Cheap and expensive

Well, the nearest cybercafe costs a whopping 20p an hour to connect to their ADSL so I´m pretty impressed by that. They must have got their numbers wrong, I just don´t see how that can pay! 2 Bolivars an hour, 8 Bs to the dollar....

And I´ve just been for the most expensive meal ever. 26Bs. 15 is more normal but then you start thinking about just how much that is! Bought some woolly things cos I´ve been drifting around a bit this afternoon/evening with dollars burning holes in my pockets.

Been into the market which is quite an experience, sprawling across several streets and up and down all sorts of alleyways. But weirdly, I couldn´t find a single tshirt and that´s what I need most desperately!

There is a cybercafe every 20 ft or so, and they seem very well used. There is also a LANgaming ´bhang´ opposite this one which is chocka full of kids. They have never heard of recycling in Bolivia but they sure know how to surf.

I can´t cope with being noticeably tall, and I seem to be compared with many of the people I walk past in the street. And some of the indigenous women selling in the streets are absolutely tiny, less than 3ft tall. The hardest part of walking round is seeing the street kids. I´m tempted to go and buy loads of paint, paper and plasticine and give them some free time for a few minutes. They beg really hard. The worst bit are the very little sprogs who are just plonked on blankets and told not to move. And they don´t. They don´t crawl, play, talk etc. Just wait for the next food item to appear after a hard round of blagging. It´s desperately sad. It was the same in India. What a bloody world we live in where footballers earn grotesque amounts of money for kicking a pig´s bladder round a field and children miss out on childhood for the sake of a few Bolivars.

Sucre is the legal capital of Bolivia, La Paz is the governmental one. There is a big cathedral, the Supreme Court, and the only tourist attraction I have seen advertised is the world´s largest park of dinosaur tracks. As that is closed on Sunday, I think I am going to try and do some work on the CBN website again, and sleep in. Off to bed now though it is stupidly early as am completely wiped out. Anyway, staying in a hostal right in the centre of town, about 20ft from here which may prove far enough!

Thanks for the news on the scarecrows, Chris, been wondering how it all went!