Mining Protests

Well it's been a little while since I posted due to the fact that the computer at the hostel isn't working and last week there were protests all over the country so we weren't allowed to travel. The protests were against a recently passed mining law that would create more mines and exploration. According to some people I`ve talked to, the bill was passed because gas prices have fallen and the government needs revenue from somewhere else. I don't know how accurate that assesment is but it sounds resonable. Some people from my community went to the protests and said that they were mostly peaceful but further south there was a tussle between the police and protesters.
In other news I had another bus adventure yesterday morning. The trip started out inasupicously due to the fact that they had to change a flat tire so we were an hour late getting going. So I was sitting on the bus paranoid that another tire would go out (I´ve had a fair amount of tire problems in the past so now I have a bit of a paranoia about it). We managed to go a bit without anything happening but then we ran into a huge puddle of mud. So everyone got of the bus while we watched them try to get the bus through and when that didn`t work they started scraping sand from the side of the hill the road runs along. They put some sand down and then tried to get the bus through again which was unsuccessful again. So the process was repeated several times until there was a favorable outcome. Oh and of course this all happened at the highest, coldest point of the trip (4000 meters) so we were all a bit chilled by the time we got back on the bus. At this point I`m thinking we might get through the rest of the trip without incident (silly me). The bus starts going again, except that there is a thumping noise. Turns out a rock is wedged between two of the back tires. This requires 45 minutes of prying, pounding and letting some air out of the tires before it is finally dislodged. Luckily after this the trip is uneventful.
So I`m in town now picking up some shampoo making supplies and running some other errands. All the shampoo that we made has been sold which is pretty exciting. I think for the next batch we're going to use papaya, yum!