15

Well, I have seen areas that were more poor than anything I have seen in Bolivia. I was visiting a family in the Eastern suburbs of Santo Domingo, and the living conditions there were appalling. And when I was in Rio I saw houses with people living in them literally around a sewage treatment pool. However, both places at least had a much nicer climate and general surroundings. El Alto and other poor areas that I saw in La Paz were not just poor, but also had a very harsh climate and no greenery whatsoever.

I do regret not doing the SW circuit. Basically after I bought my open jaw tickets and made reservations in Peru that were not refundable, Amaszonas started messing with their schedules, and I had to change my Bolivia itinerary over and over, and I lost two days as a result. And I didn't want to forego foray into NP Lauca in Chile (which in retrospect I should have skipped because going there resulted in a logistics nightmare). Besides, I originally thought it would be very expensive to go there (as the prices for tours with lodging at Tayca hotels were very high), but when I was in Bolivia I learned that it could have been arranged a lot cheaper, but it was too late :( I hope to go someday in the foreseeable future to San Pedro in Chile, and I presume the scenery would be somewhat comparable.

As for my business, unfortunately it relies on me personally doing the work, it's not something I can do over the computer. But at least I do have a flexibility to take vacations whenever I want to - I might lose money in the process, but what's the point in working if you can't make time to enjoy life as well.

16

#16 Yeah, I should be clear enough: rural population is not extremely poor as they are pretty self sustainable, places like Al Alto that seen coming peasants looking for different opportunities are a different story, like in most place in the world. But is still nothing like India of Africa, pepole are not dying on the streets or there is no significant violence.
Regarding the climate it's just your subjective point of view, those people are used to cold and actually it's much easier to sustain sanitation and spread of diseases in cold and arid climate.