Look up

Bolivia is cheap, specially when it comes to food. The currency, el Boliviano, is one-eight of a US dollar. I try to avoid turistic places, for the prices, yes I may be a cheap bastard, but the food is even better in a small Bolivian restaurant. For lunch I can spend 8 bolivianos, and I get a small appetizer, chicken soup and as a third plate rice, salad, meat and potatoes. Can you beat that? Now if you want to be a little bit more adventurous you can go the local market and sit on a very small bench next to market, construction workers and drivers and eat for 5 bolivianos. I am very used to pay everything in cash now, since these restaurants and markets don´t take cards. This could be a nigthmare for a ´modern´tourist, but I haven´t run into any of those, at least here in Bolivia. I was lucky though, in Uyuni, when I run out of cash and I realized the town didn´t have any ATM machines I found one restaurant who took cards. Of course, I paid for the price too, the menu...pizza. The only Bolivians in the restaurant, the waiters. The place was full of tourists. I met the nephew of this restaurant´s owner, and I was lucky again that after talking with him for a while and telling him about my cashless situation he told me his aunt could give me some cash advance with my credit card, for a fee. I had used my last reserves to pay for the hostel, and it was a good thing also that I won a bet with the Australian couple. 10 bolivianos was of great help. The bet, guess how much time would it take to get to the town of Uyuni just by looking at the city lights. This was when we were coming back from the 3 day-tour to the selars.
The next day banks in Uyuni were open (monday 3 of April) so I was able to balance my situation. I had to mentioned also that in my way to the bank i was a little annoyed that somebody at the hostel stole my towel I bought in Rio de Janeiro. It was my only souvenir, so I was looking down as I was walking when I banged my head against an Internet store sign. I run to a restaurant to get breakfast and get some ice to calm the bleeding. It wasn´t bad but it made forget about the towel incident, that is for sure. The message after that: ALWAYS LOOK UP ON YOUR LIFE, NO MATTER WHAT. Inspiration from a painful moment.