Hotel Regina Cochabamba

... being made. I last called at six PM and was told she was watching her granddaughter and to call back later, which I chose not to do. I can take a hint, I just wish I had received the hint while still in Coroico which would have saved us two days.

So all in all it was a pretty disappointing trip to Cochabamba, but I never expected it to be incredible anyway so no harm done. Now itīs off to Uyuni via Oruro. Venga con nosotros guey.

... meant to get bathed once a week but this does not always happen due to bad weather. It has been v cold here and as there is no hot water in the orphanage, they can only have baths on fair weather days. We are bathing the babies tomoro, cant wait to get them clean coz today they smelt so bad i was nearly sick!-twice!! smelling of urine and u can imagine what else! sorry to be graphic but im giving u a true idea of what life is like for them- no wonderthey cry ...

... bus - I read somewhere that Bolivia has the worst bus accident record in the world and most of these occur at night! Anyway, I chose a toursit bus for the first leg of the journey - if you are going to die do it in style!! In any case, the road was unpaved and bumpy that he was unable to go that fast.

On approaching my destination, Oruro, I looked down for my shoes which were nowhere to be seen. My neighbour lent ...

Rose: We have been so lucky as to spend a whole week staying at my relatives, Joerg and Sonia, in Cochabamba, the 4th largest city in Bolivia. Joerg is the cousin of my uncle in Germany who I had only met once or twice before. We have been thoroughly spoilt in every way. They live in a beautiful house which Joerg built with his brother back in 1984 - a little piece of Germany. The house is surrounded by a lovely garden and pool. They have the most delightful ...

... and it involves paperwork and processing time and etc etc. Argh. So it turns out im going to be volunteering with paediatric patients in the burns ward. Which is fine with me actually, as this is much more practical, i am much more useful and needed, but at the same time it pretty much breaks my heart. These children are all alone most of the day (well apart from medical staff which goes without saying), parents are only allowed in to see them for ...

... out, Reading. With no academic support. I mean the Docs are super smart and answer any of my questions, but I mean more academic structure. For maybe the first time in my life, I'm so excited to go back to classes! So unfortunately, according to the interns, the next hospital is similar. Way more patients, but all I'd be doing is watching, 5 days a week. Which would be fine (same in GVA) if I didn't have a day and a half a week of classes in GVA to follow! In my 1st emails ...

... to recover from the massive partying. As much as I wanted to see it, I had been very much advised against getting a bus to Uyuni on the saturday night cause all the bus drivers would be drunk...and I prefered to go see the world famous salt lakes and deserts and coloured lagoons of southern Bolivia. Plus I'd also been told that to stay one night in Oruro is pretty much impossible, unless you're ready to pay triple the price and for the 3 nights even if you stay just ...

... jeg en kjent stemme; "Maria?" Jeg snudde meg ganske forskrekka, og der var jamen baade Elin og lene tilbake. Hehe, jeg var saa innstilt paa at jeg skulle vaere aleine framover, at jeg ble helt forskrekka naar jeg saa dem! Det viste seg at det ikke hadde vaert plass til dem paa dyrehospitset, at det var foerste gang i hospitsets historie at de hadde maattet si nei til noen. Men de hadde faatt seg en natt i Villa Tunari, hilst paa mange apekatter og faatt noen myggestikk. Jeg bestemte ...

... one exception and have only had diarrhea once. The time where i drew the line and couldnt eat, they were serving pasta, one potato and complete chicken head. I might even have tried it if the kids werent talking to me with theirs and making the heads eat the pasta! I don't think that food eating food should be seen. The kids made short work of them though (once they'd stopped playing) eating eyes, brain, tongue and whatever else and by the end there is ...

... staying at his place.

But the next few days were just taken easy. I wrote in my book-form diary, which I hadn't written anything in since I was in Chile! So that took some time, and was mostly based on what I had already blogged about on the internet, with some extra details people don't write about on the world wide web!

Then I was headed to La Paz. But hey - no journey in Bolivia is completed without getting stuck in some place due to ...