BOLIVIA!!

I´m in Bolivia! And it´s awesome!

But first...airport stories! (of which I have a lot.)

Play, so my flight from newark to miami was pretty uneventful, but then I had a six hour layover in miami which then turned into...an eight hour layover. anyway, while I was waiting for a plane, the following amusing things happened (insert colon because I can´t find it on the bolivian keyboard.)

1) I made friends with a guy who was trying to guess what musical instrument I was carrying (unsuccessful). eventually I showed him the ukulele and he pulled out his bass guitar, and we bonded over our four string instruments.

2) >I made friends with a tiny little bolivian lady who needed to use my phone to call her son in Maryland. I understood enough of the conversation to get the general gist of what she was saying about me, and then the son started texting me...urgh.

3) Flight was delayed almost two hours, but flying over the andes at sunrise was seriously worth every penny i spent on the plane ticket. awesome. awesomeawesomeawesome.

so now, santa cruz stories!

when you get a visa, it´s 135 dollars for american citizens because bolivia´s mad at the us´s immigration policy for bolivians, so they in turn charge americans just to get in. anyway, I gave the guy my hundred thirty five, and he looks at one of the dollar bills and said something in spanish that i didnçt catch. the ice lady behind me translated (colon) "he says he doesn´t like that dollar bill and he wants another one." except I didn´t have anymore. she gave me a good dollar bill and I gaver her my...slightly wrinkled one.

bolivia is pretty awesom,e it looks pretty much as I had imagined. there are palm trees and other random shrubbery. horses and cows graze on the sides of the road (sans fence). I saw a kid holding up traffic because he was juggling in the middle of the street. driving is ridiculous. drivers are ridiculous. crossing the street is like playing roulette. more than once while we were in the taxi on our way to the hostel, construction had closed the lane but no matter. we just went over the median.

añso, there´s a lot of dirt. seriously. also a lot of buildings falling down. and needless to say, I stick out like a sore thumb. it took me a while to figure out why everyone would slow down and beep, even if there was no one in front of them, but then I realized they were beeping at me. urgh. awkward. I´m not hard to miss.

so yeah! I´m sure I have other stories but I can´t remember them right now. adios!