It´s not snowing here!

Hola mis amigos

Congrats to Phil & Shaz for 20yrs of joy and bliss. Lou & Tenis made 18, but working togther for 1 month may stop it there!

Cochabamba - part of it anyway!

Sounds v cold in Blighty, ¡no me gusta! The rains have started here, but mostly at night, with bonkers lightening storms and the kind of thunder that makes your heart beat very fast as you think the whole house is exploding. And of course it sets the hundreds of street dogs into a woofing frenzy.

Student protests sound great! Not had much stuff going on here demo wise. Though lots of meetings and discussion re new constitution, which appears to be proposing adopting whatever the local ways of organising are to accomodate all section of society, whilst at the same time giving local atonomy too and having an 'ísn´t Cuba wonderful' state power structure. Hmmm.

So, the crazy world of Bolivia....Today we came across a dummy hanging from a lamp post, this is a subtle neighbourhood watch approach to informing thieves they will be lynched if caught apparently. Will try and get a photo for you, if not deemed suspicious and strung up ourselves. We have discovered that the trufis only have high speed and brake and that redlights are an optional indication that you should stop. This morning was particularly hair raising and there have been a few moments when our lives have indeed flashed before our eyes. Plus todays decorations were not impressive and the naff music and a solitary Jesus did little to provide an enjoyable trip, as we stood with our heads jammed against the roof, in our gringo stature. We were joined by the regular éat helathily´ man, who sells a book on being vegi, which has a set of pictures of famous vegies on it: Leonardo Di Vinci, Einstein and sodding Bono! We have also discovered there are drive through banks here and the bread is called Bimbo loaf.

Tenis and dogs, what can we say? they appear to sniff him out. There is a rescue puppy at the main house that seems particularly keen to hang onto his trouser bottoms.

So, had no hotwater for 4 days and though weather is boiling here, the freezing alternative is a tad of a shock first thing, but no longer have a live current running into the water supply, so all in all, prefer to be cold than electricuted.

Went to La Cancha on Saturday and Tenis stood transfixed in the guitar aisles. I bought tonnes of tat, so you will all get a suitably naff souvenir. Also went to the posh bit of town - there really is some major dosh here, mega houses and everyone drives SUVs. We went to the supermarket and found various american delights, plus Dorset cereals for some reason. Went to final match on Sunday and had any missile type items removed by police, e.g bottles of water. Quite how smoke bombs, flares and firworks got past them, god knows. After the game, Terminator style cops rode around the streets with pump-action shot guns. The hardcore fans are called Gurkhas or is that Guhrkas? anyway, they didn´t look very scary, but they did get surroiunded by police at the end of the match. Not happy bunnies as though they won, they were relegated and may have lost the ground to the other local team for training.

We went up the Jesus hill, well LouLou got the cable car and Tenis walked, only to discover on the way back that it was a sheer drop with no rail, so his little knees were shaking by the time he got to the bottom - bless! It has been quite challenging for him all in all!!


Sooooo cute!

 So, work continues to be a  mix of small children dangling from our limbs, chopping endless piles of veg and ..yes, still selling the flippin bread. We hope to lay by a pool this weekend and wear clothes that are free from dust, food and other unidentifiable things that children like to wipe on us.

Missing you all. Take care, build the barricades, build snowmen and ensure snow delays our final flight and strands us in Brazil for Xmas!
L&T
xxxx