One week in

As promised, I will now give a few details on our first week living in Bolivia. But I warn you, and apologize in advance, it wasn't exciting at all...

We arrived tuesday morning after an overnight flight and obviously went straight to bed. Not only was it necessary to get some rest after trying to sleep on a plane but it is also the best cure for altitude sickness. Or so I thought. Altitude gives you bad headaches, and absolutely no energy. Another key element to fight it other than rest is coca. As in the coca leaf, not coca-cola. You have to drink coca tea and really, I don't like it. It tastes like leaves. Which it is. Try boiling some dried fall leaves and that's probably what it tastes like to me. So you're tired and headachy and you have to force yourself to drink dried leaves.

Friday, I thought we were doing much better, so I decided it was time to go run important errands: get a phone and a post office box (there is no home post here, you need to buy a box). We got to the post office and the scene was really weird... I could see there were people in, but all the glass doors were locked with huge chains from inside. Then we noticed handmade signs on the doors that apologized profusely to the customers but that the workers wanted to get rid of the general management and thus were on their 9th day of hunger strike. HUNGER STRIKE. Bolivians never protest the half-ass way. So we just stood there wondering what to do next and judging ourselves for our complete lack of social commitment. We decided to go get a cell phone. That ain't easy either - to get a line that will work in Tiwanaku we learned that we need to find ourselves a cell phone (used one) and then go to the place where they'll hook us up with a line. We went to bed instead, at like 8pm.

Saturday we went on our quest to find 1) a cell phone, and 2) a router to get wireless in the house. These should be found in the same area of La Paz, the Oyustus market, or the "Black market" as I've heard it being referred to. That is a stretch of about 10 blocks by 10 blocks, all organized by "areas" and, obviously being in La Paz, going way up and way down, then up and down, to make sure it is utterly exhausting for out of breath gringos. The way the place is organized in areas means that if you need something like a cell phone, there is a 2 block by 2 block area of just cell phone stuff. One vendor after another sells the same thing and you are assured you will never stumble upon a router too. It's something I still haven't figured out about Bolivia, why do people gather together to sell the exact same stuff instead of spreading around. All I know is that once the cell was bought, we were told to hike up past the pig meat area, then walk down into the kitchen implements area, then up into the computer area. I don't know how we did this but we eventually found a router and called it a day. But after that day we were exhausted and frankly, I realise after the fact that this was a really REALLY stupid thing to do when you have only been in a high altitude area for 2 days...

That night, Wes got the worst case of altitude sickness I've ever seen. He was shaking like a leaf (his shaking actually woke me up), and had a high fever, and started puking like there's no tomorrow. I tried to be the best girlfriend I could, being reassuring and all, but really I was totally worried. I did get up to google the symptoms to find out it was indeed altitude sickness and not some crazy flu bug. Next day I got up and bought altitude sickness pills that I have to say are miraculous. Within 2 hours his really high fever had broken and the shaking stopped almost immediately. Obviously this ordeal wasn't enough to test our patience with Bolivia, we were both sent an extra case of the "tourist stomach problems". Hey, at least we now both have Hollywood-worthy bodies with tired dead eyes that make us look like heroine junkies. How cool is that! In your face, Kate Moss and Pete Doherty!

Since then, we've started again running necessary errands for newcomers. Got a phone line, went to immigration to ask what I need to stay here for 9 months (it'll be either really simple or REALLY complicated...), went to Tiwanaku to say hi to people I know and check on the status of a llama skeleton I ordered last year. It was good to see the site again, although you can see there is a definite effort to make the town more appealing to gringos. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, it's just interesting. Newly painted buildings, totora (reed) benches near the museum, a new not-yet-finished huge hotel. I also had to go visit the Canadian consulate in my neighborhood of La Paz and stumbled upon a beautiful park with the most amazing views of La Paz. I can't believe I didn't know it existed! I promise next time I go I will take pictures and post them. I'm not blazé of that place yet.

That's it for now. Tomorrow La Paz organizes a "night of the museums" where ALL the museums of La Paz are free from 8pm to 1 am and there's tons of music playing. Should be fun!