Its Friday? Could it be Bolivia......?

Yep, it sure is! Hands up anyone who thought I was coming home?!! Bolivia is megaaaaaaaaaa. Totally not what I expected -no llamas in sight! No time now to write everything from today as Liang has pulled a fast one on me and I have to get up at oh dark 30 to catch yet another flight up to the altiplano to spend the weekend doing who knows what. Not madly happy about it as my entire time here is now mapped out for me, with no time. I don{t want to be rushing around like a headless chicken really, and I{m desperate for a decent night{s kip after failing to sleep in this morning!

The flight was easy apart from the fact I{ve developed air legs now and every chair I sit on moves gently up and down which is disconcerting! Suddenly realised how immensely vast South America is, all you could se out of the window of the plane was chaco stretching as far as the eye could see and nothing, just the odd dirt track ribboning dead straight from horizon to horizon. You don{t drive here, you fly.

Coming into Santa Cruz, the pilot announced it was 30degrees. And there are wild palm trees growing everywhere. Climbed down the steps from the plane and was hit by a wall of heat. Sticky, stifling, gorgeous heat! Carmelo the taxi driver met me in his battered heap and we had a mad drive into town, made far better once he realised I understood what he was saying and could reply!

He dropped me at the event, which was very like any DD event. Home from home. Listened to 4 of the projects describing the problems they are having and realised they have exactly but exactly the same issues as we hear at the Colloquia. That was quite an eye opener. And after the Gibraltar issues some of us have been looking at recently, they hve the same regulatory problems as there. Wanna know the worst? You can{t use 2.4Ghz here. Well, you sort of can at the moment because they haven{t got all the laws in place, but you will only be able to use it for commercial purposes, there will only be one operator allowed per area, and it will cost mucho money.

They use 5.8 more in the projects where the wireless stuff is being tried, but are having massive problems getting any kit. So, they are making it. Everyone has satellite connections, but the prices that were shown were ludicrous. 5,500 US dollars just to get a connection and then anywhere up to 500dollars a month for a 512k 128k Direcway. Most connections are not even 64k, imagine a 19.2k upload?!

I met Alberto (indie mesher) within minutes of arriving and he is a star! Has done lots of experiments with home built meshboxes, and is a fast learner, and determined to get round the issues of not being able to set up a hotspot even. Preferably before the laws come in!

There is a lot of potential for us Brits to learn from these guys. They have all set up telecentres so they can upskill the population, and are now looking to share out the connections and the costs. They have way more hurdles to overcome than we do in UK, but they are succeeding. Hence my trip into the mountains till Tuesday to see what they are doing, and how mesh could help. None of them had even heard of mesh. IN fact, if I{d known that, my presentation would have been far more community based and less about mesh as a tech.

Thinking on my feet was hard, in a foreign language and knackered but I hope I didn{t do too badly. After the event, we came back to the hotel, washed another layer of grime glued on with heat, and went to Alberto{s house for a barbecue. I cannot even begin to express my amazement at the house - sort of inside out with loads of garden inside, it had the complete wow factor.

His family are fab, and treated me so well. The food was amazing, cooked on a huge outdoor rotisserie - massive lumps of meat carved by his father. His sisters and various others dropped by and then headed to the communal area outside the house for an impromptu party. The dog looked like it would have been better off roasted than kept as a pet, but then I{m not a dog lover!

Santa Cruz is home to over 1 million people, and it is crazy. You drive until you hit someone or they hit you, as far as I can tell. There are police absolutely everywhere, on every corner, which makes you realise how few there are in UK. Well, there aren{t any in my village anyway, but I{m sure I{ve never seen this many on trips to towns! I really want to spend a day or two here and explore a little. It{s not madly safe apparently in some places, but that{s the same the world over- car jacking is the big crime at present. But it has a buzz which is infectious, and there is something to look at every step of the way. I feel like my neck has been on a swivel stick!

There are 8 Bolivars to the dollar. A meal is about 15 Bols, a taxi 6, and so the few dollars I have should go quite a long way! Must crash, but so much I want to mention. The mad interstitial adverts at traffic lights, the street sellers, the urchins juggling at traffic lights to get money, etc etc. And I{m still freaked out about the palm trees! I was expecting people in black hats and multi-coloured ponchos dragging obstinate llamas about. Not to enter some tropical zone and spend an evening in a private compound in what would be a multi million pound house in UK wishing someone would turn the heating down just a tad, surrounded by trees of every description, and in particular mimosas, which have to be the most delicate and beautiful specimen there is.

The family have offered me a room if I would like to stay a few more days. If my kids are reading this, I hope they won{t begrudge me a few days extra. Having come this far, I wanna see more and this offer of hospitality is unexpected, appreciated and I{d like to take them up on it.

Dunno if any Internet in the mountains, or if I{ll be permitted the time off to blog, but I{ll try to keep everyone up to date with Sucre, Chuquisaca etc. We are leaving Sucre at 5am Monday morning for a road trip, as Liang put it, all off road, so I might be a little jiggled and bruised Tuesday! I am also going to need to buy more loose, cool clothes as the heat is fierce, and when they say "It{ll be cold" they mean it{ll be 20 degrees!

More as soon as I can. I got the mate cup for the next Colloq and the mate!!