October 7th

It is Thursday and I'm here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The 10 hour bus ride from Cusco to La Paz was fairly uneventful. We arrived to Puno at about 5AM while the sun was just barely rising. Puno is a pretty desolete place, almost like living up on top of a plateau. We crossed the border at Copacabana, where I had to pay 60$ (480 Bolivianos) in excess for being in the country 60 days longer than my visa allowed. The official at the immigration office took my passport for photocopies and ran one way into town, the bus crossed the border and started to leave, and I was stuck at the immigration office with nothing, only 7 soles. Luckily, the guy did come back and the bus hadn't quite left yet. I walked over Lake Titicaca to Bolivia, jumped on the bus, and we continued to La Paz.

La Paz, seen in this picture is very much like Rio or San Francisco. It's a beautiful place, by far the nicest city I've seen yet in South America and the people are extremely pleasant. I think Bolivians, in nature, are less cold than Peruvians, with whom I've tended to notice a lot of hostility. I spent 2 days in La Paz, going to the military base and coercing officials to buy satellite information from the 1970's for use in Northern Bolivia. I finally got started in a relationship with an official and decided to get headed to Santa Cruz, to learn more about our GIS concerns.

I took a 17 hour bus to Santa Cruz where I am now. The women here are the most beautiful girls I have ever seen, and the people are extremely friendly. This lowland city of about 1 million is a wonderful place to be, and I'm enjoying it working and then going out at night-time. I will be here until next Wednesday, where upon I'll take two consecutive busses all the way back to cold and dreary Cusco.

Find of the day : there is a cosmic bowling center here in Santa Cruz, just in case you thought you would miss it being away from the US