The Infamous Lake

Biking in La Paz = another awesome time! We biked from the world´s highest ski slope (yes with lots of snow) to the humid depths of the jungle. It was lots of fun... and much easier than the previous ride, although I did still fall. No harm done though.

After a day of recovery and some more site seeing in La Paz (including the Jail San Pedro where the inmates run it themselves, have restaurants and stores, buy and furnish their own rooms, and can have their families live with them... strange), Alexa, Kelly, and I headed to the shores of Lake Titicaca and the relaxing town of Copacabana. Here there is pretty much just restaurants (mostly pizza and trout!!), gift shops, and tour companies, but it was wonderful to sit on the shores of the massive lake and sip tea!

The next day we took a boat out to the Isla del Sol where we had a massive hike from the north end to the south end, but got to see a set of labrinth ruins and the wonderful views from high above the lake. It was more like an ocean than a lake... very impressive!! However, the boat ride was so slow we felt like we were going backward more than forward.

The next morning we headed to Puno.... a crummy town, but we had fun visiting the "floating islands". These are man-made islands covered in reeds with reed houses, reed hotels, reed boats, and reeds for food. The people really depend on their reeds :) There was a nice presentation by some locals about how they build the islands and what life is like there and we took a ton of pictures!!

Yesterday I spent in Cusco... an amazing colonial city... with an Argentinian kid that I met on the bus. I also met up with one of the pervious volunteers and we had fun catching up, walking around, watching Spain win the European Soccer finals, and eating dinner with her family! This is definitly a town to visit again. Today I am in Aguas Calientes, which is a small town outside of Machu Picchu. I met a girl from Seattle (?!?!?!?) on the train ride up and we are headed up on the first bus tomorrow to see the ruins. I can´t wait to finally experience what I have heard so much about!
Then one more day in Cusco and back home again. This will probably be my last post before I get home, so thanks for reading!!!
Chao

The New Year Just Isn´t The Same As In The States

In Bolivia they have a ton of new year celebrations. On Friday the Aymarans, a native tribe, celebrated their new year, which coincided with the winter solstice. The celebration took place in a set of ancient ruins called Tiuanaco... just out side of La Paz. Since we can never pass up a fiesta in Bolivia, all the volunteers and I jumped on a bus Friday afternoon to get to the event. We arrived in La Paz first, stored all of our luggage (which luckily I have impressed every one with how little I have... thanks Dad and Shannon!) and jumped on a PACKED bus to Tiuanaco. While sitting on the floor near the door, hoping it would not fly open, we waited in anticipation for our arrival. After 1.5 hours, at 10:00pm, we were dropped off since the traffic was so rediculous that we couldn´t go any farther. We walked into the main square of the town where, from a giant stage, Bolivian bands of all genres were playing music. We got some food from a street stand and joined the locals who were setting off fireworks, enjoying beverages, huddling around fires to stay warm, dancing, and making friends. At around 4:00am the crowds started to move into the ancient ruin site... this posed a bit of a frustration for us since we couldn´t find the entrance. But eventually we made it and huddled together with everyone in anticipation for the sun rise. It was sooooo cold. I was wearing three shirts, a sweater, a jacket, my hat, gloves, fleece socks, and still cuddled up in my fleece blinket (thanks mom!). Just before the first rays on sun shone through the ancient sun gate, a helicoptor arrived... it is said that there are only two helicoptors in Bolivia, one for Evo Morales and one for the police who need airlifting in to control protestors.... let me tell you that there were no police needed at this event. It was EVO... the president of Bolivia!!! He landed and joined locals in a ceremony and held up his hands with all of us and the sun rose over the horizon. It was pretty magical, but I was also VERY tired from being up all night.
At 8:30am we all packed back into a mini bus and headed to our warm hostel in La Paz. It was such a relief to have pancakes and a hot shower unpon arrival (this is the Brewery Hostel that we love in La Paz!). We napped for the rest of the morning and then got up for some sight seeing.
Alexa, who has spent so much time in La Paz that she is basically a local, took our friedn Justin and I on a "tour" of the city. We saw a beautiful cathedral and there was a wedding happening outside (with bagpipe players). Then we went to the quarky Coca History museum... Justin (a medical school student) and I spent about 20 minutes checking out the studies done on nutrient absorbsion, hormones, endurance, and fatigue when someone has chewed coca leaves and when they had not..... very cool results!! Our bodies are so amazing!
Then we went on a tour of Iglesia San Francisco... we got to see the crypt and hike up to the roof and bell tower. It also had a huge collection of art and a bodega where they made wine and spirits. There was a garden surrounded my the rooms for the monks and some awesome new areas that boasted incredible architecture.
We had a lovely, early night in bed (after our free homebrew and some Japanese food) and got ready for our bike ride the next day!

Today I went into the Jungle....

....And what a place it was!! We spent last weekend in a small town on the edge of the Bolivian jungle called Villa Tunari. We decided that everyone there was a little confused about where they were and what they were doing, despite the fact that everything was name "Villa Tunari"... Tienda Villa Tunari, Hostel Villa Tunari, Calle Villa Tunari, Parque Villa Tunari, Restaurante Villa Tunari.... I will admit that it was a bit confusing.

So we arrived and after lunch we went to La Jungla... a playground type place with wooden bridges between trees and four GIANT, rickety swings! The tallest of which was about 55 feet. It was awesome. We got to try all the swings, hang out in the tropical treetops, and see the beautiful river running by.

Afterwards we returned to our hostel for a shower and changed our clothes. Through curiosity about seeing a view of a river, the boys had gotten us an invitation to the grand opening of a new hostel. So we went and spent the evening with the owners and all their friends and family. We ate traditional Bolivian food, drank chicha (corn based alcohol) from plastic buckets, danced and listened to a saxaphone player, chatted all night, and were involved in their traditional offering for good luck with their business! It was such an amazing time!! We all spoke Spanish all night, learned about their ideas and traditions, and had much more fun than going to a restaurant and sitting in our hostel all night (this was a very tiny town with not much to do). And the most amazing part what that it was all free... it is amazing how Bolivians have no expectations and are so welcoming!The next morning we woke up early, went back to the newly opened hostel for one of the most delicious breakfasts ever and then headed out with a guide to the river Espiritú Santo. Here we each recieved a lifejacket, helmet, and an intertube.... and off we went for a rafting adventure. We spent the whole day on the river going down rapids, stopping for empanadas, swimming around, and enjoying the warm weather of the jungle. It was pretty fun, even though the last hour it started pouring down rain. We figured it was much nicer to be already wet in the river than walking through the jungle in the rain. When we got back to our base camp, the monkey

refuge had closed so we missed them, but we had an incredible fish dinner (one of the few times I have eaten it and one of the most famous dishes in Villa Tunari) and hopped into the mini-van bus back to Cochabamba.

This week I have been wrapping everything up and Thursday we had a good-bye dinner with all of our friends at a wonderful Italian restaurant (supposedly the best Italian in Bolivia!). We also went salsa dancing and said good-bye to those who are not coming on the next leg of the trip with us. Today a bunch of the volunteers and I are headed off to La Paz and a wonderful set of ruins just outside the city. Tonight is the new year celebration where they stay up all night sacrificing, celebrating, and waiting for the sun to come up through the sun gate! It should be a pretty unique experience because we will be in the middle of Aymaran ruins with hundreds of people and no houses, stores, or anything in site. Then another bike trip in La Paz, a visit to Lake Titicaca, and exploring the ruins in Machupicchu where I finish my trip. See you all for the 4th of July!

Boliva has stolen my heart!!

Pictures for the Next Three Blogs Coming Soon.. I Hope!

Wednesday we said another good-bye to our friend Peter. For his celebration we rented out an Art Center called the mARTadero. This place used to be a matadero, or a slaughterhouse, and is now being converted into the art center. They had a few exhibits up and we got to use their cozy cafe for eating the famous "Interminable" pizza which is about the size of me!!! We had a bunch of friends and staff from the Projects Abroad office and had a great time dancing and eating reguardless of the fact that we were walking where cows had been killed :)

Then I took two of my kids from work to the pool on Thursday!!! It was an amazing success. It turns out our center shares a wall with a swimming club and they let me rent the pool for an hour... and no one else is there. That means no distractions for the kids, lots of space and the water is even a decent temperature! One of my girls was a little apprehensive, but the other was almost swimming on her own with a floating noodle. She is normally in a wheel chair, but in the water she had the freedom to kick around, reach and pull, and explore the new sensation of the pool!! It was lovely.

I have become pretty good friends with one of the physiotherapist at my work named Elva. She has been so nice to me and now is going extremely above and beyond to get me involved in the physio community as well as the university. First, she took me to talk with some of her old professors about sitting in on some physio classes in the coming weeks. When I was introduced to her favorite teacher, the first thing she asked me was "why are you not coming to my classes?" She is an amazing lady, very passionate and she pretty much wants me to stop working at the center and come to all of her classes and workshops for the next two weeks. So speaking of workshops, while we were there, the professor mentioned that Friday and Saturday is an international workshop on spinal column physiotherapy and she invited us to come!!! So after some deliberation with work, we both got the day off on Friday and paid the rediculously cheap price of $20 for two days of speakers from all over South America, snacks, materials, and a certificate of completion at the end! I couldn´t believe it.
So the last two days I have met about every professor in the University´s PT department, heard speakers from Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, and Bolivia, made a bunch of new friends (cause I was the only person in the room with blue eyes and that automatically makes you popular!!), and learned a ton! I actually understood most of the speeches, even though they were in spanish, and I took tons of notes to review later :) I have also been invited to another week long workshop (but I really have to work) and to visit the pool and burn unit at the hospital. And in two weeks I will be sitting in on the "care and prevention" class! It was incredible.

After our lectures on Friday, I took Elva to my yoga class... something she has never done before. It was awesome and so peaceful because it was dark outside and we had a small class. We spent a half hour meditating in the end and Elva just loved it! Afterwards, we were invited to stay in the garden and star gaze with some people who come every Friday night! They had some pretty neat telescopes and explained EVERYTHING to us. We got to see two shooting stars, star cluster, many of the zodiac constillations, and Saturn!!! It was unreal!!! The yoga instructor even brought us all coffee and we had a great time chatting, gazing, and hanging out under the stars. We also got invited to come back every Friday night and next week one of the guys, who plays the trumpet, is playing a jazz concert down town. So of course we were invited to this too! Have I mentioned how nice everyone is in Cochabamba. And then to top it all off, a friend invited us to dinner and one of the astronomer guys overheard my conversation and said "oh, I´ll drive you there because I live right next to the restaurant". It was so nice!!

And, because Bolivia just loves to celebrate everything, we saw traditional dancing in the plazas, offerings being burned in the businesses, and everyone going out to eat and dance because it was the first Friday of the month!! Pay day I think :) But apparently every month they celebrate the first Friday. What an amazing and wonderful place. Bolivia really has stolen my heart. I can´t wait to come back again!!

Tomorrow is a trip to the near by national park for some early morning hiking :)

Green Acres is the place to be: the hills and the Campo

So last weekend we got to know a little more of the city. Saturday, we climbed over 1,000 steps to Christo de ls Concordia... their giant christ statue that is taller that the one in Rio!! It was a really tough climb, but the views from the top were amazing. In addition, we got to climb up in the actual statue for an even higher view! Then we went to a local health center and picked up four lovely children who have been burned and have to stay in the center since they live too far to travel everyday for their physiotherapy. One of my friends works with these kids and since there is not much for them to do, we took them out for lunch, ice cream, biking in the park, and dancing to their favorite songs back at the center. It was a great day and we were all exhausted by the end.
Sunday we headed to a little town in the countryside (el campo) about 20 minutes away called Quillacollo. Sunday is market day so it took us much longer to get through everything, but we switched buses and headed up to a pool in the hills heated naturally by a hot spring. When we got part way up the hill, the driver stopped and told us we had to walk the rest of the way... another 30 minutes up hill!!! Luckily we had the pool to jump into at the top! It was sooooo full of Bolivians. We were the only white people there, but it had a slide (none of us were brave enough to try it) and a cooler and warmer pool. It was pretty nice and they views were just incredible since it was located in a valley. A great morning excursion. One the way back down we got a little bus until the road was blocked and then we had to walk and then get another one on the other side of the blocked road. We were hoping to see a soccer game that afternoon, but since the team was playing in La Paz, we ended up staying in Quillacollo and tasting their famous drink, chicha. I think it is made from corn?! It was pretty interesting and you can buy it buy the glass or by the plastic beach bucket... very classy! We sat around in the outdoor restaurant listening to a live mariachi band and playing "cacho"... the Bolivian version of yatzee!!

Another game of basketball that night and a new restaurant called Paprika for dinner. They had a most delicious butterscotch ice cream for dessert! Yum

The World According to Cochabamba

What a weekend. This was my first weekend in Cocha and I wanted to write a bit about the city. First I have my home. This is my home; a six story apartment building and we live on the very top floor. We have an elevator luckily, because when I am brave and try to climb the stairs I have to rest for a few minutes before entering the house :) I try to take them when I can, but sometimes I just can´t be bothered to do it. Everyday I take a "Micro" to get into town. These are crazy red, white, and blue buses completely decked out inside with photos of famous people, funny sayings, religious pictures, skull stick shift knobs, and much more. Each one is unique to the driver and each one has a crazy route written up on the window. I try to stick with the same one everyday so I don´t get lost.... I have had some bad experiences when I try to go on a new one. They pick you up anywhere along their route if you just stick your hand out and they will drop you off whenever you call out that you want to get off. More often when I am coming home, these Micros get really full, but there is ALWAYS more space and they always stop to pick up another passenger. Some times people are even hanging out the door. I usually have to stand and I am surrounded by school children and people coming home from work. It can be quite a challenge to get someone off the bus. When I do get to sit though, I am often approached and people chat with me on the ride. On many occasions and I have been asked for a phone number or e-mail address?! I also made friends with some of the school kids who I see everyday and the lady who regulates what time the buses arrive. She sits near my house where I get the bus and we often chat while I wait.

Lately, before Spanish class, I have been going to a yoga class near our office. It is so nice to be able to continue my practice here and it is actually surprising what I can understand (because obviously it is all in Spanish). The class is in a woman´s home with a beautiful, peaceful garden outside and a wonderful space to practice in. I am joined by mothers and older people who have been so welcoming and enthusiastic! Once I am calm and relaxed, I walk around the block (sometimes I treat myself to a salteña... traditional Bolivian empanada type food with delicious meat inside) and join Jorge for my lesson. He is a grad-student at the University and pretty much teaches me what ever I want. I have forced him to take me to the huge market one day, an art museum, a church, the bus station (to buy tickets for a weekend trip), and we have watched a Spanish movie and listened to Spanish music. I also wrote him a list of Spanish grammer and things I want to work on so he gives me worksheets and practice to read and analyze. It is nice to have a one-on-one lesson and he has become our friend and been able to give us lots of info about the city.

My lessons are very close to the city center and main plaza. Here there are always protestors, marches, and events. The other day I saw children from a school marching through the streets with signs against the incresing food prices.

After another micro ride, I have lunch with my family. It always consists of a veggie & potato soup, s ometimes with quinoa or other add-ins, then we have rice and a meat for our second course. We also have fresh fruit juice everyday (apple, papaya, pear, peach, etc). Then I head to my work. Here are my views as I walk to work. Pim Pan´s which is a bread shop, the giant pinapple looking trees outside a posh apartment building, and my friend Palacido. He is an older man who invited my into his house one day, showed me a million pictures of his family, gave me a pomegrante from his garden, and now waits for me everyday to say hello and chat! Later in the evening we have been playing a lot of basketball in the park near my house. It is pretty fun, but they soccer players often claim the courts are theirs and try to kick us off :( Another thing about Cochabamba is the dogs. Everywhere you walk there are dogs on the streets. Luckily, you can tell the ones who have had rabies vaccinations by the green ribbon tied around their necks! They bark a lot, but they have a saying here that "a dog that barks, doesn´t bite". Whew. Most bark at me!

As far as food goes, Cochabamba is the place to be. Along with the usual pizza, pasta, and burger joints, they have a great Japanese restaurant (ironically called Brazilian Coffee?!?!), mexican food at a place called Picassos, Dumbo´s ice cream chain with tons crazy flavors, and a local place that makes coconut and cinnamon ice creams by had... only found in Cochabamba. Additionally, on every street corner there are ladies selling all kinds of nuts, dried and fresh fruits, and candies out of their wheelbarrows! Throughout the day there are specialties made fresh on tiny carts in the streets. The traditional morning snack it a salteña... a type of empanada full of yummy meat. In the evenings there are skewers of meat and potatos that are barbequed and, my favorite, sonso, which is a yuka based dough mixed with delicious cheese and formed around a sugarcane skewer. Then they barbeque it for a bit and take it off the skewer and you have a crispy outside with a gooey inside... yum!! We also went out for a good-bye dinner with some of the group to a restaurant that has an amazing salad and sides bar and then the waiters bring meat on spits around to your table and you can pick and choose what you want to eat. And the meat just keeps coming!! I ate a chicken heart and then some other more normal meats :)

Salar De Uyuni, Volcanos, Lagunas, Geisers

Sorry it has taken me awhile to get around to posting again. I think last weekend´s trip is best described in pictures, so here goes:

The Train Graveyard with trains that used to be robbed... maybe even by Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid!! (that´s me, my friend Kelly who went with me, and our new friend Nicole inside... sorry the picture is small). It was a really cool opportunity to take pictures of different textures and designs... and I got to drive the train!! (Monkey and the Engineer dad?!?!)







Perspective photos on the salt flats were a blast. We have a domino picture and lots with people sitting in our hands! This is where they are harvesting salt. We also went to a home and got to help them pack salt. Some one is going to buy my bag of salt!

This was one of the many random islands (because the whole salt flats used to be ocean), this one was shaped like a fish (from a bird´s eye view) and was covered in cacti. It was a pretty incredible contrast among the "snow-like" landscape. We stayed in a Salt Hotel the first night. Everything was salt.... tables, chairs, ground, bed frames... luckily we had matresses. It was actually one of the best night sleeps I have had! Dinner that night appeared to be a "leftovers" dish. It had french fries, hot dogs, beef, chicken, peppers, onions, and eggs. Surprisingly, it was really good!

We saw lots of llamas on the road side... even had a relative of the llamas almost stick its head in our window!! Our next stop was a lagoon with cool green, coral like rocks, a type of bird that is only found here, and rock climbing for the brave ones in the group!

Then our car broke down on Mars... or so it appeared. Red dust covered everything and rock slides off the mountains had placed giant, solitary rocks at the base. It was a very eerie experience being surrounded by a strange landscape with no one else in site.

Next we passed through the Dalí desert, which inspired his strange abstract paintings and saw a rock shaped like a tree! We also had lunch on another small salt flat and marveled at the dusty, salty tornados that were kicked up.

Next, we headed to Laguna Colorada, which is full of incredible red alge and also pink flamingos that eat the alge. With the bright blue waters and the towering mountains behind, it was a breathtaking view!

Another tiny hotel was our home that night... and boy was it cold. We wore most of our clothes and I was thanking my host mom for the sleeping bag and fleece she had lent me. We were up early the next morning to catch the geisers in action. We huddled around their bubbling mud for warmth! (can´t upload a picture)

After dropping a few travelers off at the border to Chile, we headed back to Uyuni. We had lunch in "toy town" where you could basically see over the tops of the houses and everything seemed miniature. Check out their main plaza with the tiny gazibo!

The last picture is the remaining 4 (of 7) at the highest point during our journey... 5,000 meters!! One of the guys took a jog up the hill and then had to rest for about 20 minutes. The altitude made me so lazy that I barely wanted to get out of the car to take pictures because I got so tired in the process.

What a trip. Lots of sitting, but Bolivia continues to amaze me! Every place I go is so unique and amazing. It was great to meet some new people, but also a relief to be back home Sunday afternoon and take a shower!!

Getting to Uyuni

With Corpus Cristie on Thursday, we had the day off from work and I also requested Friday off. So Wednesday afternoon, Kelly (a volunteer with a different program) and I headed to the bus station. We hoped to get the 2:00pm bus, but there were road blocks to the town of Oruro and to La Paz so buses were not leaving. So we waiting in the station and by the time 3:00pm rolled around, buses were leaving again. We hopped on and hoped that we could get a connections in Oruro.

The ride was uneventful. We ate an entire bag of "Grape Nut O" cereal and pinapple flavored jell-o. We got to Oruro around 8:00pm and bought our next ticket to the town of Uyuni. We had a half an hour to wait and to watch the chaos in the station. It appeared that about 5 people were moving their entire houses that night so there were huge boxes, bags, and appliances being loaded onto the tops of buses and underneath. We spotted two other girls who were traveling and talked to them for a bit. They were from Poland. When we finally loaded our bus, we had to ask someone to switch seats so that we could sit together and with the help of some wonderful Quechua ladies (with colorful blinkets, bags of bread, and babies), we were successful and settled into our last row seats. We slept most of the night (a man next to us even shared his blinket) and when we awoke, the inside of the windows had frozen over and we were very cold. Arriving in Uyuni at about 4:00am, we were informed that we could stay on the bus and sleep a bit since we didn´t have a hostel or anything to go to. It was chilly, but once we layered on more clothes and got out our sleeping bags (thanks host mom!) we managed to get a few more hours of sleep. At 7:30am we gathered our things and headed out in the the cold.... and man was it COLD! We had on hats, gloves, fleece socks, jackets, and more and we were still freezing. And of course, nothing was open that early so we couldn´t warm up with some tea or anything. We found a sliver of sun that had begun to rise over the buildings and sat to people watch.

Surprise surprise, this was a festival day! Of course. Everyone was out in the streets setting up stalls of clothes, food, CDs, and electronics for the celebration of Corpus Cristie. The very kind people even came and chatted with us a bit (giving Kelly tips on how to warm up her feet). The few hours seemed to pass pretty quickly and we headed to the street of tour companies to set up our tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats, volcanoes, giesers, lagoons, and more!

After some searching we found exactly what we wanted and a great price... and it turned out the Polish girls from earlier were on the tour too. We grabbed a delicious egg breakfast and then loaded our gear into the 4x4 Jeep with Nicole (from Australia), Jowita & Mariola (from Poland), Allon & Chris (from England), and our guide/driver Obet. It was cozy, but not uncomfortable.

Then we were off for our three day tour of the area.... more to come later this week!

Party in the big city: La Paz

Well, the week passed so quickly. Work was good and I changed my schedule on Wednesday so I get to go with the kids and staff to a different site where they get to play games, dance, play outside, and even go in a sauna! This is the place with the pool, but unfortunatly they have drained it for the winter. Oh well, but it was great to have a change of scenery and meet some of the other kids who are usually in school during the afternoons. I think it will be nice to mix it up during the week!

Also this week, I got the "second week sickness". Apparently the other volunteers got sick around this time too just adjusting to the food and what not. I saw a nice doctor and got some antibiotics and now I am feeling much better. And the best part is that I can eat again without wanting to throw up!

So this weekend we spent in the big capital, La Paz. And lucky us, again it was a weekend of celebration that we just happened to stumble upon. This was the celebration Gran Poder (great power). Honestly, I think it was just an excuse for craziness. We arrived late friday evening and there were work crews and materials all over the sidewalks as we checked into our hostel. The hostel was called Adventure Brew and had a brewery/bar inside. Included with out fee was a free beer each night and a pancake breakfast the next morning. It was great to try some good microbrews and they had really great showers!!! So Saturday morning around 8:00am we are awoken by marching band music and cheering from the street outside.... the parade was beginning. This was not just any parade. Everyone was in traditional outfits from Bolivia (especially La Paz) and they were doing traditional dances to the bands that followed them... seems normal enough. But have you seen a parade that has lasted for 15 hours??? It was not until one in the morning that the music died down. The streets were also crawling with food, toy, and gift venders. Additionally, all the building materials were for bleachers that had been built along all the sidewalks and there were only a few special entrances/exits to the street that required waiting in long lines to get in... and remember this is the street our hostel is on?!?! It was pretty crazy.

We had a leasurly morning and spent the afternoon walking around the traditional "witch´s market" with llama fetuses, secret remedies, clothes, and much more. All through out the day we enjoyed music and dancing, even got pulled into the parade to dance with them as we walked in and out of the hostel. We also enjoyed the overwhelming views of the mountain sides covered in houses and shops. It was unbelievable how packed the city was. That evening we had our free beer in the bar, which boasted floor to ceiling windows overlooking the parade. It was, again, incredible to see all the people in the streets and the amazing costumes. We had an early night after getting some food because Sunday we had to wake up early.

Sunday we went on an intense and sooooo much fun mountain bike ride for the whole day. Our friend Alexa is a passionate rider and had done a few rides not only in La Paz, but all over South America and it was with her inspiration that we signed up for the trip with an awesome company called Gravity! They gave us all our gear, snacks, water, transport, and pictures for the entire day. We had such an amazing time, although it was pretty difficult riding (the whole beginning was tiny lines down scree covered hills) and I had my fair share of falls.... actually I got the nickname from our British guides of "Tumble Pants" because I actually fell a lot, but what a rush it was! Alexa and I are going to go back for another ride through the jungle at a later date! Needless to say, today I have a purple finger and can´t walk up stairs because my knees are pretty swollen. Hehehe

We ended the ride at a "haunted" castle (thus giving this trip the name The Ghost Ride) and got hot showers, drinks, a buffet dinner, and ample time to relax. Then we headed back to La Paz in the support bus and said good-bye to our new guide friends (who promised to take us on our next trip too!) It was challenging, new, and awesome!

The overnight semi-cama bus brought us home and another week begins.... a short one though since I have Thursday and Friday off!

Chao

Toto, we´re not in Kansas anymore.....

It´s 8:30 at night and five brave Projects Abroad volunteers are arriving at the bus station in Cochabamba. We had 10 hours ahead of us on a bus, which may sound horrible. However, this is not your average bus! These are semi-cama (half bed) buses. It was like nothing I´ve ever seen. Our seats basically reclined all the way into a full bed (see Alexa!) with a fold down foot rest to complete it. After a few rounds of "name a movie that starts with the last letter of the previous movie" we all slept like babies on our way to a little town called Potosí.


Potosí is not only the highest city in the world, but in the 1500s, it was also the biggest (population) and one of the richest, thanks to the Cerro Rico (rich mountain). The heart and soul of Potosí is silver mining and although it is becoming harder and harder to extract silver, the miners still work everyday (almost, you´ll see).


So we arrived at 7:15am on Saturday and headed to a hostel that was recommended to us: The Koala Den. We set ourselves up for a room that night and began thinking about breakfast when the hostel manager asked if we were going into the mines. We were planning to go Sunday, but it turned out they were pretty much closed the next day so we had to go today. So we opted for the afternoon since we still had to eat and aclimate ourselves to the altitude. But alas, we were told that was no good either. The morning was going to be much better because.....it was the once a year festival of llama sacrificing and in the afternoon all the miners would be drunk and crazy. This was one of their few days off each year and we just happened to be there!! So, the tour left at 8:00am which meant we had about 20 minutes to change clothes, eat, and get out the door.

So the first strange and hilarious thing was our "protective clothing". We got to wear bright orange balloon pants, a silver jacket, wellington boots, and our favorite hard hats and head lamps. We looked ridiculous! Then we went to the miners market. Here they sold sticks of dynomite, beer, hard hats, and coca leaves.... you know all the necessities for working in the mines :) So we bought some presents to give to the miners and walked around the market a bit.... remember we are already wearing our "protective clothing". Yes, we got stared at.

So then, up the hill to the mines. We stopped for a photo op. and guess what?! Potosí has a revolving restaurant shaped like the Space Needle too! Except it is green... crazy. We got to the opening of a mine just in time to see the second llama sacrifice. Men held down the llama while another slit its throat and others collected the brilliantly colored blood and splattered it on the opening to the mine, the doors around the opening and painted our faces with it (Holly, Peter, and I in protective clothing with llama blood). We got to see two more sacrifices as we stood lining a tiny little ally, about a foot away from all this.

Then we went into the mine. It was more of the same from last weekend. Crawling around on hands and knees, squeezing through tight spaces, climbing up rock faces. Although this time, we couldn´t breathe at all due to both the dust and the intense altitude. After about 3 minutes of walking, we stopped for 20 and our guide told us about the mines. It was a really crazy feeling to be so out of breath so fast. When we returned to the celebration grounds, the llamas had been skinned and parted so the women could start cooking them for the dinner feast. The sacrifice is the town´s way of giving blood to mother earth she she won´t take the miners when they are working in the mines. We then had to join the miners drinking beer, 96 percent alcohol drinks, listening to accordian music, and celebrating their day off! It was bazaar. But to top it all off, they lit of a bunch of dynomite just for fun. It was hilarious to see the guy run down into a valley, leave the dynomite and run as fast as he could back out.

When we got back to the town, we were hungry so we went for a traditional meal of... yes, llama meat! It was pretty good. And at this point we still had dried llama blood on our faces :) After cleaning up, we went to the Mint, where they used to make coins for Bolivia. Of yah, I also forgot that is was sooooo cold in Potosí. And some of the rooms in the mint were even colder than outside. It was pretty neat to see all the old coins, fancy rooms, and intricate machines used to make money. Needless to say, we were exhausted afterwards and headed off to bed.

Day two: we rented mountain bikes (slightly sketchy, but they did work) and biked about 2 hours to a huge thermal bath (behind us in the picture). It was a tough bike, again because of the altitude, but when we got to jump into the warm water at the end, it was definitly worth it! We swam around for awhile while our guide made lunch... more llama! There were some amazing views on the way there too. We did get to pass a few packs of llamas on the road!

Dinner and another night bus found us again in Cochabamba. Wehw! What a weekend.

Work

So finally, a little bit about my work. I work in a tiny little place with an outdoor court yard in the middle and small rooms around the edges for the kitchen, dorm rooms, physio room, and office. There is a small playground set and all the wash hangs in the back. There are about 25 kids who live in this orphanage, 3 nurses, some helpers (cooks, professor), and about 3 other physios (although I have only seen one actually working). Only about 5 kids can speak to you and more often than not it is in the native language of Qechua, so this makes sommunication a bit hard, but these kids are a lot more active and like to play with me. My favorite is Jhonny who is kind of a trouble maker, but loves to play. I have a few patients that I usually work with. Rodrigo is three years old, blind, mute, and can not crawl or move much. He does roll over a lot and I am working on increasing his arm stength and practicing pushing up from him stomach. On Monday he bit me.... that was pretty fun. I now have quite the bruise on my arm.

I also work with Wara who has Cerebral Palsy. Along with the other Physio, Elva, we stretch her and get her limbs moving. My third patient, Lizeth, has hemiplesia (her left side doesn´t work) and is pretty lazy and grumpy. She will get up in the middle of working with me and just leave. So I, unfortunatly, have been avoiding her for the past couple of days since she won´t do anything for me.

I also help with feeding the kids and today I spent a bunch of time with Wilson, a little baby. I get the idea that he doesn´t get too much one-on-one attention so I held him and worked on leg strength ("standing on my knees") and stretched his arm a bit. He liked being bounced around and I finally got a smile out of him. I would love to buy some books so I could read to the kids. I don´t think any of them know their letters or numbers.

Over all, I like the work usually. You all know that I love to be busy, so sometimes I get frustrated when I feel like I have nothing to do. I am trying to get my imagination up to par with the 5 year olds and to feel "ok" to just play... I think that a lot of them just need some smiles and attention in their lives. I am also talking to the director about going to the near by pool, but it sounds like they are not heated and afterall, it is winter down here. We´ll see.

I included a picture of Albenia who is always smiling and of Jhonny and I :)

This weekend we are going South to the town of Potosí..... sounds like more climbing around, but this time in their silver mines! Should be pretty exciting.

NOTE

The city code was not necessary for my phone... just a note that I have changed it!

Adios

El Parque National Toro Toro

Background: The is an episode of the BBC´s Top Gear where the guys have to drive fast down this crazy cobblestone road in a POS car with a colender of eggs above their heads. The goals is to see who can get to the end with the least egg on their head and the least amount of parts missing from their car.

So, I spent the weekend in Toro Toro National Park, South of Cochabamba. I went with three other volunteers and we had a guide who took us there and showed us around. We left around 5:00am on Saturday, thinking maybe we could sleep in the car... no way. If I had had a colender of eggs over my head there would be nothing left and I would be covered in egg. I couldn´t help but think of the Top Gear guys during the trip (and luckily I was traveling with Brits who actually knew the show!!). The roads were all cobble stone or dirt and we had lot´s of interesting river crossings :) We did get to see the sun rise and there were some funny donkies, pigs, dogs, and cows along the road. Once outside of the city, you really get a feel for the true Bolivia. The houses are tiny huts of brick and mud, people are walking miles from any town, clothes are thrown over bushes to dry, and it is a much different world out there. We got to the park and got to see some amazing things. We toured an area filled with dinasour foot prints (although I am still a little skeptical) and went to a tortoise cemetary (apparently when they are about to die they all go to the same place).
We spent most of the first day exploring caves (thanks for the headlamp mom!). We had nothing but our own lights and a hard hat (thank goodness or I would have lost some brain cells). We literally crawled through tiny crevices, scaled rock faces, belayed down boulders, and went so far into the cave. We saw little waterfalls and a lake with blind fish in it too. Needless to say, when we got out, my clothes were a complete mess, but it was so unbelievable that we could see so much in the caves! The funniest part was our friend Peter who didn´t have a headlamp. He got to go in with "Big Boy".... the gas tank connected to a flame on top of his hard hat. It was pretty hilarious.
The next day was spent hiking down over 900 steps into a canyon where we were rewarded with an icy cold swim under a waterfall. It was so beautiful... but the water was way to cold :) And reguardless of the mountains of sunscreen I put on, I got a little sun burnt :( The views were spectacular and the company was good. However, we were traveling with four Dutch girls who were nice, but literally NEVER stopped talking. And after awhile, a language you don´t know just sounds like lots of noise.
I learned a new game that is pretty much like Yatzee and the food was good too.

P.S. I tried to put up more photos, but it is not working, so you get one of the three other volunteers we went with and our sturdy truck!

La Fería

Friday night we went to the local fair in Cochabamba. It was nothing like the fairs at home. In addition to rides and food and some artisan booths, they also were selling dentist chairs (at more than one location), chain saws, cleaning supplies, and cat food. There were beauty queens all decked out in their evening gowns who were advertizing for Pringles and candy, or you could take a picture with them. It was so bazaar. The most incredible thing is that today I got coffee, dinner, transportation to and from the fair, entrance fee to the fair, drinks and food at the fair, and paid back a friend for the movie ticket from the night before for only about $14!! Everything is pretty cheap here.

On another note, the weather is getting colder in the evenings, but still sunny during the day. I am going to go the the big market this week and buy a new sweater (or jumper as the British say) and a scarf!

Phone!!

Hey everyone! Today is my first day at work... I leave in about 5 minutes. Yikes.

I bought a phone today so now anyone can call me if they want to. Here is the info:

Bolivia´s international calling code: 591
My phone number: 79706600

Yay! Well I am off to the Torotoro National Park this weekend with some of the other volunteers, so I will have more for you on Monday. And hopefully some pictures soon!

Mi Casa y Familia

I am finally here, after another long long day of traveling, in Cochabamba. I had a day of rest with my family... Vicky and her husband, Dussam, and their adorable 6 month old daughter Valentina! The family and I went into the city last night... they needed some things for the baby. They have a car, which I think maybe be pretty lucky, but it was a fun ride into town. They don´t wear their seatbelts and I felt like Brian Regan when I tried to find my seatbelt in the back seat... "wait, give me a rope or something"... I giggled to myself. It was a beautiful night... the winter in Cochabamba is like the summer in Seattle... perfect! I also got to meet Dussam´s parents and brother. It was nice that they included me in everything.

Then today I met with the organizers at my office and I got a small tour of the city center... it was really overwhelming. They told me about my work too, which I don´t start until Monday, and it sounds like I will have my own patients and a group therapy session (with about 5 kids). Should be interesting. They were warning me that it will be hard though and it sounds like I will have mental and physical disabilities to work with.. yikes. I am off now for a meeting with all the volunteers and perhaps I will be traveling with some of them since tomorrow is a holiday and we all have a long weekend.

Hasta Luego!

Isabela Island

WHALES!!! We woke up and soom after there was a call to our cabins that there were whales off the side of the boat. We saw a mother and baby Bryde Whale swimming along and blowing water into the air. It was pretty cool, but they didn't show us much more than their backs.

After breakfast we went hunting for land iguanas... these are much brighter in color, bigger than the marine iguanas, and live farther in on the islands. We saw lot's of them right on our path.... some agressive males even had a fight and boy can these guys run fast!! It was crazy. As we rounded the final turn, a solitary tortoise was lumbering down our path.... it was so lucky for us to see him in this area. It was really incredible because although these animals are more shy, he walked right past us and went on his way.

As we loaded back onto our Zodiacs, it began to rain, but don't worry, it was soooo warm! We motored around a rock thrusting out of the water and we named it "review rock" because it had almost every specie we had seen thus far. We also saw some beautiful rainbows as we headed back to the ship.

Later that day we had another walk across some more amazing lava fields and had our first flamingo sightings! We also heard some funny birds that sounded like squeek toys!

La Linea Equatorial y Lobos del Mar

Around 2:00am we made our first crossing over the Equator Line (south to north).... a big deal for those navy types. Dad and Shannon were determined to witness this one (even though there was another later in the day) and had quite an adventure with the second mate on the bridge

*see for more details: www.onedegreesouth.blogspot.com

Anyways.... around 9:30am we made another crossing and everyone was actually awake so we had an official ceremony... we all became "shell backs"!! The funny part is that the captain actually made a mistake and crossed before telling anyone, so we had to head back and cross again (so people could take a picture of the navigation equipment saying 0 degrees). Luckily we already had a video of it from the 2:00am visit, so we got some chamgane and enjoyed the chaos from the edge of the bridge :)

Later that day we had another snorkling excursion.... this time in deep water. Although the fish were pretty similar to what we had already seen, this time we had a few wonderful surprises! Sea lions!!!!!!!!!! They loved to play with us when we dove down and they would come right up to your mask at full speed and at the last second they turn away. It was so cool.

The most wonderful experience was with a sea turtle. I saw him coming up from below and he kept slowly ascending. If he had continued any more, we would have hit each other. With no sound under water, it was surreal. I could have reached out and touched him. It was an amazing moment. Then I looked around and realized there was about four people on either side of me.... hahaha You think you are in the solitary state, but everyone is having the same experience. Still great though.

We concluded the day at Fernandina. This amazing young island still showed all the signs of new volcano eruptions. It was really incredible. The entire walk was over lava field of different shapes and styles. At the end of the walk was a colony of marine iguanas.... piles and piles of them! They were sneezing salt water at us and tiny Sally Lightfoot Crabs were cleaning off their shedding skin. The most amazing sites in these islands are the variety of animals you see together. On one rock there was iguanas, crabs, sea lions, flightless cormorants, and blue footed boobie.

We do so much everyday that I am having trouble writing about everything, but at least you are getting an idea :)

Missed Detail

So another awesome part of the CDRC day was the lava tunnel!!! This was like a cave under ground through which the lava flowed during the volcano eruptions. The lava on top solidified in the air and then it does not melt again even with the hot lava continuing to flow below. Luckily we had only five people from our group who wanted to go so it was really intimate and quiet walking through the dark caves. We had to bring our head lamps and they made the dew on the ceiling glow like diamonds embedded in the rock... it was awesome!!!

We walked about a quarter mile through this and came out at an open air restaurant for lunch. Afterwards dad and I played some ping pong and I wiggled my way into an empty tortoise shell... that gave everyone a laugh!

CDRC & the Broccoli Forrest

Today we saw civilization... and we were not very excited for it, but we spent the day on Santa Cruz Island at the Charles Darwin Research Center (CDRC). This is where they have the giant turtle . We got to hang out with some very friendly guys in their pen.... one seemed pretty interested in my hat, but unfortunatly, I was not allowed to touch him so I had to step back. We saw the area where they raise the babies so that they can later be introduced back to their parent´s native islands and have a better chance of survival (so many preditors for the baby turtles). They all had tiny numbers on their shells, so we called it the turtle races!!
After a walk through the town, we boarded our bus and headed up to the highlands of the island where we went turtle hunting!!!! They gave us some very fashionable wellington boots and we tromped through the mud, brush, and turtle poop to look for them. Our guide had told us we would be lucky if we saw one or two in the wild... but lucky us we saw 8!!!!!!! One was hanging out with a group of cows on a local farm... others were bathing in the tiny puddles. These were much more timid than those at the CDRC. If we got too close they pulled into their shells and wouldn´t come out until we had left. There was no one else around and it was such a peaceful under the trees that actually grow up there.
These trees were another reason why we ventured to the highlands... they look like giant broccolies :) Farther up, we got to see huge craters that were formed when huge gas pockets under the ground gave way and the land collapsed. It was breathtaking... very grand canyon like!
After the long day we are back in town and now headed back to the boat.

Side note: my only one pair of shoes are so awesome!!! They are Teva brand, but look more like a Keen. They rock in the water and hiking all over :)

Snorkling, Hiking, and Sharks!!!

Today we woke up bright and early at 6:00am for a hike up Bartolomé island (made famous in the movie Master and Commander). It was sooo hot, even that early, and we trekked up 375 stairs to get to the top, but what a fabulous 360 degree view! We were almost right in the middle of all the islands, so we could see a ton of them and the golden sandy beaches that we were going to explore later that day.
We headed back to the ship for breakfast and then grabbed wet suits and snokle gear and took the zodiacs back to the island. On the beach we saw the nesting sites for sea turtles! We jumped in the water and swam with beautiful fish of all sizes and colores (blue, irridecent, red, yellow, black, orange, etc...). It was incredible to just float in a huge school of fish as they changed directions, ate, and swam around you. The highlight was a huge shark that my dad and I found and it swam around only a few feet below us. We also saw sea stars, corals, and even penguins!!! One of the naturalist guides took an underwater video of the snokling too and we will get a copy at the end!
After the snorkle we had a traditional Ecuadorian lunch with a huge roasted boar head! Yum... they also had kassava bread, fruits, seafood soup, and so many other delicious dishes. Then back out to a new island for a walk along the lava shores. Here we saw the fur sea lion, a HUGE sea turtle, more iguanas (which have become so normal to us all now), finches, and lots of endemic vegitation. The incredible thing about the islands is that so much of what we are seeing can only be seen here! And each island is so unique... the landscape, the animals´ adaptations, and the temperatures. On our way back we got caught in a down pour... it was actually a welcome relief from the heat and humidity... yikes it is warm here!
Had dinner with the ship´s doctor and chief engineer. The staff is so much fun, but they want to practice their English as much as I want to practice my Spanish, so we end up doing a little of both. I also feel bad having a whole conversation in the group where only two people are able to understand :)
Reading in the hammock before bed. We were all pretty tired.

The Boat and Island One

Well, we made it to the Galápagos!! What a beautiful place. Dropped everything on the boat and got to meet our fellow travelers and crew. Then before heading out to the first Island (that same afternoon), we got to swim a little and dive off the top deck of the boat! What fun and the water was so salty that you barely had to swim.
Then we grabbed our stylish orange lifejackets and headed in small boats to North Seymore Island. Not a second after we had stepped off the Zodiac, I almost stepped on a baby sea lion that was basking on the steps.... there was another near by and oh my goodness were they adorable... I got a video of them playing and rolling and growling! Then two steps later we saw our first (of sooooo many) land iguana. They have spikes all down their body and are bright yellow as opposed to the marine iquanas which are black and sneeze salt out of their noses! The rest of the island was a plethora of Blue Footed Boobies (doing their famous, goofy mating dance), Frigets (the male birds have huge red balloon like sacks on their neck that they blow up to attrack their mates), tiny lava lizards, sea lions of every size, and a rocky dry landscape.
Back on the boat, we had dinner and then gathered on the upper deck to scout for sharks (the boat lights attract fish, which attract sea lions, which attract sharks)... unfortunatly though we saw the fish, the sea lions, a pelican, and even a huge sting ray, but no shark.
Oh yah and I beat my dad really badly at cribbage!

24 hours of Travel

We are finally in Ecuador after the longest travel day I have ever endured. We flew from Seattle to Dallas to Miami and then after a three hour flight delay, after which we ended up getting a new plane, we finally made it to Quito! The people are so nice here, but since today in Sunday we have not seen too many locals on the street. We are at 9,300 feet and nestled in the Andes mountains. It was beautiful to see the volcanos on the way back to the airport this morning. Our guide said the people never consider that they live on a volcano... if it is their time, so be it! Off to meet and greet with our fellow boat passengers and then we fly to the islands today!

CATD

I received information about my volunteer placement:

CATD (Centro de Acogida Temporal para personas con Discapacidad) is a state run orphanage that houses children and adults with physical disabilities. The director and administrator of the centre is a physiotherapist who I will be working closely with! It sounds as if neither the children nor the staff speak English. It will surely by an adventure in communication.

Preparation

In less than a week I will be leaving my family, friends, job, and comfy Seattle home and begin my journey South. I am packing my bag, hoping not to bring too much, but I realized that the temperature in Bolivia during the next few months ranges from 30-65 degrees.... yikes, I think sweaters are in order. So, alas I have been repacking my bags.

I will be receiving the last of my vaccination shots on Wednesday (Hep B) which will bring the total to four (yellow fever, Hep A, Hep B, and Typhoid). Along with my malaria pills and loads of bug spray, I hope that I will be sufficiently protected.

For the first 10 days my dad, his girlfriend and I will be on a boat exploring the amazing islands, made famous by Charles Darwin!

In May, I will fly down to Bolivia where I will be volunteering. I have received news that I will be living on the 6th floor of a building with a woman, her husband, and their maid!

Wish me luck!