Day 20

It's official Santa cruz is the hottest city ever. And with no grass, beach, rivers, or basically any shade, I am officially melting!
I was on the bus to work the other day an thought that the experience I have 4 times a day needed explaining. So to hail the bus, which you can do anywhere, I stand on the side of a main road just out of the way of cars in the patch of sand that replaces need for pavement (beats me how there is sand in a landlocked country with no desserts), the sand is also a real pain when it sprays of a car in your face.. Anyway, so you stick you arm out hard and fast, ignoring all of te beeping cars, which when you are the only blonde in the entire city is frequent, the bus swerves in often straight at you, and you hop on and pass the driver the 1.80b's (about 15p) over his shoulder while he drives, of you need change it'll get passed to you from passenger to passenger about ten minutes later. The bus then hurtles along. Lanes, crossings, breaks and any form of rules are not a big feature on Bolivian roads. When you want to get off you then shout stop, this seems to be the one word I can never remember, so I just shout random Spanish words until he realises; he then swerves in and slows down, the door is already open so you sort of hang on and jump as it is slowing down and then run alongside still hanging on until youve steadied yourself an definitely before he starts speeding back up (I speak from experience). On my route home from work I then cross a very busy main road, a good fair distance to cross is normally when you have 2 cars doing about 40 and they still a good 10 metres away.. Ample time at this point, to go from standing into a sudden sprint to
cross the road. Anyway.. Just setting the scene!
The orphanage is going well. I think for the children who are age 3/4/5 it's quite nice because they are all together an get to play all day in a safe surroundings, unlike a lot of children you see in the city sitting on the streets in the markets, and it's sort of like they have lots of siblings and seek quite happy. It is the babies I feel really sad for because this is the age when you don't need or care for friends, but just need parental care and attention, and whilst they are adequately provided for, they don't get that love. It is very eye opening and really very sad.
Thankfully I am now better, yesterday i walked 6.5 km across the entire city, I stopped at a few cafes along the way as well as in plaza de septiembre, the main square. I really have seen most of the city now, although it's a shame not exploring it with anyone.. Lucky I am amused enough by my own company! I tried to sunbathe on a bench in the square but the sun had heated the bench so much that I actually burnt myself.. last night we went for dinner than just sat
in diegos garden drinking etc. Drinking games in a foreign language is almost a certain loss! We are off go karting now.. In this heat.. Wish me luck! Xxxxx