Mercado Camacho & other adventures

10.03.2003

I'm starting to explore the mysteries of the Mercado Camacho, an open market two blocks from my apartment. It's more substantive than I'd thought (not being a "major" city market). But I think I've found my fresh juice stand (there's three or four) where I can get almost any juice w/ water (or milk) for Bs.2. Inside, there's every imaginable vegetable, fruit, meat, dairy, or whatever else I might want. Outside, along Camacho street, are half a dozen comedores that serve lunch for Bs.6.

In the end, I might even consider outfitting a kitchen and cooking once in a while. Still, it's nice to be able to go down in the mornings and get fresh juice, hot salteņas, and other treats for a quick breakfast.

My aunts are worried that I'm not eating well (yet I eat twice as much as ever!), which I think is just a cover for wanting me around. So now I'm also taking turns w/ lunches once a week at a different aunt's house. Obviously, it saves me money. And it's also nice to spend some time w/ family. I keep forgetting that my American sensibilities towards independence have to be balanced by Bolivian traditional very close family ties.

I'm also starting to buy furniture. I'm having a sofa and coffee table made and delivered on Monday morning. I hope to get a nice rug to tie the place together. I also have two plants thanks to an aunt (Doņa Paulina), who also took me to get my haircut today.

I finally got my residency registry paperwork finished at the PTJ, which means I now have the pleasure of starting my visa paperwork at Immigration. Fun. I start today at 3pm, since they don't attend clients before then. Fun?

And last night I went out for coffee (and drank an über delicious concoction called a bombon) w/ my friend Daniel and his cousin-in-law (Arturo), who works for the Chancellory (the Foreign Ministry). While we were talking politics, a former vice president came in and chatted for a second w/ Daniel & Arturo. And Monday I hang out w/ the Presidency's press director, a friend of my cousin Kathira.

Posted by Miguel at 12:51 PM

Comments

I can't help but picturing you in a fedora. That sounds fancy and very much out of an understated foreign film.

Glad you're doing well :)

Posted by: bay at October 4, 2003 04:47 PM

sounds like you're poised to start running things around there

Posted by: bil at October 4, 2003 05:03 PM

where are our pictures?

did you have to give a policeman your digital camera in order to gain residency?

Posted by: jake at October 5, 2003 01:06 AM

Yeah, I lost my floppy disk somewhere and just haven't bought a new one yet. I have to download pictures to my laptop, then onto a floppy drive, then take that to a cyber café and upload it to my server. I'll be sure to start taking lots more pictures. Soon as I get a new disk tomorrow.

Posted by: miguel at October 5, 2003 08:04 PM