Thurs 15th Jan: The shoeshine boys of Sucre .

I have a bus ticket to Tupiza down in the southeast of the country, about 3hrs from the Argentinian border. On a whim I´ve decided to go there after reading Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid came here not long before they botched a robbery and died in a shoot out. I was going to go to Uyuni and do a tour of the salt flats there but no I´m torn about whether to go or not. I almost signed on for a tour from here in Sucre but just as I was about to pay the tour agent began asking for extras. That she waited until I had signed a voucher to tell me about extra costs really annoyed me and I cancelled it there and then, not trusting her. Now I can´t decide hether to go or not. In the meantime I´ll have a look at Tupiza.

Last night I was really annoyed. Between the fast talking tour agent and the two lads who tried to mug me I was.... unsettled. This morning however the weather is beautiful. I have a fine breakfast in a cafe n the Plaza. The waitress is all polite and friendly and suddenly I forget hy I got so angry. I take a walk up to a monastery overlooking the town and spend a while gazing at the scenery. I head back dow to the main Plaza. Yesterday, sitting here I was surrounded by some of the local shoeshine boys, all young lads. They go for all the gringos and try to wrangle some way of getting money out of the tourists. If its not money for cleaning shoes they ask if you have any foreign currency as they collect coins. I gave a group of them some leftover coins from The U.S., Uruguay and Chile. Each one scrutinised their coin like it as gold dust. and I slipped away unnoticed.

Today the kids weren´t so persistent. They were content to list off all the capital cities they knew. One young lad selling sweets joined the group and sat at my feet, tipping my knee as he asked for money. He wasn´t as confident as the shoe shine lads as they seem to be the ones who make the money. He was a bit more down in the mouth. As the other group moved on I asked him here he as from. He sat up on the bench beside me and told me he lives in Sucre, that his favourite team and champions of Bolivia are Universitario, actually they´re not, Potosi are but he as adamant and I wasn´t arguing. He then began to list off all the countries he had coins for. I left before he started asking for mone again. Just before I left for the bus station I passed through the Plaza. I saw the young lad wandering around. I shouted over to him "Hey, Amigo" and gave him a couple of coins as I walked by. I don´t know if I should have done this. But he was a good kid.