Jul 8
Before leaving for our trip to the continent, I toyed with the idea of writing a book about what people in each country ate for breakfast. I don't know exactly why what people eat for breakfast is a curiosity to me but it has been for some time. There is the whole 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' thing but I'm not sure that's it. It could go back to almost twenty years ago on my first trip out of the country.
We took a plane from La Paz, Bolivia down south to the Bolivian wine country to a city called Tarija. The south of Bolivia often gets slighted by the more famous and larger cities in the country like Sucre or La Paz. If you find yourself tired of the dirt, noise or high altitude associated with these other locales, why not hop on a quick flight to sunny, laid-back Tarija and its surrounds? Vineyards, bodegas, and dry desert rural valleys are calling you!
We loved the city of La Paz, Bolivia. We adored it so much that we went back about four times. You can read all about our first impressions of La Paz by clicking here. Our last two times in the city had us on a mission. One was to eat at the upscale restaurant, Gustu, owned by Noma Danish celebrity chef, Claus Meyer.
After exploring Llachon, we headed over to Copacabana, Bolivia. You can read all about our time on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca here. From Puno in Peru it is inexpensive and easy to catch a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. If you pay a little more, you can have a tourist bus but it’s not really necessary. The trip will take you about 3 hours or maybe a little more depending on how busy the border crossing is. For a pretty inefficient country, we found the Bolivian border here surprisingly efficient!
Jan 30
We stayed in Sucre, Bolivia for almost a month renting an apartment and learning Spanish. That's not to say we are experts on the city but in addition to studying, we spent a lot of time eating. We narrowed it down to our top 8 favorite things to eat & where to get them.
During our first trip to La Paz, we happened to pass by Diesel Nacional located in La Paz's Sopacachi district. Curious, we stopped to have a look. The facade looked very different than most bars or restaurants for anywhere, let alone Bolivia. For one, it was set far back with rocks scattered and old train tracks leading up to a revolving rusted door. Eerie spotlights cast shadows over industrial items like car/train/plane parts that had been strewn about. It certainly caught the eye.
Just another quick update.  We put most of our photos from Bolivia & Peru. From BOLIVIA, you will find the photos from Lake Titicaca and La Paz (La Paz, Coroico, Copacabana & Isla del Sol), Central Highland (Cochabamba & Aiquile), the South Central (Sucre, Tarija & Rosilla) & the Southern Altiplano (Our tour to the Salar of Uyuni). And from PERU, you will find the photos from Lima, Cusco & the Sacred Valley (Cusco, Urubamba, The Salkantay Trek & Machu Picchu), the South Coast & Arequipa (Arequipa & Colca Canyon) & Lake Titicaca (LLachon).  You can find all the best photos from Laurent on his Flickr gallery (Already available Uruguay, Argentina, Antarctica and Chile), the pictures from Bolivia & Peru will be available in December and January, stay tuned. You can also go and like his Facebook page L.L.P..  So if you are tired of reading, you can just look at the pictures!  Click on the ‘photos’ tab and you can search by place.  Enjoy!!!
We are finally getting ready to leave Bolivia after spending 3 months in this beautiful place. Sadness. We absolutely loved this country with its eclectic pace, chaotic way of doing things, drop-dead gorgeous landscapes and colorful cultures and traditions. The jungles of the Amazon rainforest mix with high altiplano lakes and flat salt plains. One minute you can be among icy cool 16,000 ft snow-capped peaks and in an hour be transported to the tropical cloudforest.
After our rafting adventures, we flew from Rurrenabaque back to La Paz. From there, we took an awful night bus to Cochabamba. Night buses in Bolivia are disaster affairs. Okay, most buses in Bolivia are terrible but night buses are a special type of horror because the seats do not recline to beds, there is usually no bathroom and the roads in the country completely suck. This makes for little sleep with a full bladder on a bumpy road. Not very pleasant, I'm afraid.
One year ago on October 4, with much trepidation and excitement, Laurent & I landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina with just backpacks strapped to our backs containing everything we would need for the next two years. I had quit my job back in New York, sold my car and many of my possessions and had no idea what the future would hold.
Infused exposures 