Too busy to write

11.12.2003

I've been a bit busy the last few days, w/ barely enough time to read my email. I've also been feeling rather slow & tired. I guess hours of reading old newspapers every day does that to you.

But I've also bought a new fridge. This means I can now make iced drinks, sandwiches, granola, and other snacks or light meals at home. I still don't have a stove, and I'm not really sure I want one. Sure, I can get one for Bs. 150 (about $20), but the hassle of it all — connecting gas, cleaning up after cooking, buying cooking utensils, etc. — just doesn't justify the expense to me.

I spent about a half hour talking to my casera yesterday. Now that I've a fridge, I had to stock it up a bit. So I went down to Mercado Camacho. I hadn't seen my casera since I went to Santa Cruz. She asked me where I'd lost myself, and we started talking about how Santa Cruz has changed (she used to sell things there). Then we just chit chatted about how I'm doing in my apartment (she sort of mothers me) and life in La Paz in general. It was a really good time.

I also had an interesting conversation w/ a taxi driver the other day (I like to chit chat w/ taxi drivers whenever I can). He taught me an interesting fact about driving in La Paz. Taxi drivers change their brake pads 1-2 times a month. I don't know how often regular car maintenance requires changing brake pads, but I'm sure it's less than once or twice a month. Wow. He told me that he was going down a steep hill (La Paz is 80% steep hills going up or down) and his brakes gave out, so he had to use his hand brake to drive to his mechanic. I told him I'd probably never brave driving in La Paz and that they're not called maestro for nothing (he chuckled at that).

The postal workers just went on strike yesterday afternoon. So a batch of postcards I sent out might be stuck "in transit" for God knows how long. Sorry, folks. That was the nice surprise that greeted me Tuesday afternoon (I had dropped the postcards off just before noon, while the post office was still working).

Posted by Miguel at 06:45 PM

Comments

I would just like to thank you for taking some time and answering those questions. It was really interesting to hear your responses. Pus your blog gives some great litle peices of info.

Posted by: Santiago Gayton at November 12, 2003 07:52 PM

maybe instead of a stove I can bring you a george foreman grill. those are a god send for the single guy. seriously.

generally a car (in the US) would not even change brake pads once a year. so twice a month.. WOW! I am not sure if I would brave downtown La Paz either. Maybe you should get a moped... Start the La Paz chapter of the Moped Army.

Posted by: sam at November 13, 2003 11:27 AM

No thanks, not sure what I'd do w/ a George Foreman grill. I don't really want to make my kitchen too complicated. First, because it's small. And second, because I like eating out (and it's so cheap here!).

Also, I don't think mopeds would work in La Paz. Climbing all those hills w/ 50cc would destroy an engine (even if you modified it to climb like that). Plus, you'd probably die w/in a week, since traffic here's so crazy.

Posted by: miguel at November 13, 2003 02:30 PM

I gotta hand it to those taxi drivers in busy cities. I utter a prayer and hope for the best when I get on these cabs. The drivers are reckless!! They leave their passengers to their destination on time and chattering. But that's part of the thrill, isn't it?

Posted by: stephanie at November 14, 2003 03:09 AM