Minimum wage and temperature

The other day, I came across an article saying the minimum wage in Quebec was being raised to $9.50. Now, I don’t consider myself *that* old, but I’m pretty sure that when I had my first job, the minimum wage was around $5. [Actually, the interwebs confirm that it *was* actually $5, and even $4.50 for minors.] There’s no way that inflation has soared 100% in the slightly more than a decade that I’ve been working. So… what’s changed? Have we become that much more concerned about minimum wage (and presumably the poverty level) in the last decade? Has this been enough to motivate people to get out into the workforce, by making even minimum wage more attractive?

At $9.50, you’re making around $19K a year (I’m assuming you’ll take some vacation, although the reality is probably that you won’t take much, if you’re working for minimum wage). The Council on Social Development website has some interesting statistics. For example, in all but the biggest cities (500K population or more), for a single person, that is above the poverty line. If you’re a family with two working parents, even if both are at minimum wage, you’re WAY above the poverty line. And I’ve been seeing more and more reports in the last few years saying how the “standard” family model now involves two working parents. Yet, other sources say around 10% live below the poverty line. So… are there not enough minimum wage jobs? Or are people just not taking them as an opportunity?

In less political news – THANKS, Alberta, but you can have your Arctic front back. Seriously, though, what gives – this is December! It’s not supposed to hit the -20s until mid-January, at least. Although, could one hope that if this keeps up, the Canal might actually be open way earlier this year? – say, for christmas?!

The cold has made the cats extra cuddly. It’s now hard to spend time at the computer without a cuddly warm ball of fur taking up your lap. Sometimes, they’ll even tag-team and one will chase the other off, only to climb up immediately him/herself. Today, I was scratching BB’s tummy with my frozen hands as she was curled up on my lap – and she obligingly curled herself around my hand, and kept herself there until my hand warmed up. What a smart girl! Shakey has been warming up my hoodie by sleeping on it all the time, which also comes in handy.

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More La Paz and Uyuni

Both yesterday and today have been pretty quiet days.

Most of yesterday we spent wandering around La Paz, including the Witches´ Market, which is the hot spot for all the souvenirs. Our hope is to hit it up again once we´re back in La Paz in a weeks´ time, to shop around for things to take back home with us. We just need to make sure first that our flight from La Paz to Lima allows us to check two bags, not one. We also discovered two fantastic areas of the Mercado Negro (the black market, although it´s actually pretty legit) – the yarn alley and the fabric building. The yarn is stunning, and a fairly decent price. The fabrics were OK, but not nearly as varied and colourful as the ones I saw in Asia. No real reason for buying some, since I don´t even know what I would do with them.

Dan even ventured to have lunch at a little market restaurant, with so far no ill effects. Yay for slowly being acclimatized to local food. The lunch was chicken in a delicious curry-like sauce, served over top of potatoes (yum) and mysterious starch #2 (not the biggest fan).

After spending a few hours in the afternoon in a coffee house, I headed off to check out a few museums while Dan went back to the hostel to enjoy their beer. I only had 40 minutes before the museums on Calle Jaen closed, but this was actually just barely enough time to see them, since they´re mostly mini-museums. The museum of precious metals, as well as the Casa Murillo museum (mostly artefacts from colonial times) were the most impressive.

At the precious metals museum, the display of Inca gold was quite literally inside a safe, you having to walk through a large bank-vault door and down some stairs to get in. While all the ornaments were quite simple, just hammered sheet gold, with an occasional pattern hammered in, the size and showiness of these were something else. It´s easy to see how the spaniards could have been so captivated by such opulence. There were also many silver and bronze ornaments from Tihuanacu and Inca periods, both beautiful in their simplicity.

Casa Murillo did not disappoint, either. One thing I liked about it is that the museum is housed inside an old house, with a central courtyard and verandahs running along the inside on both floors, leading into the rooms. I really like the design. There were plenty of things of interest here, including old guns; a change-purse made out of chain-mail; chairs with the seat and back made out of carved or painted leather; beautifully carved ferniture, including benches with the back-support made out of vertical posts, each carved so that it almost resembled a line of an abacus.

The bus ride can be summed up as cold and bumpy. By morning, the windows were sheets of ice, but at least this time we were prepared. The bumpy road started a few hours outside of La Paz, and quite literally didn´t stop until we came to Uyuni. It would probably have been quite impressive, had I not been trying to sleep through the night. Not much luck. But at least the bed at our hotel here is very comfy, and the shower incredibly hot, so we caught a little catnap before going out to book our tours. Leaving for a 3-day trip to Salar Uyuni tomorrow, then on to Sucre – which sounds like exactly the place to lounge and relax after a bit of outbacking.

Uyuni is by far the coldest city we´ve been to so far, despite being at a similar altitude to other places. Right now, I´m wearing my padded pants, a long sleeve and a down vest. However, the temperature change is quite impressive – in the sun, you can be in a t-shirt and shorts, but as soon as the wind picks up, you need an extra two layers just to stay comfortable.

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