Weekend Trip to the Jungle

Apparently somewhere in Bolivia is a road that has been or is (not quite sure) called the "world´s most dangerous road". While I haven´t actually been on that road, everytime I go on a trip (adventure may be a better word) in Bolivia I am convinced that this time we are on the most dangerous road. Maybe its the steep drop-offs with no barriers, the sharp curves, or perhaps the general condition of the road itself or the car we are in. It might also be the lack of reconizable traffic rules.

After a four hour ride into the jungle this Friday, however, I think I am beginning to figure out some of the traffic laws: Pavement means go as fast as you can to pass the really slow moving truck in front of you; Gravel means roll up your windows and suffer the heat in order to prevent dust from getting into your car; Cobblestone means why did we waste all these stones, gravel is much smoother.

The road into the jungle switches between these three types of materials about every 50-100 yards (I guess I should say meters), but it was nonetheless a beautiful drive. We passed from the very dry moutains surrounding Cochabama, through the puerta de los tropicos (door to the tropics for all you gringos), and into the town of Chapare in the jungle.

Over the weekend we hiked in a national park, swam in the river (twice), went to a club (where they dance in two straight lines-boys on one side, girls on the other), got lots a bug bites, ate some really good food (including about 7 different types of potatoes), and bonded with other students and teachers from the school. Overall it was a great trip, and we´ll post more pictures when we get back to Montero!

The Jungle

This weekend we went to the ¨El Chapare¨ this is the jungle that is right over the mountain. When I say right over the mountain I mean a very long four hours crammed in the back of a van over some paved, some cobblestone, and some dirt roads. We finally did make it to our destination. Our group contained about nine other students three from switzerland, one from Austria named Daniel who is my new friend, four from america (us and ,new girl, jessica). We arrived all very hot and tired from the long trufi (van) ride. It is truely the jungle in the sense that it super hot and amzingly humid. We immediatly got on our hiking stuff which consisted of long pants, long sleeve shirts and high socks to go over our pants. We went on a hike in the dark and did not see any animals but did get to see a site in which there was on old cocaine factor so that was pretty cool and made you realize how real the problem of drug trafficing in the jungles really was. We had a good rest of the night which included some awesome food. The next morning we arose to the sound of the roster crowing at six AM!!! Though we tried to continue to sleep most everyone was up at 730. We then headed the national park in which we went to three different caves and saw lots of bats and a bird native and very important to the jungle. It´s importance lies in the fact that it was good at helping the forst populate because it ate seeds and then threw them back up, after being thrown back up the seeds were germinated and could grow. Our guide stressed this point many times throughout the three hour hike. We made it back to the vans and headed to a river where we ate lunch and swam but then of course were promptly rained on; however, the water did feel awesome. We made it back to the house where we enjoyed another awesome dinner and four games of spoons (we did teach it to everyone...in spanish which was difficult) in which I won the first three and Dee won the last was so you could say we cleaned up. We then decided we all needed to go have some fun after a long day of hiking we went to the nearest discotecha (a club) and danced the night away which was a lot of fun as well. Sunday we went to another river and swam and this is were I made my second friend. The people who watch over the house while the owners (the same people that run the language school) arent there have a eight yearold son named Joel. Once everyone was out of the river Joel and I decided we werent quite ready to leave so played in the river having sword fights and throwing rocks for another thirty minutes. When we got back to the house Joel and played soccer for many hours until we left. He is a great kid and am happy to have him as my second friend. We arrived ¨home¨ in which our adopted mother (Cira) had dinner waiting on us. Today we had class and we all felt we are making good progress though we are always tired it seems. Tomorow is going to be an extremely long day in which we have eight hours of spanish due to us missing some hours for the trip. Overall we are still having a great time and dont see this changing any time soon.

Cochabamba

We made it to Cochabamba safely and have started language school. Its overwhelming as I came in knowing no Spanish. For example today´s lesson included about a million verbs. The teachers seem very good though and are extremely patient, so I think by the end of the two weeks I will have learned a lot.

I keep mixing French words into my speaking, but since most people at the school know at least 3 (if not more)languages I guess it shows I know another language too (kind of). I´ve also gotten some good news from home about various parts of the CPA which is nice; though all of that feels so far removed from what we are doing/experiencing now I haven´t felt terribly excited. I find myself thinking ¨Cool...now if I could only speak Spanish.¨

Cochabamba/Language School

We are currently in Cochabamba which is a very bumpy plane ride away. The plane ride was about 45 minutes but it felt like forever as it was very bumpy and I was on edge the entire time. As we banked down to begin our dissent I was pretty sure it was not on purpose and we were crashing. I kept looking at the Swis couple next to me with there one year old and they were laughing an having a good time so maybe it was just me who thought imment death was upon us. We met the two directors at the airport and they took us to our host family which is one sweet old lady named Cira and her very young, wild puppy Tango. Cira is awesome. She is an amazing cook and displays this talent three times a day as we eat like kings for every meal. The school is amazing as well. We are either one on one with a teacher in most cases bbut because there are so many students Dee and I are grouped together which is a lot of fun. She is learning very fast I am very impressed. There are students from all over at the escuela de lingua (language school). There are students from Canada, Australia, the US, Switzerland, and Germany. Today we went ventured out of our barrio (neighborhood) and traveled to the heart of Cochabamba. So far we have been to the market and are on our way to the plaz but made a side trip to an internet cafe. Tomorrow we are headed to the jungle on a school field trip which should be awesome. So hopefully when we get back to Montero I can post some awesome puctures..

airport again

Once again we are in the airport, waiting for our flight to Cochabomba. We had a very eventful day yesterday at two of the clinics. In the morning we went to. La Clinica Cruz Rojo which is the red cross clinic we met a nurse named Emi and later told her in vry broken spanish that we had a cousin named Emmy they are both pronounced the same but spellrd differently. Today we were going house to house to give gripe shots or flu shots to anyone over seventy and anyone over 18 and had high or low pressure and other medical complications. We got an array of reactions mostly just curiosity about why three gringos and a nurse were at there door. We heard one boy yell to his mother "mama los gringos" which means mom its white people. We ended up giving twenty vaccines which was a very good morning accordong to our new friend. In the afternoon we went to the smallest clinic and did almost the same thing howeder this time we had specific paypents and were out in the country. We were govong vaccines for the flu and polio to infants. As we were walking we met many young boys hearding there cows along the road and also saw a variety of animals. So in turn a very succesful day in our eyes and just a taste of the things we hope to do while we are down here. Thee are many more comical events that happened that day whoch I will cover when I am on a computer and not a phone. More later.

Pictures

These are pictures from our apartment and then the birthday party at Daniel's sisters house.

It begins

So far the trip has been awesome. We had the usual travel hassles on the way down (delays, bad food, change of seats due to child throwing up, etc), but nothing out of the ordinary. I even got a nice nap in during our 2 hours spent on the tarmac in La Paz. Apparently I can´t sleep on planes while they are flying but have no problem sleeping when they are grounded.

We´ve been settling in and learning our way around Montero before we leave on Tuesday for language school in Cochabamba. I´m looking forward to the school as my Spanish is not good. I can tell people in Spanish that "I know a little bit of Spanish," but in truth, that´s a lie. "Nada" would be more appropriate.

We had a really nice dinner with some of Daniel´s sisters and their families last night in Santa Cruz. They were very welcoming and the food was great. Maya & Mansfield also got a crash course in Bolivian greetings. Often men will shake hands then pat each other on the shoulders (and sometimes shake hands again); when Daniel´s brother-in-law tried to greet Mansfield this way he found himself, after the handshake, engulfed in a giant bear hug. He didn´t seem to mind, but Mans quickly realized his error when he saw how Daniel greeted his brother. I guess Daniel´s family learned something about American greetings too....

First few days

After some what of a bumpy and unsettling plane ride where they had to fix our landing gear and ground us for two hours we arrived in Santa Cruz . We met Dardo and Daniel at the airport and they took us the 60 km to Montero. They showed us our new home which is incredible we have to two bedrooms one for Maya and Dee and the other for me, we also have two showers, a kitchen and a balcony. Daniel our tour guide/translator/only friend has been amazing and has showed us around Santa Cruz and Montero. We visited all three clinics in Montero and learned we are going to be doing home visits which includes vacinations and check ups and then simple check ups at the clinic in the Cochabomba neighborhood. We spent a day in Santa Cruz where we saw a movie and met one of Daniels sisters and celebrated one of his nieces birthdays. We had some amazing food and amazing company. His family was so nice and welcoming. Today we visited the market which was the basically like a gigantic flee market. It is a very good thing Daniel was here to help us navigate otherwise we would still be walking around in it. So far everything is going perfect and we are all having lots of fun, however; I am learning I know a lot less Spanish then I thought hopefully that will change soon.

Airport

We are hanging out in the airport waiting on the flight. We all look awesome with our new haircuts. The plane is a little late so a good start to the trip.