Compared to Bolivia

Many details really remind me of Bolivia: The flowering trees, grand projects next to construction sites, women selling drinks under trees, the heat, the houses being fenced in and surmounted by protective sharp things (tho’ here it is barbed wire and often electric fences, not broken bottles), taxis sounding their horn to get your attention.

But there are differences: we can drink the water, ice, lettuce, salad, apple peels and so on, you don’t need to bribe anyone when you go to the Police station (to get copies of documents certified, more on that later) there are no men with machine guns in the banks or in the post office. What I find most distressing is that the taxis are not reliable here. They are regulated, but it is easy to make a car look like a taxi-and many do.

Thus all those trips to the Ministry, I found stressfull. On Sunday, I went to the mall-really, a mall- by myself, and was quite nervous.