Final thoughts on Bolivia

So as today is my final day I have created a list of things I'll miss and won't miss about Bolivia.

Things I'll miss:

· The ubiquitous 20 cent hamburger
· Paying only $150/month for a nice apartment
· The view of Illimani from my apartment
· DVDs and CDs for $1.25 each (i.e. lack of intellectual property rights)
· The 60 cent four course lunch
· Being made fun of everyday at the office
· Bus rides for $1 per hour
· Living 15 miles from glaciers

Things I won't miss:

· Being sick for 3 days from eating the 20 cent hamburger
· Being confined to the city for a month due to political demonstrations
· Having to haggle daily for the price of bananas from the same woman... for a year (as if I didn't remember what I paid yesterday).
· Everyone running into you on the street even though they walk at the blistering pace of a block per 15 minutes.
· Being out of breath walking up the street despite being in good shape
· Being stared at everywhere I go
· Washing my clothes out back at the "lavanderia" (read: sink) with ice cold water every week for a year.
· Buses from the 1920s
· Bus rides for 20 cents per hour that only go 10km per hour and are filled with 70 people and 1,000lbs of potatoes
· Bolivian roads - or lack thereof
· Dodging cars, and the occasional cow, donkey, or llama while running and biking
· Bolivian logic (see note below)

Bolivian logic lesson (i.e. paradox):
Never ask questions (if you care about the answers)
Only ask questions if you don't care about the answers.
This is because answers are only useful for entertainment value.

Example: Greg: "Why does Bolivia have a Navy - they have no coast?" Bolivian: "But we have rivers!"

Bolivia is an interesting and unique place and can best be described as organized (at times) chaos. There is an absolute dearth of reason, logic, and accountability. To quote a good friend of mine, "Bolivia is a country without handrails". No one will keep you from doing extremely dangerous and absurdly stupid things - in fact they often encourage it (like biking down the "world's most dangerous road"). I doubt that anyone would believe the fantastical nature of my stories (I doubt I would if I hadn't lived them myself), but they are all true none-the-less. Such is life in Bolivia, or as I often think... F--king Bolivia!