Miscellanea

Some general thoughts about travel in South America:

1. Despite careful advanced planning, the day is going to come when you will have to leave the relative safety of the sidewalk in order to cross a street. For starters, this is ill-advised. However, sometimes you just have to do it. If you can exercise the option of appearing to be a sexy, attractive young female, do so. The traffic will stop for you. You may even be offered a lift, which you should probably decline.You can consider dressing as a nun, but this is much less effective.

Due to regrettable prior conditioning, many gringos are misled into believing that green lights, pictures of green stick figures walking, the green letters "PASE", all have some meaning for you, the pedestrian. They don´t. They are there simply to fool hapless foreigners. It seems like the majority of the streets in the larger cities are one way. Nevertheless, ALWAYS look both ways. Only attempt to cross the street when it appears that oncoming traffic is sufficiently far away that you can make it to the other side. Remember that cars coming up behind you from the left rear are going to make a right tyurn and try to run you over. Once you´ve started your death march, maintain a constant steady speed. That way the car that has come out of nowhere at high speed can calculate exactly how to miss you. If you´re lucky, sometimes the car misses you by feet; otherwise, by inches. Obviously, if you stop and start, or start to run, you throw off the driver. He (sexism here is deliberate) has previously calculated how he can miss both you and a parked truck by at least 6 inches on each side if you maintain a steady pace.

2. Another phenomenon throughout Latin America is the making of change. The problem is compounded by the fact that ATM machines only dispense large bills. If the banks are open, go in and exchange for small bills. If you buy something for 2.50, and present a note for 10, the vendor will throw up his/her hands. "Don´t you have anything smaller?" My suspicion is that they stash money deep down in some secret hiding place on their person, or in some locked drawer way down low behind the counter. They obviously don´t want to expose either to public view. You can be assured that if you don´t have the exact change, it will always cause a problem. My second suspicion, here in Bolivia, is that the people with the most change are the beggar ladies, but it´s a bit awkward to ask them to change something.

3. If I weren´t an aold man already, I know I´m turning into one because of my hopeless habit of being an early riser. As I write this, I´m doing what is one of the best parts of traveling in South America. I´m sitting in an outdoor cafe eating a continental breakfast, reading the newspaper, and watching the fascinating parade of people go by. I´ve been incredibly lucky with the weather. Every day in Bolivia has been gorgeous: bright sunshine, even hot in the mid-afternoon. In the morning, the sun is up and shining but the air is still crisp at this high altitude.

There are upper class joggers in Ralph Lauren sweat pants and shirts, old indigenous women with their black hair tied in a long braid down their back wearing a colorful skirt, black stockings, knit wool seater, and sometimes the pointed wool cap or man´s hat. Added to the mix are the occasional backpacking couple looking at the map and each pointing in opposite directions and young people talking on cell phones.

The morning scene is much different than the evening scene. Morning is slower. After all, no one is in a hurry to go to work. In the evening around 9 p.m., the sidwalks are crazy. They are jammed with people. Most of the businesses are open. There are sidewalk vendors of every conceivable notion. There are dozens of food offerings in 2 short blocks. Many of the people are munching on something. There is a kind of excitement in the air. For some reason, there is more of a sense of urgency, people walking frequently in groups, laughing, talking. Maybe that´s the reason I prefer the morning. It´s more relaxed, slower. "Early morning" by the way is relative. Nine a.m. is still early!

Hast luego!