ओरूरो तो Cochabamba

So here we are in the incredibly friendly market town of Cochabamba. It is a far cry from La Paz in that it is clean and doesn´t have dead baby llama fetuses on the street. The dead baby llamas are sacrificed to bury under the Bolivianos homes to bring luck and good fortune to their homes. I just thought it smelled but I guess I can see where they´re coming from....Hmmm....Anyways, enough about gross stuff. Let´s talk about beautiful stuff!

After successfully completing the death road we have travelled down to Oruro, a lake-town in central Bolivia, and made a short day of rock-climbing and checking out their markets. They supposedly have agua termales (mineral waters) in this area but there was one clean one (Obrajes) and one dirty one (Capachos). We noticed there were tons of buses to Capachos but not one single bus to Obrajes. We waited around for about half and hour and then decided just to get on with it to Cochabamba. We had heard that this was the most beautiful city in all of Bolivia and they were not kidding! It is fantastic, clean and the people are very kind and gracious. We´ve learned a bit about Bolivia´s political situation through friendly cab drivers and various other vendors. It seems that about half the people support the new presidente Evo and the other half do not seem to care for him. We have been prying into what exactly he has changed and have only definitively found out that he has passed a drunk-driving ban. (This wasn´t illegal before???) We will continue to pry until we get the real Bolivian story. It appears that will happen sooner than later. We met a great bunch of kids last night on our first night and they offered to show us around so we can learn what the real Bolivia is all about. We´re talking about when people stop being nice and start getting real! Thank you ¨The Real World Cochabamba¨. :o)

Our friends have offered to take us around the markets (the best in Bolivia) and help us get the local prices on things like beanies (gorros), scarves (bufandas), mittens (guantes), jewelry (joyeria) y sweatshirts (chompas). Since Cusco, we three Americanos have been discussing a small business plan. We are going to ship home a bunch of South American garb and sell it at home in the United States. You at home are our first potential customers so if you have anything that you may want back home please email me as soon as possible. Our market days will be tomorrow and the next day. We are taking requests so if you have anything you potentially want or need please email me asap at cnightin@uci.edu. We are starting small at first so not to worry because the merchandise they have here is amazing and highly marketable in the states! Be sure to reserve yours today!

So enough of me hocking my wears. It has been a life changing experience to see how simply people can live and still be perfectly happy. I´m immensely thankful for my conscientious and adventurous side kicks Natasha, Noel and Anna. I couldn´t ask for better travel buddies! Keep following the llama and keeping me posted on your whereabouts! Be sure to register as a follower of the llama on this blog! Look forward to hearing from you! Ciao y hasta pronto mis amigos!