Feliz cumple Francis!

big shout out to Guini.

There would be photos, but the internet here is SO SLOW, it barely even loaded our blog. I think uploading photos is being a bit too optimistic.

So, I shall have to paint you a picture with my words.

After the mines yesterday, we wandered around Potosi. It was an alright city, though I may not be the best authority on such a thing. Everyone weve met has said how horrible Lima and Quito and La Paz were, but I liked them. The other travellers weve met complain too much. It annoys me a bit. Its ALL exciting.

Ended up in a batshitinsane coffee shop called El Farol, the sign on the door said open, but it was locked. We rang a bell and a little old lady scuttled out and let us in. Nothing could have prepared us for the decor; cardboard knights on the wall, crowns for lampshades, the biggest spoons in existence adorning the various surfaces, it was all weird beyond belief, as if we were stuck in some time capsule. We had some coffee, I asked if she had any desserts, she said she had orange juice. No thanks. About 20 minutes later the old lady declares she has a "chocolate liquor". Sure. She disappears downstairs and returns some time later with some kind of alcoholic chocolate pudding. Weird as this place is, the pudding was delicious. So we finish up and get the bill, sign her guestbook (20 years worth of visitors comments), and then she and a new arrival proceed to tell us that the decoration is very typical of colonial Potosi.

Now, either my spanish isnt as good as it should be and I misunderstood, or they were having us on, because there is no way that anyone anywhere at any point in history has decorated anything like this.

Except of course this off-her-gourd-but-totally-lovely old lady.

(reminded me of Beryl a little bit!)

So we went back to the hostel and watched Peep Show and The Lost World and Friends (hooray for cable tv!). To accompany this visual feast I went out and bought the biggest cheese rolls known to man. Today we got a bus (bags on the bus) 6 hours across the desert (with people standing, or should I say leaning on me, the whole way) to the small town of Uyuni.

Tomorrow morning we embark on a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni (the worlds largest salt flats), before hopping over the border to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Tonight we will feast at Minuteman Pizza. I am so excited about this, you have no idea. Its gonna be up there with the Amazon and Machu Picchu, fo sho. Serioso, Minuteman pizza today, and San Pedro in a few days. If only Mike Watt was here.





look at all the pretty pictures i can make trying to find the "apostrophe" key:
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