elevation

Very strange things happen to your mind and body at high elevations. I know this because I am still digesting the giant plate of Peruvian cuy(guinea pig) that we ate for dinner last night, our most extravagant dinner since we have been on the road. I know this because I am having nervous breakdowns once [...]

isla del sol

A place too beautiful to describe, we spent a couple of amazing days saying our goodbyes to Bolivia at the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca where there are no cars, Incan spirits, very thin air, and a million colors of blue…
 

There is only one foreigner in the famous San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia

“It’s a pen holder. He says he’ll sell it to you for 10 bolivianos,” said Chulupi, translating for the Bolivian prisoner at his side.
Okay, except we don’t need a translator, and what the salesman actually said was, “It’s a pen holder. I’ll sell it to you for 7 bolivianos.”
Therein lies the problem with the criminal [...]

my llorona

The last text message that Paul received on my phone before we left Buenos Aires was, “Tell Clare she is a llorona“. Which is to say, I am a giant cry baby. Maybe so. I thought it was a mildly nasty and extremely strange thing to say anyway and have often thought about that since.
When [...]

Weirdness and vomiting in something akin to a Bolivian opium den

When the Life Artist Bubba Ray Robison needs to get hip to a drug, he consults erowid.com, so that’s where I went to find the following info:
“Ayahuasca is a powerfully psychedelic South American brew/tea traditionally made from the B. caapi vine and other admixtures such as P. viridis (or other DMT-containing plants). One of its [...]

faces

“Pato enterrado” en Samaipata, Bolivia

Pasando la Capilla de la Merced a eso de las 4:30 de la tarde, noto que hay harta gente agrupada en una especie de círculo mal formado. Con Clare cautelosa varios pasos atrás, me acerco. Hay gritos de anticipación, y todo parece indicar que algo divertidísimo está por pasar. La gente concurrida es variada en [...]

Uso boliviano de la palabra “harto”

La primera vez que noté el uso boliviano de la palabra “harto” fue bien adentro del Cerro Rico, la mentada mina de Potosí, Bolivia situada a una altura de 4500 msnm. Nuestro guía, quien pocos meses antes había dejado de trabajar de minero para unirse al lado turístico y menos mortal de la cosa, me [...]

buck the fuss

I think I am allergic to Bolivia. Or something. Bolivia is like my gauntlet and every time we meet, Bolivia throws me into a fiery pit of spears and I must emerge with the goblin’s sword. Or something. Anyway, Bolivia challenges me. For the fickle mistress she is, I must love her so.
Sometime yesterday or [...]

letter to roger

this is a copy of an email to roger explaining why on earth we are still schlepping around buenos aires instead of schlepping our asses home as well as some of our problems in tramites the last few weeks in BA
thanks so much. we have gone through all of this a hundred times. the problem [...]