¡Feliz Día de Independencia!

Hello! Today is Bolivia's independence day, so much of the city is quiet. The Prado, though, is full of marching bands, street vendors, and men in uniform. Today's parades (desfiles en español) are mostly the different branches of the military. To be honest, it's a little intimidating walking around as a tourist with the entire army walking around as well. It's all been great so far though!

Here's a picture of the military marching to the parade:

Updates on the rest of day three:

CEA

Yesterday, after my morning coffee, I met up with everyone so we could all go to the demonstration center to do some work. Half of us worked on creating watering devices for the fruit trees (apple, peach, and grape) out of empty plastic bottles (they're really cool in theory, but pretty difficult to make with the limited resources available at the CEA). The idea is to create a device that will let water into the soil directly onto the plants' roots, one drop at a time. If done correctly, a 2-liter bottle can last up to a week. About half of our bottles seemed to be working, but the rest drained within minutes. Oh well; it's all a learning process. (This is a link to a similar irrigation system: http://www.providentliving.org.nz/bottle-drip-irrigation/)

The other half of the group worked on moving rocks to create a biological pool which sanitizes liquid waste from a farmer's home. We all took a much-needed break to have lunch in the shade - it was REALLY sunny! Someone brought us fried chicken, which came with french fries and rice (of course there were two starches - this is Bolivia, after all). Then, it was back to work. I got to hang out for a bit with David, a Mano a Mano volunteer from Illinois who's been here for about 5 weeks, and his friend Ivan, who is super funny! I felt like we were best friends after a three-minute conversation. He and I are going to help each other with speaking English and Spanish, respectively.

The work we did after lunch involved uprooting some vegetables (we're pretty sure they were turnips, but it was never 100% clear) that had rotted, putting in compost as fertilizer, watering the vegetable garden, planting onions, and putting straw around the vegetables so that the water didn't evaporate right away. We all definitely needed a shower after that! Blanca and Ben came to pick us up, and we all drove back to the city to rest for a bit. 

This is what we all wore on our heads:

(Sorry I have no pictures of my own - everything was super dirty so I didn't want to risk breaking my phone!)

Graciela

After a quick shower and nap, Joyce, Alexa, and I decided to wander around for a bit before we met the Oxford students for dinner. 

This is bread made of quinoa from a health food store across the street from their hotel - really delicious! Rolls shaped like this are called pancitos, and usually eaten for breakfast. 

This is the church at the old plaza in the center of the city:

Parades were everywhere last night! They caused a lot of traffic jams, but were cool for us to see!

Here comes one across the intersection of the two main streets in Cochabamba:

On our way back to meet the others, we found a cute little pottery shop and went in to look around. The owner's name is Graciela, and we talked for a while about our trip, Minnesota, and her products. I ended up buying a keychain, and she told us to come back anytime we needed anything! I'll definitely be visiting her again. 

Cafe Paris

For dinner, we and the Oxford students went to a really cute little cafe which served crepes. 

My dinner from last night:

(Don't worry, mom, that's just grape juice.)

We all chatted for a really long time, and then everyone went home to sleep, since we had an early morning today!

Water Projects 

We had all planned to meet at 8:30 this morning so that we could drive out to a rural community to see one of the water reservoirs Mano a Mano has built. The Oxford group had some trouble checking out of their hotel, though, so we actually left around 9:15. We had a great time waiting around, though, because we made some friends!

This guy came and sat right by Alexa!

This one smelled really bad, but had the sweetest face!

Eventually, we made it out of Cochabamba to the Ucuchi reservoir.

The landscape was a bit different, and it was much cooler, because we were up pretty high in the mountains:

Here's the reservoir (about 2,000 cubic meters when it's full):

This is an abandoned house we found near the community. It's really neat!

After seeing the Ucuchi reservoir, we went to see the Sancayani reservoir about 45 minutes away. The drive was a little terrifying, because it was all narrow mountain roads with super sharp turns, but Ben handled it like a pro and we arrived with no problems at all!

We even stopped on the way to see some lambs that were hanging out near the road:

This is the Sallamani Grande reservoir (the Sancayani project is made up of this and Sallamani Chico, which is higher in the mountains):

We found many more sheep by the reservoir: 

These community members were doing their laundry in the reservoir! They only spoke Quechua, so I couldn't understand anything, but seemed super friendly:

We came back to the city to eat lunch, and the Oxford group is currently moving into the CEA for the next two weeks. I'm going to miss them a lot, but they're coming into the city for the weekend! Hopefully we can do a lot of fun stuff, especially since I'll be all alone once Joyce and Alexa leave on Friday. 

And, I leave you with this: since I am so directionally challenged, my lock screen is now a map of Cochabamba. It's been quite helpful.

Salteñas

Hi again! Day two in Bolivia was amazing. After having coffee and reconnecting with the States a bit over the wifi at the cafe, Joyce, Alexa, and I decided to explore Cochabamba for a little while. We wandered for a couple hours and found some plazas, some cute dogs, and a salteñaría. Having heard that salteñas are the best food in Bolivia, we decided we had to go in and get some. We got two filled with pollo semipicante and they were DELICIOUS. Salteñas look like empanadas but are a little different: a savory pastry made of corn filled with a sort of stew (meat, spices, potatoes, one olive, and one quail egg), then baked. I cannot even begin to describe how much I loved my first one (hence the name of this post), and want to try every flavor from every salteñaría in the city. The best news is that the best salteñaría was closed today, so we have even more delicious food in our future!

Here's a cutie I found lounging in the shade:

El Cristo de la Concordia

After a quick nap, I met up with everyone to drive to the big Jesus statue. The road up the hill was a little scary - not wide enough that two cars could comfortably pass each other and full of sharp turns, bu we made it safely! The statue was very impressive; it's made of cement and weighs over 2,000 tons!

The views from his hill were simply unreal - I used the panorama picture mode on my phone for the first time to try to get it all!

There was a really adorable puppy visiting the statue at the same time we were, so of course I followed it around for a while to try to get a picture. 

Here's my attempt at a selfie with the statue (needless to say it went well):

I had Alexa take a better one:

Alternative methods of transport to the  statue were hiking (which was too dangerous for our group) and cable cars! I can only imagine the views from those. 

El Cementario General

After spending some time with Jesus, we went to the city's big cemetery. The place was beautiful and full of family crypts. Apparently, owning a lot for one of the crypts costs about half of a year's wages! We saw flowers and gifts everywhere; people generally visit their loved ones' graves once a month or more. 

Here's the main entrance (the people in view are Johnny from the Oxford group and Alexa, my travel buddy from day one):

Some of the plots:

There are a ton of these walls, each filled with rows of windows where visitors create little shrines for their loved ones:

I thought this was a good quote - in English, it says, "Simply because a person is a conscious being, he has a Supreme Purpose for his life: to be and to do something useful in it."

La Cena Maravillosa

We all returned to the Mano a Mano offices for an amazing dinner prepared by some of the staff (especially Blanca). Everyone mingled and got to chat a bit, although the language barrier was a little tricky. 

Here's a picture of all the meat we had cooked for us:

And here's my plate: (clockwise from the left) yucca, quinoa, cholca (a mix between steamed corn and popcorn) with cheese, vegetables, plantains, and steak. I also had chicken and got seconds, of course! If you've never tried yucca, make it a priority in your life. It's a starch similar to a potato, but with more fibers and a little sweeter. 

Nate gave a presentation giving an overview of the entire Mano a Mano organization, and Blanca spoke to us to say gracias for our time and effort. She also gave us presents!

Day Three Begins

This morning (I wrote this post in two installments), I was awoken by the sound of a marching band playing outside my window! I actually really like waking up when the city wants me to - it feels more authentic than listening to Marimba on my iPhone alarm clock. I got dressed and went to check out the parades on the Prado; here are some pictures:

This is the police band before they began marching. 

Some wreaths that were around the statue of Simon Bolivar. From what I could gather, each is dedicated to a different department of the government. 

I was the only gringa there, so I decided that I should probably leave sooner rather than hang around. I was walking back to the office and, to my surprise, the cafe I wanted to try was open! I got a frappeina (an iced espresso drink - delicious!) and used their wifi to write this post. 

(The journal is a present my friend Nick made for me out of a record - it's very Pinterest and I love it a lot. I've been using it to practice Spanish while drinking coffee...)

Today, we're going to garden at the CEA. Lots of sunscreen will be used. 

Hasta luego!

First Impressions

Hello! I was totally planning on posting yesterday (I'm trying to do every day, because there's just so much to share!), but still haven't figured out the wifi in the office where I'm staying. I'll work on it today, though, because I know you're all dying to hear about everything! (Just kidding, I'm sure that's only my mom.)

La Paz --- Cochabamba

So, when we left off, Alexa, Joyce, and I were spending the night in the La Paz airport waiting for our flight to Cochabamba. Once the ticketing counter opened, we got in a very long line to check in and check our bags. We were all frantically trying to rearrange our luggage because the tools I was carrying for Mano a Mano were really heavy and the BOA (the airline we took) weight limit was much smaller than that of TACA. But, when we put my bags on the scale, there was no problem at all! We went to wait at the gate and found a little cafe with gorgeous views of the Andes mountains. 

The view from the cafe - we watched the sun rising over the mountains!

We got on the plane, and the flight was actually 35 minutes long. It would have been a 6-8 hour drive, though, because the roads are so bad throughout Bolivia. We got gorgeous views of the mountains during the descent into Cochabamba and when we deplaned. 

You can kind of see the mountains from this picture! 

We Made It!

We picked up our bags and met Nate outside baggage claim. He was accompanied by Blanca, the lawyer in charge of one of the Mano a Mano organizations here, and her son Ben. Nate, Ben, Joyce, and Alexa drove to their hotel while Blanca took me to the office building to get settled in. 

Here's a picture of my room! Not too much going on, but the bed is SUPER comfy!

This is the view from my room. Isn't it cool?!

CEA 

After I set my stuff down, Nate showed up with the six students from Oxford! We all piled into two cars to drive to the demonstration center (called CEA); I was with Blanca, Nate, and Tracy (Blanca's husband who lives in Belgium). It's about ten minutes away, and during the trip I got to hear Blanca tell the only joke she knows in English:

There are two guys: Jack, who is black, and Mike, who is white. They are best friends and do everything together, but they're constantly arguing about what race God is. Jack thinks held black, while Mike thinks he's white. One day, Jack and Mike die exactly at the same time (after all, they do everything together). They get to the gate to Heaven and will finally get some answers. As they ask St. Peter what race God is, He walks by and says, "Hola amigos! Bienvenidos!"

(I obviously laughed at this joke, but I had actually heard it last week from Segundo at the office. I guess the whole family likes it!)

Here are some pictures I took during the drive: 

We got to the CEA and got a tour from Camila and Pablo, the agronomists in charge. The whole thing is meant to show the rural communities where we build water reservoirs how best to use that water and the resources that they have in surrounding areas. They have set up a cyclical process that involves the reservoir, fruit trees, greenhouses, livestock, and a biodigestor and composting facility. Everything can be constructed and maintained by hand out of local materials. 

This is the dormitory being built for when farmers come to the CEA for training, and where the Oxford group will be staying once doors are installed. The first group of farmers should be arriving in the next few months, which is really exciting!

This is Tracy in front of the dry bathroom at the CEA. There is a toilet which separates solid waste and liquid waste (so that each can be purified and recycled as compost or something else) and a shower attached to the outside. I'm pretty glad I have indoor plumbing where I'm staying, but really excited for the Oxford group to have the chance to live at the CEA for two weeks! 

After we left the CEA, we went to lunch back in Cochabamba at a buffet place which served Bolivian and some Brazilian food. This means there was a lot of meat, some rice, and a LOT of potatoes. 

A lot of restaurants use Disney characters for their logos. This might not be entirely legal, but nobody seems to mind! 

The food was pretty good - I think we'll be going back there because it's close to the office. 

La Cancha

After lunch, we all split off for a little bit to drop some stuff off at our respective places of residence, and so that Nate could pick up Joyce and Alexa (who had been resting at their hotel). We agreed to meet back at the restaurant in ten minutes, but it took everyone about 25. Oh well, that's Bolivia for you. We walked about ten blocks to La Cancha, Cochabamba's famous market. The place is HUGE and really overwhelming, especially when traveling with a group do 12 people from out of the country, only four of whom speak Spanish. 

Nobody bought anything, because we were all afraid of losing the group and of getting pickpocketed, but it was really fun to walk around. I can't think of one thing that wasn't for sale there; here are some pictures!

She's selling fava beans - there are women with these huge wheelbarrows full of them everywhere!

Some artesanías (crafts) - I wanted to buy a sweater and a bag, but I'm waiting to go to a market with a little bit less going on. 

Cakes! These smelled sooooo good, and it was one of the girls from Oxford's birthdays, so we were all quite tempted. We moved on, though. 

Spices!

SO MANY CARBS - rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. 

I didn't get a picture of coca leaves, but they were being sold all over the place. These are the plant from which cocaine is made, and many farmers here chew them as a source of energy. They're also used to make mate, a type of tea that's very common here (and delicious)!

La Noche

After La Cancha, we all needed a break and split up to take a rest. I hadn't showered or slept much since leaving Minnesota, so I took advantage of this! Reminder to people traveling in South America (and anywhere the water is bad): when showering or washing your face, keep the water out of your mouth! Especially while your body is adjusting for the first few days, it's important to be really cautious about this. 

We went to dinner along the Prado, a street full of restaurants and bars, at another buffet place. During dinner, we were joined by this furry guy: 

I've definitely already become known as the crazy dog lady - anytime anyone sees a dog on the street, they point it out to me. I just want to bring them all home! (In case you were wondering, the owner of the restaurant gave this guy some leftovers and he left happy.)

Then, the Oxford students, Alexa, and I went to find a bar to celebrate the birthday! We found this really cute place:

Everyone had some drinks (the boys from Oxford had flaming shots, and made the birthday girl do a shot of Tabasco followed by one of tequila - she said it wasn't bad!), and Nate even showed up! He said he had to be somewhere later (a barbeque at midnight... we were confused) but that he would have a cervesa with us before that. After he and Alexa left (Nate to the BBQ, Alexa to the hotel), the Oxford group and I went to another bar called La Hija Fea for a little bit. They are really really fun people! The only thing that's hard about hanging out with them is that I always adopt a British accent - it's so weird and probably annoying, but I can't help it! I also have to ask them what some of the phrases they use mean, but they don't seem to mind. 

We eventually left and they walked me back to the office before going on to their hotel (how nice is that?!). I slept great, woke up, and went to meet Joyce and Alexa for coffee. 

Hoy

We walked to a coffee shop that was highly recommended by Nate, and that has wifi, but it was closed for the holiday. Bolivia's Independence Day is Tuesday, but everyone is spending the days leading up to it preparing and resting. We actually ran into Nate, and all of us came to a restaurant that serves, in his words, "sushi, coffee, and alcohol." They also had some good breakfast food!

Anyway, thanks for reading - sorry this was a pretty long post. Later we're going to go see the Cristo del Rey statue - the largest of its kind in the world! Expect pictures!!!!

Ciao!

El Viaje Hasta Ahora

Hola from La Paz! My travel buddies and I have successfully survived three plane rides, spent approximately 6 hours in various airports, and made it through customs! Needless to say, I'm very thankful that there haven't been any problems so far. (I don't want to jinx it, though - we still have 6 hours in the La Paz airport and our flight to Cochabamba.) I figured I'd fill all my lovely readers in on the viaje, because it has definitely been overwhelming. PS - I'm writing from my iPhone because I didn't bring my computer, so sorry if anything is messed up format-wise. 

I spent all of yesterday packing and cleaning my room - the second part was quite necessary for the first, since my clothes somehow end up strewn all over my floor whenever I'm home for more than Thanksgiving break. After a last-minute trip to Target and 4 "final" to-do lists, I was finally done! Here's what I brought for the two week trip. The roller bags were checked, and the little backpack was my carry-on. I'm going to buy a purse at the market tomorrow, too! (Also, if anyone reading this went on the AP Euro trip with me before senior year of high school, this backpack should look pretty familiar!)

MSP --- Miami

My mom and I left the house at 3:30 this morning to make sure I got to the gate with plenty of time for the 6:25 am flight. I wasn't tired then because I was so excited, but I'm definitely feeling the lack of sleep now. The American Airlines guy had to deal with a ton of cranky, frazzled travelers (many of whom didn't speak English - I guess really early is the preferred time for international travelers), and he was the best airport employee I've ever met. I didn't get his name, but he deserves a shout-out at the very least. 

I met Joyce and Alexa at the gate and we boarded the flight without problems. I didn't know this, but American Airlines has a new policy where travelers with only one carry on bag can get on the plane first! (My uncle flies for Delta, so I feel kind of bad giving so much praise to American, but they really were great to me today.) I had been the last passenger to check in for the flight online, so I was stuck in a middle seat in the back between a guy who was on the phone with his wife discussing their love for one another until he got yelled at by a flight attendant and a guy who basically just creeped me out. Luckily, there was an aisle seat open a few rows up, so a flight attendant told me I could sit there. 

Miami --- Lima

We landed in Miami a few minutes early, which was just fantastic because we already had a 5 hour layover. Alexa, Joyce and I had a bit of trouble figuring out where to go print our boarding passes for the next two flights (they were operated by a different carrier, so we had to get them separately), but eventually figured it out and found our new gate. Let me tell you, the Miami airport is HUGE. There is an on-site hotel with an entrance literally next to a gate, a ton of shopping, and 10 CONCOURSES! Naturally we had to trek across six of them to get from our arrival to our next departure, but it was okay. Joyce has a pedometer and tries to log 10,000 steps a day, so we definitely made a dent in that. We grabbed some food and got comfortable at our gate, and in what seemed like no time at all we were boarding!

These are my other travel buddies - notice a trend in my trading material?

One thing I didn't expect about TACA was that its primary language is Spanish. I liked that it gave me a chance to practice a bit before getting to Bolivia, but it was definitely overwhelming trying to figure out what rows were boarding when there were a ton of people all clamoring to get on board first and the gate agents were mumbling very fast español in an attempt to speed things up. I also got pretty offended when I would say something in Spanish and they would answer me in English! I'm sure it's what they're trained to do for gringas like me, but I wanted them to at least acknowledge the fact that I was trying. Oh well. 

On this flight, I was sitting next to some people who were all from the same huge family - and they all kept switching seats. Over the course of the flight, I sat by a grandma (who was adorable), a little boy (also adorable), and his mom. The little boy had a friend in the row behind him and kept standing on his seat to yell "HOLA" at the top of his lungs. It was cute for a while and then got a little old. 

This is a picture of the crossword puzle in the back of the airplane magazine. I couldn't figure it out at all. 

This is what the plane looked like from my seat! The seats were 2-4-2 by row and pretty comfy. Our little screens had plenty of entertainment: I watched three movies (instead of sleeping, which might explain why I'm so tired) - White House Down (meh), Couples Retreat (funny but I've seen it before), and Just Go With It (in a word, awful). We were served a meal - I chose chicken with rice and it was really surprisingly good! 

Lima --- La Paz

We landed in Lima a little late, and it was pretty crazy. Everyone was speed walking off the plane, and we had to go through security again. I have NEVER seen people whipping off their jackets and flinging their bags into the conveyor belt like that. It was especially weird because I've heard that Latin Americans in general are all very easygoing and always get places late. These people were the opposite of that. (We then learned that we had been a little late in our landing, and there was a mad dash for a lot of people to make their connection to Sao Paulo, so that might explain it.)

From the bathroom in Peru - one of the things that's going to take the most adjustment is the fact that we can't flush our toilet paper! Something that is such a habit in the US is very frowned-upon in South America. I'm really hoping I don't mess up!

This is a little band that was playing in the Lima airport. We joked that this was as close to Peruvian culture as we would get, since we got pretty much directly on our flight to La Paz. 

The flight to La Paz was pretty empty; everyone had at least one open seat by them. We met an American guy visiting his partner in Bolivia. His partner works for the State Department there, and this guy goes to La Paz every 2 months! He says the novelty has worn off, but that he does love Bolivia. I slept for most of that plane ride, so not much to report. 

We landed and disembarked, and the altitude was definitely and immediately noticeable. I was expecting to feel short of breath, but it's more of a tingling,jittery  feeling that you can't make go away. It's subsided a bit since we've been here, though, so I'm hopeful that the rest of the trip will be free of altitude sickness!

This is the hallway where we have spent the past few hours attempting to sleep and FREEZING. Cohabamba may be known as a city with constantly perfect weather, but La Paz is cold at night. We've layered on a bunch of clothing, though, and are drinking coffee.

The counter for our boarding passes to Cochabamba should be opening soon, so I'll update about that flight later! Once we get there, were going to take a bit of time to settle in, and then go to the Cancha, Cochabamba's biggest market! Message me on Facebook if you want a souvenir!