Bolivia, what to say about Bolivia? Bolivia is like Peru´s younger redheaded step-brother.  No, better yet, Bolivia is Peru´s Canada.  Bolivia is doing things just as well if not better than Peru but doesn´t get half the credit or notoriety that Peru receives.  It provides many of the same attributes as Peru: historical architecture, Inca heritage, and music/dress that are the exact fucking same.  Take a woman carrying half the world on her back, a kid playing the flute then asking for money, and an old man with a cheek full of coca leaves from each country; think you can tell the difference?  Yeah right, and Grizzly Adams had a beard.

Granted the infrastructure and business are a bit behind, but Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, what do you expect?  Not to worry, the two of us have done our best to try to singlehandedly boost their economy.  In a place we thought we would be saving cash we ended up simply raising the quality of lifestyle to compensate for the cost difference.  What were private rooms with a bathroom turned into a private cabin/house, sandwich lunches replaced by eating out, and don´t even get me started on our recycling campaign (Enough glass was used to replace all of the windows in a small office building.)

All that being said, Bolivia is not going to make my top ten list for countries I need to revisit.  The two of us have decided that there is never any reason to visit a place that is that cold that does not have some type of mountain we can snowboard down.  It is nice to stretch your money, but the sacrifices you have to make in regards to transportation, infrastructure,  and quality doesn´t really make up for it THAT much.

Food:

The food in Bolivia was actually not terrible (As far as the standards of countries we have visited so far).  We had heard horror stories about the food while we were in Peru, but I actually thought it was on par.  Or at least the quality of restaurant we visited went up?  Plenty of vegetables available, great soups, the chicken and steak weren´t always reflective of a piece of road kill that was ran over by a 18 wheeler, and the street food was the best we have had yet: Deep fried mashed potato balls with various fillings, Saltenas (similar to an empanadas only with a sweeter bread and better fillings), and plenty of fresh squeezed juice available.

Top Rated For The Trip:

The salt flat tour was pretty spectacular.  Not just the salt flat itself, but the lagoons, geysers, and flamingos were cool too.  Who the fuck thought there would be flamingos in place as barren and cold as Bolivia?  Perhaps I should have paid more attention in earth science class, but I thought they were warmer climate animals?  Maybe I am just confusing all the lawn ornaments in Florida stereotypically portrayed on T.V.?

Items lost:

Sally´s desire to ride horses (from almost being decapitated by a tree and falling off a horse)

Our tan and the moister from our skin

Bret´s debit card (left in an ATM machine in Sucre – that’s two for those of you keeping track at home)

Items acquired:

A never-ending runny nose

Current Running Rummy Scores:

Sally – 27 games won

Bret – 24 games won

Highest Score – 507 (Sally)

Lowest Score – 104 (Sally)