination, so more to come.

Paz, Tomas.