Dec 12
First of all I am a big fan of La Paz. I have not done one touristy thing, and I still love it. The city is like a big US city but everyone speaks spanish and like I said before it is super cheap. The weather is like California, super dry and cool. Of course we are at 11,000ft plus. The snowcapped mountains are also awesome. Oh yeah and by the way I once again made the news. The TV news appraoched me yesterday and did a story about me and what I am doing in La Paz. Again, I am a celebrity, and I am already given out tons af hand shakes and hellos. The people here are super friendly. People always tell me ¨Welcome to Bolivia¨ There is a lot of national pride, but I have learned that the more ambitious people go to the US or UK. There is a huge talent drain. It is refreshing to see a bustling town, like La Paz, in South America, because everywhere else I have been the people are poor and they depend on tourism as the main source of revenue. They see americans as money and not as people.
Since I have had no money in the past days I have been doing a lot of lounging; super long lunches with friends and long walks. My friend from spain, Maria, is still in La Paz so we hang out quite a bit but her engilish is not the best and of course my spanish sucks. She thinks I am a narrowed minded American. We actually got into a pretty big argument last night at a pizzeria because I call my self an American and not a United statesian, which makes no sense to me at all. She say that it is not The United States of America, but The United States of North America. What ever!!! She drove me crazy and I think I drove her crazier-I am a typical yankee becasue I call myself an American? I think she just has a utopic ideal that is impossible. I also have some German friends as well, Xena and Shultzer. They are friends from a German university in Germay, of course, and are travelling South America for 6 months. Did you konw that if you are unemployesd in Germany you receive 70% of your former salary from the goverment for 3 years, and if you have kids you get even more? Germans have no motivation to find work quickly because they get paid for doing nothing. When most Germans get fired, or what ever, they vaction for years because they have income. Crazy. According to my friends the system is failing and changes to there social services are coming. I met the germans at gringo bar here in La Paz. It was a great scene. There was a live mambo band and everybody was dancing. The bar was very small and intimate. I´ll try to post a picture.
At one of my 3 hour lunches they gave us a gift of a shot of some liquer, but in the jar, yes jar, there was a 4-5 foot dead snake. A fucking real snake. I wish Ryan could have been there , it was awesome.
Ok, besides my long walks, long lunches and avoiding to pay my hotel bill I have been on the phone with Visa and Bank Of America trying to get emergency cash. It seems that when every you lose your card you have 2 options, either have new cards sent or have emergency cash sent. So since I had new cards sent BofA was not going to give me emergency cash. They hell with that. I be dammed if my bank is going to let me starve and sleep on the street in F-ing Bolivia. It was there fought in the first place. They should not have cancelled my credit card. How did I fix this problem? I found BofA collect call number and Visa´s toll free Bolivia number, since I have no money for phone call. Then, I was on a pay phone in the center of La Paz, picture time square minus the skyscrapers and signs, for 6 hours plus. I findly had to talk to some hire ups to override their policy. This mess was finally setteled at 2:00AM. Picture 2:00AM time square and me on a pay phone. Fucking crazy. This morning I picked up my wire transfer from Western Union. I have money. It was getting close, real close. I am very happy now.