I have to tell you this short story in the middle of the pictures. I have been in Bolivia since July 22 (on a 30 day visa). Since that date the school has been in the process of getting my, and all my American teachers, a year work visa. We finally hired a Facilitator - basically he goes around and bribes officials. Anyway I kept telling him I was leaving on Nov. 26 for Machu. Oh, no problemo, is all I got in return.
Finally on Monday, Nov.24 I started to get desperate. I called him in, reminded him that I signed the checks and that he was not getting paid if I did not get my Visa by the 26th.
Toa make a very long story short on the 26th. at 11 am I am sitting in the Immigration Office with him, waiting for someone to give me the Visa (by the way, they also had my passport)
Finally I get the visa and passport with just enough time for me to make it to the airport.
I fly to LaPaz. When I try to get my ticket in LaPaz Customs (Immigration, whoever they are) turns me away. Looked at my Visa, said NO, and shushed me away. The line was a mile long and I was not going to be "shushed" anywhere. I pointed to my visa, he said NO, tried to wait on the next person, and so on.
I would not let the next person come forward and I wasn't leaving. He kept saying -well who knows what he was saying, but NO was in there a lot. I just kept saying YES.
Finally he called in the cops! A policeman, in full gear, flak tacket, shotgun, etc. came up. The ticket man kept making handcuff motions, evidently trying to warn me I was going to be cuffed.
Anyway, everyone was getting some free entertainment.
At this point I began to wonder if going to Machu was quite as important as I had originally planned.
Actually I decided it was.
After a few very tense minutes - with the cop keeping one hand on the shotgun - he finally decided to look at the passport and visa I kept trying to show him.
Ten minutes later he went behind the counter, pasted another paper in my passport and sent me on my way.

Whew