The List

Things I can’t believe I saw while in La Paz:
• 3 year old girl poppin’ a squat in the middle of the side walk peeing down the hill
• Dogs running through the out door markets in packs, past the raw meats
• Raw meats in the outdoor markets
• A beggar with so much coca leaf in her mouth and teeth that she could barely ask for money
• A shirt that said, Coca’s not a drug (then why can’t I bring it home to the US with me!)
• 10 yr olds bagging my food at the grocery store in the middle of the week when they should be in school. (Children working all over the city for that matter)
• Homeless guy crazily untying garbage bags searching for food and drink and laughing
• (Doug saw) 2 homeless people being ‘friendly’ with each other on the sidewalk. Eewww!
• Beautiful, skinny, hungry dogs 
• 45 year old women who seriously looked older than 80.
• Babies wrapped in fleece blankets and sweaters on a 65 degree day, sweating nonetheless. While I walk in my T-shirt and no jacket.
• Numerous women pick my child up to goo-goo over her, without even acknowledging me.
• Beggars accepting money without saying thank you. (apparently it’s not normal in their culture)
• A man peeing against the wall while guards to the air force base watch from their above post. Holy moly, Lol
• Indigenous women asking for money if you take their picture. They believe you take their sole with the picture. Yet, they’ll sell it daily for 1boliviano. Hmm.
• Buses, motorcycles, Cars driving at night without any headlights on. On purpose. Hello!?Danger!
• New floors of buildings being raised with tree branches instead of 2x4’s. I was just waiting for one to collapse. It just didn’t look stable at all.

Travels and Triumphs

This morning we set the alarm for 4 am. Unlucky me, my body woke up at 2:30! We threw our cheap sheets away along with the food we hadn’t eaten. We left the highchair, toys and sally’s pack-n-play with Lisa. Hopefully someone can get some use out of it all. All 4 bags we had were busting at the seams with stuff so we even had to leave a blanket that I really wanted. We checked all the drawers in the apartment for random Sally finds. It’s hilarious what she hides in them! Lemons, paper, carpet fuzz, socks, toys…haha. It was sad to leave the apartment. The morning was cold, frost was on the ground up in the altiplano. Rojelio took us. He is the same driver that picked us up. El Alto International Airport was busay! I stopped by one of the many gift shops, after we checked our bags, full of Bolivian made trinkets and colorful back packs and winter wear, to buy 2 last minute gifts. All of the shops there were WAY more expensive than down in LaPaz. We arrived about an hour and a half before departure time…but didn’t leave until almost an hour late. This is very typical in Latin America routine. So I had time to browse the few gift shops, which actually had great handmade Bolivian stuff that we wished they sold down in La Paz. Sally however was having repeated melt downs due to the early wakeup call and I could hear her screams from the shops so I returned to poor Doug and relieved him. She thankfully fell right asleep on the first trip for about an hour. The flight wasn’t much longer than that. We flew past Cochabamba down in a valley of the rolling red rocks of the Eastern Andes Mountains. Among the hills and deep valleys were small and I mean small, remote communities of shanties. I couldn’t help but wonder what the disease rate of these communities was, what kind of education were they in need of. They probably drink the polluted mountain water and that alone brings dysentery and numerous other bacteria. Looking down into Santa Cruz the view was a stark contrast to the mountain city of La Paz, it had palm trees and green trees and some green grass. It is much warmer in Santa Cruz. It’s still winter but it’s lower in altitude. We flew over a large house with a swimming pool in the yard. There was farm land and sheep and alpaca roaming the fields. The airport was nicer. When we got off the plane we immediately felt the humidity. We had to deplane for them to clean and restock the plane which had come from Lima Peru. We had just enough time to order and eat breakfast at the only restaurant before re boarding to our seats on our 757 for the 6 and a half hour trip to Miami. Thank you for the prayers because Sally was great! Our attitudes were stellar for having been so tired. Between her coloring pad and ipod episodes of Dora and Elmo on the computer, she was a peach. She fell asleep at lunch time and woke up 3 hours later! Yay! I think I did finally sleep the last hour she was sleeping. We flew over Haiti/Dominican republic and Cuba, the waters of the islands and Florida always amazes me with its beautiful color and changes in depth. The humidity in Miami just about knocked me off of my feet! Phew, I’m not ready for the rest of the summer in D.C. Bluk! We were occupied in Miami as well. Sally ran and ran and ran while we waited in line for passport control and customs (which all went smoothly). Not for one guy that was sitting in front of us on the plane. He got searched before he even got to the walkway…hmm. He apparently had a laptop for his girlfriend’s mom or something…weird-ski! After customs we rechecked our luggage and got dinner at the Island Grill (Coconut Shrimp and Chile Chicken Wings, yammers!) and then as soon as we got to our gate it was loading. Seriously, couldn’t have been smoother. God is so faithful. In the midst of a ‘could-have-been-the-worst-travel-day-ever-in-the-middle-of-the-day-with-a-tired-one-year-old’ day, we were at peace. We’re exhausted, smelly and greasy, but at peace. Lol. No rushing. No stress. It was awesome. I am currently typing this post on the last plane from Miami to Minneapolis watching by sweet baby sleep and praising the Lord for the gorgeous sunset we’re following. We haven’t seen sunsets because we were in a bowl in the mountains for 2 months and never saw the horizon. Weird huh? Sunsets, Oh how I’ve missed their beauty. I am saddened to leave behind the people and amazing culture of La Paz but am excited for the journey ahead of me at my job in the hospital now that I can better understand the language of 20% of my patients. I am excited for the job that Doug was accepted into where he’ll be speaking Spanish in. I am excited to speak Spanish at home and continue to learn it with Sally so she can be better integrated in our apartment community. I’m sad to leave but am so glad and honored to have had this opportunity. Thanks Doug for your adventurous heart, Thank you family and friends for praying for us on our adventure, thank you Holy Cross for giving me the blessing of a short leave. God bless you all. Love,

Ready. Set. Lift off.

So I just realized that there is a post missing from when my computer froze. Sad. I'll have to update you when we get home. I also have some pictures to post which up until this point I have not been able to post due to lack of internet.
So here's the scoop. We had a good bye lunch with some of Doug's co-workers on Thursday at a Ranchero Place. I had a steak and fried plantains, unbelievable btw, and on my walk home gave the leftovers to a crazy homeless man. I almost had to feed it to him cuz he was so wacked out and crazy. Hope he enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a good day. On Saturday we took the elevator upstairs to the 21st floor where we used to live and had an amazing dinner party with some other co-workers of Doug's. It was catered and there was a man that served us and poured our drinks. We ate typical bolivian food, Fried mashed potatoes, trout, chicken with mushrooms, steak, Quinua dish and salad and just enjoyed each others company. Sitting around the long dining room table I cought 30% of what they were all talking about. The interesting part to me is when the 3 Americans talk to each other, they speak spanish. Cracks me up! Me and Ivanni, one of the younger co-workers, had a great chat! We wish we would have met earlier in our trip. Cuz now we're packed and ready to head to the airport in the morning. I'll write more about our last adventure to Oruro (including pics) when we get home. So don't stop reading. Thanks for following me. :)

One week to go...

One week to go. Can you even believe it! I am just amazed at how fast time goes. Sally is now down to one nap a day, and one quiet time. She’s getting more verbal and more stubborn. It’s going to be interesting traveling during the day on our way home. We spend the night in Oruro last week on Mon-Tues. Sally and I played in the plaza’s and then found some new friends from Argentina. I really hope to run into them again before we leave. They were on their way to LaPaz when we met them. They are artists from Buenos Aires. We had lunch with Kate at a tipical Bolivian restaurant. It was 5 courses. Then we did some sightseeing of Oruro. I got some interesting pictures of an old mining community that used to be wealthy to Bolivian standards, and now…poor. Very interesting.
On Sunday we skipped church, again, and went to the prado for the street fair. It’s just too fun to resist. We bought some more Christmas presents and enjoyed some Tucumanos smothered in peanut sauce. You walk up to the kiosk, similar to at a fair and ask for what you want. In front of you on the counter are juice pitchers, each filled with a different sauce to put on the Tucumano. It’s halfmoon pastry filled with potatoes, ground beef and pulled chicken. There was a green spicy cilantro, red picante, mild peanut and a few other sauces. We like the peanut. You stand at the counter and put small amounts of the sauces on your pocket, take a bite and repeat. You have to push through the crowd to get more sauce but it’s so fun. Sally ate two by herself the other day by the park. It’s always sunny and warm in the middle of the day so it’s fun to wander the prado. We looked at paintings and art like we do every Sunday but it really never gets old! This coming week we have a good bye lunch with Doug’s colleagues. Then he is giving a presentation Thursday on his report on the Juvenile justice system regulations to the people at Save the Children. I’m so proud of him. He’s done so well. I’ve been getting better at conversations by myself. I had to learn how to say, I lost my phone, have you seen it! I left the park with Sally and never saw it again. The time is coming to an end. Not many adventures left. Sad. I’m not ready to go back yet, but I am ready to see my family and some friends. Thanks for following. It’s been great to share with you all.

Oruro

Now that I have finished language school I don't have much to do. Just hang out with Sally. Which isn't bad but I don't get a chance to practice what I've learned. So when Doug invited me to Oruro with him for a day I said yes! Oruro is a city South of LaPaz up in the altiplano. Flat, flat land. It is 3 hours from LaPaz by bus and the road is paved and actually pretty nice for Bolivia. It is much colder than LaPaz and 12,159ft altitude which is higher then where we live. Its about 11,000. We had to wake up at 5 to get to the bus station by 6 o'clock departure. So we got ready and got Sally up (and left her in her jammies) right before we left. I covered her head with a small blanket and Doug grabbed the clothes that I set out for her. We hailed a taxi at a very dark and cold 545am and 3 blocks up the hill Doug said, "Did you grab shoes for her". Fooey! Nope. When we got to the bus station it was still dark and really chilly. The bus we were going to buy a ticket for was still closed, there was a man opposite the counter we went to was calling out 'Oruro! Oruro!' So we went over and bought tickets $3 each! Crazy huh. Everything is so cheap here. The bus was cold and drafty, because we were in the second row. The driver like to take frequent passing opportunities around semis and slow old rusted out beaters...Scarry! He had the curtain pulled so we couldn't see out the front. I didn't like that. Sally was awake the whole time. Too cold and new. Half way we picked up a native woman who had a basket full of hot meat pies! They smelled so good but we didn't dare buy one, didn't want to be sick in a new town. We arrived to Oruro around 9:00. The entrance to the Departament (Province) Had a toll booth. The Province was also named Oruro. After the toll booth, we came to a round about with a GIANT steel miner's hat in the center. It had pictures bent into it. Very cool. We went completely around it and drove through some shanty homes and stone homes. Then came into the town center. There were some women serving hot soup for breakfast. I went in to use the bano publico (public bathroom) that you have to pay to use. 1 boliviano. When you pay, they hand you your very own wadd of toilet paper. FYI in South America you can't flush the toilet paper. In this particular bathroom there wasn't any heat, so it was drafy and freezing in there. The water didn't run in the sinks. For this reason I always have sanitizer... A co-worker of Doug's who lives there, picked us up. We took a taxi from the bus station to an out door market and bought Little miss Sal pal some shoes. The guys then left me at a hamburger place with a play area for kids. They had meetings to attend. After playing Sally and I walked down the main street and found a plaza. There was a woman selling corn for the pigeons. Sally had fun with that until Kate met us and we walked back to the hamburger place for lunch. We walked to the outside of town where the hill starts to climb. Up the hill there was a giant concrete slide alongside stairs. A lot of stairs. The kids were out of school for winter break so the slide was full of kids going down it on cardboard. So fun. We didn't try to climb it. There was a large white church nessled in the hill. It had a royal blue ceiling with bright yellow portruding stars. The dome in the center looking up had the apostles painted fullscale around. At the farend of the sanctuary there was a black gate that opened to a tunnel into a mine. Tours weren't open until 3. It looked cool though. Oruro used to be a thriving mining town. They mined tin mostly, but also silver and copper. We met up with the guys and walked to Save the Children's office there. Kate stayed at work and they took me and Sally to Fernando's house to put Sally down for a nap while they went for another meeting. She didn't sleep a lick. It was too exciting to be in a new place. Fernando's 13 year old son, Adrian, got home after a while and played with Sally. We spoke spanish and I taught him some english words. I felt like I knew so much Spanish! Yay. His mom and younger brother got home about a half an our before the guys did. And again, we conversed in spanish! It was so good for me. They offered us coffee and some (blah) cake (I needed the coffee!) and we accepted. Sally and Fabrizio played with plastic zoo animals while Doug talked and I zoned. Adrian offered his E.T. doll to Sally and we headed to the bus station around 545pm. The bus we took home was warm and comfortable and sally zonked the minute we pulled out of the 'terminal' and slept the whole way home. What an adventurous, tiring day.

On the Lake.

Crillon tours own hydrofoils. They are boats with skiis under them in addition to a motor. It's crazy. They are beautiful boats with seats like you'd have on a bus. That morning there were 2 other groups going out with us, 2 friends from USA who worked for the US embassy in LaPaz and a man traveling alone from the USA but originally from sweden. Gustavo narrated our route we'd be taking through Lake titicaca. A normal 'boat' takes maybe 3-4 hours to get to Copacabana but on the hydrofoil it took only an hour and a half. It was a nice ride too. The sun was out and the wind wasn't too chilli out on the back of the boat where the small deck was to take pictures. Halfway through the ride we could see the mountain range really well. The pictures didn't turn out until the ride back when the sun was in a different place. We arrived at Copacabana mid morning and it was a sight! On this island the Aymara people are catholic. There was a Giant white church on the hill built by the Spanish. The inside was every color of the latin rainbow if ya know what I mean. Bright, fiesta colors. The front of the church was a tall wall completely covered in solid gold statues on a 180 degree rotation. The wall rotates to reveal this gold side only for days of worship and the other days of the week it is facing the lake revealing a blank wall to the sanctuary. While watching the service for a couple of minutes we sat down in a pew. Sally fell through the back pew and wacked the back of her hed on the kneeling bench behind her. So we left the service with a screeming child. It was a warm day, sun shining. We past outdoor kiosks bordering the plaza across from the church. Sally was still upset from hitting her head so we bought her more finger puppets. She cheered up after that. Walking through Copacabana was similar to LaPaz but WAY more layed back. The streets and allie ways were crowded with women selling vegetables, breads and nuts. The stores were all open with the same touristy Bolivian wear. I bought Doritos! . . . they were NOT like our Doritos. :( Made in Peru with powdery cheese. It was a good snack though. I got in some great photos from the pier while waiting for the rest of our crew to arrive back to the hydrofoil. When we reloaded the boat there were 2 new groups. The one we talked to a little was a couple from Germany, they loved Sally. The woman sang interactive German songs (in German) to Sal. She liked that. We took a 30 minute ride to the Island of the moon. There we had a front row veiw of the mountain range. All the pictures are on facebook. You really couldn't get a bad picture, they were just SO beautiful. We walked up steep wooden plank and rock stairs rounding up the hill. Halfway up were 3 small houses with a lookout deck. We kept walking up and saw some sheep owned by the local Aymara people who live on the island and saw a huge brown Llama wondering the hillside. At the top of the stairs there was an old incan temple in ruins. One wall had been reconstructed to show what it may have looked like. What used to be the floor of the rectangular structure was now weeds and grass covered. We walked around and basked in the sun. Sally just layed down right in the middle of the 'field'. She attracted the attention of 2 little girls from Peru who were traveling with their parents. After a while we took our boat again to a new island. Island of the sun. Here we walked up another steep stairway and came to a restaurant overlooking the lake. We had breaded wild trout and a warm zuccini salad following a bowl of potato and quinoa soup. Our guide told us that quinoa has so many nutrients in it that you could live on it with nothing else. The restaurant was built on a natural spring and it provides the restaurant and the hotel up the hill with water. As we walked back to our boat we took a small detour up the rocky beach to see the spring that flows into lake titicaca. From there you could tell why the lake was SO clear. It is constantly fed by this beautiful freezing cold water. This was our last stop before heading back to Huatajata to get our van again. When we boarded the hydrofoil we were surprised with a blessing of the Aymara in which we were sprinkled on the head with the national flower dipped in the 'pure' water from the spring. We repeated the 3 Aymaran rules: do not be lazy, do not lie, do not steal. Then we celebrated with a typical bolivian toast and recieved a ceritificate of blessing. We were able to capture unbelievable pictures on the way back and just bask in the beauty of the mountains and blue water. What an amazing adventure. Thanks for reading about it!

At the Lake

Crillon tours is all inclusive, meaning you pay for your ticket and nothing else! So amazing to go to restaurants, museums, ruins, boats and not have to hand over any money. So when we arrived to the hotel, like I said yesterday, we gave our lunch and dinner orders to Gustavo and while the lunch was being prepared we toured the outdoor reed boat museum. At lunch the others had Llama steaks and I had trout (by recommendation) with bacon and garlic. The fish was good but the Llama!! Was amazing. Sally even ate it. We sat and overlooked the lake and the outdoor bar. It was so nice. After lunch we had free time. I totally missed out on the SPA part of our hotel! I didn't realize it was really a spa. I just figured in Bolivia, a spa meant a hottub. It was like $3 for a massage. Stupid me, always taking pictures. Well, I got some alone time while sally and Doug napped. I got some great pics. We met up just after sunset for a 'surprise'. The guide took us into a theater off of the hotel lobby and showed us a video of the Kallawaya people in the mountains of Lake Titicaca. They are an elite group of healers, only men, who are chosen by their fathers to pass down all of the secrets of natural healing. It was wildly interesting. After the 15 minute video, we were given flash lights and lead out the back door into the dark. There were candles lining the walkway to a grass covered mud hut. As we walked in the old, tree bark door we saw that it was a museum of natural healing. There were very realistic manicans acting out the activities we had seen in the film, some life size, some miniatures. There was a real size native man squatting down sorting through coca leaves and frozen in the position of putting them in a colorful sack resembling a shoulder bag. The ground was dirt. The walls were wood and mud, ceiling of straw. There were candles and dim electric lights guiding our way and shining on important structures. Like one miniature of 2 young lovers happily running away from the parents. The Father was throwing a rock at the daughters boyfriend. Which apparently is a positive and good luck gesture in Aymara when the Father gives his blessing for marraige. The next miniature was a child getting his hair cut by his godfather. The Aymara believe that in this ceremony at the childs first birthday as the godfather cuts the childs hair that his character is transmitted to the child. Makes ya think twice about who you want as your kids godfather! As we made our way throught the 6 sections of the small house, we were shown all of the herbs and plants that are used for medicine and healing. Like for burns or open wounds...tobacco placed on the skin and wraped. It was just full of wonderful information and beautiful displays. Most recently they have proven placentas from birth have numerous healing properties when placed not only on the skin but eaten. The last section was about one of the many Aymaran superstitions, witchcraft. BLAH! It is so bizzar and so confusing. When land is perchased by someone, a box of 'goodies' must be placed in the ground for 'pachamama' or mother earth, thanking her for allowing them land. In this goodie bag included an aborted baby Llama! Why!? Don't aske me. It's rediculous. I just kept saying, that's wierd...hope I didn't offend Gustavo. We came into a small dark theater with curved benches facing a corner stage, lit only by a fireplace. There was a man sitting still in the center of the stage with the small fireplace to his right and a wall of herbs to his left. He was real. Scared me at first. We sat in the front since we were the only ones there. The man was a 16 year Kallawaya healer and he was dressed in native red clothes with bright colored stripes and a winter had that had earcovers and tassles, you know the type. He called out to all of the mountains by name(where they command their power from) and then asked if we had questions for him, like future stuff...we were like, um, no. But he did tell me that I'm going to have more children. A boy and a girl. Hmm. A little disturbing considering a native woman earlier that day had handed me a small replica of the fertility gods...hmm. This trip just got interesting! lol. We went and had dinner, smelling like bonfire. And listened to a live flute band. After dinner, Gustavo led us out in the dark to an elongated pole barn looking building near the lake. We sat on benches in the dark, and a movie began about the southern stars!! Now I was excited. I love the night sky. And out in this town there were no lights to hinder the beauty of the sky, plus the moon wasn't out that night, so I knew we'd see some amazing constelations. What I didn't know is that when the 10 minute movie about the constelations and the indian stories behind each one was done, the screen went black and the ceiling retracted and revealed the night sky! It was so shocking and amazing. Standing huge in front of us was a NASA telescope x1000 magnification to see the stars, constelations and planets. Unbelievable. The first one that the man found for us to be awed by was SATURN! The rings were amazing and so bright. It was so fun I couldn't stop stomping my feet and squealing. Which ofcourse made the telescope go shaky and out of focus. LOL. I was just so excited. We saw many constelations and a nebula. God is so good. Phew! Amazing. Then it was time for bed 10pm and an early breakfast was ready for us.