Cochabamba

Jose and I arrived to Cochabamba on Saturday night after a really long 23 hours on a bus. We looked at flights from Cusco to Cochabamba and it was going to be 300 dollars each way, which would be 600 dollars for Jose and 900 dollars for both of us - not worth it. Instead, we paid 25 dollars each and got to see a LOT of Bolivian and Peruvian countryside.

My first impressions of Bolivia weren´t great, I have to say. We waited for 2 hours at the border to pass through to Bolivia and then along the Bolivian side to Cochabamba, we passed 3 ¨police controls¨in which military types in army uniforms came onto the bus, checked our documents and bags...that was a bit scary.

We checked into a pretty nice hostel (because Mom said I had to) and woke up to a lady screaming ¨ratero¨robber! from the street. We changed hostels and feel pretty safe in our new location.

So on top of the lady screaming and the military checking our stuff over and over, we discovered that Cochabamba virtually closes on Sunday. On our first day in the city, nothing was open - I´m talking stores, tour agencies, restaurants, NOTHING!

But, today is Monday and we´re having a much better time. Jose has taken charge of the museums and we´re going to do a bus tour at 3. Cochabamba on the weekdays is a really happy, bright and beaming place and I´m excited for my time here.

Ok, that´s as much as I can write for now - Thanks for reading!