Hola:

Here is another installment of our trip so far. First a few things about food. The bread in La Paz is absolutely delicious. It tastes just like a french baguette so it's a welcome relief from the stuff that passed for bread in Chile. Most of the hotels include breakfast in their price and the breakfast at this hotel has been the best so far. Fresh fruit, papayas, mangoes, watermelon and bananas with yogurt and cereal. Coffee with warm milk and of course bread with jam and butter.

In Chile all we had was one piece of bread with jam and nescafe. Still it was better than nothing first thing in the morning. Another little tidbit of related info. on smoking. The great wave to

marginalize smokers had hit Chile 3 months before we got there so I couldn't smoke indoors at all.

Secondly every package of cigarettes has this naked from the waist up bald guy on it. It's pretty unsettling when that's what you're staring at in a store. Mercifully they only have him on one side. I only bought one pack there, it was just too freaky. People in La Paz hardly smoke at all.

I've barely been smoking myself which is a good thing at this altitude.

La Paz is pretty mindblowing. Yesterday we went to the witchcraft market where they sell amulets, little ceramics of various gods, dessicated llama foetuses at various stages of their development which are supposed to be for good luck. Anybody want one? They also have dried up toads and frogs on which they put huge googly eyes. These guys in black, brujos or sorcerors, will read coca leaves but not for gringos. That's O.K. by me. Some things need to remain private, just for them, too much has been commodified already.

It's unbelievable how hard the people work. From my hotel window I saw a cholla buy about 30 pounds of potatoes, put them in a plastic bag, tie it up and stick the whole thing in a shawl,which they all seem to have, and put it on her back. They push, pull, drag but mostly carry all sorts of incredible loads and a lot of it uphill. We are so soft, sheltered and pampered. We wouldn't last 2 days if we had to make a living in this kind of envronment. Today I just threw out a pair of socks which had holes in them because I can't bear to wear socks with holes. It's cheaper to buy than to fix. That's because I'm a stupid, pampered Westerner. Anyways we bought 2 pairs of socks for Stan for 5 bolivianos and it's about 7 bolivianos to 1 Canadian dollar.

Today was market day in many of the streets of La Paz. I can't describe what it was like, it was Kafkaesque, delirious in scope. First you have to fight through huge crowds and traffic to climb up this steep street with stalls and shops on both sides and people who have no stalls but have just set up anywhere basically and are selling juice or whatever. Meanwhile there are still buses, cars, combis taxis going both sides of the street. The stench of shit from sewers was quite overpowering. A pure vision of chaos. We ended up taking a collectivo, one of those countless vans with a person screaming out where the van is going. It was already packed so we squeezed in in the back. It was going to the cemetary which was our destination for buying tickets to Copacabana and don't ask why. Beside the cemetary is a huge flower market and that was a beautiful sight indeed. The cemetary was a welcome break from the madness of the market.

There must have been thousands upon thousands of little crypts and almost all of the ones we saw had fresh flowers. The cemetary was lively with people, cleaning the crypts, putting fresh flowers, kids running about. They really know how to cherish, remember and honour their dead.

We certainly don't do quite as well. It was a profound experience to witness that.

It always rains in La Paz every afternoon and it's mostly about 65 degrees so it's not a warm place. When it rains the chollas put plastic bags over their hats, it's quite a sight. The coca leaves don't give you any buzz at all. You can chew till the cows come home but it's fun to try.

You imagine the buzz rather than actually feel it. In any case the buzz is just being here in this wild and crazy place. Hope this wasn't too long or boring. Lots of love,

Josiane

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