El Dia de Peaton y Bicycleta & 14 de Septiembre

The last week and a half was big for festivals and holidays. First we had El Dia de Peaton, a national festival to support environmental awareness and emissions reduction, where throughout the entire country of Bolivia no cars or public transportation runs! I didn't actually hear a lot about it ahead of time until I got up and no cars were on the streets. People here know its happening and prepare, and as long as you don't have a plane to catch it seems ok. I think emergency vehicles and a very few other vehicles are given exceptions to drive. This festival happens once a year nationally and 4 times a year in Cochabamba. It was actually a beautiful day where the people took to the streets walking and biking (it was amazing to see how many bikes there are), and the city hosted live music and street fairs. In a culture where normally pedestrians are at the mercy of speeding traffic and no one yields to them under any circumstance, it was lovely to see all cars shut down and the people taking back the streets to enjoying themselves.

 

The 14 of September is a city wide holiday to celebrate Cochabamba's anniversary. It is a BIG deal here as Cochabambinos are very proud of their city! The celebrations started several days before and continued several days after. Everyone gets Wednesday the 14th off work, even volunteers! Tuesday night is the big night with free concerts in the stadium from 7pm to midnight, a firework show at midnight and the best international performers continuing on from midnight to 2:30am! Our group got together after work and headed out to join the celebration at the stadium around 7. While we hoped to catch ballet folklorico performances and Chino and Nacho, instead we ate some great street food from a local stand while watching the ever lengthening lines waiting to get into the packed stadium turn into surging crowds kicking at the metal gate entrances. The stadium was full and they weren't letting anyone else in for while.  Sometime later, police trucks arrived with officers in full riot gear and we quickly dispersed to another entrance area to avoid the likelihood of tear gas. At that entrance fans leaning over the stadium walls from the inside were assisting fans being hoisted onto shoulders outside the stadium by grabbing their hands and pulling them over the high walls. One or two fell on the way up but it was impossible to see what happened through the crowds. A few people were carried in gurneys over the crowds to a waiting ambulance who drove over curbs to get around. After our fill of spectating we decided we were happier we didn't make it into the stadium and found a salsa club instead. The next day, the actual holiday was filled with city wide parades and street closures, great food and a relaxed atmosphere!

                                                                                 Lunch and pastries at NoveChento with 

                                                      AnneSofie and Amelia

Cochabamba: City of Eternal Spring

Hola a todos,

I think I've made it 6 days in Bolivia with no "travelers sickness" aka major diarrhea; so I think that's noteworthy! I am getting adjusted to life in Cochabambaba, which I find more comfortable than La Paz because of the good climate here. It's normally sunny and around 80 degrees, cooler at night and in the morning. I have noticed that the sun rays here are bien fuerte, and it is necessary to wear sunscreen and even long sleeves much of the time. While I brought a few pairs of shorts it doesn't seem that many people wear them here so I am watching and waiting to see if I should. Pants and long skirts seem to be the dress for women.

                                                            La Plaza 14 de Septimebre


          The downtown area called El Prado

So I'm living in the Sustainable Bolivia house and currently it is quiet (which I like) with only 8 total volunteers ( a few in home stays) and 4 staff members. While the home must have once been very nice, it's a bit run down, but you kinda get used to that. I arrived last Monday, August 29th, the same day as Amalie from Denmark. We have become fast friends and are figuring out the situation and the city here together which is nice. Her English and Spanish are great and she will be here interning in immigration studies at IDEA for 3 months. I also spend a lot of time with the staff Nicole and Millie from Australia and their Cochibambino partners (Nicole is married to Marcelo), Alex the director from the UK, AnneSofie from France (who is learning English and Spanish) and Andrea an older woman from New Zealand who was born in California and spent her 20s in New York. There are many others who pass through the house for shared dinners, language lessons or are past volunteers just saying hello. I have just recently met some of the staff at my volunteering site Mosoj Yan, but I will get to that later as I'm just getting started with that. Monday will be my real first day at the women's shelter as well as my first official Spanish class. In the meantime this past week I have been keeping busy getting to know everyone and the town. Some things I have learned since arriving is that there is a big water shortage here. We save water everywhere we can, saving dish and shower water in buckets to pour on the garden. I think the local people only wash clothes and bath a few times per week, and running out of water for a few days is common (as are other inconveniences such as road closures due to strikes and protests).  The staff here checks the water tank to see when it's getting empty and then calls for a city truck to drive down and fill it, hopefully before it is completely empty. I've been washing my clothes by hand so far in buckets and hanging them on the line, but I can also walk them down to a lavanderia and wash about 2 kilos worth for 32Bs, or about $4.50. That's the other thing; kilos, celcius, military time, all will take me awhile to adjust to!


        Amalie washing clothes in the courtyard


     The center of the house, the kitchen at Sustainable Bolivia


                        Reading room

So what have I been doing with my time? Well, I've made some excellent breakfasts and enjoyed shared dinners. I've been walking to all the local markets and grocery stores to find out where they are, the price differences and to stock up on basic items for the week. We had a movie night at the house where we watched a pretty good movie on Bolivia with Sandra Bullock, "our brand is crisis" which might be good to watch (I enjoyed it), even though it only gives a very slight feel of the country. I've been sprucing up my room (that's really not saying much), going to meetings at Mosoj Yan, and going out with people at the house to find the best lunch spots. I even ate at a Hari Krishna vegetarian restraint which was decent! A few days ago AnneSofie and I hiked to the top of the Christo, which I think due to the elevation left me completely spent with my legs shaking. It is a straight march up countless stairs to the top of a hill with the second largest Christ statue in the world. We live only a 10 minutes walk from the base of it. I think Sunday I will attend a mass there, which I do believe is dedication! I also walked yesterday down the Prado or upscale downtown street, along the river and to an outdoor climbing gym! I talked to the owner and got the hours so I will come back and climb next week. The equipment seemed good, he was a very knowledgable climber and I have heard from several people there are some good outdoor areas to climb close by. Yesterday I also went to my first salsa class with Amalie, which was fun, but difficult as I don't know anything about salsa and it was all in Spanish. It seemed to be a class mostly of young university students from the local university San Martin. We'll have to see how that all pans out. I missed going to a Q'oa last night, which is a traditional celebration of pacha mama or mother earth, because I wasn't feeling great. I think the event surrounds burning small offerings including coca leaves on coal, thanking pacha mama, drinking chicha (a local drink of fermented corn) and listening to traditional music with Andean flutes. Everyone assured me it was a good event so I'll have to check it out when they do it again next month. Last night I made my own pot of coca tea and maybe an hour later I felt fine. Coca tea tastes great and is used to help many things here. To drink the tea makes you feel calm, but to chew the leaves gives you energy and keeps you up. 

I've been taking photos of most places I go, but a few like the major local markets I haven't yet because I don't want my phone to be stolen. You have to be vigilant all the time of your things, but other than that I've felt safe in our neighborhood and in the city. Below are more photos to give you a feel of the place!  Miss you all :) 



            Shared dinner at Sustainable Bolivia

The usual breakfast I make with yogurt and papaya, egg sandwich and coca tea

                                    Peach tea and a chocolate doughnut, dinner of champions


                 



                                 

           Outdoor rock climbing area near the river

                         





Amalie holding a local girl, AnnSofie and Andrea out to an evening of jazz

Local market with woman selling vegetables

                                                   View of the street at night

View of the Christo from the balcony of Sustainable Bolivia

Streets of Cochabamba

                    AnnSofie and I climbing the Christo, the second tallest Christo in the world.

                                                       

                                                The Christo on the hill above Cochabamba

View of the city from the hill of the Christo

                                                The teleferico up to the Christo

View from el teleferico (the gondola)

View from inside the Christo. You can only go inside on Sundays. The steps inside are steep and precarious

                                           AnnSofie, Amalie and I taking a rest in a park










Local fish lunch with rice, salad and yucca












        Gopal: Vegetarian restaurant and hostel
 



       








Beautiful children's park in Cochabamba




                                                                 

First Days in La Paz

Hi all,

Made it to La Paz, and I am already at the end of my first week in Cochabamba! Let me give a recap of my first few days in Bolivia...

First I landed in La Paz at 5am after a 24 hr travel experience from LAX to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, and Miami to La Paz. I found my way around the tiny airport easily enough and stood in line with the other extranjeros waiting for my visa. I ran into a hitch when I was told my bank issued bills had "tiny holes" in them and were rejected. A really nice couple from San Fancisco I'd been chatting with exchanged me money as neither of us could see any problems with the bills, and I was able finish paying the $160 US visa fee without the extra hassle of finding an ATM. i took interest in them immediately as the woman was holding a climbing helmet and they told me they had come to trek Potosi, do some rock climbing around the area and visit the Uyuni Salt flats. They were catching a hopper flight to Uyuni that same morning. I thanked them and wished them well. I should have grabbed their what's app number. As I took stock of my bags coming off the carousel, I realized I left my phone roaming during the fights and it was now dead! So I unpacked my bags in the bathroom to find my charger adapter to re-charge my phone. Then I went out to find the small, shabby airport pretty desolate, save a few people sitting on massage chairs and a money changer who I gladly exchanged $50 dollars for bolivianos with. I then walked outside into the dark morning with my two travel bags and my purse and said ok to the first and only taxi man who walked up to meet me. Competition was sparse, there was no one else around except for a few parked taxis with no drivers inside. We headed off on the 40 minute drive to the suburb of Achumani where I would be staying with my couch surfing host Sabine and her 13 year old daughter Eva. Both from Germany, Sabine is in her fourth year working at a local German school in Achumani. I finally arrived around 7am and rang the bell. Sabine met me warmly at the gate with a pitcher of Hot Coca tea and crackers ready. As La Paz sits at almost 12,000 ft, I began feeling ill quickly with the altitude - shaky, tingly hands, headache, dizziness, fatigue. After drinking a few pitchers of tea, taking prescribed altitude meds as well as the local sorache pills, and propping my head up, I was able to get some sleep.

In Achumani I spent time meeting Sabine's friends and colleagues, going to German and Japanese dinners, and driving out to other towns with Sabine, another couch surfer, Elza from Hungary and Sabine's friend Connie (a Bolivian woman who married a German man and lived in San Jose for 20 years). As Sabine and Connie are animal supporters, we went around feeding stray animals and picked up one dog that was pregnant and had been tossed out after giving birth. They will get her spayed and try to find a home for her. That night Elza and I rode the teleferico (the gondolas) for well over an hour over the city. Gondolas in south America are popular transit in large cities and there are 4 or more routes in La Paz alone. The city lights were really pretty and it was a few dollars to ride there and back. Unfortunately the teleferico closed a few minutes before we reached the last transfer line and we had to catch a cab the rest of the way down the mountain and home. After that I flew the next day to Cochabamba on BOA airline, a quick 30 minute hopper flight over high Andean mountains and into the valley and agricultural heart of Bolivia. Below are photos of my time in La Paz.

Mountains around La Paz

Sabine

Front window in Sabine's home