cockroach sandwich

wednesday
abi and laura went to the silver mines in potosi, i didn´t as i get claustrophobic getting on the tube, so i figured it wouldn´t be much fun. they reported back that it was a real eye-opener, the life expectancy of the miners is around 37, they work for sometimes 24 hours without stopping, and for making 480 bags of silver over 2 weeks between 3 of them, they will earn 200 dollars. which is taxed, but the companies that employ them don´t pay any tax, and drive around potosi in big jeeps. i´m not going to buy any silver ever again now. there is asbestos in the mines, the miners don´t wear any masks, some of them are as young as 12.
instead of doing that, i wandered around potosi, it´s quite cobbly, and more higgledy piggledy than other towns we´ve been to, surrounded by mountains. lots of dust and poverty, and street stalls selling weird looking meat-potato products, that juan told us not to eat ever. i then found la casa de las monedas, which was where they used to mint all the bolivian currency. it´s meant to be very interesting so i went in and wandered around, but all the doors were locked, and eventually i found a little tour, so i joined on to that. it was all in spanish, so i didn´t understand it, but it was interesting to look around and try to figure out what the tour guide was talking about. i learnt a few new words and saw some old coins. abi and laura did the same tour in the afternoon, but in english (so clever), so they updated me, and it turned out i had understood some bits, about pirates, and a box with a lot of locks on it.
after lunch (pizza) (again), i sat in the central square and read my book, and a little boy came and sat with me and we had a conversation. he was called rolando, and was 9, and had a brother, and his little sister had died when she was young, and his mum was a teacher, his favourite subject was drama, and he hated maths - i agreed with him. i told him i was from england, and was waiting for my friends, and i was going to la paz and had he been. he had. i gave him a postcard of john o´groats i´d been using as a bookmark, and a biro, and i wrote some words in english for him. he said he liked the picture on the postcard. he gave me a little cardboard box as a gift, and he showed me a little toy lion he had in his pocket. then after a while he left to find his mum.
we then wandered around some more, and went up a little tower to look at some views, we had a tour guide who asked if we understood spanish. i said un pocito, and then he launched into a huge speech about the history of the town and the tower, and all sorts of things that none of us understood, which resulted in lots of giggling. we felt bad as he was so earnest, so i made up for it by asking some questions, and obviously not understanding the answers. a vicious circle.
we spent the night on a night bus. while queuing for the bus i helped a man who was digging a hole, by shining my torch for him, so he could see the hole better. we had a conversation, but as usual i didn´t know what it was about. i bought a bottle of whisky (it´s my new favourite thing), but after learning there was only one wee stop at midnight, i decided to only have a little bit of it. and no water. slept amazingly well considering.

thursday
arrive in la paz at 630am from night bus at bus terminal. very busy and noisy and lots of policemen whistling the traffic around, they seem to favour this technique, instead of traffic lights, maybe gives them something to do. our bus ran out of petrol about 20 metres from the actual bus stop because the bus company fill the bus up with exactly the right amount of petrol for the journey, having weighed all the luggage on, because otherwise the bus drivers will sell any remaining petrol on.
got to our hotel in pretty bad moods due to earlyness and having slept on a bus, then i went back to sleep. in the afternoon we did a city tour which was really interesting, run by a nice old man called pablo. he doesn´t like the president (evo morales, who the referendum was about the other day, which could have led to the revolution that would have meant we couldn´t come to bolivia), he thinks he is a liar, but seemingly the rest of the country are pleased with him as they voted him in again. he took us to a museum of pedro domingo murillo, who started the revolution in 1809, or 1948, i couldn´t quite figure it out, and will investigate some more. he told us about how bolivians are catholic, but also worship pachamama who is mother earth. i told him i loved bolivia, he said thank you, and so did he, and it was a shame that it has so many resources, and such beautiful countryside, but is so poor and bleak. then he took us to a witch market, where they sell llama foetuses for some sort of witch like reasons, and strange herbs for things. we felt a bit sick looking at llama foetuses.
we went out for dinner and then drinks, as this was our last night with Juan, we have a new tour guide for the rest of the trip. we forgot that we are still at altitude and that alcohol affects you quite a lot, so consequently all got very drunk. but are all still alive.

today
is friday. we woke up around 1.30... got a taxi to burger king to get rid of our hangovers, then a taxi back to the hotel. classy. we now have a meeting with our new tour guide, and then we´re going to watch batman at the cinema. we figured we´re allowed a day of hungover indulgence, as we´ve been pretty good at being cultured so far. today is 3 weeks since we left england, and it´s really nice to think that i´m not coming home until i want to. no offence meant as obviously i am missing everyone back home too.

tomorrow we go to see some ruins. then on to lake titicaca on sunday.

some questions
what is the japanese connection with south america - peru had a japanese president, and there are lots of japanese cars and buses here?

what is the technical grammatical difference between saying
they left without anyone noticing
and
they left without anyone´s noticing