Tom:

I understand that venting frustration is not the standard use of a travel blog, but on this occaision I can´t help myself. If there are any travellers/Frenchmen out there who find the task of washing their feet or their socks an arduous one, and for whom the idea of wearing rotting trainers without even a vague trace of an odor-eater insole seems like a good one, could you please for the love of God think twice before stepping into a confined space (i.e. a bus from Copacabana to La Paz) where innocent people such as Nil and myself are trying desperately to breathe. Unofrtunately, human evolution being at the stage it is, my nasal passages have not yet developed the ability to reject such smells, and your fettid stench is as unwelcome as genital herpes. There, rant over, and for anyone whose feet are not smelly, there is no need to be offended by this blog post, so don´t be. Needless to say, we´ve arrived in what Jeremy Clarkson has summarised as being "the highest - and worst - capital city in the world" (La Paz - 3600m above sea-level). I can´t vouch for this, as I haven´t visited every capital world-wide (and I´m sure Mr. Clarkson hasn´t either), but it´s not the greatest on my list so far. Everywhere we go there are warnings about bag-slashers, muggers and fraudsters. We only arrived a few hours ago, and so far it doesn´t seem that bad, but let´s just say that prettiness isn´t this city´s strong point (yes, I know, it´s a poor country and thus can´t pump money into aesthetically pleasing sights). Anyway, we´re going shopping tomorrow as it´s supposed to be cheap here, so there´s something to look forward to! I hope all is well at home and that electing a government isn´t proving to be too taxing for you all. TY

Nil:

Instead of focusing my blog entry on my hatred of smelly feet I´ll give you an impression of our stay in the Isla del Sol and La Paz. We left the island in lake Titikaka this morning after having spent the night there. We managed to bag an excellent hostel looking over the lake and snow-capped mountains, which was pretty cool. And then took off for the famous sights that the island has to offer. Because we´re too money pinching we didn´t hire a guide and therefore missed said famous sights!!!! Apparantly there is a Sacred Rock, the face of a God chiselled into the rock face, and an Incan temple, we missed all that because we were too busy discussing politics (the only thing that Tom and I can find to argue about, which bodes well for our relationship!). We did manage to see the Sacrifical Rock, so all was not lost! I´d highly recommend staying on the island, although I´d advise taking enough money, as there are no ATMs on the island or on Copacabana. Because we didn´t have enough money, we ended up eating biscuits and bananas for dinner- a yummy combination I can assure you! So, having left the island and making our way to La Paz from Copacabana, a very interesting event occurred. We were told to exit the bus about an hour into our jouney to Bolivia´s capital, so that it could drive onto a barge and traverse a stretch of lake Titikaka to save on petrol and time. It was a funny sight to see our bus on a barge kind of titled at one end towards the water. All I could think was that our clothes, which were in our backpacks on the roof of the bus, exposed to the elements and now the lake, really needed a good clean and if the bus did sink I´d probably have to thank the barge conductor (no idea what his professional name might be!) for saving me the hassel of hand washing! Anyway, all´s good. There was no remaking of the Titanic, although now I have to contemplate hand washing our clothes- a most odious task! Enough about the barge, we are in La Paz and it´s noisy, potentially dangerous and there´s not much to recommend it. But, to hell with sight-seeing and good food, we´ve been spoilt far too much by such things, we are here to shop. La Paz is famous for shopping, especially in the Mercado de Hechiceria (the Witches´ Market) where you can buy llama fetuses for next to nothing. Email me to place you order!

Lots of love,

Nil