If any of you, dear readers, are ever in La Paz, be sure to check out Calle Jean (pictured below)! It's an older road, lined with colorful buildings, most of which contain museums, art galleries, and restaurants. The museums are all basically connected so one 10boliviano ticket (about $1.50) gets you into 5 museums! They are certainly smaller than the usual museum in the US, but have some interesting stuff. For instance, you can learn all about the war for Bolivia's coastline (did you know Bolivia used to have Pacific coastline? Reasons for why is was lost vary widely depending on who you ask and what country they are from!) or visit a museum devoted to Bolivia's national musical instruments. Pretty cool!
Copacabana is always changing-- one thing about the economy in Bolivia is that there is always money for construction! In Copa, because it is on the "tourist track" between Cusco, Peru, and La Paz, new hostels spring up every year. The newer ones are getting creative with their architecture- this one under construction looks like a snail shell, while the buildings in the background are a perfect circle and an igloo! All of these little houses are part of the small hostel, just up the hill from our house.
The family I live with here are pretty amazing. Pablo and Juana have 4 kids: Rodrigo (14), Ariel (11), Estefany (9) and Raymi (7). They are all pretty funny and smart (Rodrigo just made it into the regional science olympiad for Astrophysics!!) and are good fun to play games with in the evening when it gets cold! Here's a picture of Estefany, Raymi, and their cousin, Christian. Some crazy American thought it was a good idea to give them nerf guns! :)
Alright, well I should probably commit to doing some lab work for the day! Happy Monday!
Hah, the Bolivian coastline is like the Bolivia v. Chile version of the Malvinas (...Falklands). Argentina v. UK. Hmm, Argentina does that a lot though: Ushuaia is the capital of Antarctica (Argentina v. the rest of the planet!).
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