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So since we last blogged, a lot has happened.
Last weekend, we were in La Paz, which is the capital of Bolivia. We got there on friday night and Karl was still sick, so we called the (english speaking, american trained!) doctor and he sent out one of his colleagues to our hostel. He saw Karl for a while and perscribed some anti-spasmodics etc and told us to come to the clinic in the morning for some tests. So most of Saturday was spent going back and forth to the clinic. Karl had a blood and stool test and it turned out that there{s nothing specifically wrong with him and the doctors think he had a bacterial infection and he hasn't returned to normal. Speed up to a couple of days later and a course of probiotic tables and he is feeling normal! Yay!
Saturday night we decided to go see a movie - just a nice normal thing (besides, the hostel we're in is next door to a nighclub so very noisy!). We went and saw the new batman movie - which was good. A nice break from travel and not feeling well! What we didn{t expect though as that the meal that we had there made Jane very ill. She spent most of saturday night hugging the toilet! So sunday was another day laid up in bed with a brief trip out to get some food in the late afternoon, but thankfully whatever had held Jane up was only a 24hour bug and she was much better on Monday morning.
So it turns out that Monday was the national day of Bolivia. So NOTHING WAS OPEN! hehehe, after two days in bed we went to hit up the coca museum but it was't open. So we went to the Witches Market, which was just around from our hostel. It was partially open, fairly interesting - there's lots of handicrafts etc. What was very interesting there was that there are lots of options of dried llama fetus to buy. Jane asked them what they are used for and the stall holders said that principally they're used as offerings for the harvest thats about to happen. Also, when you build a new house some people bury one under their front porch to bring good fortune to the house.
In between this we were trying to get a bus to Uyuni - which is a town in south Bolivia where we can get access to the Salar de Uyuni which is the biggest salt flat in the world. As it was a public holiday no one was answering their phones... by late afternoon we had organised a bus for that evening at 8pm (it´s a 10 hour bus trip).
In the afternoon we went for a walk and found Plaza de Murillo. Turns out that it was the main square when there was still a divide between the Spanish inhabitants and indigenous inhabitants of La Paz. Apparently theres was a line (which is now the main avenue) that runs down the hill that divided the indigenous from the spanish. Anyway, it is where the Congress and Presidential residence of Bolivia are. It´s actually a very nice plaza and there were STACKS of people there (it's the photo for this entry). As it was a public holiday there were so many families there. Lots of street vendor selling un-popped pop corn for the kids to feed to the pigeons ( and they were doing so in legions!) and also selling ice creams and food. We had a nice chill out for a while - there´s quite a few monuments and statues and Jane did her best to translate them for us.
The building in the picture is congress so we went and had a look on the outside, then around the right where the presidential palace is. It was fun to have photos with the guards.
Then that night we took the bus to Uyuni.... a totally different story we will blog about soon! But for now the internet cafe is shutting!
more later!
- comments
Bruce Goodwin Burying the llama fetus to bring good luck reminds me of when you girls were being born we read of people who take the placenta and bury it in the garden - supposedly good luck and good nutritional value. Never fear, nothing like that is buried in our yard - only Meg's gold fish:)
John H Good to hear from you guys again, hope the rest of your trip goes by without needing to battle any more lurgies. At least you will have built up impressive immune systems by now! Biggest salt flat in the world sounds kind of interesting. I wonder if there is any mining done on it or if you will see any human activity on the flats at all? Bolivian Burt Munro et al ?! Keep us posted :)
rob guess thay dont have salt lake racing there