T'was two days past Christmas...

... And in La Paz, nothing is happening with me. Although I did get a tattoo recently (see the picture). I spent Christmas in my room by myself, playing guitar and drinking wine. Actually I had a pretty good time. Christmas eve was noisy; people here count it down like we do New Years.

I am leaving the city tomorrow though, and after a couple of logistically-necessary stops, I'll be in Uyuni, the main town next to the salar, the world's largest, highest salt flat. Chinchillas trapped on islands of cactuses, Andean flamingos (only place in the world they live in), multi-colored lakes (bizarre algae growths, apparently), people living off the salt. Sounds cool, no?

There's a little Bolivian boy who was drawn to my typing skills when I was writing emails earlier (either that or he's a very clever voyeur). At first I was a little uncomfortable, because he's almost in my lap watching me, but then it occured to me that if he can read, he probably can't read English, and he's just a kid anyways. Does it really matter that he sees me telling my mom that I didn't do anything for Christmas?

The only other thing I have to say is that the CEO of Oracle corporation, Larry Ellison, has given about $150,000,000 of his wealth to charity over the years ($100,000,000 of that was to his own charity for a court settlement involving Ellison's $1 billion sale of Oracle shares with insider knowledge). That's 1% of his net worth (Ellison is number 5 on the Forbes 400). Meanwhile, prostitutes in El Alto make Bs. 5 per customer (that's about $.62), and after 10 customers the brothel owner lets them cash in their coupons and go home. This is considered a lot of money for women of their education level and economic status. Merry Christmas. I think I've said so before, but anti-Americanism and terrorism aren't what shocks me. What shocks me is that there isn't more of it. Larry Ellison is lucky they don't read Forbes in El Alto.

No spell check today for some reason (sorry). The button is mysteriously missing.