Bo-Bo-Bo Li-Li-Li Via-Via-Via

So I have finally finished volunteering at my school and enjoyed several weeks of visits from Washingtonians. First my mom for five days and then Abbie and Todd for two weeks. With friends in town and trying to tie up loose ends in La Paz I haven´t had much time to be in front of a computer. So here is a quick and dirty account of what has been going on here...

My mom arrived on an early morning flight on friday, my last day volunteering at the school. She had a bit of srerocha (altitude sickness) after taking a cold shower at her hotel (because she thought the C on the faucet meant Cold and not Caliente). But a little coca tea quickly got her back on her feet and I took her with me down to Obrajes, th suburb where my school is. When we got there all the kids were anxiously waiting for my mom´s arrival. They had been practicing their dialogues in English so they could repeatledly ask her, ´´where are you from, how old are you (Oops! That should have been taught later!), or what is your name??´´ They also had made cards with some pretty great english phrases straight from the songs we had taught them in class.

After about 30 minutes of class it was cut short by a special recess so that all the teachers could assemble in the kitchen for empanadas and coffee and a going away ceremony that was also an over the top welcome for my mom. It was really sweet and the music teacher played the guitar while every one sang quaka songs. After that the prinicapl and pastor made some over the top speeches about how grateful they were. It was the typical Bolivian tendency toward flashy displays of gratitude that I love. Meanwhile the kids ran crazy in the school yard for an hour, totally unsupervised escept for a single security guard.

We took my mom to Copacabana on lake Titicaca and Tihuanacu where there are some pretty awesome pre-Incan ruins. We spent the rest of the time showing her around La Paz, shopping, and feeding her all our favorite Bolivian food.


She flew out on wednesday morning and we spent the morning running errands with our friend Mara who we had decided to go trekking with. In the afternoon we had tickets to the Bolivia-Argentina world cup qualifier. Bolivia is definitely the underdog but Argentina couldn{t handle the altitude. It was an awesome game because the crowd was going crazy the whole time. Bolivia really hammered Argentina, 6-1. They were constantly hammering shots at the goal and Argentina was clearly exhausted from the altitude. The crowd was going crazy, chanting things like, ¨Of you don´t jump your an Argentinian¨ and ¨Bo-bo-bo li-li-li via-via-via, VIVA BOLIVI.¨ It was really fun to see so many people out supporting their team (and a few traitors with Argetninian jersies). Lucy and I had Bolivian flags painted on by a guy on the street who we later found out was not using face paint. We had burns running along our cheeks where the paint had been. Bolivian flag tattoos?

The next morning we left for El Choro, a three day trekking route that starts outside of lLa Paz at well over 4,000 meters. The trail then winds up and down slowly descending until you reach the tropical Yungas valley. It was absolutely gorgeous and went from barren rock and snow where we literally hiked through the clouds, to thick tropical trees and tons of bird and animal life along the trail by the third day. The route followed part of the Inca trail so there are still ancient rocks laid in a path from thousands of years ago. There were basic camping spots set up along the way and one of our friend lent us the necessary cooking supplies. Really it wasn{t tht different from cooking over the tiny burner in our hotel bathroom in La Paz but things defintely taste better after 8 hours of hiking.

We got back the day before Todd and Abbie were scheduled to arrive but actualy had more time than we planned because they got delayed for 24 hours at JFK! We amused ourselves by going to see the Cholitas Wrestling in El Alto (the working class city that has popped up outside of La Paz) to see some pretty hilarious fake wrestling put on by such classic characters as the ninja turtles and other absurd characters. Ridiculous.


Abbie and Todd finally got to La Paz the next day. Unfortunately we don{t know much about hostels in La Paz and ours smelt of turpentine (thought apparently they claim this is cleaning fluid). We quickly discovered that just about every hostel cleans with this stuff and the place we stayed the next night also smelled of noctious fumes.

We went abck to Copacaban with them but this time camped on Isla del Sol right in the middle of Lake Titicaca. It was gorgeous, but the Island of the sun proved to be not so sunny the next day and we had to walk back to catch the boat in the rain. We headed back to La Paz for a bike trip down the World´s Most Dangerous Road. It is the old road to Coroico that runs right along the route we trekked the week before. Part of it is paved but the second half is a rocky windy mess with steep drops and plenty of waterfalls making you and the road rather wet. The guides stopped us along the way to prep us for the next bit, tell us scary stories of all the people who had died on the road, but we had really great bikes so it wasn´t too bad. O{m sure my parents will be happy to know I am safe and did not fall off the bike and over a cliff.

Next we headed to Salar de Uyuni, a massive axpanse of salt surrounded by mineral lakes and incredible scenery made up of volcanoes and crazy rock formations. We spent fours days driving around and taking awesome pictures on the salar because the massive expanse of salt messes with your cameras perception abilities. I´ll send pictures soon, although they don´t quite compare but I feel they do a better job than me digging up every adjective for beatiful and amazing I can think of.

Lucy and I are spending an extra day in Uyuni, Todd, Abbie, and our friend Will headed back to La Paz last night. We are taking a night train to the Argentine border and from there are headed to Tucuamn to WWOOF for a week on an organic farm.