Bolivia, Alive and Well!

Hola from La Paz!
We are here, at the roof of the world in La Paz! We have been on the move through Argentina and crossed into Bolivia maybe 5 days ago? The last Argentinian city we left from was Salta, a beautiful city in the North that we unfortunatly only had one night to spend in. They have a wondeful square comparable to Krakow (Poland) but of course, nothing really compares to Krakow. Then we caught a morning bus to the border town La Quiaca. There we walked across the border (an interesting experience) and a few hours later were on Bolivian soil. At this point our plan was still to voulenteer in a wildlife refuge east of the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, so we hopped on the bus immediately on route. This was without a doubt, a bus from the depths of hell itself. A locals bus, it left at 4pm and arrived 10am in Cochabamba. Somewhere between the crying babies, terribly loud spanished dubbed Jackie Chan movies, horribly cramped, uncomfortable seats  and a route that was was unpaved and ridden with dust and mega potholes, no sleep was had. We arrived in Cochabamba and were sure we were the only tourists in a city with half a million people. Now in the heart of Bolivia, we werent feeling our most comfortable. With only 2 sketchy hostals in town, we booked into Cesars Palace, a hotel trapped in the 1970´s. But we were safe and had a bed, so no complaints. Unfortunatley we discovered the refuge was overrun with voulenteers for the next while and thus we would probably be turned away upon arrival. So we switched gears and started to move west. We are now in La Paz, the roof of the world and are having a great time. We have gotten a great glimpse of Boliva over the past week and plan to stay here a few more days. The indigineous culture is everywhere and today we went to the largest market in the world. It was heartbreaking to walk through seemingly endless roads of farmers selling every fruit and vegtable you can imagine and not purchase anything for fear of getting sick. Well thats not fully true, I have been binging on mangos, as they are dirt cheap and for the first time in my life I dont have to feel guilty about how many miles they had to be shipped to my mouth. We found some local resturants that wash all veg with boiled water and have actualy had some of the best meals of our trip. Its also a nice change from cooking, which we have been doing nearly ever meal for the past two months. Bolivia is obviously the cheapest country of our travels and therefore we combatt saftey issues by taking cheap cabs at night and unfortunately taking almost no photos. It is also hard to personally digest the fact that we are simply touring through poverty, as our camera is worth more then most of these people make in a year. So if we return with only photos of La Paz from out our hostel window so be it. Our spanglish remains the same, but with less then a month to go, so be it. Next we head west to spend some time around Lake Titticaca, checking out Copacabana and the Inca ruins on Isla Del Sol. Then to Cusco for the sacred valley, the Inca Trail and Machu Pichu. Then to Lima, then home! Thats all for now, lots of love,
Tai and Kash