Time for a cut?

I've heard rumors that it costs about 14 cents (1 Boliviano) to get a haircut here. Would you be willing to risk it?

Festival

I was able to attend a dance and music festival in Achiri this Friday. It was very fun being able to meet many of the local malkus (community leaders) and other town leaders. A lot of their dances are many centuries old and have experienced a re-birth lately due to the increased focus on ancient cultures.

Takesi

I just got back from a 1.5 day hike with a group of friends. We started our hike at around 3200 meters (10498 ft), got up to about 4600 m (15091 ft), and then plunged bellow 3000 m.
We walked about 30 kilometers in total and were able to see varius types of vegetation (from short grass to jungle). My knees just about gave out at the end of the first day and I wished I had walking sticks. Our next hikes include Huyana Potosi and Choro (about 70 kms long).

At the cumbre (4600 meters)

We camped near the river.

This river was the end of the hike and VERY cold.

This poor dog had to ride for three hours on top of the bus.

Solsito, ¿donde ´tas?

I honestly don’t have much to complain about. I’ve had the privilege of living the majority of my life in areas with very mild winters. It gets cold once in a while in Jujuy and Salta but the truth is that it comes in waves, so most of the time you can work in t-shirts or even a light jacket while everyone else in the northern United States is obligated to wear large jackets just to stay warm. The weather has been very pleasant here in La Paz. The nights can get a bit chilly but a light fleece will take care of that. It’s even warm enough to wear Chacos, a very slight change from the winters with feet of snow.

I’ve realized that I have the Greenman disease where if we don’t get enough sun our brains shut down and we get ho-hum. I faced this while in Michigan and Indiana and especially while in Lithuania where I only saw the sun a few times.

La Paz is always sunny. Extremely sunny. It’s amazing how strong the sun is here and how easy it is to get burnt. This is the first time since I’ve been here that there is some cloud cover. I’m kind of cold right now because the sun usually shines in through the window and keeps me toasty. I can’t complain too much though, I know that tomorrow will be sunny again and even now I get a burst of rays every few minutes. It really is nice having this much sun after so many dark months.

Photos from silo planning

I had a nice change this past week when I found out that I would be helping Gabriel measure out plots for the new silos that we will be building in August. It´s too cold at night and the cement freezes and falls apart, so we were helping farmers get the foundations ready.

This is the town where I stayed a week to help build silos: Caquiaviri.

This lamb´s mother died a few days ago, I think the owner is going to eat it soon (the lamb).

This is the health team´s quad, they use it to visit small villages and weigh babies (among other things).