Larry Memmott's Blog

I’m going to mix it up and add a bit to the “diplomatic” subject of this blog by re-posting here social media and other items regarding my work in Kuwait. Here’s the first such item:

The incredible and incredibly preserved wooden machinery of the colonial mint Another unfinished post. I’ll come back to these in La Paz to finish them. La Casa de la Moneda is one of the most incredible and interesting places I’ve visited in Bolivia. The building itself is spectacular – all the woodwork without a single […]

The mine tour in the Cerro Rico de Potosí is not to be missed if you can handle the physical demands and the tight spaces involved.  I’ll provide more details later, together with my recommendation for a tour guide, but for now, just a few reflections about the tour and the mountain, itself. Legend has […]

Every corner of Bolivia has its own mysteries.  On the way back from Tarija, we decided to travel from Sucre to Oruro across the mountains, rather than circumnavigating them through Potosi, as is usual.  This is NOT a shortcut.  Though the route may look shorter on a map, the serpentine path and bad roads mean […]

I got a kick out of the photo they used in this article on “Voucher Schemes for Enhanced Fertilizer Use.” That was a great day. The woman in the photo was a “Hero Mother of the Soviet Union.” I think she said she had eight children. I was handing her a bag of sugar beet […]

This is the New Years card I got from the guys at the Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI).  Love it!                 Happy New Year to everybody, and especially to the CAFMI Crew!

Tajikistan’s membership in the Russian-Kazakhstani-Belarusian Customs Union (CU) depends on how soon Kyrgyzstan joins the CU?