It is all starting to hit me that I am leaving Montero and I am not going to be back for a while. I am realizing how much I am going to miss Montero, the people, the Spanish and los cambas. When I arrived in August I never realized how much this trip but mainly being in Montero and living here was going to change my life.
This past week I have been working a lot. We are changing the filing system in one of the clinics and I have been helping a lot with that. The work is very boring but someone needs to do it and I love working in the office in all of the clinics but especially in Villa Cochabamba the two girls I work with are awesome and we talk and laugh and it makes the boring work a whole lot better. Wednesday night of this week I went to the birthday party of one of the bosses at the clinics which was awesome, so awesome in fact we basically stayed up the entire night.
This past Saturday I went fishing again with some of Daniel’s uncles, I do not know what it is but apparently every where in the world it is the same in the sense that all the uncles take do fishing trips. We had a lot of fun and even caught some fish which obviously makes it even better. I am all ready with pictures and everything to explain how this Bolivian fishing thing works.
Wednesday night Guabira played and even won. I think they decided to give me a win since it will be the last game I am going to see. I have kind of made a group of friends in the stadium I never see them outside of the games but we always sit in the same area and talk I have really enjoyed getting to know all of them and of course sharing our passion Guabira and soccer in general.
I have a busy weekend coming lots of hanging out with friends to do before I leave as well as getting all my stuff together that is scattered about my apartment. I am headed to Mancora, Peru where I am going to meet Camille. It should take me about three or four days in bus to get there I am hoping everything is going to go smoothly or at least as smoothly as possible. In Mancora I am hoping to learn to surf but we will see if that happens I have heard it is really hard to learn but we will see.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Viva santa cruz bella tiera de mi Corazon
I know it has been a while since I have written but that’s a good thing I think because that means I am busy and have not been bored out of my mind which was initial worry for me. Last week a group of medical students from Johns Hopkins came to visit and do some things at the clinic. I played the part of translator, guide, host, and guide some more. I had an awesome time. During the time they were here I would go to one of the clinics or one of the hospitals in the area and “translate” the Spanish I could translate, the medical terms were not being translated at all and generally took the doctor explaining to me what it was so I could explain to them so the could find the right medical term. There was a medical student who was about to graduate and when we worked as a team he would always know the medical term in English because about all the medical terms are very similar. I had to continuously remind him I was not a doctor and had just graduated high school so knew very little about biology. This was incredibly interesting I loved it. I got to see a few cases of Tuberculosis diagnosed and really learned about the day to day illnesses that the doctors see. We went to a soccer game in Santa Cruz and I took a couple groups around Santa Cruz and tried to act like we were not lost and I actually had an idea of where we were. I had a whole lot of fun with the whole group.
One of the medical students who is about a month away from being a doctor stayed an extra week so he came and stayed at my apartment since it was free and we also went to Samaipata. It is a town about 5 hours away from Montero where there is some cool jungle, water falls, and ruins. We left Thursday morning and got there about mid afternoon and stayed until Saturday night. Friday we did an awesome hike through the jungle with a group and got to see some pretty cool stuff. Lots of butterflies, bugs, interesting plants, and I even saw a monkey for a whole 0.5 seconds. Saturday we went and saw the ruins and also went saw three gorgeous waterfalls and had a fun day just hanging out in the water. Apparently this little town is the get away for all the young rich kids from Santa Cruz and since we were traveling on Easter weekend when they did not have school it was packed with them. I would say they were a little less interested in the natural beauty and a little more interested in the drinking and partying.
My next week was relatively uneventful I worked a lot and hung out with some people from work outside of the clinic which was pretty cool and the first time I had really done that well minus Daniel of course. There was what we would call a fair in Montero and very near my house only two blocks away. I went with a few people from the clinics there and ate a lot and played lots of table soccer. I just want to throw it out there that my team continually dominated however am not sure if it was me or if it was because my partner, a doctor, was incredibly good.
Camille arrived on Friday I believe to stay a week and see the clinics. Daniel and her completely hit it off and were constantly speaking in French and talking about Switzerland. We had a few different traditional Swiss meals in which I have concluded just involve lots and lots of cheese. It is honestly amazing to me how one nation can eat cheese for every meal every single day. I worked a lot at the clinics. My main job for this week was to transcribe patient files from paper on to excel documents. Now if you think you have done something frustrating in your life let me open your eyes. I was paired with a nurse who read the illegible handwriting of the doctors out loud as I typed. Let me reference the first part of this blog in which I said “the medical terms were not being translated at all” this is still the same thing, I was writing in Spanish but was not familiar with a single medical term or medicine that they were prescribing this proceeded to be very frustrating. I am sure there were lots and lots of spelling errors. After three ten hours days with Emilse, the nurse, we finally finished and were both extremely relieved to be done. Saturday we Camille and I went fishing with Daniel’s dad, brother, and uncle. I can see my uncles’ and aunts’ faces gleaming with joy at this moment. Now this is not the kind of fishing we know. This is what I am going to call Bolivian fishing it involves a net, at least three people, understanding where the fish will be, and then obviously some look. I will let your imaginations run wild with how we did it because I am not sure if I can explain it in the blog, however; I will explain when I get home and see all of you. We had bad luck and did not catch any fish and were told it was because the river was to low right now and all the fish and headed up stream to deeper waters. I will be going on another fishing expedition with them when we have more time. We left Montero Saturday night at 7 for La Paz.
We arrived Sunday morning in La Paz after a fairly smooth bus ride in which we only had one flat tire. Sunday night was going to be a big night Camille and I were going to see our first hardcore metal concert. Daniel is a big fan of this band named Epica from Poland and they were playing in La Paz so we decided we would all go. I have felt out of my element in my life but wow this was really like nothing I had ever experienced. The concert was very good and we had lots of fun, now we may have hearing problems but that’s just one of the effects we will have to live with.
We parted ways with Camille Monday night she was headed to Cochabamba for “la Cumbre” and night Daniel and I headed to “el Salaar de Uyuni” or the Salt Flats in English. We arrived in Uyuni Tuesday morning about eight and headed out on our “trek” at ten. We signed up to do three days in a car that drives us around to see all the beautiful sites the Salt Flats have to offer. The Salt Flats of Uyuni are about 12,000 square kilometers which is the largest salt flat in the world. There are also a few other Salt flats in that area but are significantly smaller. We saw some huge cactuses some being as tall as 20 meters. The Salt Flat is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen in my entire life and is absolutely colossal. This is a must see for anyone who ventures to South America. It is completely flat and completely white. There are some places where you can see white forever until it meets with the horizon. I am going to post some pictures as soon as possible. Daniel and I finished our trek Thursday afternoon and left on a bus for Orurro. We arrived in Orruro at five in the morning and got directly on another bus to Cochabamba. We stayed in Cochabamba for two days and arrived this morning at seven in Montero. The traveling has been awesome but I am ready for a little break of all the going.
One of the medical students who is about a month away from being a doctor stayed an extra week so he came and stayed at my apartment since it was free and we also went to Samaipata. It is a town about 5 hours away from Montero where there is some cool jungle, water falls, and ruins. We left Thursday morning and got there about mid afternoon and stayed until Saturday night. Friday we did an awesome hike through the jungle with a group and got to see some pretty cool stuff. Lots of butterflies, bugs, interesting plants, and I even saw a monkey for a whole 0.5 seconds. Saturday we went and saw the ruins and also went saw three gorgeous waterfalls and had a fun day just hanging out in the water. Apparently this little town is the get away for all the young rich kids from Santa Cruz and since we were traveling on Easter weekend when they did not have school it was packed with them. I would say they were a little less interested in the natural beauty and a little more interested in the drinking and partying.
My next week was relatively uneventful I worked a lot and hung out with some people from work outside of the clinic which was pretty cool and the first time I had really done that well minus Daniel of course. There was what we would call a fair in Montero and very near my house only two blocks away. I went with a few people from the clinics there and ate a lot and played lots of table soccer. I just want to throw it out there that my team continually dominated however am not sure if it was me or if it was because my partner, a doctor, was incredibly good.
Camille arrived on Friday I believe to stay a week and see the clinics. Daniel and her completely hit it off and were constantly speaking in French and talking about Switzerland. We had a few different traditional Swiss meals in which I have concluded just involve lots and lots of cheese. It is honestly amazing to me how one nation can eat cheese for every meal every single day. I worked a lot at the clinics. My main job for this week was to transcribe patient files from paper on to excel documents. Now if you think you have done something frustrating in your life let me open your eyes. I was paired with a nurse who read the illegible handwriting of the doctors out loud as I typed. Let me reference the first part of this blog in which I said “the medical terms were not being translated at all” this is still the same thing, I was writing in Spanish but was not familiar with a single medical term or medicine that they were prescribing this proceeded to be very frustrating. I am sure there were lots and lots of spelling errors. After three ten hours days with Emilse, the nurse, we finally finished and were both extremely relieved to be done. Saturday we Camille and I went fishing with Daniel’s dad, brother, and uncle. I can see my uncles’ and aunts’ faces gleaming with joy at this moment. Now this is not the kind of fishing we know. This is what I am going to call Bolivian fishing it involves a net, at least three people, understanding where the fish will be, and then obviously some look. I will let your imaginations run wild with how we did it because I am not sure if I can explain it in the blog, however; I will explain when I get home and see all of you. We had bad luck and did not catch any fish and were told it was because the river was to low right now and all the fish and headed up stream to deeper waters. I will be going on another fishing expedition with them when we have more time. We left Montero Saturday night at 7 for La Paz.
We arrived Sunday morning in La Paz after a fairly smooth bus ride in which we only had one flat tire. Sunday night was going to be a big night Camille and I were going to see our first hardcore metal concert. Daniel is a big fan of this band named Epica from Poland and they were playing in La Paz so we decided we would all go. I have felt out of my element in my life but wow this was really like nothing I had ever experienced. The concert was very good and we had lots of fun, now we may have hearing problems but that’s just one of the effects we will have to live with.
We parted ways with Camille Monday night she was headed to Cochabamba for “la Cumbre” and night Daniel and I headed to “el Salaar de Uyuni” or the Salt Flats in English. We arrived in Uyuni Tuesday morning about eight and headed out on our “trek” at ten. We signed up to do three days in a car that drives us around to see all the beautiful sites the Salt Flats have to offer. The Salt Flats of Uyuni are about 12,000 square kilometers which is the largest salt flat in the world. There are also a few other Salt flats in that area but are significantly smaller. We saw some huge cactuses some being as tall as 20 meters. The Salt Flat is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen in my entire life and is absolutely colossal. This is a must see for anyone who ventures to South America. It is completely flat and completely white. There are some places where you can see white forever until it meets with the horizon. I am going to post some pictures as soon as possible. Daniel and I finished our trek Thursday afternoon and left on a bus for Orurro. We arrived in Orruro at five in the morning and got directly on another bus to Cochabamba. We stayed in Cochabamba for two days and arrived this morning at seven in Montero. The traveling has been awesome but I am ready for a little break of all the going.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Nina, nina, nina blancaa… Te ponen reggeaton y cambia a mulata
I finished up my time at the language school and went out a couple of nights with some of the other students who were studying there and had lots of fun. I made it to the two soccer games that were in Cochabamba while I was there which was awesome. I even got to see my team from Montero play one the Cochabamba teams, but; was disappointed we could only get away with a tie when we should have easily won and played with one more man for about sixty minutes of the game.
Saturday after quite a long trip (but what else is expected while traveling in Bolivia) I arrived in Montero, Bolivia about an hour north of Santa Cruz. Saturday I went to the Guabira soccer game which is the team from Montero. Currently they are in “la liga” which is the highest level of professional soccer in Bolivia. Quite a feat seeing as Montero is a town of more or less 100,000 people. When compared to all the other cities Montero is the smallest. Our stadium holds 10,000 people where as generally all the other stadiums hold between 20,000 and 50,000. Guabira won 2-0 and beat Potosí. Currently they are tied for first place in our division. I have seen two games and plan to see everyone I possibly can. To get a decent seat in the stadium you need to arrive about two hours before the game starts. So like a true fan there I was with all the Bolivians sweating and waiting. Currently our coach cannot enter the field because he pushed or hit a ref so is banned for a number of games, however; he cannot be stopped he was in our section by the fence yelling at players and the assistant coach. Where he was is only 5 or 7 feet from the field so it was more than possible. At one point I was positive he was going to get into a fight with one of the fans because number 8 was playing bad and the fans were telling him so yelling, “SAQUE OCHO P*%A” and other obscenities. Unfortunately it did not escalate to a fight like I would have liked it to but, probably for the better. I do feel for number 8 he is only 18 or 19 and has the skills but lacks the sureness and when is on the ball he seems unsure of himself. I am sure it is his first year in the league, therefore; his bad play I didn’t feel warranted the abuse.
Monday and today I have worked at the clinics I have been working in the reception office with two girls and have actually felt very helpful. Today Reina or Queen in English did not come into work today. So with a little guidance I basically did her job, nevertheless; not nearly as efficient as she does it. I have a lot of fun working in the reception office because I have done it a bunch and understand stand the system and can feel helpful. Tomorrow I will be working at the Red Cross clinic and honestly have no idea what I will be doing.
I cooked my first dinner tonight and was fairly successful. Not to say it was the hardest dinner to make but never the less I was proud. I made grilled cheese and green beans. The grilled cheese was awesome thanks to Howard who taught me how to make a mean grilled cheese. The green beans on the other hand were lacking. I didn’t add any salt or pepper or anything for that matter and I think that’s where I went wrong but there will always be tomorrow.
I have been very happy that all of the people I have seen remembered who I was and of course remembered “las gringas” or the white girls. Our Senora who owns the corner store and I had tea the other day and everyone at the clinics remembers me as well as asks where “the girls” are. Even the workers at the restaurant where we ate lunch about everyday were happy to see me and asked about Dee and Maya. I have been recognized by some people who I am not really sure who they are. Mainly by the drivers of the motorcycle taxis and usually they are just asking if I am here with the girls again. Lets just say Dee and Maya left their impact on Montero.
Saturday after quite a long trip (but what else is expected while traveling in Bolivia) I arrived in Montero, Bolivia about an hour north of Santa Cruz. Saturday I went to the Guabira soccer game which is the team from Montero. Currently they are in “la liga” which is the highest level of professional soccer in Bolivia. Quite a feat seeing as Montero is a town of more or less 100,000 people. When compared to all the other cities Montero is the smallest. Our stadium holds 10,000 people where as generally all the other stadiums hold between 20,000 and 50,000. Guabira won 2-0 and beat Potosí. Currently they are tied for first place in our division. I have seen two games and plan to see everyone I possibly can. To get a decent seat in the stadium you need to arrive about two hours before the game starts. So like a true fan there I was with all the Bolivians sweating and waiting. Currently our coach cannot enter the field because he pushed or hit a ref so is banned for a number of games, however; he cannot be stopped he was in our section by the fence yelling at players and the assistant coach. Where he was is only 5 or 7 feet from the field so it was more than possible. At one point I was positive he was going to get into a fight with one of the fans because number 8 was playing bad and the fans were telling him so yelling, “SAQUE OCHO P*%A” and other obscenities. Unfortunately it did not escalate to a fight like I would have liked it to but, probably for the better. I do feel for number 8 he is only 18 or 19 and has the skills but lacks the sureness and when is on the ball he seems unsure of himself. I am sure it is his first year in the league, therefore; his bad play I didn’t feel warranted the abuse.
Monday and today I have worked at the clinics I have been working in the reception office with two girls and have actually felt very helpful. Today Reina or Queen in English did not come into work today. So with a little guidance I basically did her job, nevertheless; not nearly as efficient as she does it. I have a lot of fun working in the reception office because I have done it a bunch and understand stand the system and can feel helpful. Tomorrow I will be working at the Red Cross clinic and honestly have no idea what I will be doing.
I cooked my first dinner tonight and was fairly successful. Not to say it was the hardest dinner to make but never the less I was proud. I made grilled cheese and green beans. The grilled cheese was awesome thanks to Howard who taught me how to make a mean grilled cheese. The green beans on the other hand were lacking. I didn’t add any salt or pepper or anything for that matter and I think that’s where I went wrong but there will always be tomorrow.
I have been very happy that all of the people I have seen remembered who I was and of course remembered “las gringas” or the white girls. Our Senora who owns the corner store and I had tea the other day and everyone at the clinics remembers me as well as asks where “the girls” are. Even the workers at the restaurant where we ate lunch about everyday were happy to see me and asked about Dee and Maya. I have been recognized by some people who I am not really sure who they are. Mainly by the drivers of the motorcycle taxis and usually they are just asking if I am here with the girls again. Lets just say Dee and Maya left their impact on Montero.
Monday, March 15, 2010
First days of the second part of my drip
If you would like to see pictures from the first part of the trip follow this link
Link for Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mansfield.fisher
Finally to be back in South America and I could not be any happier. After a grueling 22 hour trip I arrived in Cochabamba without almost any problems. I am currently studying more Spanish in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I am living with the same “mom” I lived with before her name is Cira. Cira, the best Bolivian mom you could ever ask for, lives by herself currently because her son is working out in the country as a doctor so me being here really works out for both of us.
Daily routine (more of less)
7:05 my alarms goes off and its time for a fun-filled day
7:05-7:30 I snooze my alarm several times until Cira comes and drags me out of bed
7:30-8:15 We eat breakfast or I should say she eats breakfast (bread, butter, and fruit) and I drink coffee and long to go back to sleep. I will normally finish any homework I had if I did not do and then am off to the school.
8:15-12:15 SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH and more Spanish. Everyone is working one on one with a teacher so you really speak and learn Spanish the entire time. I love all the teachers there and we are able to have many fun and interesting conversations ranging from girls to politics. It’s nice to have teachers who want to learn about you as well laugh and have fun.
12:30 Cira and I eat lunch at the house where she cooks some sort of amazing food every single day. It makes me feel like I’m back at home.
12:30-6:30 Normally head to the center of the city for a little to just see the city and buy anything if I need it. The market is always fun to go to. It’s incredibly huge and spans 2 or 3 full city blocks whatever you want you will for sure be able to find anything thing you could possibly imagine except apparently a map of Central America which I have looking for. The have things ranging from dried lama fetuses to people who want to read your “alma” or spirit with coca leaves and some sort of cards. Today I bought some DVDs for about 1.50 apiece and some Latin music cds.
6:30-7:15 Cira and I eat dinner, and practice Spanish.
7:15-to when I go to sleep. Usually this contains going out to the “cancha” or basketball court so watch some pick up soccer, maybe going to a little shop where you can play Fifa on Xbox and pool. Some nights I will head out to the Center for a few drinks and just to relax with other students at the school as if I am not relaxing enough already.
This past weekend one of my best friends from the US was leaving so we had a party for her which included lots of Bolivian dancing. I am not sure why but to me it seems like every time I end up dancing a traditional Bolivian dance it always includes a tissue and lots of spinning. A friend from Switzerland who I met last time I was here and is still here working in the Southern part of Bolivia in Tarijah came to visit me and also brought a friend along which was good we had lots of fun. Friday we went to another going away party for a different student and stayed out and danced, ate and drank. Saturday we headed out for dinner at Paprika in which we had a meat fondue which was very very good. Camille and her friend Gasper are from Switzerland and I am slowly learning that the Swiss LOVE fondue. I agree its good but if there is not fondue of some sort they feel there is something missing and maybe even wrong. We went out to a Cuban bar after and played Cacho, a Bolivian dice game, and just hung out. Sunday I went to a soccer game. At the end of the first it was 0-0 and worried that I was in for a boring second half as well soccer wise atleast; however, I was in for a grand surprise. There were six goals in the second half and three red cards. Five of the goals were scored off set pieces. Which is not normal and I felt there could have been a little more active defense on the corners. I will be leaving for Montero either Friday night or a Saturday morning depending on when and if there is a soccer game in Montero. I will be headed back to work at the medical clinics again in Montero and am very excited about returning now that I speak Spanish much better than before.
Link for Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mansfield.fisher
Finally to be back in South America and I could not be any happier. After a grueling 22 hour trip I arrived in Cochabamba without almost any problems. I am currently studying more Spanish in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I am living with the same “mom” I lived with before her name is Cira. Cira, the best Bolivian mom you could ever ask for, lives by herself currently because her son is working out in the country as a doctor so me being here really works out for both of us.
Daily routine (more of less)
7:05 my alarms goes off and its time for a fun-filled day
7:05-7:30 I snooze my alarm several times until Cira comes and drags me out of bed
7:30-8:15 We eat breakfast or I should say she eats breakfast (bread, butter, and fruit) and I drink coffee and long to go back to sleep. I will normally finish any homework I had if I did not do and then am off to the school.
8:15-12:15 SPANISH SPANISH SPANISH and more Spanish. Everyone is working one on one with a teacher so you really speak and learn Spanish the entire time. I love all the teachers there and we are able to have many fun and interesting conversations ranging from girls to politics. It’s nice to have teachers who want to learn about you as well laugh and have fun.
12:30 Cira and I eat lunch at the house where she cooks some sort of amazing food every single day. It makes me feel like I’m back at home.
12:30-6:30 Normally head to the center of the city for a little to just see the city and buy anything if I need it. The market is always fun to go to. It’s incredibly huge and spans 2 or 3 full city blocks whatever you want you will for sure be able to find anything thing you could possibly imagine except apparently a map of Central America which I have looking for. The have things ranging from dried lama fetuses to people who want to read your “alma” or spirit with coca leaves and some sort of cards. Today I bought some DVDs for about 1.50 apiece and some Latin music cds.
6:30-7:15 Cira and I eat dinner, and practice Spanish.
7:15-to when I go to sleep. Usually this contains going out to the “cancha” or basketball court so watch some pick up soccer, maybe going to a little shop where you can play Fifa on Xbox and pool. Some nights I will head out to the Center for a few drinks and just to relax with other students at the school as if I am not relaxing enough already.
This past weekend one of my best friends from the US was leaving so we had a party for her which included lots of Bolivian dancing. I am not sure why but to me it seems like every time I end up dancing a traditional Bolivian dance it always includes a tissue and lots of spinning. A friend from Switzerland who I met last time I was here and is still here working in the Southern part of Bolivia in Tarijah came to visit me and also brought a friend along which was good we had lots of fun. Friday we went to another going away party for a different student and stayed out and danced, ate and drank. Saturday we headed out for dinner at Paprika in which we had a meat fondue which was very very good. Camille and her friend Gasper are from Switzerland and I am slowly learning that the Swiss LOVE fondue. I agree its good but if there is not fondue of some sort they feel there is something missing and maybe even wrong. We went out to a Cuban bar after and played Cacho, a Bolivian dice game, and just hung out. Sunday I went to a soccer game. At the end of the first it was 0-0 and worried that I was in for a boring second half as well soccer wise atleast; however, I was in for a grand surprise. There were six goals in the second half and three red cards. Five of the goals were scored off set pieces. Which is not normal and I felt there could have been a little more active defense on the corners. I will be leaving for Montero either Friday night or a Saturday morning depending on when and if there is a soccer game in Montero. I will be headed back to work at the medical clinics again in Montero and am very excited about returning now that I speak Spanish much better than before.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Copacabana & Cuzco
Lake Titicaca was beautiful. I guess since Bolivia has a lake that big it makes up for not having a beach. Actually no, nothing can replace the beach, but the lake was still awesome. Its incredible how unbuilt-up (not sure if that´s a word, but we´re going with it) the area surrounding the lake is. I can only imagine the condos that would be all over the banks if the lake was in a developed country. There were also no jet skis or speed boats to ruin the peaceful atmosphere. Our last half day in Copacabana Mansfield and I spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon laying on the beach reading. We also ventured out to Isle del Sol (an island in the lake) for an evening. On the boat on the way over we met 2 french guys studying in South America, and they joined Camille, Mansfield and myself as we hiked from the south to north end of the island. It was a very nice hike, though perhaps a little longer than we expected. We reached the north end in time to settle into our hostel and catch the sunset on the beach.
After Copacabana we said goodbye to Camille, and Mansfield and I took a 9 hour bus ride to Cuzco, Peru. The ride seemed rather short compared to others we have taken. We had about two days in Cuzco before our Machu Picchu trek began, and we spent the time checking out local museums and getting to know the city. The city is incredibly touristy with people constantly trying to get you into their restaurants or stores. While its slightly annoying, it hard to expect much different in a city that sees thousands and thousands of tourists a year. We also bought some additional warm clothes (including rather cool toboggans (hats not sleds) with lamas on them) that turned out to be incredibly useful on the hike.
We left for the trek at 6 am on Tuesday (the 8th) and took a 2 hour bus ride to the town where the hike would begin. There were 3 other people in our group: two guys from Switzerland and another guy from Canada. I was slightly worried that being the only girl in the group I might slow us down, but that turned out not the be the case. It was great having such a small group, just 5 of us and a guide; we ate meals together, played cards in the evening together and got to know each other very well.
The four day hike was along an Inca trail that was discovered about the same time as Machu Picchu. Its believed that the Incas followed this route on religious pilgrimages to Machu Picchu. The first day of the trek was only about 4 hours and fairly easy. We also saw another Inca ruin site along the way. The second day was much harder. We only hiked about 5 hours, but the first 4 hours were pretty much straight up. The last part of the uphill consisted only of Inca stairs and at one point I was fairly sure my legs were going to quit on me. But they didn´t, and when we reached the top we had a lovely view of fog and rain awaiting us (what else can you expect during rainy season I suppose). We had a long siesta during the afternoon of the second day, but my legs were still a little swore and very tired when we began the 3rd (and longest) day hike.
I think ¨miserable¨ may be the best word to describe the morning of the third day. The hike started with a tiring uphill climb in the pouring and freezing rain, and the rain continued steadily until we reached our lunch site. My ¨waterproof¨ gear is apparently not very waterproof after about 3 and a half hours in a steady downpour. By the time we got to the lunch site we were all completely soaked and very cold. Fortunately the porters (who carried the tents and food the entire way) had the lunch tent set up and warm food cooking by the time we arrived. (Just a side not about the porters because without them I don´t think we would have made it. They carry max 25kg of gear for us all 4 days. They hike, in sandals made out of old tires, the trail twice as fast as the tourists. Before the government started regulating how much they could carry they used to up to 70 kg of gear. They would always beat us to the campsite and have the tents set up and food cooking before we arrived. They also woke us up with hot tea every morning. They are probably underpaid, but definitely not under appreciated, and they made our trip much more comfortable.) Ok back to the 3rd day, during lunch the rain stopped and we were able to dry out our clothes before finishing up the final four hours of the trek. Fortunately it didn´t rain too much in the afternoon and the hike wasn´t very hard. We also saw 3 more ruins sites along the way. The day ended in a very small town where we could get a hot shower and cold beer in celebration of the hike almost completed!
The following morning (the 4th day of the trek) we woke at 3:50, ate a quick breakfast, and were the second group in line at the gate for the final climb to Machu Picchu. The day turned out to be gorgeous and we had a clear and sunny view of Machu Picchu from the sun gate. After taking pictures there, we descended into Machu Picchu, stopping for many pictures, and our guide gave us a tour around the ruins. We were also lucky enough to be some of the few people allowed each day to climb Waynapicchu, a mountain overlooking Machu Picchu. I guess we felt we hadn´t had enough hiking so we climb to the top of ¨Young mountain¨ and saw another spectacular view of the ruins. It was an amazing trip, the group was great, the guide was awesome, and while the weather wasn´t always perfect, the last day made up for all the rain.
On Monday, we will fly to Bogota to see Jorge!! We are both really excited and will have updates from there.
After Copacabana we said goodbye to Camille, and Mansfield and I took a 9 hour bus ride to Cuzco, Peru. The ride seemed rather short compared to others we have taken. We had about two days in Cuzco before our Machu Picchu trek began, and we spent the time checking out local museums and getting to know the city. The city is incredibly touristy with people constantly trying to get you into their restaurants or stores. While its slightly annoying, it hard to expect much different in a city that sees thousands and thousands of tourists a year. We also bought some additional warm clothes (including rather cool toboggans (hats not sleds) with lamas on them) that turned out to be incredibly useful on the hike.
We left for the trek at 6 am on Tuesday (the 8th) and took a 2 hour bus ride to the town where the hike would begin. There were 3 other people in our group: two guys from Switzerland and another guy from Canada. I was slightly worried that being the only girl in the group I might slow us down, but that turned out not the be the case. It was great having such a small group, just 5 of us and a guide; we ate meals together, played cards in the evening together and got to know each other very well.
The four day hike was along an Inca trail that was discovered about the same time as Machu Picchu. Its believed that the Incas followed this route on religious pilgrimages to Machu Picchu. The first day of the trek was only about 4 hours and fairly easy. We also saw another Inca ruin site along the way. The second day was much harder. We only hiked about 5 hours, but the first 4 hours were pretty much straight up. The last part of the uphill consisted only of Inca stairs and at one point I was fairly sure my legs were going to quit on me. But they didn´t, and when we reached the top we had a lovely view of fog and rain awaiting us (what else can you expect during rainy season I suppose). We had a long siesta during the afternoon of the second day, but my legs were still a little swore and very tired when we began the 3rd (and longest) day hike.
I think ¨miserable¨ may be the best word to describe the morning of the third day. The hike started with a tiring uphill climb in the pouring and freezing rain, and the rain continued steadily until we reached our lunch site. My ¨waterproof¨ gear is apparently not very waterproof after about 3 and a half hours in a steady downpour. By the time we got to the lunch site we were all completely soaked and very cold. Fortunately the porters (who carried the tents and food the entire way) had the lunch tent set up and warm food cooking by the time we arrived. (Just a side not about the porters because without them I don´t think we would have made it. They carry max 25kg of gear for us all 4 days. They hike, in sandals made out of old tires, the trail twice as fast as the tourists. Before the government started regulating how much they could carry they used to up to 70 kg of gear. They would always beat us to the campsite and have the tents set up and food cooking before we arrived. They also woke us up with hot tea every morning. They are probably underpaid, but definitely not under appreciated, and they made our trip much more comfortable.) Ok back to the 3rd day, during lunch the rain stopped and we were able to dry out our clothes before finishing up the final four hours of the trek. Fortunately it didn´t rain too much in the afternoon and the hike wasn´t very hard. We also saw 3 more ruins sites along the way. The day ended in a very small town where we could get a hot shower and cold beer in celebration of the hike almost completed!
The following morning (the 4th day of the trek) we woke at 3:50, ate a quick breakfast, and were the second group in line at the gate for the final climb to Machu Picchu. The day turned out to be gorgeous and we had a clear and sunny view of Machu Picchu from the sun gate. After taking pictures there, we descended into Machu Picchu, stopping for many pictures, and our guide gave us a tour around the ruins. We were also lucky enough to be some of the few people allowed each day to climb Waynapicchu, a mountain overlooking Machu Picchu. I guess we felt we hadn´t had enough hiking so we climb to the top of ¨Young mountain¨ and saw another spectacular view of the ruins. It was an amazing trip, the group was great, the guide was awesome, and while the weather wasn´t always perfect, the last day made up for all the rain.
On Monday, we will fly to Bogota to see Jorge!! We are both really excited and will have updates from there.
Machu Picchu (there are pictures up)
Link for Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mansfield.fisher
We got back last night from Machu Picchu and it was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. We did the four day hike on the original Inka trail that spans a around 45 kilometers. It took us four days and three nights and was one of the best experiences of my life.
Day 1: We were picked up around 6 am were we met two of the other people in our group. They were two friends from Switzerland names Alex and Raphael both of which turned out to be a lot of fun and made our trip even better. We went and picked up our 6 porters and our cook. Porters are the Peruvian guys who carry all the tents, pots, food, and everything thing else we need all of there bags weigh 25 kilos. We only carried clothes, some snacks, our sleeping bag and pad our bags averaged about 13 kilos. We drove two hours through the mountains where we ate a small breakfast and met the fifth and last person in our group his name is Carlo and is from Canada. We arrived at kilometer 82 (the starting point) and hiked an easy 7 or 8 kilometers to our first campsite. We soon learned that we were in an awesome group our guide was named Freddy and was a lot of fun. We arrived took a short nap and then had "happy hour" in which we had tea and popcorn and played cards. Freddy then prepped us for our hike the next day he told us day two was the hardest were we would climb about 1200 meters and would be about 7 kilometers. He told us the first 4 hours would be up hill and was divided into 3 three parts the first part being "gradual up hill" the second part being the worst with lots of steps more commonly known as the infamous "Inka Steps" and the third part being "gradual" as well. We would summit at Dead Women's Pass.
Day 2: we woke up at 6 and left camp about 7 for our agonizing hike that awaited us. From the beginning we realized we were in for a long day. We learned Freddy had a completely definition of gradual then we did and it would turn out no part of day two would be gradual up hill. As we trudged through the hike we were all awed by the porters. None of the porters are over 5 and a half feet and none weighed over 130 pounds yet they carried 55 pound bags and basically ran up the mountain. To make it even more incredible they all were wearing sandals made out of tires. We soon realized how incredible the porters are and how essential they are to making our trek possible. Dee and I summited around 1130 were we greeted by Raphael and Alex yelling our team name (the second day were the Alpacas) we celebrated with some skittles and water at the top. We did not stay for long because we were also greeted by freezing rain. We then descended 600 meters or so in the pouring rain for 2 hours. We arrived at our campsite where our porters had tea waiting on us of course they had probably been at the campsite for an hour.
Day 3:By far the longest day, day three began about 530 we were hiking 15 kilometers so we wanted to get and early start. We got up and had another awesome breakfast by our cook. Hernan, the cook, was an amazing cook and we ate like kings for four days. We had only been hiking for ten minutes when the down pour began. We hiked for 4 hours in the pouring, freezing rain. I am not sure if i have ever been that cold in my life the last twenty minutes to our lunch camp site was basically a sprint for our entire group. We arrived and once again our amazing porters had the cooking tent set up so we could have some shelter we all crowded inside the tent and began to unfreeze. The sun god was looking out for us that day because once we were done with lunch it cleared up and began a beautiful day. We finished that day in very high spirits as our hike was a lot easier then the morning and the sun was beautiful. Once again though we found Freddy's sense up gradual and steep to be vastly different from ours. We all found this hilarious and continued to give him a hard time about it. We arrived at our last campsite were there was a place we could get beer and have a hot shower. We shared a few drinks and listened to music and bonded as a group. We had a feast for our "last supper" as Freddy referred to it.
Day 4: We woke up at 3:50 so we could get to Machu Picchu as early as possible. We reached the Sun Gate about 630 were the sun god once again gave us a spectacular day. We saw and incredible view of Machu Picchu as we sat in complete awe of what we were witnessing. From there the day progressed as a day at Machu Picchu would we got a tour took lots of pictures and spent a day in heaven. Though is not very relevant to Machu Picchu minus the fact that it happened there it was quite funny and showed how well our group bonded together. We spent lots of time taking shots at each others countries they all picked on Dee and I because we were just a bunch of hicks from the south. We picked on the guys from Switzerland because they are just neutral in everything and the Canadian guy well he is from Canada so there are an endless amount of jokes. Carlo said to me "I cant believe your proud to be from the south because you know Texas is in the south" i shot back "woaaahh no we don't claim those idiots from Texas" and right on cue we were walking past a couple from Texas and they had a few words to say about that. But all in all Machu Picchu is absolutely incredible and I will never forget this trip. Our group was perfect we laughed continuously for four days as we all made jokes and had a blast.
Tuesday we are headed to Colombia to visit Jorge and are very excited.
We got back last night from Machu Picchu and it was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. We did the four day hike on the original Inka trail that spans a around 45 kilometers. It took us four days and three nights and was one of the best experiences of my life.
Day 1: We were picked up around 6 am were we met two of the other people in our group. They were two friends from Switzerland names Alex and Raphael both of which turned out to be a lot of fun and made our trip even better. We went and picked up our 6 porters and our cook. Porters are the Peruvian guys who carry all the tents, pots, food, and everything thing else we need all of there bags weigh 25 kilos. We only carried clothes, some snacks, our sleeping bag and pad our bags averaged about 13 kilos. We drove two hours through the mountains where we ate a small breakfast and met the fifth and last person in our group his name is Carlo and is from Canada. We arrived at kilometer 82 (the starting point) and hiked an easy 7 or 8 kilometers to our first campsite. We soon learned that we were in an awesome group our guide was named Freddy and was a lot of fun. We arrived took a short nap and then had "happy hour" in which we had tea and popcorn and played cards. Freddy then prepped us for our hike the next day he told us day two was the hardest were we would climb about 1200 meters and would be about 7 kilometers. He told us the first 4 hours would be up hill and was divided into 3 three parts the first part being "gradual up hill" the second part being the worst with lots of steps more commonly known as the infamous "Inka Steps" and the third part being "gradual" as well. We would summit at Dead Women's Pass.
Day 2: we woke up at 6 and left camp about 7 for our agonizing hike that awaited us. From the beginning we realized we were in for a long day. We learned Freddy had a completely definition of gradual then we did and it would turn out no part of day two would be gradual up hill. As we trudged through the hike we were all awed by the porters. None of the porters are over 5 and a half feet and none weighed over 130 pounds yet they carried 55 pound bags and basically ran up the mountain. To make it even more incredible they all were wearing sandals made out of tires. We soon realized how incredible the porters are and how essential they are to making our trek possible. Dee and I summited around 1130 were we greeted by Raphael and Alex yelling our team name (the second day were the Alpacas) we celebrated with some skittles and water at the top. We did not stay for long because we were also greeted by freezing rain. We then descended 600 meters or so in the pouring rain for 2 hours. We arrived at our campsite where our porters had tea waiting on us of course they had probably been at the campsite for an hour.
Day 3:By far the longest day, day three began about 530 we were hiking 15 kilometers so we wanted to get and early start. We got up and had another awesome breakfast by our cook. Hernan, the cook, was an amazing cook and we ate like kings for four days. We had only been hiking for ten minutes when the down pour began. We hiked for 4 hours in the pouring, freezing rain. I am not sure if i have ever been that cold in my life the last twenty minutes to our lunch camp site was basically a sprint for our entire group. We arrived and once again our amazing porters had the cooking tent set up so we could have some shelter we all crowded inside the tent and began to unfreeze. The sun god was looking out for us that day because once we were done with lunch it cleared up and began a beautiful day. We finished that day in very high spirits as our hike was a lot easier then the morning and the sun was beautiful. Once again though we found Freddy's sense up gradual and steep to be vastly different from ours. We all found this hilarious and continued to give him a hard time about it. We arrived at our last campsite were there was a place we could get beer and have a hot shower. We shared a few drinks and listened to music and bonded as a group. We had a feast for our "last supper" as Freddy referred to it.
Day 4: We woke up at 3:50 so we could get to Machu Picchu as early as possible. We reached the Sun Gate about 630 were the sun god once again gave us a spectacular day. We saw and incredible view of Machu Picchu as we sat in complete awe of what we were witnessing. From there the day progressed as a day at Machu Picchu would we got a tour took lots of pictures and spent a day in heaven. Though is not very relevant to Machu Picchu minus the fact that it happened there it was quite funny and showed how well our group bonded together. We spent lots of time taking shots at each others countries they all picked on Dee and I because we were just a bunch of hicks from the south. We picked on the guys from Switzerland because they are just neutral in everything and the Canadian guy well he is from Canada so there are an endless amount of jokes. Carlo said to me "I cant believe your proud to be from the south because you know Texas is in the south" i shot back "woaaahh no we don't claim those idiots from Texas" and right on cue we were walking past a couple from Texas and they had a few words to say about that. But all in all Machu Picchu is absolutely incredible and I will never forget this trip. Our group was perfect we laughed continuously for four days as we all made jokes and had a blast.
Tuesday we are headed to Colombia to visit Jorge and are very excited.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Onward with our journies
I know Dee hit on this a lot but I feel I need to reiterate this point. The entire population of Montero welcomed us with open arms and made us feel that we were part of the community. Whether it was the owner of the corner store who had us over for dinner, the girls at the ice cream shop who always made friendly conversation, or our friends who we spent many long and fun nights out with. We made a fair amount of friends though none of you know them I feel I should name them, Henry, Henry, Johanna, Jaun Carlos, John, Marioly, Carlos, Danny and Omar. I am sure I have left some people out but everyone in Montero made a huge impact on our stay. We were all a lot sadder to leave then expected. The friends we made at the clinic made our trip so much better. Everyone at the clinics was always willing to work with our struggling spanish and willing to explain everything when we asked questions. I spent a lot of time working in Archives/reception office as well as going on many home visits with many nurses but one nurse in particular her name was Isabell and we spent many awesome hot days vaccinating what felt like every dog in Bolivia.
We have spent the last couple of days in Copacabana, Bolivia visiting Lake Titicaca which is stunningly gorgeous. We visited the sun island or ¨isle de sol.¨ We have been traveling with a girl we met at the language school named Camille. We met two french guys on the boat on the way to the island which made Camille very happy since they both spoke French and the jabbered in French for a better part of two days. We hiked across the entire island which is about 4 or 5 miles long. We stayed over night and ate some amazing Trout. We made it back yesterday Camille and the French guys headed on to La Paz as for Dee and I we are headed to Cuzco tonight and will arrive early tomorrow morning. On Tuesday we being our four day trek to Machu Picchu. We will be taking the original Inca Trail. We are both very excited about this. We leave for Colombia on the 14th of December.
So as one part of our travel comes to a close and are very sad about this we are still very excited about the adventures that we are going to encounter.
We have spent the last couple of days in Copacabana, Bolivia visiting Lake Titicaca which is stunningly gorgeous. We visited the sun island or ¨isle de sol.¨ We have been traveling with a girl we met at the language school named Camille. We met two french guys on the boat on the way to the island which made Camille very happy since they both spoke French and the jabbered in French for a better part of two days. We hiked across the entire island which is about 4 or 5 miles long. We stayed over night and ate some amazing Trout. We made it back yesterday Camille and the French guys headed on to La Paz as for Dee and I we are headed to Cuzco tonight and will arrive early tomorrow morning. On Tuesday we being our four day trek to Machu Picchu. We will be taking the original Inca Trail. We are both very excited about this. We leave for Colombia on the 14th of December.
So as one part of our travel comes to a close and are very sad about this we are still very excited about the adventures that we are going to encounter.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Leaving Montero
For me, our final days in Montero have been full of mixed emotions. In some ways I am ready to go back home and see friends and family; in other ways I know that this experience has changed me in ways that will make adjusting to life in the states again difficult.
I have truly come to love the people of Bolivia. When visiting someone´s house, no matter their situation, poor or rich, busy or bored, they would always offer us a seat and pleasant conversation. And despite the stares, most the people we encountered on the street were also extremely friendly.
Besides the people in Montero who only entered our lives briefly, we also made some great, and hopefully life long, friends. They took us to places we never would have discovered without locals. They were amazingly patient with our spanish, and many weekends they helped us stumble through the traditional Bolivian dances. They seemed to accept us into their circle of friends as if they had known us for years. We were truly touched by their hospitality and we will miss all of them very much!
I will also miss the people we worked with at the clinic. The nurses we went on home visits with were very friendly and patient, allowing us to help with most aspects of the visit despite a couple missteps giving vaccinations. I really feel that we got to experience a lot of different types of work that is done at the clinics; from folding gauze, to painting, to inventory, to giving vaccinations. One day we helped a nurse vaccinate over 80 animals, mostly dogs, but a couple of cats and a monkey too. It was a longggg day, but very interesting. I have gained a great appreciation for the work of the clinics.
While this blog could in no way fully express all that we have experienced here, hopefully it will give a little insight into our time in Montero that has been life changing. As I stated in an earlier blog post, the clinics have been feeling the effects of the recession with the rest of the world. Because of our incredibly rewarding experience here and our belief in the work the clinics are doing, Mansfield and I are asking anyone who was planning on giving us a Christmas present this year to please consider donating to the clinics on our behalf. It would be a great gift to both of us, and you would be amazed how far even $10 will go down here. If you´re interested email me (or get in touch through the blog) and I´ll let you know details for donating. Thanks!
We are now in Copacabana for a couple of days. From here Mansfield and I will go on a four day trek to Machu Pichu, before heading to Columbia to see Jorge!
I have truly come to love the people of Bolivia. When visiting someone´s house, no matter their situation, poor or rich, busy or bored, they would always offer us a seat and pleasant conversation. And despite the stares, most the people we encountered on the street were also extremely friendly.
Besides the people in Montero who only entered our lives briefly, we also made some great, and hopefully life long, friends. They took us to places we never would have discovered without locals. They were amazingly patient with our spanish, and many weekends they helped us stumble through the traditional Bolivian dances. They seemed to accept us into their circle of friends as if they had known us for years. We were truly touched by their hospitality and we will miss all of them very much!
I will also miss the people we worked with at the clinic. The nurses we went on home visits with were very friendly and patient, allowing us to help with most aspects of the visit despite a couple missteps giving vaccinations. I really feel that we got to experience a lot of different types of work that is done at the clinics; from folding gauze, to painting, to inventory, to giving vaccinations. One day we helped a nurse vaccinate over 80 animals, mostly dogs, but a couple of cats and a monkey too. It was a longggg day, but very interesting. I have gained a great appreciation for the work of the clinics.
While this blog could in no way fully express all that we have experienced here, hopefully it will give a little insight into our time in Montero that has been life changing. As I stated in an earlier blog post, the clinics have been feeling the effects of the recession with the rest of the world. Because of our incredibly rewarding experience here and our belief in the work the clinics are doing, Mansfield and I are asking anyone who was planning on giving us a Christmas present this year to please consider donating to the clinics on our behalf. It would be a great gift to both of us, and you would be amazed how far even $10 will go down here. If you´re interested email me (or get in touch through the blog) and I´ll let you know details for donating. Thanks!
We are now in Copacabana for a couple of days. From here Mansfield and I will go on a four day trek to Machu Pichu, before heading to Columbia to see Jorge!
Monday, November 16, 2009
La Paz
We returned last Tuesday from an awesome trip to La Paz. The people in Santa Cruz seemed very concerned about us going to La Paz. We were repeatedly told how dangerous it was and to watch out for thiefs and fake police and taxi drivers. We were also warned that the people of La Paz don´t like gringos so to not be surprised if we were treated badly. Fortunately we encountered none of these problems, though we were in very touristy parts of La Paz the entire time. While I can´t say for sure (its really hard to gain insight into the political situation of another country), it seems like there are a lot of tensions in Bolivia right now between the indigenous people (predominately Evo supporters) and people who live in the ¨half moon¨ (eastern side of Bolivia, predominately anit-Evo). While I haven´t been able to get anyone to articulate clearly why they are for or against Evo, people on both sides are very passionate in their beliefs. It seemed that some of the warnings about La Paz were arising from tensions between these two groups.
Buttttt, back to the trip, it was awesome! We met up with my friend Howard (from Wake) who is currently traveling through South America until December. The first day we visited the various museums in La Paz, including a really interesting museum about the Coca leaf. We also took a half day trip to the Valley of the Moon and visited the witch market (got a lot of Christmas shopping out of the way).
Some of you hardcore blog followers (surely there are a few) may remember me mentioning that most dangerous road in the world is somewhere in Bolivia. Well we found it and we biked down it! This trip was by far the most exciting thing we did in La Paz. The trips starts out on a pavement, but after about 30 min of biking the road becomes completely gravel. The entire ride was about 60 km with drops off the side reaching 1000 meters at some points. Needless to say, we (and by we I mean Maya and myself) were riding very very slowly. The rest of our group was apparently professional mountain bikers who rode down at incredible speeds. I did feel better about my biking abilities when we passed three other groups on the way down, I think we just had a ridiculously fast group. The guides also took incredible pictures of the scenery (and us) which we´d love to upload but continue to have trouble with the computers/cameras/something. The trip ended at a hotel where we ate lunch and swam in the pool.
Our guide told us 17 people have been killed doing the road on bikes, but apparently most of those accidents occurred with cars before Bolivia built a new road about 3 years ago. Since the new road, he said only one person has been killed on a bike. The new road was the most expensive road in Bolivia to build, but since our guide said that tour buses and trucks would fall off the most dangerous road almost monthly, I´d say it was worth the cost. I tried to confirm these facts without much success, so take what you will from them. (I did find an article stating ¨at least 13 people¨ have been killed biking).
Buttttt, back to the trip, it was awesome! We met up with my friend Howard (from Wake) who is currently traveling through South America until December. The first day we visited the various museums in La Paz, including a really interesting museum about the Coca leaf. We also took a half day trip to the Valley of the Moon and visited the witch market (got a lot of Christmas shopping out of the way).
Some of you hardcore blog followers (surely there are a few) may remember me mentioning that most dangerous road in the world is somewhere in Bolivia. Well we found it and we biked down it! This trip was by far the most exciting thing we did in La Paz. The trips starts out on a pavement, but after about 30 min of biking the road becomes completely gravel. The entire ride was about 60 km with drops off the side reaching 1000 meters at some points. Needless to say, we (and by we I mean Maya and myself) were riding very very slowly. The rest of our group was apparently professional mountain bikers who rode down at incredible speeds. I did feel better about my biking abilities when we passed three other groups on the way down, I think we just had a ridiculously fast group. The guides also took incredible pictures of the scenery (and us) which we´d love to upload but continue to have trouble with the computers/cameras/something. The trip ended at a hotel where we ate lunch and swam in the pool.
Our guide told us 17 people have been killed doing the road on bikes, but apparently most of those accidents occurred with cars before Bolivia built a new road about 3 years ago. Since the new road, he said only one person has been killed on a bike. The new road was the most expensive road in Bolivia to build, but since our guide said that tour buses and trucks would fall off the most dangerous road almost monthly, I´d say it was worth the cost. I tried to confirm these facts without much success, so take what you will from them. (I did find an article stating ¨at least 13 people¨ have been killed biking).
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Montero, Montero, Montero
Though its been a while since the last blog post, we are continuing to have an awesome time in Montero. As I mentioned in the last post we have settled nicely into the Bolivian way of life and have even made real Bolivian friends. This feat may seem trivial, but trust me its no small task. Between the language barriers, the cultural differences (not everyone here likes gringos), and the general difficulties that go along with meeting new people, I am very satisfied with the network of friends we´ve created. We´ve gone jet skiing (never expected to do that in Bolivia), out to eat, to school parties and taken drives around town with the people we´ve met. One of our friends also has a pool, which has proven crucial as temperatures have reached over 38 degrees (100F). Sadly though, our first friend Daniel left for the States last weekend. So if you see him, tell him we said Hi!
While it may seem like all play here (its just more fun to write about), we´ve also been working everyday, including Saturday (and people think Americans work too much). Its been fun though, and we have really gotten to know and enjoy the people we work with at the clinics. Most days we are either working with their filing system, visiting houses, doing construction or making cotton balls and gauze. The home visits are really interesting and apparently this method of community outreach (pioneered by CSRA) is now being imitated all over the country. The main goal of the visits is to check on the health of children and pregnant women. We also vaccinate dogs, cats, and monkeys (?!?) against rabies. Maya and I have also been helping with inventory, which includes painting a number on basically every single thing (chairs, bookshelves, computers, etc) in the three clinics. Sometimes the numbers are declared ¨feo¨ (ugly) and we have to write them again. Its been a pretty funny process.
In addition to working with the clinics, we´ve also continued to visit the two orphanages in town regularly. At the all girls orphanage, we´ve been helping with homework (mostly math) and playing with the girls. We even swam with them one day in their ¨pool¨ (more like a giant bathtub). The other orphanage is an all boys orphanage funded by a Rotary club in Highland, North Carolina. Only fourteen boys live there so we´ve really been able to get to know most of them during our visits. With the guys we´ve mostly been playing futbol, I think I´ve even started to get my touch back.
Tonight we are taking a break from work and going to La Paz for a couple of days. We´ll take a bus ride overnight for 13 hours, but after Argentina that seems like a walk in the park. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia and is supposed to be beautiful. Its higher than Cochabamba, but hopefully we won´t have issues with the altitude. We´re packing our coca leaves just in case.
We have a lot of pictures to post, but due to slow internet and risk of electrocution when connecting the camera, we´ve been falling behind. Hopefully it will happen soon. Nothing else for now, eat a bagel for me!
While it may seem like all play here (its just more fun to write about), we´ve also been working everyday, including Saturday (and people think Americans work too much). Its been fun though, and we have really gotten to know and enjoy the people we work with at the clinics. Most days we are either working with their filing system, visiting houses, doing construction or making cotton balls and gauze. The home visits are really interesting and apparently this method of community outreach (pioneered by CSRA) is now being imitated all over the country. The main goal of the visits is to check on the health of children and pregnant women. We also vaccinate dogs, cats, and monkeys (?!?) against rabies. Maya and I have also been helping with inventory, which includes painting a number on basically every single thing (chairs, bookshelves, computers, etc) in the three clinics. Sometimes the numbers are declared ¨feo¨ (ugly) and we have to write them again. Its been a pretty funny process.
In addition to working with the clinics, we´ve also continued to visit the two orphanages in town regularly. At the all girls orphanage, we´ve been helping with homework (mostly math) and playing with the girls. We even swam with them one day in their ¨pool¨ (more like a giant bathtub). The other orphanage is an all boys orphanage funded by a Rotary club in Highland, North Carolina. Only fourteen boys live there so we´ve really been able to get to know most of them during our visits. With the guys we´ve mostly been playing futbol, I think I´ve even started to get my touch back.
Tonight we are taking a break from work and going to La Paz for a couple of days. We´ll take a bus ride overnight for 13 hours, but after Argentina that seems like a walk in the park. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia and is supposed to be beautiful. Its higher than Cochabamba, but hopefully we won´t have issues with the altitude. We´re packing our coca leaves just in case.
We have a lot of pictures to post, but due to slow internet and risk of electrocution when connecting the camera, we´ve been falling behind. Hopefully it will happen soon. Nothing else for now, eat a bagel for me!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Living the Bolivian Life
We´ve been settling nicely into the Bolivian way of life....
We work: We´ve almost had two full weeks of work now and its been going great. We´ve actually been doing more construction then was initially scheduled. The first couple of days we moved (with buckets on a pulley system) a huggggggge pile of sand from the first floor of the clinic to the second floor. The next couple of days we did the same thing with bricks. My entire body hurt for like a week, but lately we´ve just been painting which is much easier. There are only two guys working construction right now due to lack of funds (the recession is every where it appears), but I think the five of us make a pretty good team. Another guy from the US and his son have worked a day or two also. We have also been doing home visits and working with the nurses preparing supplies; they make their own cotton balls here and we´ve made a ton.
We eat: We´ve been managing to cook a fair amount. Mostly veggies and we buy meat to go along with them from this family that runs a restaurant (out of their living room) and grills awesome meat every night. Lunches we haven´t been cooking that much, but its hard to do better than $1.15 lunches that include salad, rice, and some type of meat dish. Though one women did tell me we were floja (lazy) for not cooking lunch, but I´m pretty sure a maid prepares lunch for her family so I didn´t take it too personally.
We workout: After about a month of meat and potatoes, I think we´ve all decided its time to start working out. Maybe the Bolivians can eat like this all the time, but I definitely can not. Mansfield has started playing on the clinic soccer team. They did lose their first two games, but they seem to be having a good time; Maya and I have been having a great time watching them. I´ve also worked out a running/stairs workout around the courtyard of our building that I´ve been doing pretty regularly. While running around in circles may not sound that appealing, its well worth the repetitiveness to avoid getting constantly hollered on the street (though the male dog next door does his best not to let his fellow chicos down).
We do things like Bolivians: Maya and I have officially mastered the art of riding the moto´s (dirt bike taxis) sidesaddle like the Bolivian women do. At first I was very sceptical, but now I think I actually like it better that way. It feels like it would be easier to make a quick exit from the bike if necessary; not that I have ever needed too, but ya just never know. We have also taken to (like all good Bolivians) hanging out on the street at night. Everyone brings chairs and sits on the sidewalk in the doorway to escape the heat. We were told that the fact that we had music and speakers made it less authentic, but some things are just necessary.
All and all we have settled in to a nice routine in Montero. This weekend we are going to a water park on Saturday to kick off the birthday celebrations. On Sunday we are attending the championship soccer game between Santa Cruz and La Paz (viva Santa Cruz!). Hope all is well at home!
We work: We´ve almost had two full weeks of work now and its been going great. We´ve actually been doing more construction then was initially scheduled. The first couple of days we moved (with buckets on a pulley system) a huggggggge pile of sand from the first floor of the clinic to the second floor. The next couple of days we did the same thing with bricks. My entire body hurt for like a week, but lately we´ve just been painting which is much easier. There are only two guys working construction right now due to lack of funds (the recession is every where it appears), but I think the five of us make a pretty good team. Another guy from the US and his son have worked a day or two also. We have also been doing home visits and working with the nurses preparing supplies; they make their own cotton balls here and we´ve made a ton.
We eat: We´ve been managing to cook a fair amount. Mostly veggies and we buy meat to go along with them from this family that runs a restaurant (out of their living room) and grills awesome meat every night. Lunches we haven´t been cooking that much, but its hard to do better than $1.15 lunches that include salad, rice, and some type of meat dish. Though one women did tell me we were floja (lazy) for not cooking lunch, but I´m pretty sure a maid prepares lunch for her family so I didn´t take it too personally.
We workout: After about a month of meat and potatoes, I think we´ve all decided its time to start working out. Maybe the Bolivians can eat like this all the time, but I definitely can not. Mansfield has started playing on the clinic soccer team. They did lose their first two games, but they seem to be having a good time; Maya and I have been having a great time watching them. I´ve also worked out a running/stairs workout around the courtyard of our building that I´ve been doing pretty regularly. While running around in circles may not sound that appealing, its well worth the repetitiveness to avoid getting constantly hollered on the street (though the male dog next door does his best not to let his fellow chicos down).
We do things like Bolivians: Maya and I have officially mastered the art of riding the moto´s (dirt bike taxis) sidesaddle like the Bolivian women do. At first I was very sceptical, but now I think I actually like it better that way. It feels like it would be easier to make a quick exit from the bike if necessary; not that I have ever needed too, but ya just never know. We have also taken to (like all good Bolivians) hanging out on the street at night. Everyone brings chairs and sits on the sidewalk in the doorway to escape the heat. We were told that the fact that we had music and speakers made it less authentic, but some things are just necessary.
All and all we have settled in to a nice routine in Montero. This weekend we are going to a water park on Saturday to kick off the birthday celebrations. On Sunday we are attending the championship soccer game between Santa Cruz and La Paz (viva Santa Cruz!). Hope all is well at home!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Pictures
Back in Montero (and hard at work)
The trip to Argentina was awesome! I´ll trust my fellow bloggers to fill in the details, but we took great excursions, met incredibly interesting people, and drank awesome Argentinian wine.
Getting back into the country, however, was a nightmare. By the time we had photocopied every document, form, and credit card we had (several times), had a passport size photo made at the store next door (how convenient) and paid the visa entry fees, everyone else on the bus had successfully completed the immigration process and been waiting on the bus for about 2.5 hours. We had to collectively pool all of our money, including Daniel´s and Katie´s (the bus driver even offered to lend us money, but fortunately it didn´t come to that),in order to pay the visa fees and all the costs of photocopying and picture taking. There was no ATM on the Bolivian side of the boarder (how inconvenient). The guy even tried to extort a bribe from Maya because she didn´t have a credit card with her for them to copy. We were thinking, Dude, you´ve literally taken every penny we have by having us run all over this little town jumping through bureaucratic hoops, even if we wanted to pay your stupid bribe (which we don´t) we can´t. By this point we were ready to just stay in Argentina. Fortunately about that time (3 hours later), the bus driver came back into the office, and though I don´t claim to be a Spanish translator, I think he said something along the lines of ¨Stamp these freakin´ passports so we can go, you´ve been holding this bus here for over 3 hours!!¨ Whatever he said it worked, we got our passports, ran out the office and quickly boarded the bus. While we left feeling ticked off and frustrated, I would imagine we are not the first (nor the last) people to leave an immigration office with similar feelings, whether in Bolivia, the US, or just about any other country.
After we got back to Montero, we had lots to show Katie since up until then she had traveled all the way to Bolivia and only seen Argentina. We took her to the market, hit all of our favorite eating places, and made empenadas. We also celebrated her birthday and took her to a soccer game. I think soccer games are the only things that Bolivians are on time for, and for those they show up 2 hours early. Once again it was an energetic and exciting game.
After Katie left on Thursday it was time to start work. Up until now its been pretty much all play and no work. (Well, not counting 5 hours of language school a day, but talking one on one with a teacher learning a new way to communicate didn´t feel that much like work.) Now, however, we will begin working Monday-Saturday, including a lovely mid-day siesta. Hopefully we´ll get our official schedule posted on the blog, but for those who don´t read Spanish or just want a summarized version, we are going to be doing a mix of home visits with the nurses, working with the construction team, various jobs around the clinics, helping translate the web page into English (Maya), working with the accountant (me), and working at one of the local orphanages.
The home visits have been an interesting but also intense experience. Many of the people down here, especially as we go to homes farther from town, live in pretty horrible conditions. They live without running water, electricity, and in homes made of tarps or straw. Many have half finished brick houses on their property too, that they work on building when they have money available. The orphanage we are working with is an all girls orphanage run by the Catholic church. There are about 120 girls there, and the orphanage facilities are quite impressive. At the orphanage we will mostly just spend time playing with the girls or helping them with their homework. We had an awesome time on Saturday and will be going back all Saturday afternoons and spending the final week of October there.
Its going to be nice to stay in Montero for a while and get settled in to a routine. We´ve even been able to buy groceries at the market (amazingly cheap fresh fruits and vegetables) and start doing some cooking for ourselves. Another great thing about working is it allows me to practice my Spanish more; traveling through Argentina with 4 gringos and a Bolivian who speaks fluent English didn´t give me much cause to practice.
Getting back into the country, however, was a nightmare. By the time we had photocopied every document, form, and credit card we had (several times), had a passport size photo made at the store next door (how convenient) and paid the visa entry fees, everyone else on the bus had successfully completed the immigration process and been waiting on the bus for about 2.5 hours. We had to collectively pool all of our money, including Daniel´s and Katie´s (the bus driver even offered to lend us money, but fortunately it didn´t come to that),in order to pay the visa fees and all the costs of photocopying and picture taking. There was no ATM on the Bolivian side of the boarder (how inconvenient). The guy even tried to extort a bribe from Maya because she didn´t have a credit card with her for them to copy. We were thinking, Dude, you´ve literally taken every penny we have by having us run all over this little town jumping through bureaucratic hoops, even if we wanted to pay your stupid bribe (which we don´t) we can´t. By this point we were ready to just stay in Argentina. Fortunately about that time (3 hours later), the bus driver came back into the office, and though I don´t claim to be a Spanish translator, I think he said something along the lines of ¨Stamp these freakin´ passports so we can go, you´ve been holding this bus here for over 3 hours!!¨ Whatever he said it worked, we got our passports, ran out the office and quickly boarded the bus. While we left feeling ticked off and frustrated, I would imagine we are not the first (nor the last) people to leave an immigration office with similar feelings, whether in Bolivia, the US, or just about any other country.
After we got back to Montero, we had lots to show Katie since up until then she had traveled all the way to Bolivia and only seen Argentina. We took her to the market, hit all of our favorite eating places, and made empenadas. We also celebrated her birthday and took her to a soccer game. I think soccer games are the only things that Bolivians are on time for, and for those they show up 2 hours early. Once again it was an energetic and exciting game.
After Katie left on Thursday it was time to start work. Up until now its been pretty much all play and no work. (Well, not counting 5 hours of language school a day, but talking one on one with a teacher learning a new way to communicate didn´t feel that much like work.) Now, however, we will begin working Monday-Saturday, including a lovely mid-day siesta. Hopefully we´ll get our official schedule posted on the blog, but for those who don´t read Spanish or just want a summarized version, we are going to be doing a mix of home visits with the nurses, working with the construction team, various jobs around the clinics, helping translate the web page into English (Maya), working with the accountant (me), and working at one of the local orphanages.
The home visits have been an interesting but also intense experience. Many of the people down here, especially as we go to homes farther from town, live in pretty horrible conditions. They live without running water, electricity, and in homes made of tarps or straw. Many have half finished brick houses on their property too, that they work on building when they have money available. The orphanage we are working with is an all girls orphanage run by the Catholic church. There are about 120 girls there, and the orphanage facilities are quite impressive. At the orphanage we will mostly just spend time playing with the girls or helping them with their homework. We had an awesome time on Saturday and will be going back all Saturday afternoons and spending the final week of October there.
Its going to be nice to stay in Montero for a while and get settled in to a routine. We´ve even been able to buy groceries at the market (amazingly cheap fresh fruits and vegetables) and start doing some cooking for ourselves. Another great thing about working is it allows me to practice my Spanish more; traveling through Argentina with 4 gringos and a Bolivian who speaks fluent English didn´t give me much cause to practice.
Featured Columnist - Katie Arancio
After 55 hours of travel I was pretty settled on the fact that Dee, Mansfield, Maya and I would never meet up. I had arrived at the airport nearly 36 hours earlier and, due to some flight confusion, was met by a very friendly and “comfortable” man named Daniel. He was to be my chaperone on the trip across Bolivia and halfway through Argentina to a small town called Cafayete. Throughout the 24 hour bus ride I had prepared myself for the two person vacation that seemed inevitable but, to my surprise, Daniel and I were greeted at the bus station with a hearty slap on the back by none other than Mansfield. We spent most of our Cafayete nights much like the first; acquainting ourselves with other hostel residents at local watering holes.
We were lucky enough to go on some crazy Cafayete excursions during our days there. The first day we took 4 wheelers out through “rivers, forests and sand dunes.” While the rivers were dried up streams and the forests consisted of dead leafless trees, the sand dunes were legit. Dee and I doubled up on the “cautious 4 wheeler” while poor Maya was thrown around endlessly thanks to Mansfield’s lack of driving inhibitions. Either way, the jumps still landed me on the handlebars and Dee on my back one too many times. All of us also drove down a ridiculously steep sand dune that was probably no less than 150 feet high. As Mansfield so perfectly proclaimed, “we rode.”
During the remainder of our stay we hiked some absurd rocks shaped like everything from trains to amphitheaters and went on a tour of their wine country. On the day we went to the vineyards we had rented bikes from our hostel and, unfortunately did not think to test drive the bikes before setting off on our 8 mile bike ride. Soon after we started we realized that Maya’s handlebars were wholly separate from her bike and Dee’s seat was nowhere near sit-able. The first vineyard was literally at the base of the Andes Mountains and the ability to do a wine tasting at a vineyard that gorgeous was well worth dealing with broken bikes.
After Cafayete we set off to Salta, Argentina, a larger city located on our way back to Bolivia. Here we met our friends Pheonix from Austin, TX and Camille from Switzlerland. The High Altitude Museum of Archeology, located in Salta, has three mummies found in March of 1999 (by Americans!) that were perfectly preserved because of the altitude and temperatures at which they died. The museum only displays one mummy at a time for a six month periods because of the deterioration that results from the lights. The one we saw, named “Lightning Girl”, was crazy. She literally looked like a 6 year old child with soot on her face (and a bit of a face indentation due to being struck by lightning). Personally, I’m thinking of coming back in 6 and 12 months to see the other two mummies because they really are unbelievable.
Finally, we set back for Montero. Tuesday was my birthday and, as such, we spent the day learning how to make homemade empanadas and peel yuka (a vegetable comparable to potatoes) with Daniel’s parents. We also made an enormous cake that slowly oozed out of their oven onto the kitchen floor, coated it with dulce de leche, and have been eating it for two days straight. For my last night here we went to a futbol game in Santa Cruz between two rival teams. It was insane; stands were on fire, police had swat shields and Rotties foaming at the mouth, and full bottles of Fanta were thrown when the underdog won. Afterwards we relaxed at a local karaoke/piano bar with some good tunes, company and booty dancing.
All in all I have to say this was probably my most enjoyable vacation. I definitely experienced things I wouldn’t have otherwise between the culture, the sights and the company we kept - well worth the uncertain travel that started it all.
Written by Katie Arancio (see if you come visit us, we'll let you write on our blog!)
We were lucky enough to go on some crazy Cafayete excursions during our days there. The first day we took 4 wheelers out through “rivers, forests and sand dunes.” While the rivers were dried up streams and the forests consisted of dead leafless trees, the sand dunes were legit. Dee and I doubled up on the “cautious 4 wheeler” while poor Maya was thrown around endlessly thanks to Mansfield’s lack of driving inhibitions. Either way, the jumps still landed me on the handlebars and Dee on my back one too many times. All of us also drove down a ridiculously steep sand dune that was probably no less than 150 feet high. As Mansfield so perfectly proclaimed, “we rode.”
During the remainder of our stay we hiked some absurd rocks shaped like everything from trains to amphitheaters and went on a tour of their wine country. On the day we went to the vineyards we had rented bikes from our hostel and, unfortunately did not think to test drive the bikes before setting off on our 8 mile bike ride. Soon after we started we realized that Maya’s handlebars were wholly separate from her bike and Dee’s seat was nowhere near sit-able. The first vineyard was literally at the base of the Andes Mountains and the ability to do a wine tasting at a vineyard that gorgeous was well worth dealing with broken bikes.
After Cafayete we set off to Salta, Argentina, a larger city located on our way back to Bolivia. Here we met our friends Pheonix from Austin, TX and Camille from Switzlerland. The High Altitude Museum of Archeology, located in Salta, has three mummies found in March of 1999 (by Americans!) that were perfectly preserved because of the altitude and temperatures at which they died. The museum only displays one mummy at a time for a six month periods because of the deterioration that results from the lights. The one we saw, named “Lightning Girl”, was crazy. She literally looked like a 6 year old child with soot on her face (and a bit of a face indentation due to being struck by lightning). Personally, I’m thinking of coming back in 6 and 12 months to see the other two mummies because they really are unbelievable.
Finally, we set back for Montero. Tuesday was my birthday and, as such, we spent the day learning how to make homemade empanadas and peel yuka (a vegetable comparable to potatoes) with Daniel’s parents. We also made an enormous cake that slowly oozed out of their oven onto the kitchen floor, coated it with dulce de leche, and have been eating it for two days straight. For my last night here we went to a futbol game in Santa Cruz between two rival teams. It was insane; stands were on fire, police had swat shields and Rotties foaming at the mouth, and full bottles of Fanta were thrown when the underdog won. Afterwards we relaxed at a local karaoke/piano bar with some good tunes, company and booty dancing.
All in all I have to say this was probably my most enjoyable vacation. I definitely experienced things I wouldn’t have otherwise between the culture, the sights and the company we kept - well worth the uncertain travel that started it all.
Written by Katie Arancio (see if you come visit us, we'll let you write on our blog!)
Where to begin...
I guess I will start with the few days before we left. After we got back from the language school we were only in Montero for a few days. We worked for one day in which we went to the Montero jail (which hosts men and women). We saw many patients that had various illnesses. The nurses explain to us that many inmates were sick because of the very tight living quarters. This was very interesting and very different from a jail in the States. For one it seemed that the inmates were free to roam about the "yard" and do basically what ever they pleased. They had little old ladies come in and sell candy and empanadas which brings me to another question. Where did the inmates get money from? This was a very good experience in which we learned about many differences between our country and Bolivia.
We departed from Montero at 7:45 Sunday night and eventually arrived in Cafayate at 11:30 pm Monday night. We were on a bus for over twenty hours but were actually not as bad as it sounds. We were starving when we got off the bus but that was no problem because Argentineans don’t usually start dinner until 10:30 or 11 anyways. We finished dinner up about two AM. We went to out hostel and met some of the other people that were staying there most of whom were from Buenos Aires.
The next day we went hiked to a waterfall (cascada) with some of the people from our hostel. We were led by two Argentineans Jose and Andres who claimed they knew where it was and we did not need a guide (we regretted this decision). We creek hopped up about a mile until one of our "guides" (José) disappeared, his friend was not at all worried and we continued on without him. At one point a group (that had a guide) was clearly on a trail about 50 feet up as we creek hopped. The guide from the other group stopped his group and then proceeded to comment and laugh at our expense. We did make it and it was quite incredible.
Finally after dinner about 11:00 Kt and Daniel arrived!!! We were all very excited to see them. The next day we took our ATVs around the town we went through some forests and roads but the coolest were the sand dunes. We started off the trip a little iffy about how safe it was since the guide asked us if we wanted helmets or would prefer to go without them. Obviously we took them, however; we never ended up needing them. We had a very fun and safe day.
The next day we saw lots of cool rock formations and spent the day walking around. We left the next day for Salta in which we would meet a friend from the language school (Camille). We arrived at the hostel about midnight but once again food was not a problem. I have decided hostels are the way to travel they are so much fun, cheap, and you always get to meet lots of interesting people. They are great as long as you don’t mind sharing a room with seven or eight other people. We went to a very cool museum with a preserved body of a child who had been sacrificed by the Incas. The body was preserved so well because of the extremely cool climate where they left these sacrifices (kids) to die. It was on a peak of over 6000 meters.
We have been back in Montero for a week and have been working very hard. We have been doing home visits with the nurses. We have been giving shots to kids and dogs. An odd combination but nonetheless very important. I got to give a shot to a puppy and instead of pinching his skin and pushing the needle through I managed to push it all the way through and have the needle come out the other side. The nurses and owners of the dog thought this was hilarious I was quite embarrassed however. It goes without saying that they did not let me do anymore shots that day.
Yesterday we went to the all girls orphanage which was awesome and a whole lot of fun. Some of the workers at the clinics were nice enough to let me join their soccer team and today was our first game. We lost 4-2 unfortunately but it was also a lot of fun. Monday through Wednesday we are going to be doing construction on one of the clinics. I am going to link a site where you can view all of our pictures so hopefully they will finish uploading today and I can get that worked out.
We departed from Montero at 7:45 Sunday night and eventually arrived in Cafayate at 11:30 pm Monday night. We were on a bus for over twenty hours but were actually not as bad as it sounds. We were starving when we got off the bus but that was no problem because Argentineans don’t usually start dinner until 10:30 or 11 anyways. We finished dinner up about two AM. We went to out hostel and met some of the other people that were staying there most of whom were from Buenos Aires.
The next day we went hiked to a waterfall (cascada) with some of the people from our hostel. We were led by two Argentineans Jose and Andres who claimed they knew where it was and we did not need a guide (we regretted this decision). We creek hopped up about a mile until one of our "guides" (José) disappeared, his friend was not at all worried and we continued on without him. At one point a group (that had a guide) was clearly on a trail about 50 feet up as we creek hopped. The guide from the other group stopped his group and then proceeded to comment and laugh at our expense. We did make it and it was quite incredible.
Finally after dinner about 11:00 Kt and Daniel arrived!!! We were all very excited to see them. The next day we took our ATVs around the town we went through some forests and roads but the coolest were the sand dunes. We started off the trip a little iffy about how safe it was since the guide asked us if we wanted helmets or would prefer to go without them. Obviously we took them, however; we never ended up needing them. We had a very fun and safe day.
The next day we saw lots of cool rock formations and spent the day walking around. We left the next day for Salta in which we would meet a friend from the language school (Camille). We arrived at the hostel about midnight but once again food was not a problem. I have decided hostels are the way to travel they are so much fun, cheap, and you always get to meet lots of interesting people. They are great as long as you don’t mind sharing a room with seven or eight other people. We went to a very cool museum with a preserved body of a child who had been sacrificed by the Incas. The body was preserved so well because of the extremely cool climate where they left these sacrifices (kids) to die. It was on a peak of over 6000 meters.
We have been back in Montero for a week and have been working very hard. We have been doing home visits with the nurses. We have been giving shots to kids and dogs. An odd combination but nonetheless very important. I got to give a shot to a puppy and instead of pinching his skin and pushing the needle through I managed to push it all the way through and have the needle come out the other side. The nurses and owners of the dog thought this was hilarious I was quite embarrassed however. It goes without saying that they did not let me do anymore shots that day.
Yesterday we went to the all girls orphanage which was awesome and a whole lot of fun. Some of the workers at the clinics were nice enough to let me join their soccer team and today was our first game. We lost 4-2 unfortunately but it was also a lot of fun. Monday through Wednesday we are going to be doing construction on one of the clinics. I am going to link a site where you can view all of our pictures so hopefully they will finish uploading today and I can get that worked out.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Montero and Beyond
Well we've been back in Montero for about 5 days now, and tonight we leave for Argentina. Our visas expire tomorrow so apparently we have two choices: leave the country which resets the visa or apply for temporary residency. A guy we met in Cochabamba from the US was going through the process of applying for temporary residency, and he told us that along with a fair amount of money and lots of paper work, you are also required to have a blood test done; needless to say we decided to take a vacation. I think this must be Bolivia´s way of helping the economies of their neighbors, though I don´t know if neighboring countries are returning the favor. Argentina at least is not, as we don´t need any type of visa to go there (one of the reasons we choose it).
The slight complication to this awesome plan is that Katie Arancio (a friend of mine from Wake) arrives today (we thought) for a visit, but this was easily solved by purchasing a ticket for her and having her accompany us to Argentina. After busing an hour to the airport and waiting several hours for her this morning, however, Daniel and I finally realized her flight doesn´t get in until tomorrow morning. (Tricky itineraries, leaving on the 20th, getting in on the 21st, muy confusing). Since Maya, Mansfield and I need to be out of the country tomorrow (and Argentina isn´t that close) we´ll be leaving on tonight's bus, and Daniel and Arancio will follow tomorrow. Despite the complications, everything now appears to be figured out and we are looking forward to visiting some vineyards in Argentina and lots of outdoor activities (hiking, swimming, horseback riding, etc). We are not, however, looking forward to our 20 hour bus ride tonight.
We´ve hardly spent anytime in Montero, but one of these days we are going to start doing some work. We actually did get a chance to work on Friday; Friday morning we went with a nurse and a doctor to the local jail where they were doing examinations, and Friday afternoon we helped a nurse vaccinate animals (dogs, cats, and monkeys, yep monkeys) for rabies. The jail seemed pretty laid back with most of the prisoners hanging out in the courtyard with the guards. As we were leaving visiting time had begun, and there were women selling food and a man selling bracelets just like we see on the street everyday.
On Saturday we had a meeting at the clinic and set up our schedule for October after we get back from Argentina. Saturday afternoon we went into Santa Cruz, attended another soccer game and went to the large fair that Santa Cruz is currently hosting. The soccer game was fun, but not as intense as the first one as both teams were from a lower division. Our home team of Montero was playing though, so it was fun to get to cheer them on and watch them win! The fair was great; it had booths from over 18 countries set up, and everyone was really dressed up (including girls in prom dresses that were the models for the booths).
Until next time, Chau!
The slight complication to this awesome plan is that Katie Arancio (a friend of mine from Wake) arrives today (we thought) for a visit, but this was easily solved by purchasing a ticket for her and having her accompany us to Argentina. After busing an hour to the airport and waiting several hours for her this morning, however, Daniel and I finally realized her flight doesn´t get in until tomorrow morning. (Tricky itineraries, leaving on the 20th, getting in on the 21st, muy confusing). Since Maya, Mansfield and I need to be out of the country tomorrow (and Argentina isn´t that close) we´ll be leaving on tonight's bus, and Daniel and Arancio will follow tomorrow. Despite the complications, everything now appears to be figured out and we are looking forward to visiting some vineyards in Argentina and lots of outdoor activities (hiking, swimming, horseback riding, etc). We are not, however, looking forward to our 20 hour bus ride tonight.
We´ve hardly spent anytime in Montero, but one of these days we are going to start doing some work. We actually did get a chance to work on Friday; Friday morning we went with a nurse and a doctor to the local jail where they were doing examinations, and Friday afternoon we helped a nurse vaccinate animals (dogs, cats, and monkeys, yep monkeys) for rabies. The jail seemed pretty laid back with most of the prisoners hanging out in the courtyard with the guards. As we were leaving visiting time had begun, and there were women selling food and a man selling bracelets just like we see on the street everyday.
On Saturday we had a meeting at the clinic and set up our schedule for October after we get back from Argentina. Saturday afternoon we went into Santa Cruz, attended another soccer game and went to the large fair that Santa Cruz is currently hosting. The soccer game was fun, but not as intense as the first one as both teams were from a lower division. Our home team of Montero was playing though, so it was fun to get to cheer them on and watch them win! The fair was great; it had booths from over 18 countries set up, and everyone was really dressed up (including girls in prom dresses that were the models for the booths).
Until next time, Chau!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
los ultimos dias en cochabamba
Last monday:
We´ve met another gringa here from the states named Jessica. She works at a pre-school in the city and is taking quechua classes at our school as well. Her pre-school held a party, but they ended up buying too much food and beer so she invited us to come on monday night and hang out and buy said party favors at a discounted price so the school didn´t lose all their money. When we got there, we were a little unsure of what to expect. It was our group of young people from the states and europe, and then the director and some of the teachers from the school. They spoke spanish, we mostly speak english or german; there were a few moments of confusion, but in the end we had a great time. We set up a circle of chairs and got some music going and the party started. They played traditional Bolivian music for us and attempted to teach us the dances to go with the songs. Some were relatively easy, some were really difficult, but they all involved some hopping and spinning so I had a great time just trying. All the teachers were really nice and lots of fun. We also salsa-ed: Mans and I showing off our ¨skills¨ from the one class we took, while Uls and Camilla (who have been dancing salsa forever) actually had skills. We also found some old dicso music and all danced to this. The director was an older lady, but she was absolutely exploding with energy. She invited us all to come back and work for her if we didn´t want to leave. I may take her up on this.
On wednesday there were several futbol games we wanted to watch on television so we ventured into the center of the city, to an area called El Prado and found a restuarant full of fans. First we watched Bolivia play Ecuador, and while I was the only one cheering for Ecuador, the right team won. I didn´t cheer too loudly though because, being surrounded by bolivians, I decided this was the smarted choice. We also watched some of the Colombia game, Paraguay, Uruguay, you name it. For dinner, we spent an hour or so looking for a restaurant one of our teachers had recommended. It shares the same name as the mountain we climbed-Tunari-and one man we asked pointed to the mountain instead of a restuarant. We generally have better luck asking directions than this. Our expedition was unsuccessful, but we found somewhere else to eat, and they even changed the tv station for us so we could watch more futbol.
Friday was the last day of classes for 4 of the students at our school from Switzerland, so that evening we had a party to say goodbye. Once again there was a mix of contemporary music and dancing, as well as traditional. The directors and teachers even came to hang out and most were excellent dances. We learned one dance called the slave dance because it was traditionally done by the slaves brought to work the sugar cane fields, and you sort of have to move like your feet are chained together. Also one that my teacher Paola called the flirting dance, where the men and women face each other and wave handkercheifs in the air. If you wave it high, its like a ÿes i´m interested, and if you wave it towards the ground then its a no. After dancing at the school, we all piled in a teacher´s van (and I do mean all 12 of us) and headed to kareoke bar. We sang one song, it was bad, people laughed, and we all had a great time.
Saturday morning a group of us met bright and early at the school for a trip to the largest area of Incan ruins in Bolivia. The bus ride wasn´t the best after the long night of good-bye partying, but when we got to the site it was definitely worth it. We learned that, when at all possible, the Incans build their settlements between three rivers for protection. There were remains of the outer walls, the kitchen, what is believed to be some sort of barracks, as well as the largest single room from any Incan ruin discovered so far. There was a beautiful waterfall, and we learned about medicinal plants. There were circles of stones that marked where they buried their extra foodstuffs to keep the cold, dry, and safe from invading groups coming from the east. Evidently you can still find these circles throughout the mountains in the area. We were accompanied by a local woman who only spoke quechua, which was interesting when she tried to talk to me because I could not understand anything that she said. Vice versa, she didn´t speak spanish because in that region it is mostly the men who learn spanish because they take the goods to the city. The children also have to walk two to three hours to the local school.
On Sunday morning Dee, Mans, Camilla, and I decided to visit el Cristo de la Concordia. This is the largest statue of Jesus in the world, barely beating the one in Rio De Janeiro by a matter of centimeters. It is situated on a huge cerro in the south of the city. It is possible to walk up the hill, but because muggings happen here a lot we decided it was best to take a taxi to the top. From there we could see the entire city of Cochabamba. It was so clear we could even see to the ridge of Tunari. When we arrived at the top we also discovered that we could walk up into the body of the statue itself. This trip consisted of 154 steps up winding, metal staircases, with landings in between where there were small holes to look out over the city. The views really were amazing. We couldn´t climb completely to the top because it was closed, but our highest point was right around his armpits-still a great height. We ate ice cream and took pictures and then went home for lunch with our family. We debated walking down the hill with a large family of Bolivians, but somehow managed to hop on the teleferico, which wasn´t ´working,´ but all of a sudden was. We think we rode down with the men that were fixing it, and everyone at the bottom was surprised to see the 4 gringos pile out of a car, but it certaintly beat walking down in the heat. After showers and a nap, we met a group of friends and one of our teachers to go to a local futbol game. I expected it to be a little crazy, but really I was not prepared. The fans were extremely energetic to say the least. There were two sections with bands and huge flags. In one of these sections (I´m guessing it was full of young people) intermittently throughout the game they would set fires to piles of paper IN THE STANDS, as well as set off fireworks, throw bottles at the police, and even throw the fireworks towards the field. The police were armed with riot gear, and while they did nothing to put out the fires, at one point they set off tear gas. What instigated this we never found out, but the gas spread through the stadium, and they had to stop play for a bit so it could clear out. We weren´t even sure what was happening until we saw other fans spreading out and fanning themselves, and then the players on the field hit their knees and covered their faces. Luckily we were a good distance away, but it still reached us and my nose was burning. This was as bad as it got, although there was a family in front of us with a baby, and they were trying to keep her covered. This we decided, it probably why they did not sell any alcohol in the stadium at all: the fans are crazy enough as it is.
Yesterday was the feria de Cochabamba, which is a day to celebrate the founding of the city. After classes, we went into the city to buy a few things and stumbled across the city parade. This consisted of everyone from war veterans and widows, to firefighters, to police, to special ops, to high school bands, to miners´ unions, to the city council as well as the city tax department. There was more, but after a few hours in the sun we decided we had seen all that we could handle. Yesterday evening, as I was attempting to write this very e-mail in an internet cafe, all the power in our neighborhood suddenly went out. This was accompanied by a lot of children screaming, and I almost got stampeded by them running out the dorr, but I managed to stumble across Dee, Mans, Daniel, and Phillip in the street. We headed to a restuarant where shortly after we arrived the power came back on and ordered chicha because Daniel talked us into it. Chicha is the traditional drink of Cochabamba, and, as we learned at the Panchmama celebration, really isn´t that good. While we were lamenting our purchase, a few locals came over to make friends. Thus we ended up passing the chicha in circles while toasting Cochabamba and Bolivia and our new friends. Luckily for us they enjoyed chicha, and so we were able to finish the bucket. They were drunk, and so there were entertaining mistranslations, but it was really funny. One gentleman bought another bucket, but we excused ourselves seeing as how we had class in the morning (and we really, really didn´t want to drink more chicha.) On the way out another table offered us a taste of their local drink-can´t remember the name-and we figured that we might as well give it a try. Their´s was much better and now I know to order the pitcher of yellow drink versus the plastic bucket of chicha. Everyone was really friendly and wanted to talk to us. I gave translating my best and think it went pretty well. Dee and Mans held their own as well, although Mans was sitting beside the drunkest guy, so understandably had problems communicating with him.
Today was the last day of classes, and while I have learned a lot its a good time to leave because I was learning the different types of sunjunctive. Really confusing, really hard, and really frustrating. My brain needs a break and then maybe I can come back to it. Tonight we´re having a good-bye dinner with our friends. Cochabamba has been really great, and we´re definitely going to miss it, but now we´re on to new adventures in Montero.
Adios for now, my love to all. Please send me updates and news about your lives.
mgb
We´ve met another gringa here from the states named Jessica. She works at a pre-school in the city and is taking quechua classes at our school as well. Her pre-school held a party, but they ended up buying too much food and beer so she invited us to come on monday night and hang out and buy said party favors at a discounted price so the school didn´t lose all their money. When we got there, we were a little unsure of what to expect. It was our group of young people from the states and europe, and then the director and some of the teachers from the school. They spoke spanish, we mostly speak english or german; there were a few moments of confusion, but in the end we had a great time. We set up a circle of chairs and got some music going and the party started. They played traditional Bolivian music for us and attempted to teach us the dances to go with the songs. Some were relatively easy, some were really difficult, but they all involved some hopping and spinning so I had a great time just trying. All the teachers were really nice and lots of fun. We also salsa-ed: Mans and I showing off our ¨skills¨ from the one class we took, while Uls and Camilla (who have been dancing salsa forever) actually had skills. We also found some old dicso music and all danced to this. The director was an older lady, but she was absolutely exploding with energy. She invited us all to come back and work for her if we didn´t want to leave. I may take her up on this.
On wednesday there were several futbol games we wanted to watch on television so we ventured into the center of the city, to an area called El Prado and found a restuarant full of fans. First we watched Bolivia play Ecuador, and while I was the only one cheering for Ecuador, the right team won. I didn´t cheer too loudly though because, being surrounded by bolivians, I decided this was the smarted choice. We also watched some of the Colombia game, Paraguay, Uruguay, you name it. For dinner, we spent an hour or so looking for a restaurant one of our teachers had recommended. It shares the same name as the mountain we climbed-Tunari-and one man we asked pointed to the mountain instead of a restuarant. We generally have better luck asking directions than this. Our expedition was unsuccessful, but we found somewhere else to eat, and they even changed the tv station for us so we could watch more futbol.
Friday was the last day of classes for 4 of the students at our school from Switzerland, so that evening we had a party to say goodbye. Once again there was a mix of contemporary music and dancing, as well as traditional. The directors and teachers even came to hang out and most were excellent dances. We learned one dance called the slave dance because it was traditionally done by the slaves brought to work the sugar cane fields, and you sort of have to move like your feet are chained together. Also one that my teacher Paola called the flirting dance, where the men and women face each other and wave handkercheifs in the air. If you wave it high, its like a ÿes i´m interested, and if you wave it towards the ground then its a no. After dancing at the school, we all piled in a teacher´s van (and I do mean all 12 of us) and headed to kareoke bar. We sang one song, it was bad, people laughed, and we all had a great time.
Saturday morning a group of us met bright and early at the school for a trip to the largest area of Incan ruins in Bolivia. The bus ride wasn´t the best after the long night of good-bye partying, but when we got to the site it was definitely worth it. We learned that, when at all possible, the Incans build their settlements between three rivers for protection. There were remains of the outer walls, the kitchen, what is believed to be some sort of barracks, as well as the largest single room from any Incan ruin discovered so far. There was a beautiful waterfall, and we learned about medicinal plants. There were circles of stones that marked where they buried their extra foodstuffs to keep the cold, dry, and safe from invading groups coming from the east. Evidently you can still find these circles throughout the mountains in the area. We were accompanied by a local woman who only spoke quechua, which was interesting when she tried to talk to me because I could not understand anything that she said. Vice versa, she didn´t speak spanish because in that region it is mostly the men who learn spanish because they take the goods to the city. The children also have to walk two to three hours to the local school.
On Sunday morning Dee, Mans, Camilla, and I decided to visit el Cristo de la Concordia. This is the largest statue of Jesus in the world, barely beating the one in Rio De Janeiro by a matter of centimeters. It is situated on a huge cerro in the south of the city. It is possible to walk up the hill, but because muggings happen here a lot we decided it was best to take a taxi to the top. From there we could see the entire city of Cochabamba. It was so clear we could even see to the ridge of Tunari. When we arrived at the top we also discovered that we could walk up into the body of the statue itself. This trip consisted of 154 steps up winding, metal staircases, with landings in between where there were small holes to look out over the city. The views really were amazing. We couldn´t climb completely to the top because it was closed, but our highest point was right around his armpits-still a great height. We ate ice cream and took pictures and then went home for lunch with our family. We debated walking down the hill with a large family of Bolivians, but somehow managed to hop on the teleferico, which wasn´t ´working,´ but all of a sudden was. We think we rode down with the men that were fixing it, and everyone at the bottom was surprised to see the 4 gringos pile out of a car, but it certaintly beat walking down in the heat. After showers and a nap, we met a group of friends and one of our teachers to go to a local futbol game. I expected it to be a little crazy, but really I was not prepared. The fans were extremely energetic to say the least. There were two sections with bands and huge flags. In one of these sections (I´m guessing it was full of young people) intermittently throughout the game they would set fires to piles of paper IN THE STANDS, as well as set off fireworks, throw bottles at the police, and even throw the fireworks towards the field. The police were armed with riot gear, and while they did nothing to put out the fires, at one point they set off tear gas. What instigated this we never found out, but the gas spread through the stadium, and they had to stop play for a bit so it could clear out. We weren´t even sure what was happening until we saw other fans spreading out and fanning themselves, and then the players on the field hit their knees and covered their faces. Luckily we were a good distance away, but it still reached us and my nose was burning. This was as bad as it got, although there was a family in front of us with a baby, and they were trying to keep her covered. This we decided, it probably why they did not sell any alcohol in the stadium at all: the fans are crazy enough as it is.
Yesterday was the feria de Cochabamba, which is a day to celebrate the founding of the city. After classes, we went into the city to buy a few things and stumbled across the city parade. This consisted of everyone from war veterans and widows, to firefighters, to police, to special ops, to high school bands, to miners´ unions, to the city council as well as the city tax department. There was more, but after a few hours in the sun we decided we had seen all that we could handle. Yesterday evening, as I was attempting to write this very e-mail in an internet cafe, all the power in our neighborhood suddenly went out. This was accompanied by a lot of children screaming, and I almost got stampeded by them running out the dorr, but I managed to stumble across Dee, Mans, Daniel, and Phillip in the street. We headed to a restuarant where shortly after we arrived the power came back on and ordered chicha because Daniel talked us into it. Chicha is the traditional drink of Cochabamba, and, as we learned at the Panchmama celebration, really isn´t that good. While we were lamenting our purchase, a few locals came over to make friends. Thus we ended up passing the chicha in circles while toasting Cochabamba and Bolivia and our new friends. Luckily for us they enjoyed chicha, and so we were able to finish the bucket. They were drunk, and so there were entertaining mistranslations, but it was really funny. One gentleman bought another bucket, but we excused ourselves seeing as how we had class in the morning (and we really, really didn´t want to drink more chicha.) On the way out another table offered us a taste of their local drink-can´t remember the name-and we figured that we might as well give it a try. Their´s was much better and now I know to order the pitcher of yellow drink versus the plastic bucket of chicha. Everyone was really friendly and wanted to talk to us. I gave translating my best and think it went pretty well. Dee and Mans held their own as well, although Mans was sitting beside the drunkest guy, so understandably had problems communicating with him.
Today was the last day of classes, and while I have learned a lot its a good time to leave because I was learning the different types of sunjunctive. Really confusing, really hard, and really frustrating. My brain needs a break and then maybe I can come back to it. Tonight we´re having a good-bye dinner with our friends. Cochabamba has been really great, and we´re definitely going to miss it, but now we´re on to new adventures in Montero.
Adios for now, my love to all. Please send me updates and news about your lives.
mgb
In these pictures you will see a couple of friends Daniel is wearing a green jacket and a hat. Phillip is wearing a orange jacket and has long blonde hair both of them are from autria. Two of the girls you will see are from Germany Simona and Mirrium. These are all pictures from Tunari except for the one of me washing clothes with my host mom.
Last days in Cochabama
We had an awesome, but very busy, weekend! On Friday there was a fiesta at the school with lots of dancing (seems to be a requirement of any type of Bolivian fiesta). After that we went out into the city with one of the teachers and her husband. About 9 of us piled into his van, and we went to a karaoke bar (where a group ¨sang¨ Killing me softly) and to a discoteca.
On Saturday we got up very early and traveled to the Inca ruins about 4 hours away from Cochabama. Its the largest ruins in Bolivia and one of the teachers from the school gave a really interesting tour (which I could understand most of!). We learned about their sun festivals, why the windows were built at an angle, and a lot about plants that were/are used as medicine for various things. We also saw a water fall which the Incas called the princess bath and had a picnic by the river.
On Sunday we got up early again and went to the largest Christ statue in the world (by about 40 centimeters). It sits above the city on a hill and there are awesome views. Granted, it had nothing on the views from the mountain, but it was much easier to get to. The statue is also hollow with holes, and on Sunday´s you can walk up inside of it, which we did. We had been told the teleferico (ski lift) to the Christo was broken, but as we began our walk down the hill we saw it moving; we quickly ran over to the building, and after discovering the door was lock (maybe should have been a hint) we yelled through the window if they had room for four more. The guy ended up letting us on for free (our second hint) and we soon discovered we were on the first ride since it had been fixed and were riding down with all the guys who had been working on it. We made it safely to the bottom though with great views of the city, but I think the guys at the bottom were a bit surprised to see four gringos getting off.
On Sunday evening, we went to a soccer game with some other students and one of the teachers and her family (same teacher from Friday night). This time we managed to get 13 people in his van (two were ninas though). The game was awesome and really intense. The final score was 1-0 with the home team winning! The fans on both ends of the stadium were nuts. We appeared to be in a quieter section in the middle of the stadium. On the ends, and alternate side of the stadium where the away fans were, the people chanted constantly, set off fire crackers, lit fires in the stands, and threw bottles onto the field (and campus coppers in the US think college kids act rambunctiously in the stands!?!). One section of the stands even got tear-gassed, and while the game had to stop for a bit when the gas drifted into the field (and into our section), it did seem to calm them down. They also don´t serve alcohol at the games, which after attending one, seems like a very good idea.
Today we had our last day of classes and are leaving Cochabamba tomorrow. Do I know Castillano (Spanish)? Sort of, I know enough to get around by myself and carry on a very slow, very basic conversation, but I definitely have a good foundation for learning more in the future. I think we are all a little sad to be leaving; we´ve loved the city, had an awesome time, met great people and even managed to learn a little, but we´re on to new adventures!
On Saturday we got up very early and traveled to the Inca ruins about 4 hours away from Cochabama. Its the largest ruins in Bolivia and one of the teachers from the school gave a really interesting tour (which I could understand most of!). We learned about their sun festivals, why the windows were built at an angle, and a lot about plants that were/are used as medicine for various things. We also saw a water fall which the Incas called the princess bath and had a picnic by the river.
On Sunday we got up early again and went to the largest Christ statue in the world (by about 40 centimeters). It sits above the city on a hill and there are awesome views. Granted, it had nothing on the views from the mountain, but it was much easier to get to. The statue is also hollow with holes, and on Sunday´s you can walk up inside of it, which we did. We had been told the teleferico (ski lift) to the Christo was broken, but as we began our walk down the hill we saw it moving; we quickly ran over to the building, and after discovering the door was lock (maybe should have been a hint) we yelled through the window if they had room for four more. The guy ended up letting us on for free (our second hint) and we soon discovered we were on the first ride since it had been fixed and were riding down with all the guys who had been working on it. We made it safely to the bottom though with great views of the city, but I think the guys at the bottom were a bit surprised to see four gringos getting off.
On Sunday evening, we went to a soccer game with some other students and one of the teachers and her family (same teacher from Friday night). This time we managed to get 13 people in his van (two were ninas though). The game was awesome and really intense. The final score was 1-0 with the home team winning! The fans on both ends of the stadium were nuts. We appeared to be in a quieter section in the middle of the stadium. On the ends, and alternate side of the stadium where the away fans were, the people chanted constantly, set off fire crackers, lit fires in the stands, and threw bottles onto the field (and campus coppers in the US think college kids act rambunctiously in the stands!?!). One section of the stands even got tear-gassed, and while the game had to stop for a bit when the gas drifted into the field (and into our section), it did seem to calm them down. They also don´t serve alcohol at the games, which after attending one, seems like a very good idea.
Today we had our last day of classes and are leaving Cochabamba tomorrow. Do I know Castillano (Spanish)? Sort of, I know enough to get around by myself and carry on a very slow, very basic conversation, but I definitely have a good foundation for learning more in the future. I think we are all a little sad to be leaving; we´ve loved the city, had an awesome time, met great people and even managed to learn a little, but we´re on to new adventures!
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