So just to let everybody know - we went to Machu Picchu. We enjoyed it very much, although it was everything we had heard... beautiful, breathtaking setting, and VERY touristy. Although we used a travel agency to arrange our trip, it nonetheless involved a great deal of stress and uncertainty. First we did not have any tickets until a random taxi arrived outside our hostel at 6:30am, and then we boarded a bus, which was an hour and a half to the train station, then we waited for 4 hours at the train station, before our train went to Aguas Caliente, the city just below machu picchu.
We had no idea where we staying, but luckily our travel agency had someone sent to walk us from the train station to the hotel. We had to wait at the hotel until after 8:00 when our guide showed up to explain what was happening the next morning, when we were to visit Machu Picchu. Our guide was also supposed to have our train tickets back (without which we would be completely stranded and miss our flight back to Lima). Our guide showed up, only a half hour late.
He did not have our train tickets, but he told us the name of a restaurant where we were supposed to pick up our train tickets the next day. He didn´t know when our train left, and so we had to anticipate either leaving Aguas Caliente at 2 or 6 pm the next day, and all morning we would be at Machu Picchu.
So we went to get in line for the bus to Machu Picchu just before 5:00 am. We were told we would be in the first bus guaranteed. However, there was already a long line ahead of us when we got there. We got on the 4th or 5th bus up to the site, which is a 20 minute bus ride up 1km vertical. The switchbacks are incredible.
We walked around Machu Picchu, got the (incredible & classic) photos, and we got our ticket to climb Wayna Picchu, the steep mountain seen directly behind the classic pictures of Machu Picchu. Our tickets allowed up to climb the mountain between 10 & 11 am. So we then walked around more, and eventually went to meet our tour group, when our guide would tell us again where to pick up our tickets, and what time we were leaving that afternoon.
We then found out that our train was leaving at 2:26, and our tickets were in fact back in Aguas Caliente, at a small pizza place. So we had to leave our tour group prematurely so we could climb Wayna Picchu. It was another long line just to start climbing the mountain, and we were told it was a 45 min. to 1.5 hour climb to the summit. By the time we got started climbing the mountain, after waiting in line almost an hour, it was 11:15, and we had to be back on a bus to Aguas Caliente before 1:00, because we still had to find the restaurant which (hopefully) had our train tickets.
So we climbed to the summit in less than half an hour. It was lung busting. Emily and I were tearing up the trail. We had a brief (less than 10 minutes) at the summit, looking down on Machu Picchu, before we had to race back down the trail. Once we tore down the track we made it back onto a bus to Aguas Caliente, where we found the restaurant relatively quickly after I asked a police officer for directions to the restaurant. (& I hate asking for directions).
It ended up okay, we got our train and subsequent bus tickets back to Cusco, but we were pretty nervous about it because a lot of people get ripped off when using such tourist agencies. I would say that most of the people we talked to got ripped off in some way, but we made it through successfully.
Once back in Cusco, we had one night before we caught a flight to Lima (yesterday). We are now in Lima, and I have to say that this city is the most different of any we have visited thus far. We were warned much about how dangerous La Paz is, however Lima is most definitely much more dangerous than La Paz. On the way from the airport to the tourist barrio we are staying in (Miraflores), I saw a vicious fistfight between two guys that spilled out of a bus and onto the street just in front of us.
Once we arrived, we were hassled by this big guy who acted as our tour guide, helped us a get beds at a disgusting hostel, and then followed us around and essentially extorted us out of money in exchange for his help (which until the end he insisted he was doing out of the goodness of his heart). Thankfully, tonight we are in a much more pleasant hostel.
After that unpleasant experience, we disliked Lima even more, however, the city does totally redeem itself with the amazingly fresh sushi & sashimi. We have enjoyed the fresh fish very much, and today while we were en route from the oceanside to a tasty sushi restaurant, we were interrupted by a gigantic anti-government demonstration. There were thousands upon thousands of protesters, and hundreds of riot police. We have already witnessed a few protests thus far, and seen many riot police, but none as big as this. We managed to get onto the other side of the march when there was a tiny space to run through the protesters, and we got to the restaurant, where we heard the march continuing throughout our lunch.
Lima is most certainly a very exciting city, however it is quite evidently the most dangerous we have visited thus far. We have one more day of delicious sashimi and the exciting unpredictability of South America before we return. We are both very excited to get back, but we are very sad to leave the continent as well. (I keep telling Emily she will miss it more once she gets back). In her defense, she loves it down here, but does miss the family, friends, & comforts of home (as do i). When I get home, I will be posting more photos, as I have not been able to do so for quite some time. I ought to get to bed now, although we tried to stay up late tonight so we would have a long sleep in the morning, as we are anticipating minimal sleep on the airplane tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Cusco y otras cosas
Emily and I are currently staying in Cusco, and while she naps before dinner, I am here to update everythang. Cusco is a beautiful city, as it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in North and South America. It is quite shocking to go from the Peruvian countryside, which is very poor and looks only slightly more prosperous than Bolivia, to the historic centre of Cusco, which looks exactly like Europe. The buildings and churches here are absolutely incredible, I always thought that Quebec city looked the most like Europe, but I don´t think so anymore.
Most of the churches in this area were built (or began construction) in the 16th century, and it looks like almost all of the buildings range from 16th-18th century. The walls are incredibly thick, doorways are tiny, all the streets are cobblestone, and there are gorgeous alleyways everywhere. Unfortunately, it is incredibly touristy, which is quite irritating, but the urban scenery makes up for it.
We leave tomorrow morning for Aguas Caliente, the small city just below Machu Picchu, which in of itself is supposed to be awful, due to the tourism. However, it is necessary to stay here if you want to visit Machu Picchu at 6 in the morning, for the sunrise. The plus side is that if you arrive there that early, the site is relatively empty until 10am when all the tourists from Cusco arrive. Then you can climb a mountain beside the site and get some of the classic pictures of the site. We will then bus back to Aguas Caliente in the afternoon, and take an early evening train back to Cusco. We spend Sunday night in Cusco, before heading to Lima on Monday. We will be flying back to Lima, so we have a few days to enjoy there.
We will be flying back home on Thursday, August 7th at 1:30am, which means we arrive back at 10:30am in Toronto. We are looking forward to the last part of our trip, and we have been enjoying Cusco, but we really miss Bolivia. Peru is slightly more polished, more rules, more tourists, and a bit less friendly (because of all the other tourists). Some things we have noticed, it seems here that you have to wear a seatbelt, which is irritating. There is no smoking in some restaurants, which we must admit we do appreciate. I´m also not sure if you are allowed to drink in public here, rather unfortunate. Bolivia has its flaws, but it also has more liberty.
I will publish another post once we get to Lima, to give some details about Machu Picchu. Other than that, I had better get going, as Emily is waiting (sleeping) at the hotel, it´s 8:20 and we haven´t had dinner yet. I think we will go to the same Japanese place as last night because it is easy on the stomach.
Buen Provecho!
Most of the churches in this area were built (or began construction) in the 16th century, and it looks like almost all of the buildings range from 16th-18th century. The walls are incredibly thick, doorways are tiny, all the streets are cobblestone, and there are gorgeous alleyways everywhere. Unfortunately, it is incredibly touristy, which is quite irritating, but the urban scenery makes up for it.
We leave tomorrow morning for Aguas Caliente, the small city just below Machu Picchu, which in of itself is supposed to be awful, due to the tourism. However, it is necessary to stay here if you want to visit Machu Picchu at 6 in the morning, for the sunrise. The plus side is that if you arrive there that early, the site is relatively empty until 10am when all the tourists from Cusco arrive. Then you can climb a mountain beside the site and get some of the classic pictures of the site. We will then bus back to Aguas Caliente in the afternoon, and take an early evening train back to Cusco. We spend Sunday night in Cusco, before heading to Lima on Monday. We will be flying back to Lima, so we have a few days to enjoy there.
We will be flying back home on Thursday, August 7th at 1:30am, which means we arrive back at 10:30am in Toronto. We are looking forward to the last part of our trip, and we have been enjoying Cusco, but we really miss Bolivia. Peru is slightly more polished, more rules, more tourists, and a bit less friendly (because of all the other tourists). Some things we have noticed, it seems here that you have to wear a seatbelt, which is irritating. There is no smoking in some restaurants, which we must admit we do appreciate. I´m also not sure if you are allowed to drink in public here, rather unfortunate. Bolivia has its flaws, but it also has more liberty.
I will publish another post once we get to Lima, to give some details about Machu Picchu. Other than that, I had better get going, as Emily is waiting (sleeping) at the hotel, it´s 8:20 and we haven´t had dinner yet. I think we will go to the same Japanese place as last night because it is easy on the stomach.
Buen Provecho!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Los Yungas, La Paz & Copacabana on Lake Titicaca
This was the view from the balcony of our private cabaña in Los Yungas.
After Coroico, we went to La Paz. A family friend of ours, Nilda, is from Bolivia, and when we told her we were going, she insisted we stay with her family. Since we were going to La Paz, we stayed with her neice, Lourdes, her son Sebastian, and her husband, Dr. Boris Sandy. They were incredibly hospitable, and we had a great time with them. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and you are frequently tired and out of breath. I wasn´t too bothered by the altitude, but Emily was. So we took it fairly easy, and we went to the Coca museum, as well as did a bunch of shopping.
La Paz is a very interesting city, as it is basically a giant bowl. The canyon is surrounded by mountains and ridges, but that makes it easy to find your way around once you recognize the surrounding mountains. On our last night there (Friday) we went out with Lourdes and Boris. I must admit going out to bars & clubs in Bolivia is waaaay more exciting than Canada. We started by going to a bar briefly at 11:45 for a short while, before proceeding to one of the city´s premiere nightclubs in a the prosperous Zona Sur neighbourhood.
Boris knew the staff there, so he had called ahead and reserved us a table, and ordered bottle service. We had a bottle of Johnny Walker, and the live music started around 1:00. It was a 7 or 8 piece band, and they mostly played Cumbia, which is a type of South American music I had started listening to before we came here, and to which I will be listening even more when I get back. We were dancing on the chairs, (which is perfectly acceptable), and the clubs generally stay open until a little after 4 am. Emily and I left around 3 because she was feeling ill (she wasn´t drinking, it was only the altitude). Needless to say, I will be seeking out some similiar nightlife in Toronto in September.
We are now staying in a beautifully located hotel right on the shore of Lake Titicaca. The altitude here is even higher than La Paz, and this will be the highest altitude we experience on the trip. It makes you feel pathetically out of shape, as even walking up a tiny hill makes one comepletely our of breath. You feel short of breath a lot of the time, even when sitting still. However, the Lake is beautiful, clear, and surrounded by mountains, some of them being very large peaks of the Andes.
We have done a little hiking around the town, and today we took a (long) boat to Isla del Sol, which has numerous Inca ruins. It was beautiful and rugged, although this is the most touristy place in Bolivia, which we find somewhat irritating. We have one more full day in Bolivia, and we don´t want to leave. Every other traveller we have talked to who has come from Peru states how much better Bolivia is. We have not left ourselves much time in Peru, just enough to see Macchu Picchu and then head to Lima, where we depart.
We are both sad that our time in Bolivia is coming to an end, and we are both looking forward to visiting Macchu Picchu. Nonetheless, we are excited about coming home. There are a few things we are excited about (other than seeing family and friends, of course): showers with lots of water pressure, being able to brush our teeth with tap water (as opposed to bottled water), and homecooked meals. I am excited about listening to LOTS of music, especially loudly with a lot of bass, and driving my car.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Our Volunteer Week in Cochabamba
Hola,
Our week volunteering proved to be quite interesting. Not necessarily the volunteeraspect of it, but other parts. The Saturday after the homestay we moved to our hostal,Buenos Aries. The first few nights of our stay we´re descent. It is a hostal afterall, so it was not as nice as a hotel would be.
When we got back from volunteering on Tuesday. We were all dirty from painting and reallyin need of a shower. I told Caleb he could shower first since he is a much dirtier personthan me. About 1 minute after he went into the washroom to shower he came out, and informedme that there was not water. Shocked as I was, I didn´t quite believe him, so I decided tosee for myself, and yes, in fact he was right, there was no water. So we made our way downto the reception desk to tell them about our situation, and they told us that there shouldbe water in the next 2 to 3 hours, and if not then we should for sure have it in themorning. Haha, well you can just imagine how impressed we were with this predicament we found ourselves in. So we went on our way to phone Tyson and Carolina, just to let them knowabout our situation. They were quite shocked, because in the two weeks that the Elevation team was down and staying at that same hostal they never experience such problems.
Well, after the phone call we headed out for dinner, since there wasn´t going to be waterfor us to shower for at least another couple hours. We dined out at a wonderful Irish pub called Na Cunna, run by a friend of Tyson and Carolina´s. We had an amazing dinner there, and on our walk back we discussed what we were going to do if there wasn´t water, but alsothought that maybe we should not worry about that until we knew for sure. Well, we got backand went up to our room to shower, and would you believe it, there was NO WATER!!!
At this point we were pretty annoyed with this hostal. Not just because of the water situation,but also because of the paper thin walls. I forgot to mention that the night before neitherof us slept well because our neighbour to the right left his TV on full volume the ENTIRE night. We´re not sure if he slept, and if so how he slept because Caleb could understandthe Spanish television shows, even with his blankets pulled over his head. Anyway, not to worrywe did manage to clean ourselves up before we went to bed, with a 2L bottle of water...yes, notthe greatest experience!
Early the next morning we get up to see if the water is running. And what do you know, it is. Butthe water is not the most pleasant colour. It´s more of a yellowish colour. This of course weexpected since the water lines had clearly run dry. We went on our way that morning off to volunteer and got a call from Carolina, offering for us to stay with them for our last couple nights, since we had had such a bad stay at the hostal. We graciously took her and Tyson up on their offer. So our last couple days in Cochabamba we spent with them.
Despite the challenging time we had with our stay this week, we did have a great time volunteering at the orphanage and painting. We got a lot done and only ended up painting 3 days, when we thought we would be painting for 5! I guess you could say that we´re pretty amazing and that´s why we finished so quickly. Oh yeah, but did I mention that we were painting with a professional painter? That may have had something to do with us getting done so quickly...just maybe! ANyway, that was a great experience. While we didn´t really get to know the kids in the orphanage we did get a lot of children coming up to us asking us if we were painting. It was pretty cute. The one day when I was painting I made a friend. He just sat there and watched as I painted. It was pretty great. Unfortunately my Spanish was and still is not as good as I would have hoped it would be, and I could not converse much with this child. I was able to ask him his name and how old he was though!
Since we only painted for 3 of the 5 days we thought we would be painting, we spent our time on Friday going to visit the orphanage that Tyson and Carolina work with. THey have a very nice home set up for the girls who live there. We met a number of the girls, who were very excited to meet us, and when they realized we had a camera they went a little camera happy, kind of like my dear friends at home!!! Needless to say, we have a great collection of photos of us with the girls, that we will definitely share when we´re back.
Being our last night in Cochabamba, Tyson and Carolina took us out (with the kids) for dinner at GLOBOS, which is a restaurant chain in Cochabamba that is known for its spectacular sundaes, and not its speedy service! It was a great experience, and definitely a good business idea for someone in Canada. What could be better than a ice cream parlour that sells a multitude of different sundaes? Some sundaes even came with alcohol in them. It´s brilliant!
After dinner it was back to Tyson and Carolina´s to pack for the bus we needed to catch to La Paz at 10:00PM.
Stay tuned to hear about our many more adventures!
Emily
Our week volunteering proved to be quite interesting. Not necessarily the volunteeraspect of it, but other parts. The Saturday after the homestay we moved to our hostal,Buenos Aries. The first few nights of our stay we´re descent. It is a hostal afterall, so it was not as nice as a hotel would be.
When we got back from volunteering on Tuesday. We were all dirty from painting and reallyin need of a shower. I told Caleb he could shower first since he is a much dirtier personthan me. About 1 minute after he went into the washroom to shower he came out, and informedme that there was not water. Shocked as I was, I didn´t quite believe him, so I decided tosee for myself, and yes, in fact he was right, there was no water. So we made our way downto the reception desk to tell them about our situation, and they told us that there shouldbe water in the next 2 to 3 hours, and if not then we should for sure have it in themorning. Haha, well you can just imagine how impressed we were with this predicament we found ourselves in. So we went on our way to phone Tyson and Carolina, just to let them knowabout our situation. They were quite shocked, because in the two weeks that the Elevation team was down and staying at that same hostal they never experience such problems.
Well, after the phone call we headed out for dinner, since there wasn´t going to be waterfor us to shower for at least another couple hours. We dined out at a wonderful Irish pub called Na Cunna, run by a friend of Tyson and Carolina´s. We had an amazing dinner there, and on our walk back we discussed what we were going to do if there wasn´t water, but alsothought that maybe we should not worry about that until we knew for sure. Well, we got backand went up to our room to shower, and would you believe it, there was NO WATER!!!
At this point we were pretty annoyed with this hostal. Not just because of the water situation,but also because of the paper thin walls. I forgot to mention that the night before neitherof us slept well because our neighbour to the right left his TV on full volume the ENTIRE night. We´re not sure if he slept, and if so how he slept because Caleb could understandthe Spanish television shows, even with his blankets pulled over his head. Anyway, not to worrywe did manage to clean ourselves up before we went to bed, with a 2L bottle of water...yes, notthe greatest experience!
Early the next morning we get up to see if the water is running. And what do you know, it is. Butthe water is not the most pleasant colour. It´s more of a yellowish colour. This of course weexpected since the water lines had clearly run dry. We went on our way that morning off to volunteer and got a call from Carolina, offering for us to stay with them for our last couple nights, since we had had such a bad stay at the hostal. We graciously took her and Tyson up on their offer. So our last couple days in Cochabamba we spent with them.
Despite the challenging time we had with our stay this week, we did have a great time volunteering at the orphanage and painting. We got a lot done and only ended up painting 3 days, when we thought we would be painting for 5! I guess you could say that we´re pretty amazing and that´s why we finished so quickly. Oh yeah, but did I mention that we were painting with a professional painter? That may have had something to do with us getting done so quickly...just maybe! ANyway, that was a great experience. While we didn´t really get to know the kids in the orphanage we did get a lot of children coming up to us asking us if we were painting. It was pretty cute. The one day when I was painting I made a friend. He just sat there and watched as I painted. It was pretty great. Unfortunately my Spanish was and still is not as good as I would have hoped it would be, and I could not converse much with this child. I was able to ask him his name and how old he was though!
Since we only painted for 3 of the 5 days we thought we would be painting, we spent our time on Friday going to visit the orphanage that Tyson and Carolina work with. THey have a very nice home set up for the girls who live there. We met a number of the girls, who were very excited to meet us, and when they realized we had a camera they went a little camera happy, kind of like my dear friends at home!!! Needless to say, we have a great collection of photos of us with the girls, that we will definitely share when we´re back.
Being our last night in Cochabamba, Tyson and Carolina took us out (with the kids) for dinner at GLOBOS, which is a restaurant chain in Cochabamba that is known for its spectacular sundaes, and not its speedy service! It was a great experience, and definitely a good business idea for someone in Canada. What could be better than a ice cream parlour that sells a multitude of different sundaes? Some sundaes even came with alcohol in them. It´s brilliant!
After dinner it was back to Tyson and Carolina´s to pack for the bus we needed to catch to La Paz at 10:00PM.
Stay tuned to hear about our many more adventures!
Emily
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Coroico, Los Yungas
I was posting 2 photos, but this stupid connection screwed up after a LOOONG wait. I am quite frustrated, but I will get some pics up here once I get back to La Paz.
Since the town (Coroico) is perched on the shoulder of a mountain, the views anywhere here are stunning. We walk around a lot, and have gone on two incredible hikes, one which took a day, where we hiked down to a river and went swimming. This hike involved a BIG descent and ascent, two and a half hours down and three and a half hours back. The whole way back we were followed by a friendly dog, who served as our tour guide. We walked through dry brush areas and jungle, and we passed many fields of bananas, oranges, coffee, coca, and several other tropical fruits.
The second hike we took was to a set of waterfalls, but thankfully it followed a very high mountain path, which meant that the walk was pretty flat, although you had to be very careful where you stepped because the slope ranged from being steep, to sheer drops beside us. We passed through a much drier area, which was primarily scrub, and we walked past and through many coca fields. At one point we were walking through a coca field, and we thought we had lost the path. However, as soon as we started backtracking a friendly, old cocalera (female coca farmer) told us we were going in the right direction. The waterfalls were not as nice a destination as the river, as we could not swim because the waterfalls were dammed and used as a source of drinking water for nearby mountain villages. However, they were surrounded by cool, damp jungle which offered a pleasant respite from the hot walk.
We have been relaxing our aching legs today, and we will be heading back to La Paz tomorrow, where we will be for a few days before heading to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca.
Since the town (Coroico) is perched on the shoulder of a mountain, the views anywhere here are stunning. We walk around a lot, and have gone on two incredible hikes, one which took a day, where we hiked down to a river and went swimming. This hike involved a BIG descent and ascent, two and a half hours down and three and a half hours back. The whole way back we were followed by a friendly dog, who served as our tour guide. We walked through dry brush areas and jungle, and we passed many fields of bananas, oranges, coffee, coca, and several other tropical fruits.
The second hike we took was to a set of waterfalls, but thankfully it followed a very high mountain path, which meant that the walk was pretty flat, although you had to be very careful where you stepped because the slope ranged from being steep, to sheer drops beside us. We passed through a much drier area, which was primarily scrub, and we walked past and through many coca fields. At one point we were walking through a coca field, and we thought we had lost the path. However, as soon as we started backtracking a friendly, old cocalera (female coca farmer) told us we were going in the right direction. The waterfalls were not as nice a destination as the river, as we could not swim because the waterfalls were dammed and used as a source of drinking water for nearby mountain villages. However, they were surrounded by cool, damp jungle which offered a pleasant respite from the hot walk.
We have been relaxing our aching legs today, and we will be heading back to La Paz tomorrow, where we will be for a few days before heading to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Arrival in Los Yungas
Last night we had a rapid (& somewhat nervewracking) experience getting our bus from Cochabamba to La Paz, but it worked out and the bus was a semi cama, which meant that the seats reclined almost all the way back, so we were able to catch a little sleep during the drive.
We arrived at the La Paz terminal at 5:30, and took a cab around 6:30 to Villa Fatima, the neighbourhood where the buses leave for Coroico. We caught a micro (bus), and our seats were right in the front, which made for breathtaking views. The government built road has now opened, and so we did not have to take the world´s most dangerous road. I can´t really describe the trip, pictures don´t even do it justice. The road begins by going higher than La Paz (which is at 12 000 ft). The landscape is the huge mountains of the Cordillera Real range in the Andes, and it drops more than 3 000 metres in less than 80 kilometres.
Coroico has a semi-tropical climate, and I believe it is classified as a cloud forest. The jungle flora and fauna are beautiful, just as Emily and I went for a walk this afternoon we saw three large, multicolored parrots sitting by the pool. We have decided we will be staying in Coroico for five days, as there is plenty of hiking, swimming, and exploring to do here. Right now were are in a fairly impressive hostel with a gorgeous location overlooking a huge canyon/valley, but tomorrow we will be moving to a hostel on the other side of the mountain ridge, where we will have a private cabana. I have been a taking pictures almost obsessively here, but I´m not posting any today because the internet connection is slow.
We arrived at the La Paz terminal at 5:30, and took a cab around 6:30 to Villa Fatima, the neighbourhood where the buses leave for Coroico. We caught a micro (bus), and our seats were right in the front, which made for breathtaking views. The government built road has now opened, and so we did not have to take the world´s most dangerous road. I can´t really describe the trip, pictures don´t even do it justice. The road begins by going higher than La Paz (which is at 12 000 ft). The landscape is the huge mountains of the Cordillera Real range in the Andes, and it drops more than 3 000 metres in less than 80 kilometres.
Coroico has a semi-tropical climate, and I believe it is classified as a cloud forest. The jungle flora and fauna are beautiful, just as Emily and I went for a walk this afternoon we saw three large, multicolored parrots sitting by the pool. We have decided we will be staying in Coroico for five days, as there is plenty of hiking, swimming, and exploring to do here. Right now were are in a fairly impressive hostel with a gorgeous location overlooking a huge canyon/valley, but tomorrow we will be moving to a hostel on the other side of the mountain ridge, where we will have a private cabana. I have been a taking pictures almost obsessively here, but I´m not posting any today because the internet connection is slow.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Pictures & more description of our time in Cochabamba
Hola!!!
Ok, so yes, we do know that it´s been a while since we´ve update the blog, but we´ve been super busy lately and just haven´t had the time. Since the last post we´ve been having an amazing time here. We spent our week at the language school, Escuela Runawasi, during this time we stayed with a Bolivia family in Juan XXIII (see picture), that was the name of the neighbourhood the school was in as well. This was probably the best decision we made staying with the family because we got to eat traditional Bolivian food every day.
Our family consisted of an older couple (Vita and Renee). They lived on their own, but their granddaughter, Melanie, was visiting from La Paz and we shared a few meals with her and her mom too! The interesting thing about this family is they did not speak ANY English. SO...we had to really make use of the Spanish we were learning that we at the school. Caleb saved me on a number of occasions, especially the time when Vita was trying to tell us what we were eating and I did not quite understand what was happening. Caleb then turns to me and tells me that we´re eating Sheep. Yep, that´s right, Sheep, not lamb, but sheep. Apparently lamb is really good, Caleb was shocked to hear that I´ve never had lamb before, but yeah, sheep, is not so good. It´s a very tough meat. Now both of us can say we´ve tried it, and we´ll never have it again (if we can help it)!.
We took a number of pictures while we were at the homestay. Vita and Renee had a great property, while it seemed small at first I came to realize that it was just the layout that made it seem smaller. Caleb and I had a room at the back of their courtyard (see picture). We had to walk across the courtyard if we needed to use the bathroom, which on the cold nights (every night) it was a pain to do. I think if I could name one thing Caleb fell in love with while we were at Vita and Renee it would have to be el perro (the dog). While the dog was cute, I did not fall so in love with him, because the concept of cleaning your dog is not one that they seemed to be accustomed to. So needless to say, el perro (Nicholas) was VERY dirty. I made sure Caleb washed his hands after each timehe pet el perro.
As for the school. Well, it turned out to be a great experience. We were told on the first day that they like to switch our teachers every day for us, but if there happens to be one that we particularly liked then we could request to have them. Was I ever thankful for that! My first day of language school was not all I had hoped it would be. Mi professora made the assumption that I knew some Spanish, and she made an even bigger assumption that I was fluent in French. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah right!
ANyway, if that was not bad enough, then we started to have a discussion about religion and she asked what religion I was, wantingto know whether or not I was Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, etc... Since I´ve been attending Erb Street Mennonite for a year now I decided to say that I was Mennonite. Well was that not the wrong answer. She was shocked that I as a Mennonite would be coming to her as a Catholic for language lessons. I later learned that her understanding of Mennonites is a little bit off, at least with regards to the type of Mennonite I was describing to her. Anyway, I think I was able to get her to understand that I was in fact a really great person who was giving and wanted to learn from her, but needless to say, I did not wish to have her as my teacher for the rest of the week. She was just a bit too strong willed for me.
So the next day I got a new professora, her name was Ingrid, and she was lovely. Most of the professoras at the school have different backgrounds than teaching, and Ingrid was a lawyer. Caleb´s professora´s name was Naomi. She was the first professora he had, and while didn´t get to keep her the second day, he did request her after the second day, because on the second day he ended up with la professora I had on the first day.
Just to give you a little better taste of this lady...Caleb explained to her that we were in Bolivia visiting my cousins, because I guess she did not understand this from the first day when I told her that. And her remark to Caleb after he told her that we were staying in a homestay, was *Well what´s wrong with your cousins, are they cheap?" Obviously Caleb´s remark was NO!!! Then he explained to her that Tyson and Carolina thought a homestay experience would be better for us, because this was we would have the opportunity to see how a real Bolivian family lives and the food they eat. Anyway, all was clear after that, but what nerve to make the assumption she did...
So language school was good. We were VERY exhausted after the five days, and looking forward to moving on with our travels. We left last Saturday morning and headed to our hostal, which was more central to the down town and a number of great restaurants. We looked forward to eating out at less traditional Bolilvian restaurants, because we came to learn after the week in the homestay that a lot of the food tasted the same. And, our stomachs and tastebuds were getting a bit tired of the food. So we did enjoy a much more North American meal Saturday afternoon for lunch.
Before lunch though, we did what many Bolivians do on a Saturday morning, and that was head to La Cancha or el marcado (the market). In Cochabamba they call it La Cancha. We had been to La Cancha our first Saturday in Cochabamba, but this was our first time heading down there on our own. What an experience. This place does not compare to any market we have in Canada. It is said to be the largest market in Bolivia, and I believe it. If you´re clostraphobic, it´s not a good idea to go. There are people EVERYWHERE!
After spending a couple hours there we heading back into town for our NA lunch, and enjoyed a couple cups of coca tea. THis then gave us enough energy to head back to La Cancha, for another two hours. When we were there we picked up a Cacho cup. Cacho is a very popular dice game that is played by a number of Bolivians. It´s very similar to Yahtzee. We´ll have to teach it when we´re back.The next day, Carolina showed us the way to the orphanage we´d be painting, and then we spent the afternoon with the Malos. We did lunch and then afterwards headed back into the city.
Stay tuned to hear about our exciting week of volunteering!
Ok, so yes, we do know that it´s been a while since we´ve update the blog, but we´ve been super busy lately and just haven´t had the time. Since the last post we´ve been having an amazing time here. We spent our week at the language school, Escuela Runawasi, during this time we stayed with a Bolivia family in Juan XXIII (see picture), that was the name of the neighbourhood the school was in as well. This was probably the best decision we made staying with the family because we got to eat traditional Bolivian food every day.
Our family consisted of an older couple (Vita and Renee). They lived on their own, but their granddaughter, Melanie, was visiting from La Paz and we shared a few meals with her and her mom too! The interesting thing about this family is they did not speak ANY English. SO...we had to really make use of the Spanish we were learning that we at the school. Caleb saved me on a number of occasions, especially the time when Vita was trying to tell us what we were eating and I did not quite understand what was happening. Caleb then turns to me and tells me that we´re eating Sheep. Yep, that´s right, Sheep, not lamb, but sheep. Apparently lamb is really good, Caleb was shocked to hear that I´ve never had lamb before, but yeah, sheep, is not so good. It´s a very tough meat. Now both of us can say we´ve tried it, and we´ll never have it again (if we can help it)!.
We took a number of pictures while we were at the homestay. Vita and Renee had a great property, while it seemed small at first I came to realize that it was just the layout that made it seem smaller. Caleb and I had a room at the back of their courtyard (see picture). We had to walk across the courtyard if we needed to use the bathroom, which on the cold nights (every night) it was a pain to do. I think if I could name one thing Caleb fell in love with while we were at Vita and Renee it would have to be el perro (the dog). While the dog was cute, I did not fall so in love with him, because the concept of cleaning your dog is not one that they seemed to be accustomed to. So needless to say, el perro (Nicholas) was VERY dirty. I made sure Caleb washed his hands after each timehe pet el perro.
As for the school. Well, it turned out to be a great experience. We were told on the first day that they like to switch our teachers every day for us, but if there happens to be one that we particularly liked then we could request to have them. Was I ever thankful for that! My first day of language school was not all I had hoped it would be. Mi professora made the assumption that I knew some Spanish, and she made an even bigger assumption that I was fluent in French. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah right!
ANyway, if that was not bad enough, then we started to have a discussion about religion and she asked what religion I was, wantingto know whether or not I was Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, etc... Since I´ve been attending Erb Street Mennonite for a year now I decided to say that I was Mennonite. Well was that not the wrong answer. She was shocked that I as a Mennonite would be coming to her as a Catholic for language lessons. I later learned that her understanding of Mennonites is a little bit off, at least with regards to the type of Mennonite I was describing to her. Anyway, I think I was able to get her to understand that I was in fact a really great person who was giving and wanted to learn from her, but needless to say, I did not wish to have her as my teacher for the rest of the week. She was just a bit too strong willed for me.
So the next day I got a new professora, her name was Ingrid, and she was lovely. Most of the professoras at the school have different backgrounds than teaching, and Ingrid was a lawyer. Caleb´s professora´s name was Naomi. She was the first professora he had, and while didn´t get to keep her the second day, he did request her after the second day, because on the second day he ended up with la professora I had on the first day.
Just to give you a little better taste of this lady...Caleb explained to her that we were in Bolivia visiting my cousins, because I guess she did not understand this from the first day when I told her that. And her remark to Caleb after he told her that we were staying in a homestay, was *Well what´s wrong with your cousins, are they cheap?" Obviously Caleb´s remark was NO!!! Then he explained to her that Tyson and Carolina thought a homestay experience would be better for us, because this was we would have the opportunity to see how a real Bolivian family lives and the food they eat. Anyway, all was clear after that, but what nerve to make the assumption she did...
So language school was good. We were VERY exhausted after the five days, and looking forward to moving on with our travels. We left last Saturday morning and headed to our hostal, which was more central to the down town and a number of great restaurants. We looked forward to eating out at less traditional Bolilvian restaurants, because we came to learn after the week in the homestay that a lot of the food tasted the same. And, our stomachs and tastebuds were getting a bit tired of the food. So we did enjoy a much more North American meal Saturday afternoon for lunch.
Before lunch though, we did what many Bolivians do on a Saturday morning, and that was head to La Cancha or el marcado (the market). In Cochabamba they call it La Cancha. We had been to La Cancha our first Saturday in Cochabamba, but this was our first time heading down there on our own. What an experience. This place does not compare to any market we have in Canada. It is said to be the largest market in Bolivia, and I believe it. If you´re clostraphobic, it´s not a good idea to go. There are people EVERYWHERE!
After spending a couple hours there we heading back into town for our NA lunch, and enjoyed a couple cups of coca tea. THis then gave us enough energy to head back to La Cancha, for another two hours. When we were there we picked up a Cacho cup. Cacho is a very popular dice game that is played by a number of Bolivians. It´s very similar to Yahtzee. We´ll have to teach it when we´re back.The next day, Carolina showed us the way to the orphanage we´d be painting, and then we spent the afternoon with the Malos. We did lunch and then afterwards headed back into the city.
Stay tuned to hear about our exciting week of volunteering!
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