We are spending our last days in Bolivia, we just finished up a month of drilling wells in Santa Cruz. Yesterday we took a 19 hour bus ride from Santa Cruz to La Paz, Bolivia. The bus played all three expendables movies on a little TV in the bus. The movies were in Spanish, but at least they’re movies that don’t rely heavily on dialogue. We are in the capital of La Paz, Bolivia for the weekend. On Monday we are going to take a bus ride from Bolivia, around Lake Titicaca, to Arequipa Peru, where we’ll be for several weeks.
We have decided that when they make a movie about our travels down here, we want the Hemsworth brothers to act our roles. I just want Thor to play me pretty much, if he worked out more for the role that is.
The number one thing that I will take away from my time in Bolivia is a love for mid-day siestas, they’re definitely a highlight of the day when you’re working.
A lot of the meals here turned out to be unexpected three course meals, which is always a great surprise. Fried chicken and French fries are what a lot of Bolivians eat here, which was another happy surprise.
Everyone has walls around their houses and complexes here. A lot of them have broken glass bottles on top. A lot of the foreigners here live in gated communities/compounds, that way they can have front yards and leave their houses unattended, and what not.
Last time I said it only rained here periodically, but then literally the next day it rained so bad that the whole first floor of the house flooded, it was the hardest rain I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something coming from the Oregon coast.
We decided to come to Bolivia partly because it’s the poorest country in South America, and that poverty has been apparent throughout our trip. When we were driving out to dig a well a guy washed his face in a puddle on the side of the road. At red lights people wash windows, or sell drinks to try and make some money. Little kids, around 5 years old do dance routines in the intersections at red lights. There are some Amish type people here in Bolivia that use old looking horse carts, but there are also many more people who use them based on necessity and not rules. You can tell the difference immediately because the non-amish people’s horses pull carts jimmy rigged out of broken car parts, kinda like in a post-apocalyptic movie. Surprising thing about Bolivia is that there’s almost ZERO Mexican food here. You’d think that tacos and tortillas and all of that would be found throughout South America, but apparently not. We found tortillas in a import food market, but it’s not a common food here. There are tons of hamburger places here though, and you better believe we found our favorite place. I don’t really remember what all I’ve said in the past, but if I wrote it and forgot then you all probably don’t remember either. Anywho’s, we will write back to you all when we are in Peru.
p.s. People always ask if Daniel and I are Mormon missionaries, or if we are twins. So therefore Daniel and I have now decided to tell people we’re twins. I’m older obviously, only by 6 and a half minutes though. We’re both 21 now, (because I didn’t want to be younger again) and Daniel is still working on his backstory for what he’s been doing for the past 4 years. If you have any suggestions please email or facebook Daniel. Our main storyline is just stealing the one from the movie “It’s a Wonderful life.” Daniel’s been taking care of the ole building and loan for the past 4v years while I’ve been away at college, playing football and what not.
The shower in our hotel right now is the coldest I have ever felt. It’s like taking the “Ice Bucket Challenge” every morning. But don’t worry, we don’t record it. We got up at 5:20 am today to take a tour bus to Peru. So talk to you all again from a different country and time zone. Ciao ciao for now.
