La Paz and Bolivia

Sorry about the delay in posting... John usually hogs the computer so I don't get too much time to write on here...
So La Paz. We left our hostel in Copacabana, Bolivia, at 7.30ish more or less to catch our bus to La Paz. We got to where the lady told us the bus would be and we couldn't find it, even after asking a bunch of people. We finally asked another sales lady where the bus was and she points to the Bolivian equivalent of a 15 passenger van. I wasn't too convinced it was the right van but it was pouring rain and it was getting close to the 8.00am leaving time. So we throw our bags on the top of the bus like everyone else and then board. There were some Britishers and an Australian (I think) on the bus as well, so we weren't the only gringos there. We start our 3 hour trek to La Paz going down some VERY curvy roads (Mom, you'd probably freak out) without any guardrails. The scenery was beautiful. The mountains went down into valleys that met Lake Titicaca, which was a gorgeous sapphire blue color. It was strange because it didn't matter what side of the bus you were on, the Lake was on either side, I was expecting it to be on one side only. We sat behind two indiginous women dressed in their petticoats, skirts, sweaters, mantillas, and bowler hats and their baby girl, which was very cute. She behaved well for the ride, she never cried til the end when she was put in the typical baby wrap and slung on her mother's back. At one point during the ride, her mother and aunt (or friend, I have no idea which) fell asleep and the baby took to playing with their hats. She was so cute, but very elusive, as I only got one picture of her with the hat.
After an hour we reached a river where we had to get off the bus and pay b/1.50 get on a boat to cross part of the lake to reach La Paz. It was a tight fit, I think the capacity on the boat was 25 or so and we had at least 10-15 people more than that on it. Either way we made it across and had to wait for our bus to cross on its interesting version of a barge (a shallow boat with a few planks of wood on the bottom). While waiting I noticed a barge that was going back and forth but there were two people stationed at water pitching patrol at all times. It seemed a lost cause to me, but oh well. A couple hours later we were in La Paz.
We caught a taxi going to our hostel; it was a quality taxi, we had to keep the windows open ever though it was raining because the windows would fog otherwise and he either didn't have or didn't want to use his defogger and the windshield wipers weren't very effective either, not to mention the lack a seatbeats... We finally arrived at our hostel and relaxed since there wasn't much to do in the rain and the altitude can be vicious. The next day wasn't as rainy and we ventured out into the city where we passed the witches market, where they sold just about everything imaginable for whatever you may need a potion or a charm for. The most interesting specimens were the llama fetuses, some of which were entirely too large to be a fetus, and the random animal pelts which were probably from some endangered animal or something...
Down in the square we noticed that there was a protest march (the people were voting on a new constitution, both sides were represented in the marches) starting down the main boulevard, and we saw the riot police starting to assemble to prevent anything from growing dangerous (nothing happened). John started freaking out, thinking we were going to get kidnapped or beaten or something from being so close, but I pointed out they were heading in the other direction and as long as we kept on the sidewalk and away from them we would be fine. And we were. As we were eating our lunch on the patio of Burger King (don't judge me, if you'd gone that long with questionable food, you'd be eating there too), we got a firsthand view of the protesters from different areas in Bolivia. They didn't want much except to be heard and hold up traffic, though the firecrackers they shot off made me want to hit the floor everytime they popped one off.
Bolivia as a city is mostly modern with tall sky scrapers from the 60's and 70's framed by snow capped mountains/volcanoes, with busy streets full of people selling whatever they can get their hands on. They have buses that will take you to where ever you want to go, provided you can understand the route from the kid hanging his head out the window and yelling each stop as quick as an auctioneer. On the otherhand, there is not much to see in La Paz, it is mostly shops and offices. After our two nights there we decided to hop on a plane to Santa Cruz and start making our way to Brazil.

The plane ride was uneventful, the airport reminded me of the US's before we had the million and one regulations we do now. We got to Santa Cruz where the weather was a complete 180 from La Paz's. It was sunny and HUMID. We went directly to the train station where, after some confusion and lies from a man trying to get us to take his bus instead of the train, we got out train tickets. The train was nicer than the bus, but I'm willing to bet it was just as violent, I'm not sure how a train can rock that much and not derail... The night scenes weren't too eventful, but the stars were pretty and the next morning we were in the Pantanal region closest to Brazil and Paraguay. There I saw plenty of birds (two toucans!) and cows and interesting plants.
We got off the train in a boarder town in Bolivia and took a taxi to the boarder where we got a stamp on the Bolivian side and then were just sent into the Brazilian side. We were a little distressed when we got in a taxi and it just drove us over the boarder, past all the guards into Brazil and dropped us off at our hostel without an entry stamp into Brazil. Fortunately, it's just the way things are done there, there are no formalities, we walked over to the bus station, got in line with all the Bolivians and got a stamp. I don't think the Brazilians in Corumba like the Bolivians that flood in there very much, they were very rude to them and talked down to them alot, kind of like a lot of people at home with the Mexicans.

Next Chapter, BRAZIL!!!

Hope everyone is done well, love and miss you all!
<3
Lauren