The Bolivian Times

Description

Fascinating journey through Bolivia. Twentysomething Tim Elliott had a great plan. He and his girlfriend would go to South America to live there for six months while they worked as a journalistic team (him writing, her taking photos) to support themselves. Hmm, maybe it wasn't such a hot idea- They'd barely landed in Bolivia before the relationship blew apart. But Tim stuck with his plan and got a job as a reporter on the newspaper The Bolivian Times (having survived the riot and tear-gas on his way to the interview). He then spent six months living in Bolivia, chasing various Latino love interests, getting closer to cocaine than he should have done (there was nearly a very nasty scrape with the US drug-enforcement agency the DEA) and having exhausted temper tantrums lost in the jungle on his way to cover a story. It was hell to live through, but it's hellishly funny to read. Here's a taste. Tim has just wended his way through the tear gas to the job interview- "So, how's your Spanish?" he asked, in Spanish. I paused. Talking Spanish with strangers always freaked me out. The trick was to speak slowly. But not so slowly that people would think you'd just come out of shock the

Tim Elliott is one of the best travel writers in Australia today. He is also an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in publications all over the world, including London's The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review. Tim has won several awards, including the Australian Society of Magazine Editors Best Feature award in 1998. In 2002 he won the Australian Society of Travel Writers Journalist of the Year award, and was runner up in 2003. His book THE BOLIVIAN TIMES saw him invited to speak at the Sydney Writers Festival in 2001 and the Brisbane Writers Festival in 2003.