Wed 24 Feb

Today I woke up in La Paz with a mission. I was going to purchase a Charango and two Quenas. They are instruments of South America and I love how they sound so I want to learn how to play them. The Charango is a small guitar with ten strings and sounds so cool. The Quena is a wooden flute that can reach the high octaves and lower ones too. I started my adventure walking from the house to the main street to catch a Trufi. A Trufi is like a taxi but it goes from one exact location to another and it only cost 3 Boliviano´s. I took one to the instrument district and then searched for someone who could help me with my purchase. I could not go into the stores because the first sight of me (A Gringo) would make the prices rise considerably and also they might cheat me on a quality instrument. I went to the Hostel that I stayed at the first night and asked them if they could help me. They said they would be more than happy to help any friend of Hugh. Hugh was my good friend in Carmen Pampa and I believe he must know almost everyone in Bolivia. A worker named Miguel said he would be happy to help me and we went to buy the instruments. We walked up the hill about two blocks and Miguel entered first, then me second so it wouldn’t seem like we knew one another. Miguel was super nice and talked to the man to get a Charango and two Quenas for a really good price and good quality. We walked back and I thanked him, then I returned to the house. When I got home, I had lunch with Irech which was very nice and the food was good. After, I practiced my new instruments by learning how to play them on the internet. Later, I went out to a late dinner with Jimmy and Irech at a restaurant called Papa Charlie’s. The food was very good but I got full quickly. After we returned home and Irech and I exchanged music and played some music too. After, I went to bed.