Today everything got rolling...

A little tired thanks to our im promptu concert visit last night, we headed out to a nearby French bakery to get some pastries. The 2 other interns here right now are Marion and Leigh. Marion is from Grenoble, France, has been here a few months and has managed to make a lot of friends here in La Paz. Leigh is studying journalism in New York and is very, very red.

After pastries it was time to start finishing work on last month's edition. The last edition of Bolivian Express had the theme of Contradictions. Most of the proofreading was left to grammar nazi Leigh whilst I was assigned some captioning. Some images from an edition from five years ago were being reused, an edition on food, so I wrote some captions on Bolivian trout, wine and bull penis soup.

The editing took a while, so it was late, but free, lunch at a nearby restaurant. Dry pork smothered in barbeque sauce.

The editors are an interesting set of characters. Caroline, French-Peruvian, who interviewed me, is currently in France, so here in Bolivia are Ivan, Luis and Adriana. Ivan and Luis are a pair of rather intimitating, white Bolivian men - think passionate loud Latinos - but all in all seem perfectly nice after a bit (think they just seemed a bit pissed off about the magazine having too many photos...and a group of anarcho-feminists being really picky about how the magazine covered them). Adriana seemed a bit ditsy at first but we had a really interesting chat over some Api (a warm, purple corn drink) in a cafe after our editor's meeting. Adriana is the one in charge of working out interview schedules etc. whilst Ivan and Luis are the bosses. No-one is properly employed by the magazine - it's largely a hobby.

We then had the editors meeting, basically just me Leigh and Adriana, discussing what to write in the upcoming edition. The theme is jungle.

It's pretty much a given I'll be doing a piece on the Fiesta de Moxos, an enormous festival in the jungle at the end of the month (spoilers... I hope). There are also plans afoot to do a piece on animal conservation or a related topic, and maybe an ecolodge. All exciting!

It was really interesting chatting with Adriana over an Api Pastele. She was concerned about how Bolivia may go to the s**t next year with the upcoming elections. President Evo Morales has basically been the best president Bolivia's ever had, having turned around a basketcase of a country into the western hemisphere's fastest growing economy. But there's a small problem. He's clearly involved in narcotrafficking and so wants to stay as president to avoid jail. Bolivia ain't a country to take that kinda s**t and it's likely that next year's "elections" could get rather messy, given Bolivia's track record for ginormous protests and blockades.

Tasty. Am glad am here this year!

Anyway, to researching! And most likely, another Spaghetti Bolognaise....

Vamos!