Being Mr. Kenny

There area bunch of things I have been meaning to blog about for ages and I keep forgetting to do so, so here they are…

Women on the force

In both Peru and Bolivia, I saw loads of women police officers, which I found really reassuring. Don’t know why, but I trust a country that permits women to join the police force. I suppose it helps relieve some of the tension created by police officers carrying rifles and shotguns around, maybe.

Orange juice people

Again, in both Peru and Bolivia, there are travelling orange juice salespeople. They have a cart with bicycle wheels laden with oranges and grapefruit, and they dispense freshly squeezed juice for absolutely no money (S/. 1 in Peru and Bs. 2 in Bolivia). It’s utterly delicious, especially when thirsty.

Drunken man in La Paz

In one of the cafes we ate at in La Paz (Bolivia’s capital) there was a drunken man with his friend. On their table there were about nine full glasses of red wine, and two bottles. The drunken man was wearing a white coat which had numerous red wine splotches over it, and he spilt loads more as he came over to talk to us. His friend was much better dressed, wearing a cravate and having neat hair and stylish glasses. It was a strange partnership.

Meeting people

One of the main reasons I went on this trip was to meet loads of different people. I don’t think I’ve met enough, it’s reasonably annoying. So far my favourite people have been some Israelis in Cusco, who were really fun and laid-back, and a Swedish lady who we met yesterday on the mines tour. She told us that Heidi and Helga are not Swedish names, but that Inga is (although it is very rare, even in Sweden, and is pronounced “Inya”).

In an interesting sidenote, we met a Slovakian couple crossing the border into Bolivia. Alex, by way of introduction, informed them that he had visited Slovakia and told them that the train station in their capital “smelt of wee” and that their main tourist attraction was boring. Well done, that man…

Sock-Monster

Sock-Monster is a cartoon which I have been enjoying almost daily (we seem to be lucky with the number of times we can access the internet). Sock-Monster can be found at www.sock-monster.com. I like the atmosphere of each cartoon, and Sock-Monster himself is amazing.

The couple we keep bumping into

In Pisco, in a restaurant, we happened to notice a couple at a table, the male half of which Claire dubbed “The Beautiful Man” apparently because of his excessive good looks. Anyway, I think they got a little disturbed by the number of times he received glances from our table. They left, and we thought that would be the end of it, but oh no. We saw them again on the bus to the death trip in the Colca canyon, where Claire learned that the female half was called B. Woods (name changed) and that she was diabetic. This knowledge led to Claire naming her “B. Woods, diabetic”. It’s quite awful, but such is our sense of humour, and this is now the label we know her by. These accidental meetings were followed by a further two: one in Cusco, in the hotel we were staying at, and again here in Potosi. It’s getting a little bit strange. We haven’t seen anyone else we’ve met so far, so it’s like we’re following them… More likely they have a copy of Lonely Planet.

The Weather

The weather here has been unexpected… Firstly, I thought it was going to be boiling hot and really sunny, but it hasn’t been. It’s been alternately hot and freezing cold (in the evenings) and it hasn’t rained once! It’s winter down here, but you wouldn’t know most days. It’s really nice, but I do have a farmer’s tan (it’s not hot enough to go topless, plus I’m too shy to do that anyway).

The vegetarian restaurant in Potosi

Cafe Internet Candelabria is really, really good. They serve vegetarian food (as well as a few meat dishes) which are absolutely delcious. Normally I hate veggie food, so this is high praise! The Omelette de verduras and Pie de verduras are particularly good (vegetable omelette and pie).

Well, that’s it!

So here ends the things I keep fogetting to blog about. Not going to be able to blog for about five days after today, because we’re going on a Jeep-trek thing across the salt flats in Uyuni. Uyuni will be the highest point we’ve been to so far, I’m told, so I shall expect to be out of breath the whole time. Oh, by the way, I’ve added a little piece to the previous post, something I forgot to say yesterday, so check it out.

Also, just have to say a quick hello to Ciar, who’s been reading my blog because Ailis doesn’t ever update hers (although Claire says she wants to add something soon…). See you in five days!