Bolivia

So, unfortunately my flight out of Quito wasn`t until the evening of the day after my family returned to the states. I spent a lot of time on the internet taking care of this and that, and I took my first salsa lesson! It was enjoyable, but no easy task. My flight back to Cusco, Peru was horrible. I had arrived in Lima at 11 PM and my flight to Cusco wasn`t until 8 AM the next morning. I brought my sleeping bag along and tried to ignore light and noise without much success.

Once in Cusco, I got a bus to Puno, the city I visited before Christmas to see Lake Titicaca. The next day, I got a bus from Puno to Copacabana, Bolivia. The trip was quite uneventful, luckily, and I got my Bolivian visa at the border without any problems. Upon checking my email later that night, I found out that John was also in Copacabana and the two of us met up that night. It was great to see each other and to talk about what each of us had done since we last split up. Copacabana is a small city right on Lake Titicaca with mountains surrounding it`s other sides. Beautiful. John and I stayed in Copacabana for several days, checking out the sites, biking, kayaking, and relaxing. We even treated ourselves to the honeymoon sweet of a nice hotel and got ourselves our own awesome dome-shaped building with two floors, huge, comfty beds, chill hammocks, and huge windows overlooking the city and the lake. Brilliant.

From Copacabana, we got a three hour bus to La Paz. Both John and I were astounded with the city`s beautiful location in a valley surrounded by mountains, the city`s modernity, and the AMAZING juices and fruit salads found in the `mercado´ (market). John and I booked a tour on mountainbike of ´The World`s Most Dangerous Road.` It was so good, we did it a second time two days later. The road starts at 4800 meters, way up in the mountains, and ends at 1200 meters, down in the jungle. The first 2 hours or so was on a steep, curvy concrete road with awesome views and huge trucks that sometimes had to be passed at high speeds while going around sharp turns (just kidding mom!). The second leg of the ride was on a rocky dirt road that at times was no more than 6 feet across with hundred foot cliffs on the sides (not a joke). The views were spectacular and the path was often covered by huge waterfalls that had to be ridden through. The first day we did it, the weather was real bad. We got out of the van at the top and stepped into pouring rain which didn`t let up for the entire ride. The second day, we got lucky and by the end I was biking down in shorts without a shirt on. Oh man it was so much fun.

The day in between our two biking adventures, John and I did a private city tour. It was great. We visited a few awesome spots with views of the entire city, and a strange place called ´La Valle de la Luna´ (the valley of the moon). I am not even going to try to describe this place. Check out pictures on the internet. John and I also did a tough 5 hour hike to Lago Condorirri, a stunning lake located about an hour from La Paz. It was awesome, with crazy colored lakes and insane looking mountains. Unfortunately, at the lake I decided to walk across a path of rocks going across a small part of the lake. The rocks crumbled under my weight and before I knew it I was totally soaked, with camera in pocket. The camera stopped working, but luckily a week or so later I was able to get it fixed for a decent price.

I left La Paz to go to Sucre feeling like I had really gotten a feel for the city and had packed many activities into the week I was there. The busride to Sucre was about twelve hours long, and horrible. Not only was the road very bumpy, a few hours before I left John and I had a tasty but evidently toxic dinner of street burgers that left my stomach painfully churning for days.

In Sucre, I figured out my housing and the volunteer work I would be doing for the next three weeks. I stayed at a nice hostel 2 blocks from the main plaza with a great balcony, nice beds, a kitchen, and lots of space outside. I volunteered at Tata San Juan de Dios, an government funded, Christian ran orphanage. It was great. The orphanage houses 50 kids between the ages of two months and five years. All of the kids were either abandoned or abused by their parents before coming to the orphanage. I worked with the 23 big kids, who are between 2 and 5 years. They are nuts! My first whole day, I was left alone with them for a significant period of time and I soon realized I had basically no control over these kids. They swarmed me, hitting, kicking, and yelling when I asked for silence. One of the rascals even spit on my pants!

My days began at 7 AM. I would wake up, get some breakfast (fruit salad at the mercado central was a big hit), and get the bus to the orphanage. Once at the orphanage, I would help the kids eat breakfast, after which play time started. During playtime, I did many things. I played with the kids, broke up fights, punished children that hit others or stole toys from others, and comforted crying children (sometimes there were at least 5 kids crying at once). After the kids at lunch, I would take off around 12 and get lunch. I took spanish lessons for my first week there in the afternoons, but decided they weren`t worth my money so decided to stop.

I spent Carnaval (Feb. 2 and 3) in Sucre, and it was great. The only problem was that the friends I had made had all left, so I was alone. Since my arrival in Sucre, there were always people on the streets throwing waterballoon. The main targets were girls and gringos! As a result, I was often targetted. During Carnaval, the water fights were taken to a whole new level. I went to a few parades, and there was a constant flow of balloons flying through the air. It was great! Only problem was, as a gringo, a couple times at least 20 all started throwing balloons at me! The Carnaval took place on a weekend, and on the Sunday I went to the orphanage to help take the kids to the parade. When I walked in, I was totally surprised to find all of the kids dressed up in fancy costumes! They were going to dance in the parade. Someone asked me if I wanted to dress up with them, and of course I say yes! When myself, one other volunteer, and all the children were dressed up we took off. At first we marched/danced down a street with very few people. After a while, I noticed up ahead the sidewalks were completely packed! There must have been well over 500 people there. Right before we finished the march, all of the spectators decided to nail the big gringo! I got hit with 15 or 20 balloons, shot by countless water guns, and covered in foam!

All in all, my time in Sucre was great. The kids were great, and I felt like I really made a difference in their lives while working with them. I am still a little behind, and I will do my best to write another post in the next few days!