From here to there

Well, Liz and I seem to be on a whirl wind tour of southern Bolivia. As we were planning to get to Buenos Aires by November first, we have been rushing down there. Our first stop after La Paz was Cochabamba, only a 8 hour overnight bus ride. We relished in the hot hot heat and crazy humidity. We went shopping straight away to buy more tank tops! We also saw a couple of the can't miss sights like an old mansion built by a rich miner (at one point he was one of the 10th richest in the world). The house, and especially the gardens were beautiful. We also hired a cab to take us up to the high hill to see a big Jesus. Liz and I took pictures under the big Jesus, holding our arms out singing, "She's got the whole world in her hands!"
We are going to hell for sure. We really took it easy in Cochabamba and had a nice time. We boared another bus to take us to Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz is another world compared to what we had been seeing in Bolivia. It's rich, it's white, and it's clean. No stray dogs running wild, no beggars (ok, less beggars), and amazing international cuisine. Again, it was so hot here as we had been spending most time in the altiplano of Bolivia (around 4,000 meters) and now we were at a nice 400m. The sun baked us, but we were loving it. Our first night there we ran into our old friend, Ruairi, whom we met climbing Machu Picchu. He and a friend were bellied up at (you guessed it) and Irish pub. We left with them to head to the hot spot of San Miguel. This area is lined with bars and clubs. All the young people are on the streets drinking outside their cars blaring music louder than the clubs. Just like home (well, almost). We had some beers and chatted. The next night we went out again and partying with rugby teams that were in for a championship. Needless to say, we were out quite late. Our days were spent just relaxing and enjoying the heat. Our last night we stayed in at our hostal and hung out with other travelers recouping from the weekend.


On the bus again to Sucre. We arrived after a short 14 hour bus ride. We arrived in Sucre at about 7 am. We got breakfast and immediately went back to bed. Seems we didn't get much sleep on the bus. But we did manage to get some colds. We found people to be very rude and unpleasant in Sucre. We only stayed two days and made our way to Potosí.

In Potosí we did the obligatory miner's tour. It is tour that takes you underground to the silver mines of Potosí. Unfortunately for us it was the Halloween, Day of the Dead, and All Saints Day holidays which meant everything in Sucre and Potosí were closed. But for the tour it was a good thing as the miners were taking the day off because it meant much less dust in the air.
It is already hard to breathe as Potosí is the highest city in Bolivia, but being underground with all the miners dust in the air made it really hard to breathe. We wore bandannas over our mouth and nose, but they did little good. We climbed (hand and knees at some points) through this Bolivian mine and have never felt more uncomfortable. After descending to the third level we heard a lone clank clank clank.
There was a miner. One sole miner still working even though it was a holiday. Turns out he was working by hand in the dark. His head lamp had burned out. So we sat there and gave him light, water, and some Bolivianos (money). He was so happy and grateful. We were hoping he would take a break and go spend time with his family,but he wanted a few more hours of work. It was amazing. Remind me to never complain about a job again! Liz (the crazy girl) even held live dynamite after we left the mine and blew shit up!


We spent just one more day in
Potosí and caught a 14 hour bus to Villazon. We arrived in Villazon at 5 am with no sleep as it had been the bumpiest, worst ride yet. Poor Liz's seat didn't even recline at all. We bought a ticket to head 24 hours to Buenos Aires. We waited until 10 am and boarded that bus. The bus drove us about 5 blocks to the boarder of Argentina. We all got out of the bus and waited at the boarder. Still not sure what we were waiting for. We did not board the bus until 2 pm. We were not the most pleasant people at this point. I tried to stay at a distance from everybody as I was sure I would snap any moment.
But once finally able to board it was a nice bus and we had the whole bottom level to ourselves. They served good food and played decent movies. We were able to sleep, thank god. We finally arrived in the mother land at 4 pm the next day.

Liz and I are so excited to have gotten to Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful big city and we love it. On the bus ride we made friends with a Canadian Chad. We found a hostal and decided we had to go out and celebrate our new found city! We had great steak dinners at a nice restaurant that played Tango music! A great start. We went out from there, met more travelers and stayed out until 5 am on our first night.




The next day Lizzie and I were on a mission to find an apartment to rent. Mission accomplished! We found a great two bedroom apartment in a great neighborhood, in between Recoleta and Palermo. We even have a pull out couch for visitors! So, no excuses... we will be here for one whole month. You are all invited!