31st January 2013

Its been a pretty busy couple of days in La Paz for me in the run up to my sojourn to Peru... I've nearly come to an end of my Spanish lessons and in an effort to give me some time to practice before my final assessment Carlos (my instructor) taught me past and present tenses this week in ten hours of classes across Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I really can't quite believe how far I've come with my Spanish, not bad for someone who's pretty convinced that his memory is permanently impaired for one reason or another. Outside of Spanish I've been pushing on with various pieces of research, including my first proper interview! Tuesday night I met with Elena McGrath a PHD student I met at my Spanish school from Michigan who's thesis is all about the history of mining co-operatives in Bolivia. We met in the Blueberry cafe where I picked her brains for a couple of hours ahead of trip we're making together in a couple of weeks to visit some mining co-ops in Oruro. As soon as my website's up and the visit's complete I'll have my first research article up for public consumption so watch this space.

Aside from work stuff I've spent a bit of time wandering around La Paz to visit various mountain trekking outfits to see if I'd be able to climb Illmani before I head off. This was complicated initially by the pretty much complete closure of central La Paz on Tuesday thanks to a bus strike. I'd mistakenly assumed that a bus strike simply meant there would be no busses running Tuesday. In reality hundreds, yes hundreds of collectivos (these are little toyota people carriers that ship people all around the city) blockaded the Prado. The Prado is the main street in La Paz which pretty all street connect to (try to imagine beach tree leaf and you're pretty much looking at an overhead view of La Paz, the Prado being the central vein). Thanks to the blockade most everyone in La Paz had decided it was best to take the day off so no mountain excursions for me. Undeterred I tried again the next day only to find out the first available (safe) date to make the ascent is after I leave so I'm going to have to settle for the lower (still 6,088m) and slightly less challenging Huyana Potosi. Also found time to eat some more Bolivian delicacies, this time it was quinoa soup in a little restaurant run by a good friend Ruben's. Its up in the hills of La Paz nestled underneath one of the most famous paradors called Kiri Kiri. I think it just about killed Ruben getting up there thanks to a rather heavy night on the Fernet (form him not me) but it was well worth the trip. I've always looked down my nose at Quinoa but I have to admit this soup was on a par with my granny's own scotch broth. If you're ever in La Paz let me know and I'll give you some more detailed directions.

As I'm writing this post I'm once again on a bus this time rapidly approaching Cuzco for a week of fun and frolics here and in the nearby sacred valley. The bus journey today has been a definite step up form the Argentinian experience for a variety of reasons.... First the journey has almost all been in day light and the scenery has been at times breath taking. We skirted around lake Titicaca (highest lake in the world if you didn't know), and I can report its very big and very beautiful. It was almost hard to remember how high up we were as the Alti Plano plateaux it sits on is so vast with flat plains and distant mountains climbing higher still. I suppose it must be the biggest / highest plateaux outside of Tibet? The waters of the lake gleamed bright sapphire blue as we sped past adobe houses and farmers tending their plots shaped like run-rigs (minus the dry staine dykes) running towards the reed beds around the edge of the lake's tranquil expanse. Next bonus was the border crossing which took no more than two hours to clear. A hell of a lot better than the Bolivia – Argentina crossing that was more like six.

The final travel treat was a book called The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduard Galleano. I'd recommend it to anyone how intends to come and visit Latin America or an interest in history. I was glued to it all day and found myself devouring it cover to cover (a feat I've rarely achieved in my life). I won't try to give a synopsis but simply state that its a pretty insightful history written with the panache usually reserved for great novelists. Not to say that its in anyway fictional but this ability to paint a picture makes it one of the, if not the best history book I've ever read.

Lights have come up on the bus so I guess we're about to arrive at the station. Not bad just two hours later than advertised!