Random town Bolivia: Tupiza

It has been a quite hilarious day and a bit so I thought I would write it up. We started out yesterday in our super shitty hotel which turned out to be worse than I thought. The room smelled of wet dog and none of the washrooms seemed to have water so you couldnt flush the toliet or have a shower or anything. Although we did manage to shower right before we left but it was freezing cold water only! We stayed there all morning reading, not much to do in town, but we did get fruit shakes and fried bread for under a dollar. And there was this man on a loud speaker for much of the morning actually crying about something, we could never figure it out, but just before we left for the bus he had left the mic and now people were dancing to happy music, I have no idea! We then took a train to Tupiza, which was quite funny. The train played music videos on this tv, but they were all english music videos, ie Everything I do I do it for you - brian adams and My heart will go on- Celine dion, but all dubed over in spanish, with other singers. And then they played this funny (because it was so bad) movie about an ulimate fighting match in prison, as far as I could tell. I met this guy on the train to who is from Argentina, Patcho is his nickname and he doesnt speak a word of english but he has been hanging out with Anna and I since we got here. Pretty silly converstations because Anna and I are shit in spanish so alot of the time he will just talk and we have no idea what he is saying but he is nice. The train went through some amazing country side all desert like with cacti and desert grass, but then there are these deep cut river beds and little villages with trees and surrounded by fields of wild flowers, corn and tall grass. With the occional horse, donkey, chicken and pig thrown in. We also passed these tall rock formations I dont really know how to discribe and huge eroding clifts

We finally got to Tupiza and our traveling companion, Mali, met her boyfriend, Max and we (including Patcho) went to the hostel Max is staying in and got a room and then it was off to get some beer which turned into a huge shit show. Anna, Patcho and I looked all over town for some tall big bottles of beer, the town itself is awesome, all adobe type buildings with a bunch of little markets. We finally, after asking everywhere, got three big beers at this tiny backroom resturant but the owner wanted us to give him 30 bolivianos (the name of the dollar here) more to ensure we were going to bring the bottles back, I guess sometimes you cant get more beer unless you have a bottle to return, I am not sure how you get your first beer though we have had that problem. But we didnt want to give him the money so we went out back with him and he found these old big pastic soda bottles which we then poured the beer into. Nothing like drinking beer from random old containers found in some guys back yard. Then we bought some wine (all very cheap) and we were set, we went back to the hostel and drank, all this time remember we are attempting to carry some sort of converstation with someone who does not speak a language we know. But he was pretty happy to talk a bunch and let us nod away. Then we went out to meet Mali and Max at a pizza place which turned out to be some of the best pizza I have had in a long time, very thin crust. We also met up with this Italian couple we had met that morning. IT seems here you see alot of the same people becuase you kinda follow the same routes, its nice to run in to people you know though! We got a bit tipsy and listened to a band that came in and played for us. We also drank some of this traditional bolivian hard alchohol, I cant remember the name of but it kinda tastes like grapes, out of Maxs flask. Very tasty. Then we finally headed home to hang out at the hostel for a while. The stars were really amazing, the village casts hardly any light. And then to bed. Although I did by accident (without thinking) drink some water straight from the tap, bad news I think my stomach is paying for now.

This morning we woak up drank Mate and then went out to the market which is amazing, all full of crazy meat shops sawing up beef and selling whole chickens and then a ton of veggie stalls, all spread out on the ground with farmers selling food. We bought stuff for patcho to make us lunch, we think he is making pasta of some sort, and then got some more fried bread ( a big breakfast thing I guess) and some coffee which turned out to be warm milk that you add some sort of coffee syrup to. But really not bad compared to some of the coffee we have tasted. We are just going to hang out for the rest of the day, and then tomorrow off to the town near the salt flats. So far I am loving bolivia, it is very different but really fun. Also I am having problems accessing my gmail account so sorry if I am late with responces.