Even people that dont know anything at all about russia usually realize that the country is known for it’s vodka. people there totally love the stuff and drink tons of it. and i dont mean taking tiny little one ounce shots or mixing it in fruity drinks… they drink huge glasses full of it along with their dinner. in the russian tradition, vodka has always been my drink of choice. vodka is the ultimate versatile alcohol and can be mixed with pretty much anytihng. when i was young and was too much of a wuss to drink beer, i drank vodka cranberries since it tasted sweet and went down easy. later i started drinking vodka tonics and occasionaly (in a bar that makes them well) bloody marys.

when i found out a few years back that there was a new cool bar in SF that specialized in vodka drinks, i knew i had to go check it out. but, for whatever reason, i never got around to going there until last week. partially it’s probably because the bar, Voda, is a shwanky bar in the financial district, and i usually am more into dive-ish kind of places. Trying to find this bar was nearly impossible. it was on some street called Belden Place which turned out to be a tiny alley that cars aren’t even allowed to drive on. the alley was really cool with lots of outdoor cafe-style seating and it totally had the feel of a small quaint french backstreet.

the bar itself didn’t exactly fit in with the relaxed cafe feel of the street and was instead all lit up in neon, but it looked really cool. the whole inside was lit up all blue with bright red checkered floors, blue/red/white cubes to sit on next to the couches, and a red lit up shelf area filled with tons of different clear vodka bottles. the place looked pretty shwanky and there was also a dj playing pretty decent music. i really dug the place’s futuristic and slick look. oh, in case you’re wondering, the bar’s name “Voda” means water in russian and actually the word vodka is derived from voda.

Tom and i sat at the bar and looked over the drink menu. there were all sorts of innovative vodka drinks on there and throughout the night, we tried a whole lot of different ones. almost everything we drank was super good, except for this one drink called the Ginger bikini line. i had the feeling that pepper flavored vodka mixed with ginger and juice could be pretty disgusting, but i decided to try it anyway hoping it might surprise me. nope. it was as disgusting as i expected. just because you *can* mix vodka with pretty much anyting, doesn’t mean you should.

the rest of the drinks were hella good though. tom tried this one drink that was key-lime flavored and actually had pie crust crumbles on the rim of the glass. i tried this vodka called Hangar One which is brewed in oakland. i usually dont drink vodka straight, but the citrus version of this stuff was pretty smooth and tasty. one of the cool things this place has is a lot of different vodka infusions. this is where they leave something inside the vodka bottle and the vodka becomes infused with that flavor. i ordered a chocolate mint infusion and it was ridiculously good. it smelled and tasted just like candy… i could hardly even tell that it was vodka at all. delicious.

after a while, catherine and Li decided to head home. it was just tom and me left, so we decided to grab one more drink before heading home. i got a caramel infused vodka, which althoough not as good as the chocolate mint, was still hella good. we were just about to take off, when the bartender started talking to us. earlier on in the night, the bartender wasn’t extremely friendly.. in fact, he was rather curt. but now, near the end of the night, he was a bit drunk, and (suprise, surprise) became all chatty.

he told us he’d hook us up with something really special, and poured us this fig vodka. now, i hate figs. they are one of the nastiest things ever. not only do they taste like crap, but they even have the nerve to look gross on top of that. the bartender told us that this was special vodka imported from germany and that he is 100% sure that no other bar around carries it. he made sure we believed him by repeating this at least 8 times… maybe more. after we were told yet again that we wont be able to find this fig vodka anywhere in sf, we took our shots. shockingly, it actually tasted hella good. nice and sweet. when we told the bartender that we liked it, he decided to mention that we would probably never see this vodka anywhere in sf… just in case we missed that fact the first dozen times . he then proceeded to pour us a free shot of this inferno vodka out of a bottle with two huge scary looking chili peppers in it. now, i have no problem eating spicy food. actually, the hotter it is, the better. but *drinking* really spicy stuff is a whole different story. it just seems weird. you get the burn of the vodka along with the spicy burn of the peppers. this isn’t something i would normally order, but hey, i’ll try pretty much anything if it’s free.

so now we had drank 2 drinks beyond our “last drink", but since they had been free, we felt obligated to buy a drink. we couldnt just chug his free drinks and then leave, right? so we each got a malabar infused vodka. malabar is this french bubble gum, and i was hella not down with it. tom seemed to like it though. at this point, the bartender looks around the room and decides to make “something special” for us and the other 4 people who still remained. i dont know what the something special was, but it was pretty good.

and so, after that, we finally left. all in all, it was a good night. actually, any night when you get a bunch of free drinks is a good one, but it wasn’t just that. it was the fact that the drinks at this place were all really good. some of the drinks were a bit pricey ($7), but the infused vodkas were only 5$ and other shots of quality vodka were only $5 as well. not too bad for a chi-chi place. the crowd wasn’t the usual kind of crowd that i’d hang out with, but despite that, i thought the bar was really cool… i’d definitely be down to go there again.

Voda is at 56 Belden Pl ion San Francisco.

*v

wow, the guy from ethiopia who i mentioned in my previous post will not let up. yesterday i got yet another email from him. now he wants a dictionary. when will he ever stop?

———————

How are you? I am fine with my college of Addis Ababa. I am take your email letter is nice but you are not Reply to me all of them.
Would you like to help me school materially? If you want to help me send this Dictionary to me?
1. Ox ford Advanced learner’s Dictionary Fifth edition, EditorbyJonathan Crowther. Sand to me by the following address
To Basure Debebe
Addis Ababa College of
Technology and commerce
P.O. Box 180501
Addis – Ababa
Ethiopia
Please accept my letter. Reply to me on this week?

Yours Basure

when i was younger, i had to take bus to school all the time. it pretty much sucked. i hated waiting for the bus. i hated riding the bus. and i definitely hated missing the bus and having to run after it… which happened all to frequently. at the end of high school, i got a car and i never took the bus again. but now I’m living in the south bay and have no car, so the other day when i had to get back home from downtown san Jose, i hopped on the 81 line… a bus that i used to take all the time years ago.

now, some people think that taking the bus is hella ghetto and that the people who ride those things are total freaks. i don’t really think that way… yet somehow this bus ride took a turn towards the unexpected. the guy across the aisle from me kept kind of slumping over during the ride. he was around 25 years old, and i assumed he was probably just drunk or something when all of a sudden he starts muttering “I need an ambulance. bus driver… bus driver… I NEED AN AMBULANCE. i can’t see. i can’t seeeeeee". wtf? i slowly look around me. either no one heard him, or people just don’t give a fuck. i look at the guy… he definitely looks messed up. so now what? do i call an ambulance? is this guy really hurt or is he just a crackhead? i don’t want to call out an ambulance for nothing, but at the same time, i can’t just ignore him.

luckily, eventually the bus driver hears him. i guess the bus driver must deal with stuff like this all the time, cause it doesn’t even phase him. he just angrily asks the guy why he needs an ambulance. the guy, who is having difficult speaking, stammers that he hurt his back a few days ago and that it hurts like crazy and all of a sudden he can’t see anything. he asks the bus driver where we are, and then has him stop at the next stop, where he gets up stumbles forward towards the bus door and then proceeds to crumple in a heap on the bus floor. shit.

the guy’s laying there on his back, muttering that he needs an ambulance over and over. at this point there’s not really another option. the bus driver (very reluctantly) agrees to call an ambulance. now, at this point you would think that people would feel sorry for this poor guy. nope. this guy sitting at the back of the bus starts totally yelling at him: “Hey! what the hell?! couldn’t you have fallen down *outside* the bus? now we all have to wait for your stupid ass! what the hell is your problem! man, I’m gonna throw your ass in a shopping cart and shove you down the street. how’d you hurt your back man… what, did you fall off your little skateboard or somethin’?? you’re probably takin’ drugs yo… that’s why you can’t see!” and so it goes on and on for twenty minutes straight. up until the minute that the ambulance hauled the hurt guy away, this dude in the back was yelling at him and making fun of him.

how messed up is that? the crazy thing is that he wasn’t the only one. other people on the bus were also grumbling about having to wait. what exactly is wrong with some people these days? are they really so wrapped up in their own lives and always in so much of a hurry that they can’t even have compassion for someone who is in pain if it inconveniences their commute? is this just such a common occurrence that people are immune to caring? maybe it’s just too routine. the paramedics that came to get him didnt seem all that concerned either and joked amongst themselves while they hauled the guy off. i can’t even imagine being in that guy’s situation… laying on the floor of the bus in pain, unable to see, and people are just straight up dissing you the whole time. crazy.

*v

i think i mentioned before that Tom came up with a rule for our fiftybars thing where every time we go to a bar, if it has a speciality drink, we have to try it. does anyone out there have any suggestions of other rules that might be fun/interesting to apply?

or maybe something funny to take note of in each bar we go to?

or something funny to take a photo of at each bar we see?

*v

When traveling in poor countries, you are constantly bombarded by people who ask you for money. there’s all sorts of ways to con people out of their money and one of ways we often saw in Ethiopia was a textbook scam. the poor kid would tell you that he doesn’t want your money, he just wants you to buy him a book so he can study english. who can say no to that? i mean, he’s not using the money for drugs, moonshine, or even toys… it’s books! it’s educational! you can’t say no to this kid’s education, right? well, of course the whoe thing is a scam. if you buy them the book, they will just go back to the shop later and sell it back for money.

In a town called Yabello, one very persistant guy showed up on my doorstep after finding out which hotel i was staying at. could i buy him some textbooks? No. maybe when i got back to the US, could i send him money for textbooks? No. Could my family buy him textbooks? No. Maybe i could just ask one of the many rich people i knew in america to send him money? No. i kept telling him over and over again that i wouldnt give him money. man, this guy was so persistant. after fending off his requests for almost half an hour, he finally gave up.

or so i though. it turns out, this guy will never give up! i was totally shocked to find out that he waited till i got home, and is now *emailing* me asking for money. $100 actually. Now, a hundred bucks goes a looooong way in ethiopia. i wonder how many suckers he finds that actually end up sending him the money? hell, even if he finds like 10-15 people per year, he can live quite comfortably over there.

here’s the email:

—————————
To Dear my brotherVlad
Thank you for the replying email letter tome. How are your? I am with my college. I want to ask something you? Would you like it? If you like it I am learn in this college through foster mother of Germany called mayr. She is pay to me thee fee of subject, food and boarding – school to me .you are live in good life of U.S.A so that I want to buy same book about my subject for this I want $ 100 dollar from you? If you want send to me by bank address.
Name of bank; -commercial bank of Ethiopia western union main branch
Name of receiver; - Basure Debebe
Address; - Addis Ababa – Ethiopia
My Account N0 28710
My telephone No 251 112 137 317
My full bank Address is this one please please sends to me same money? I am in problem, student with out book meaning lass. If you send to me write by email money transfer control No the is put in bank the money from U.S.A. to Ethiopia. Last time when I am in yabello I give to you one my past address that is wrong my new post address is this one
To Basure Debebe
Addis Ababa College of
Technology and commerce
P.o. Box 180501
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
This is my post address for 3 years. Until next time good-bye! And reply to my
From your brother student Basure.

I wish i could say that i started this resolution out with a bang. unfortunately though, i started it by going to a bar at 6pm which obviously isn’t the liveliest and most fun time to check out a bar. why was i out drinking at 6pm? well, if you’ve got a resolution to hit up 50 new bars in one year, and you’re sitting around doing nothing, then hell, why not?

I chose whiskey thieves because it’s in the Tenderloin. Actually, i have a feeling that i might end up going to the Tenderloin a lot this year since it’s a neighborhood i really haven’t explored at all. yeah, it’s one of the most sketchy, filthy, and uninviting areas in SF and lots of people avoid it like the plague, but I get the feeling that there are really some cool hidden spots over there that don’t get the credit they deserve just because of their location.

in front of the bar, they had their logo shimmering and lit up through galvanized steel, which was a pretty cool effect and kind of had a techno-pirate kind of feel to it. inside, there was more galvanized steel along the wall and the place actually looked a bit fancy to be just another dive bar. as the name implies, this place is all about whiskey and they actually have a four page whiskey menu with a ton of different kinds. unfortunately, i couldn’t tell a $50 whiskey shot from a hole in the ground, and the only whiskeys i recognized on the menu were Jack Daniels and his other cheap-ass friends. I’ve drank my fair share of Jack, so i decided to try his cheapo friend called George Dickel, which ended up being pretty good. Other than whiskey, this place had a bunch of beers on tap including Chimay, and also sold my favorite beer, Hoegaarden, which you can’t find in a lot of places. Actually, just the fact that this place has Hoegaarden makes it good in my book, now if they could only get it on tap…

Like i said, it was only 6pm, and the bar had just opened for the night, so it was pretty dead. there were probably only like 5 other people in the place, so the three of us just sat around at a table and drank. the place had a pool table which we didnt try, and apparently Tom’s favorite pinball game ever, which we didnt get to try either since it was mysteriously unplugged soon after we arrived. they also had one of those tech jukeboxes that downloads songs off the internet, so we ordered a few songs, although it was kind of a rip off at $1.00 per song. our songs didnt play till about a billion songs later, which is weird cause i never saw anyone put a ton of money into the jukebox. i read later that Whiskey Thieves is one of the few bars in SF where you are allowed to smoke, but we weren’t sure of this at the time since there were some no smoking signs posted.

Anyways, overall i thought this place was really cool. the drinks were decently strong, selection of beer was good, and it seems like it’d be a fun place to hang out later in the night when there are more people. hopefully I’ll go back there some day and check it out again…

Whiskey Thieves is at 839 Geary St.

*v

2006 is a brand new year, and as always January is a good time to make a new resolution for your life. Most people take this opportunity to try to change their lives in a healthy way… you know: eating less, going to the gym, flossing, whatever. I’ll try to make some of those healthy resolutions too one of these days, but for now my only new year’s resolution involves drinking copious amounts of alcohol. heh, ok, well, i’m sure i would have drank my fare share this year without any kind of resolution, but my resolution deals more with *where* i’ll be doing this drinking.

i was thinking the other night how i’ve lived in (or at least near) San Francisco for *ages*. how many nights have i gone out drinking in SF? hundreds? thousands? more? but when i really think about it, how many different bars have i been to in SF? a handful maybe. i, and everyone i know, always end up going to the same places over and over and over and over again. In san francisco, there is this huge tendency to always go do things in the neighborhood you live in. if you live in the Sunset, then you eat, drink, and go out in the Sunset. if you live in the Mission, most of your activities will end up near the Mission. people pick a few spots that they like and just visit them time and time again. yet, there is sooo many different places out there in SF that i have never explored.

so here’s my idea: visit a new bar every week this year. 52 bars in 52 weeks. well, 50 i guess since i started 2 weeks late. i know it’s ambitious. that’s a lot of bars. but i think i can do it. This year, i’ll venture out and try different bars all over the place. from lounges to dive bars to pubs, i’ll seek them all out. I’ll hit up places in North Beach, the Tenderloin, and other areas of the city that i’ve rarely hung out in. It wont always be easy to drag people out to try something new, but it’ll be worth it to check out s lot more of what SF has to offer.

Luckily, i’m not alone in this endeavor. My good friend Tom has agreed to help, and will be going to all 50 bars with me. You know that someone is a true friend when they agree to do such a difficult and exhausting task without even a second thought. With Tom, i think it’ll be possible to succeed and reach the goal.

if on Dec 31st of this year, we can look back and say that we’ve visited 50 bars, we’ll know that we accomplished something. it might not be a incredible something, it may not even be a useful something, but hell, it’ll be something dammit. and that’s better than nothing.

*v

i give up.

i’ve been meaning to write a lot of stuff here for a while. i wanted to write about the last couple of days in transit from bolivia. i wanted to write about adjusting to real life back here in america. i wanted to write about every little thing that’s happened between arriving in La Paz and now. it’s been about two months now, and i’ve done none of that. the trip is over. has been for a while now. and life goes on. there’s all sorts of stuff that happens on a day to day basis that i want to write in the blog about, but i always feel like i can’t since i still need to catch up on the past before i write about the present. well, i’m tired of putting it off, so here’s a wrap-up of the last two months, so i can just start writing about the present.

——–

our last half day in la paz pretty much flew by. we bought plane tickets back home. we shopped for souvenirs like crazy rushing around from shop to shop. finally, after packing everything for the final time, we went to sleep. the next morning, we flew out of La Paz. the view from the plane was incredible. La Paz, surrounded by mountains, is a great city to look at from above. the rest of the day was a blur of airports, airplanes, and boredom. our flight had two different stops on its way to miami. at each stop there were long delays and it was an incredible relief when we finally arrived. but our hellish day wasn’t over yet. it was difficult finding a hotel, and then we were stuck waiting for an hour for a shuttle and then it took us ages to finally find a place to eat. our first meal back in America was at Denny’s with two random travelers who we met.

the next day i flew off to SF while caryn flew to NY to see her family for thanksgiving. in the plane, it was really hard for me to believe that i was actually coming home. that in just a few hours i would be landing in SF and seeing my family again. i was excited and nervous and overwhelmed. the minutes crawled by. finally, the plane landed and my brother drove me back home. it was SO weird. driving on 280, the freeway that i’ve driven on at least once a week for most of my life. all the familiar exits. seeing my brother again. i felt like i was living in a dream.

back at home i had dinner with my parents and brother. it was really good to see them again. my parents had made this cool collage poster of some of my trip photos, and even nicer of them was that they had printed out all my journal entries and had them bound at kinko’s. i couldnt believe it. that must have been a ridiculous amount of work. the thing weighed a ton! not only that, but they were nice enough to make one for caryn too. after dinner, i was exhausted and went to sleep. sleeping in my old room from when i was a kid was pretty weird.

——–

readjusting to reality has been really weird. the first couple of weeks especially were pretty bizarre. it felt so weird to be doing all the old things that i used to do. driving a car, using a microwave, and talking on a cellphone. all of these things that used to be so normal and just a standard part of life, now seemed a bit foreign and odd. it’s really strange to slowly settle back into your old life. in some ways, everything seems so comfortable and welcoming. doing things like getting coffee at the local coffeeshop, or going to grocery store, or anything else… on one hand i kind of missed all these things and i was glad to do them again. but at the same time… i was really hesitant. it seemed almost wrong for me to want to do all these things. i almost didnt want to like these things anymore because they were just so normal. doing them again meant that life would revert back to usual and that’s not necessarily something i wanted. i didnt want all the normal day-to-day things to become my life again. i wanted more foreign countries and crazy adventures. but i couldnt do anything about it. i was being sucked back in.

the other really weird thing in the first two weeks was seeing people again. honestly, i was really nervous about seeing all my friends after so long. the first couple of times i hung out with people, things were a bit awkward and weird. i kind of felt like i just wasnt on the same wavelength as anyone. but after a bit, that feeling passed. friendships picked up where they left off. everything went back to normal… whatever that means. it’s funny, seeing people after coming back. a lot of people, especially people i dont know very well, seem like they feel obligated to ask about the trip. it’s pretty obvious they dont really care, and are just asking to be polite, and i almost want to say “hey, dont worry a bout it. you dont have to ask". but they ask. and they always ask one follow up question, which usually is “which country is your favorite". *sigh*… i’m so sick of that… well, i mean, i have no problem if the person really cares, but the thing is that the person is usually asking just to be polite. nowadays, instead of explaining that it’s impossible to pick a favorite etc etc etc… i just say Japan. it makes things easier on everyone involved.

————

so, two weeks went by. and scarily enough, life became normal again. while i was gone, i was so worried about how long it would take for me to adjust to regular life. i had assumed it would take ages. months. but it didnt. all it took was two weeks and it almost felt like i had never left. in fact, in some ways my trip seemed so bizarre and dream-like that it almost seemed like it had never happened. could i really have done all those crazy things? was that really my life? or just a movie i watched?

of course, there were some differences between my life now and my life before i left. i have no job now. i have no car since i sold it before the trip. i live with my parents since i cant afford rent. it’s funny, it’s almost like being back in highschool. living in my old room and having to ask my parents if i can borrow their car if i want to go anywhere. i’m a little kid all over again.

i mentioned earlier that i had a family emergency back home. i wont go into what it is here since my family probably wouldnt like to have their lives broadcast all over the internet, but i will mention that it’s been really rough. In some ways, i never feel completely at ease. any time when my mind isn’t occupied with other thoughts, it’s filled with worry and stress.

———

let’s see.. what else? my cousin went out of town for two weeks so i got to spend that time living at her house and taking care of her new puppy, McPoopersen. it was really nice to be up in sf and not have to drive up every time i want to do anything. also, it was actually really cool to watch the dog during that time. the dog is tiny and super fun.

new years this year was kind of hectic. i had dinner at Luna Park with Caryn, Jamie, Tom, Catherine, and some other people. then around 10pm, caryn and i hopped in a car and raced back down to SJ to celebrate NY with my family. at 1am, we hopped in a car again and came up to SF to celebrate some more. a lot of driving for one night, but it was pretty fun.

i spent some time trying to find contract work online. i searched craigslist and some other sites. it was rough. i would bid on contracts and then be outbid by people in india or russia who were willing to work for next to nothing. after spending hours and hours researching online, placing bids, returning phone calls and emails i only managed to land one contract… and that was for a measily $175. to make matters worse, i underestimated how long the project might take, and ended up spending about 20 hours on it. so basically, i earned about minimum wage. *sigh*

——

so i guess that’s it. where does that leave me? i need to find a job. FAST. or at least some contract work. i need to buy a car. and then, i need to move back to SF. hopefully, it wont take ages for all this stuff to happen.

if you’re subscribed to this blog only because you wanted to read about round the world travel, feel free to unsubscribe now. if you want to be re-subscribed when i go traveling again, you can email me and i’ll do that. or, if you’re interested in reading about life here in SF, read on.

*v

during this year on the road, whenever i told people that i was traveling for over a year, many of the people just couldn’t believe that it would be possible to travel for that long. how could i afford such a thing? was i rich or something? one of the most common questions i would get was “how much did this whole thing cost you?” some people asked just out of curiosity. others asked because they too hoped to someday travel for a long time. trying to plan out and figure out the cost of such a long trip is a bit of a daunting task.

the answer to how much a year on the road would cost really depends on each person. there are a million factors to consider. will you be spending most of your time in expensive places like Europe? or will you be mostly traveling in 3rd world countries where people can get by on just 20$ a day? also, a lot depends on your travel style. $1,000 could probably buy you a really nice all inclusive tour in Thailand for a *week*, but if you went to Thailand on your own and only stayed in budget hostels, that same $1000 could probably last you a whole *month*.

basically, if you play your cards right, you can travel for a very long time on very little. after calculating my expenditures, it turned out that the amount of money i spent during 14 months on the road (including flights, food, hotels, etc) was far less than *half* of what i would have spent living here in the USA. travel can be surprisingly cheap! anyways, i put together a page of how much money i spent on this trip broken down by country, just so people could get an idea of how much a trip like this could possibly cost.

here is my costs page for the whole trip.

*v

i’ve had a hell of a time trying to get myself to update this blog over the last month. this is partially because I’m back. yeah, for anyone out there that still doesn’t know, i ended my trip and have been back in America for about a month now.

on November 17th, when i had just returned to rurre from the jungle, i got an email from my brother letting me know about a family emergency. as soon as i read it, i knew that i would be going home immediately. travel is one of the things that i love most in life, but for me, family comes first. and anyway, i had already been on the road for 14 months and seen 28 countries… missing out on just one or 2 more countries really wasn’t a big deal. i immediately called home and after talking to people, started trying to figure out how i could get back.

going back was easier said than done. i was in rurrenabaque, a tiny little jungle town in the middle of nowhere. to catch an international flight, i would have to get back to La Paz, the capital. the only road to La Paz was “the world’s most dangerous road", and after having done that road once, there was no way in hell i would do it again. the other option was to fly in one of the tiny little planes that are run by the military. unfortunately, that airline doesn’t fly everyday, so our ticket was for the 19th, two days later.

the next day i woke up and was totally going crazy. i couldn’t stand being there any longer. i totally felt like my family needed me and i felt completely helpless being stuck here in the middle of nowhere. it was only one day till our flight on the 19th, but i felt like i just couldn’t wait any longer. also, there was another problem with waiting. the weather out there is completely unpredictable and flights get cancelled all the time. sometimes it takes people *weeks* to get out of rurrenabaque. what if the weather goes sour tomorrow and I’m stuck? what if there’s no way to get home for a long time? i decided that i couldn’t wait till the 19th. i had to do everything i could to get out of rurrenabaque that very day.

there’s one other tiny airline that operates out of rurre. it flies these super tiny 12 seater planes. the thought of flying into La Paz (world’s highest airport) in one of these planes was a bit freaky, but i decided to try anyway. we went to the airline office and it turned out that we were just a tiny bit short of the money needed to buy a ticket. CRAP! to make matters worse, rurre has no atms. we reserved two tickets, and then frantically started running around town figuring out how to get the remaining money. you can get credit card advances at the bank… but the bank was closed. i exchanged all the remaining dollars that i had. then i found a few Euro notes in my pack and exchanged those too. i *almost* had enough, but not quite. time was running out, and if we wanted to catch the flight, we would have to pay within one hour.

i was completely freaking out by this point. i *had* to get on the plane. should i try to sell something of mine? my mp3 player maybe? at the last second, i had a realization. i had been saving a bill from every country i had visited. most of these were worthless, but i had a 5 pound note from the UK! that’s almost 10 dollars. the problem is, no one exchanges for pounds in rurre. so, i started running up to random people around town and asking them if they were British so that i could trade them my 5 pound note. it was ridiculous. anyways, finally, with only minutes to spare, after frantically packing our stuff, we rush into the airline office to buy our tickets… and he tells us that they have been sold. WHAT?!?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!? he calmly explains that tickets get sold to the first person who pays for them. but, what about the reservations, i ask?? well, apparently the reservations don’t mean anything. you can be the first reservation in line, and they’ll just sell your ticket to whoever pays for it. i was SO pissed. if the reservation doesn’t actually reserve anything, what the hell is the point?!!! after an intense screaming match, there was nothing we could do. i couldn’t believe it. after all that effort, we would still have to wait till the 19th. well, the only thing i could do now was to sit back and wait… and hope that it doesn’t rain.

the morning of the 19th, we walk out of the hotel and there are dark rain clouds everywhere. uh-oh. i started getting really nervous, but as long as it didnt rain within two hours when our flight takes off, we would be ok. of course, this is Bolivia and after getting to the airline office, we spent the next several hours sitting around waiting. and waiting. and waiting. finally we all piled into a van to go to the airport. upon arriving at the airport… it started to rain. tell me this isn’t happening. it started raining harder and harder. this “airport” is really just a long grassy field. if the field is wet and becomes slippery and muddy, no airplanes can take off. after an hour’s wait, we are told that we would try to take off from another airport about 45 minutes away. so, they take all of our luggage and throw it into an *uncovered* pick-up truck, to be driven through the pouring rain to the other airport. nice. as we drive to the second airport, we eventually get out of the rainy area and see the pick up truck with our luggage speeding down a dusty road with all of the luggage in back completely covered with water and dust.

at the second airport, we wait for yet another hour and then finally board our flight. the flight to La Paz was short, and soon i was in a taxi on the way to the hotel. it was mid day by the time i checked in, and now i had just a few hours to book my flight from Bolivia to the USA and also to try and rush around and buy souvenirs for everyone we know. it was a hectic several hours, especially since now that we were back at high altitude, doing anything at a fast speed would leave me out of breath. later that night, we had our last meal abroad at a fancy(ish) restaurant in our hotel. it was crazy to think that the next day i would be on a plane and flying back home…

*v