Cochabamba, La Paz, Sorata

Wow, so hard to believe we are in October now. We've been eight months in country, and even though we are still pretty new, time is flying by. It seems the past two or three months have been particularly busy with visitors, traveling, and finally some work. The seasons are changing and we can feel the beginning of our first hot/rainy south American summer. We've also had more adventures with our house in site and the electricity of our little town. Never a dull day in Bolivia.

It was great to see other volunteers from our group at our mini-reunion in Cochabamba. We had time to share stories and discuss any challenges we were having in our sites. We also met with others working on similar projects and exchanged ideas. There was also a little time to explore Cochabamba again and have some fun. During the weekend, a group of twelve of us climbed 17,000 Mt. Tunari. The weather was much better compared to our last trip up the mountain in March and the views from the top were much more spectacular than before. It was so clear that we could see the huge Cordillera Real near the city of La Paz over 300 miles away. We had views of 21,000+ foot Mt. Illimani and 19,900 foot Huayna Potosi, two classic Bolivian peaks that are relatively non-technical and accessible to amateur mountaineers. A few volunteers have climbed them in the past, and of course there is talk of making an attempt before our time in Bolivia is finished. We´ll see what happens...

(John, Phil, and I around 13,000 ft)

(L- View from summit of Cochabamba Valley)

(R - View from summit toward La Paz)

(Summit of Mt Tunari)

Anyway, we had a great time in Cochabamba with everyone and are already looking forward to more stories and fun during our 1-year medical checkups in March when the whole group will be together again.

A few weeks after we returned from Cochabamba Erica left for an almost two-week wedding filled trip back to the USA. and I stayed in Bolivia and traveled a bit. Erica and I flew to La Paz the day before her flight and had one night together in the city before she flew out. We went out to the Zona Sur, an upper class neighborhood in the south of La Paz and walked around and had Mexican Food for dinner. Unfortunately the food was nothing special but we had a nice night and were marveled by the amazing city and scenery of La Paz. Erica flew out the next morning and I met my friend John who happened to be returning from a similar USA wedding trip that same morning. In fact, John was landing in La Paz on the same airplane that Erica would be departing for Miami on. So Erica left for her US trip and John and I set out to do some hiking around La Paz.

We had read about two popular day hikes, the Valle del Luna and the Muelle del Diablo. We checked out the Valle del Luna which was pretty, but turned out to be a fenced in area with paths and picnic tables. It was not exactly what we were looking for so we headed for the Muelle del Diablo (the Devil's Molar). We'd read that is was a rock formation about 45 minutes from the city on the rim of the valley with views back to the city and also out into the Altiplano. We were much happier with our choice as we had the place to ourselves and did enjoy great views of the Cordillera Real and of Mt. Illimani.


(L - Muelle del Diablo, R - Mt. Illimani in distance)


(Views back into La Paz city valley)

(Muelle del Diablo from below)

We went back to La Paz for dinner and then John left the next morning to head back to his site near Oruro, about 4 hours away. I stayed in La Paz one more day to do some shopping then I left the next morning for Sorata, a town in near Lake Titicaca in the beginning of the Yungas region of Bolivia. The Yungas is the area where the Andes drop off and become the Amazon basin. The altitude drops dramatically and there are high green valleys situated between snow capped peaks. As you continue down in elevation, it becomes more jungle like and soon becomes full Amazonia. Sorata is a small town at just under 7,000 feet (compared to over 11,000 for La Paz, and over 12,000 on the Altiplano) that has gained popularity as a starting point for hiking and trekking into the Andes or down into the jungle. Providing a backdrop to the town are Mt Illampu (20,892 ft) and Mt Ancohuma (21,068 ft).








(Views from Sorata)

I had bought a nice map and planned a long hike up to a glacial lake at 10,000 ft. Somewhere I took a wrong turn and found myself exploring a riverbed instead of heading up the mountain. I found some small waterfalls and ate lunch by the water. It turned out to be a much shorter hike but still enjoyable.




I spent one more night in Sorata and left the next morning for La Paz. The weather was overcast and I was sorry I hadn't taken a picture of the plaza earlier, so this is what I got. I rode a micro, basically a minivan back to La Paz. As usually I was the only non Bolivian in the vehicle, but what was different compared to Tarija was that the people were speaking Quechua rather than Spanish. It was cool to finally hear the old Incan language spoken by a group of traditional Bolivians. Again, I wanted to take a picture from my seat in the back but I had to be sly. I hope the picture captures some of the feel of the ride.





I was amazed at the city of La Paz and definitely want to go back. I'd never seen such a mix of cultures and flavors in a city so large and modern. We saw high rise buildings next to colonial churches, we could buy cell phones and DVD players in the markets or llama fetuses and dried armadillos right next door, we could eat expensive sushi or a huge plate of picante de pollo for around $1.00. In addition to the cultural buzz is the incredible scenery of huge snow capped peaks in virtually every direction. I think La Paz is one of the most unique cities I've ever visited.



(L - National Cathedral, R - National government building)

(Cathedral and Peace monument)

(L - Muelle del Diablo from city, R- Mt. Illimani)

(Market street in La Paz)

So after my travels I flew back to Tarija and bussed back to El Puente and our home. Erica still had a week in the US so I spent time in our town with the cat trying to get work going again. The town was still having electricity issues and we were getting about 5 good hours of power every evening. When Erica got back we went back to work on the school gardens and a worm bin. We mixed and prepared soil following what we were shown in training. After a while we even forgot we were digging through pig, chicken, and cow poop with our bare hands. We expect to transplant the plants coming from the seed bed in the next week and harvest everything with the elementary school kids before the end of their school year in late November. I've also begun helping the high school English teacher a few hours a night with his pronunciation and grammar.

(Sitting on a heap of "natural fertilizer", poising with the onions)

(Our seed bed with 12 different species of veggies)

So we've had a good last month or so and are looking forward to Thanksgiving and a visit from my mom and our first Christmas in Bolivia. The cat is also doing well and has his special appointment with the surgeon next week, he will not be a papá.

(Salta taking a siesta)

Hasta lluego,

Marcos

July Flies By...

The month of July blasted by with lots of activity. My parents' much anticipated visit took place during the first week of July. After at least 12 hours on planes, a delay in Miami, and a sizeable layover in La Paz at over 15,000 feet, my parents arrived in Tarija in remarkably good condition. We went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Pizza 95.



The next day we bought food to take back to our site and wandered around town a bit. We had apple empañadas from the pastry ladies that hang out in front of a particular church. Then we went to get licuados (smoothies made with milk, fruit, and sugar) at the central market.





That night we celebrated Mark and my 2 year wedding anniversary at our favorite Bolivian restaurant, Pollo Janeth, where Mark and my dad shared an enormous Pique a lo Macho (see first blog entry for description).



There happened to be an important futbol game on and so we watched on the big screen with a lot of Argentinian soccer fans. The next two days were spent in our site, where the main focus was playing cribbage and preparing food. Here's a shot of the inside of the bus we took, which helps give some perspective on how travel is in Bolivia. It's honestly not as bad as I'd imagined. The only non-human on the bus was our cat, no chickens or goats.




Once we arrived uneventfully in our site, we walked around town, showed my parents where we work, make phone calls, and buy fried egg or milanesa sandwiches for dinner. Below is a picture of the phone place that we use to receive calls in El Puente. We can make outgoing phone calls using calling cards, but it costs about 25 cents per minute. It's basically the front room of a familiy's house, so there are often kids and dogs hanging out. From time to time they have vegetables or fruit for sale as well.



It was particularly helpful to walk up to the Christ statue that we have to get a more aerial view of the town. My mom and I baked a carrot cake, which was tricky since our oven doesn't heat up as much as it says it does, and we were using the high altitude preparation instructions. We made an awesome spaghetti and garlic bread dinner, celebrated Mark's birthday a little early, and watched Spiderman (which was a gift sent with my parents from Mark's mom- Thanks Irma!). After two nights, it was time to head back to Tarija for some souvenir shopping and more fine dining. The bus trip was a little more colorful, since we had to flag down a passing bus and it wasn't clear whether there would be room for all four of us. We lucked out and even got four seats all together, in the back row. We were treated to a rather loud viewing of "Beverly Hills Ninja" dubbed into Spanish, which was ridiculous. On their last night back in Tarija, we went to a restaurant on the main plaza and had steaks and italian food, where this picture was taken.



The next morning, we received an urgent message that the departure time of their flight had been moved up by an hour. We accompanied them to the airport, where no plane had yet arrived to carry them to La Paz. After playing cribbage for a while, it was announced that the plane would be delayed for several hours. Mark and I left for a bit to get my face X-rayed, which is apparently how sinus infections are diagnosed here. It was a little freaky laying face down on the X-ray table and not having any protective lead garments, but the X-ray was kinda cool to look at afterwards.



After being X-rayed, we returned to the airport with snacks and played cards until the plane finally arrived. It was tough to see them go, and I had a strong urge to run and get on the plane with them. The thought of going home and returning to a 9-5 job was one of the things that held me back from actually getting on the plane with them.

For Mark's birthday, we went for a hike in a nearby nature reserve called the Sama. It is known for it's flamingos, llamas, and for having a portion of the Inca trail. In order to get there, we hired a taxi for the journey, which took about two and a half hours. The driver kinda knew where it was, and so stopped to ask pretty much every person we passed on the road where to go. By the time we arrived at the trailhead it was about 11am and there was already a strong wind blowing. We were at about 12,000 feet and the sun was strong, but not very warm. So we bundled up and started to walk. Almost immediately we were met by a dude on a motorcycle who claimed to work for the nature reserve. He told us we needed to have permission to be there, which we had already asked for at the NGO in Tarija that allegedly manages the reserve. He explained that there was some disagreement over who actually manages the reserve, took our names, and seemed satisfied with letting us continue. We started to walk again, and within 5 minutes a different motorcycle dude drove up and gave us the same schpiel. We told him we'd already left our names with his colleague and he left us alone. At this point, it was around 1pm, so we decided to stop for some lunch. We were close to a lake, so we walked to the shore and then realized that the birds standing near the shore were flamingos. Being used to seeing them as lawn ornaments or on postcards from Florida, it was very strange to see them at such altitude, standing in a semi-frozen lake, huddled for warmth. Unfortunately it was difficult to get close enough for a decent picture since the edge of the lake was frozen and the birds were far away. Still, we did our best impressions.




There was even one bird who appeared to be dead and frozen head first, feet up in the lake. After our lunch of salami and cheese sandwiches and fruit snacks, we set out for the visitor's center that was supposed to be about 4 km away. After walking for several hours and asking the few people we came across, we weren't able to find the visitor's center. We did walk past a llama rendering plant and a weaving workshop, however. So far, the hike had been pretty flat, and we now entered the part of the trip involving a lot of elevation change. While crossing a small valley, we attempted to schmooze with some llamas, but they wouldn´t have it.





Our goal was to find the start of a stretch of Inca trail that we'd follow up and over the mountain range and down 3,000 feet into a town called Los Pinos. At the highest point in the hike, there were small streams that were frozen over. We even saw a flamingo flying around, which was totally surreal. There was also this place where the road had been cut out and there was water spilling over the edge- frozen, of course. I had to see whether my tongue would stick to it, which was a big negativo.



















As we summitted and finally found the beginning of the Inca Trail, I was getting pretty exhausted. Once we were on the trail it was pretty much switchbacks heading down the side of a mountain, and this was the first flat place we found once we decided we shouldn´t go on longer.



We spent a very windy night there, which was a testament to our tent. I was convinced several times during the night that our tent poles were broken because the top of the tent was smothering us. There were some spectacular static electricity storms that were caused by the tent material rubbing on the tent fly. Needless to say, neither of us slept very well, and we woke early to get going. The first thing Mark said to me when we woke up around dawn was, ¨let´s get off this &%$!ing mountain.¨ Still, it was a really gorgeous spot.

On our way down, there was still a bit of climbing to do
. We followed a river for a little while and a man and his two small children jammed past us with sandals on. I have no idea where they were going, since there aren't many villages up there, and they were carrying nothing with them. We, on the other hand, had our huge gringo backpacks that must have been so strange to them. After one particularly steep climb, we stopped for some jerky (thanks to my parents) and it was incredibly windy. I thought it really accentuated Mark's long hair.



Here´s a picture showing what the descent of the Inca Trail looked like. Mark had read that one of the things that the Incas used the road for was to send messengers running between their villages. As my ankles strained not to buckle on the uneven boulders, I imagined how hard that must have been. Still, better than a bunch of mud or a steep cliff.



Shortly after our backpacking trip, we flew to Cochabamba for a Project meeting with all of the other Natural Resources volunteers. After the meeting, we stayed there for the 3-month reconnect meeting with the rest of our training group. Between the two meetings, Mark hiked Tunari again with a much larger group, which I'm sure he'll blog about. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, taking full advantage of the variety of restaurants, movie theatres, and nightlife. I bought a week's membership at a gym there (for 10 dollars) and enjoyed watching Bolivian music videos while rotating between treadmill, elliptical trainer, and stationary bike stations. The cat was loving life, since he came with us, and we only had to leave one hotel once they figured out with had him there with us. The first hotel we stayed at had a small kitchen, so we invited people over for pizza once night. I was preheating the oven, when the flame was blown out and I went to relight it. Unfortunately the gas had been running for a while, so when I lit the match, it created a huge fireball. I'm told that I screamed, and the next moment I remember was that I had run as far as I could from the kitchen and was asking our guests whether I was on fire. My eyebrows, lashes, and a decent chunk of my hair were melted, which did NOT smell nice. Also, I had been wearing my brand new Peace Corps fleece, which had melted to itself a bit on the sleeves and continues to be a bit crunchy to this day. I'm lucky that I didn't get any skin burned, and that the majority of my hair was safe. I figure I'll be a little wary around gas appliances for a while. Here I am shortly afterwards. Yes, that is a ball of burnt hair I´m holding. Be glad that you weren´t there to smell this event.



We returned from Cochabamba with lots of project ideas and a refreshed sense of work ethic. I tried to be more assertive with my work partners at the mayor's office to see what they really want me to be doing, and got connected with the principal of the primary school. We're now collaborating on a school vegetable garden, which Mark and I worked on a lot over the last couple of weeks. This is a picture of the land we're using after it was "cleaned" and tilled.



So far, we've planted a bunch of young onions, lettuce, swiss chard (which is really common here for some reason), and beets. Here are pictures of me and Mark planting the onions and Mark helping the groundskeeper irrigate the rows.







We've also prepared a seed bed, where we planted lettuce, more chard, cauliflower, spinach, and cabbage. The idea is to transplant those seedlings to the larger plots once they've grown up a little more sheltered. Here it is right after we planted the seeds on August 15.



Using sticks and our strides, we measured out and marked 12 mini-parcels of land that will be used by different groups of students at the school to grow vegetables. I've drawn up a plan to build a worm composting box for our home use, and if it works, then I plan on building one for the primary school to use as well. There is a real shortage of organic material in the soil in our site, and the main way that that is currently remedied is by the use of animal manure or chemical fertilizer. I'm hoping that composting will work and catch on to improve the sanitation of food and use of natural products. We'll see.