So now I am in La Paz, and have been since the 26th. La Paz is huge (2.5 million inhabitants) and built in the middle of a canyon. You never walk on a flat plane here, it is either up or down. And it is steep. And I´m still not used to the altitude, so I am out of breath most of the time. As a rule, I generally walk downhill into the city then take a cab back.

Here are a couple of photos of my ride from Copacabana to La Paz. Lots of snowcapped mountains in the distance.

The sad thing is that all along the 3 hour ride are literally hundreds of children and families hanging out by the side of the road. They are all screaming at the buses with their hands extended asking for the people on the buses to throw them money. This is what they do all day long. Attached is pic of two boys along the side of the road.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. It is landlocked, and, until recently, the majority of its natural resources were owned by foreign companies. Evo Morales, the new president, is nationalizing many of the resources, such as petroleum. Hopefully some of the profits of these resources will start to go to the people, but who knows. Evo could be as corrupt as Castro. It´s interesting though to watch all of the recent elections here, socialists and leftists have been winning. Again, I´m not saying that they will govern any better than their predecessors, but when governments continually only support the rich, as in latin america, who do the expect the poor people to vote for? The status quo? Empty promises? It´s going to be extemely interesting to watch latin american politics for the next few years. Will Chavez turn Venezuela into a Cuban copycat? Will Correa of Ecuador follow Chavez? Does anyone in America really pay hardly any attention to Latin American politics? Happy New Year! Be thankful you live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.