Ya ha a Bolivia!

Where do I even start with this adventure? Wednesday night 8:30pm –we are headed out from the bus terminal in Asunción Paraguay to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The bus, oh the wonderful bus! Hmm, we got seats in the front of the bus right by this little TV which we quickly learned not only didn’t work, but was also disconnected from the ceiling/swinging every time we made a turn or hit a dirt bump. So, mission 1 was to keep an eye on the swinging rusty TV which could have fallen on our heads at any point. Add 24 hours of bumpy dirt roads and random abrupt stops which added to the TV dance. Scary and very funny. So 3am hits. Just as we kind of fall asleep, we wake up to an abrupt stop. Wakey Wakey, flashlights in the eyes, we are at immigration. This is where we have to get stamped out of Paraguay. This immigration office is a small hut made of cement and wood in the MIDDLE of the Chaco. The Chaco is the jungle; yes there are pumas! Lets just say you don’t want to be stuck in the middle of the Chaco. So, that goes decently smoothly. We met two Bolivian women that were sitting next to us on the bus who we befriended. They gave us our first Bolivian test taster, a Bolivian mandarin-which did indeed have its unique sweet taste! This is them sleeping…hahaha we are such creeps.

4 hours and many many bumps and airlifts later, we make it to Immigration in Bolivia, which is also in the Chaco. Here is where I start to get nervous. We have all the necessary items in order to be granted a Bolivian VISA (proofs, vaccination documents, etc.) Well, lets just say the guy at Immigration was yelling at us telling us/not wanting to grant us a VISA even though we had everything required for it. It was not fun, but after 20 minutes of showing him over and over that we have everything that is required and paying him $10 extra bucks, we were stamped and through to Bolivia-THANK GOD!  One of the things he asked us or should I say yelled at us before stamping us was ARE YOU CATHOLIC!!!??? There were two American guys behind us on line who Immigration assumed where with Krystina and I, which wasn’t the case. The guys did not have all their paperwork ready/together and didn’t speak Spanish so we stayed with them to try to help them with translation/help them get through which didn’t help our case because the Immigration guy REALLY didn’t like the guys. After the 15^th time of telling the Immigration guy that the two American men were not with us and that we were simply just trying to help them-translate, he finally heard me and all of a sudden got really happy and all nice and started saying Ohhh Bienvenidos a Bolivia Chicas Lindassss (Welcome to Bolivia Pretty Girls). Conclusion-he assumed we were with the two American guys and as soon as he opened his ears and realized we weren’t with them aka were two single girls, he all of a sudden was supper happy and chipper and welcoming. annoyinggg. Anyways, after 24 hours of that sketchy bus ride, lots of bumps and swerving on the dirt road, trying to make a bed for two people out of two seats,

lots of military stops where they shine flashlights in your eyes and check you for drugs, etc, we made it to Santa Cruz, Bolivia! It is night time now the following day. The first thing we do is go to a hostal,

put our bags down and check to see our flight status from Santa Cruz to Sucre to find out that the airline in which we booked with is bankrupt and our flight is canceled. We walked to the airport and found out there were TWO seats left with another company so we got up at 5:30am the following day to book those last two seats, which fortunately we got! Okay, so now its 6am and we are tired but excited to see what Santa Cruz has to offer. We found ourselves in the middle of the Mercado in Santa Cruz which was awesome- full of locals, local food, and well Bolivian culture! Very cool! Bought some freshly squeezed mandarin juice that was delicious. Tons of fresh fruits and veggies! Tons of local foods and trinkets and such. One of the typical foods is called a "salteña," which is this empanada-like treat that was filled with a sweet chicken-like stew. That is how Monetti describes it- she says its delicious.

Monetti has lots of wholes in her sneakers so we were really excited to buy her new $5 sneakers!

I also came across a Muscle Contest and decided to join and dedicate it to Anthony Monetti. 

YYYeee-Ohhhhh!

We had to change hostals so we found one about 20 minutes away from our first one that was $3 more than our previous one. We were kinda bummed about that ($3 goes a long way, really) but then were quickly overwhelmed with smiles to see that this new hostal had a swimmable/clean pool! How DIVA are we in this hostal with a pool! We felt like complete queens and spent a few hours just swimming/being obsessed with the feeling of moving our bodies in water. The both of us grew up by oceans so living in Paraguay with no access to swimming water, it felt amazing just to be IN water!

Fortunately there was this big park called Parque Urbano RIGHT BY our hostal! So, I took a solo walk after our swim to just move (24 hour bus ride..felt good to move), clear my head and spend some time with the cool trees! I LOVE how every new place has their different unique species of trees. Its one of the things I notice first about new places. Look at this bubbly tree! They reminded me of a bunch of pregnant trees!

And I absolutely loved this one! Look at her beautiful hair!

One of my favorite things about my park stroll was just being a witness to the families hanging out, sitting on the grass, or kicking around a soccer ball. Mothers sitting against trees breast feeding their babies. It was really cool to see girls kicking around a soccer ball with their families and friends. You don’t see that in Paraguay. Here in Bolivia, these girls are able to join in, even in their skirts! Get it Girls! That was so refreshing for me to see and put a huge cheesy smile on my face!

We saw a lot of broken glass on the tops of the walls, which reminded us of Paraguay. We have broken glass cement on the tops of the walls that surround the outside of our house for security (although, in the end, there are ways to get right passed that glass). But, ya that reminded us of Paraguay and was cool to see the similarity.

We took a stroll to into different parts of Santa Cruz later on that afternoon.

Did some tree surfin!

There is this gigantic statue in the middle of town of an Indigenous womyn and her child. This picture is far away but the statue up close is so cool! So detailed. The artist really captured the emotion on both the womyn and her child's face. Monetti and I were obsessed with it!

We tried Somo Frio which is a typical merienda or afternoon refreshment in Santa Cruz. You see both men and womyn pushing around the Somo carts on all the streets. They are round and inside them is the drink which is very interesting and tastes like something I have never tasted before. It is a corn based drink which kinda sounded gross to me at first but obviously I had to try the typical foods/drink. What is culture without it? So, what they do is put corn flour in a frying pan and sauté it/burn it a little bit. Then they boil water and add the toasted corn flour and pieces of corn to it as well as some sugar. Lastly, they add in pure cinnamon sticks and then mix it, mix it, mix it and serve. (Ice is added. It’s a cold beverage.) It has the appearance of a coconut drink. It is soo good and we ended up getting it a few times while in Bolivia. Obvi, we loved the man who served us our first Somo Frio and hung out and chatted with him asking him about his cooking methods and such.

After some more exploring we headed back to the hostal, showered, had dinner and were off to bed. The next day we were up early taking full advantage of the free hostal breakfast. Free hostal breakfast= everyone is out of there room and the breakfast area is full of backpackers or travelers, sharing their adventures and stories over toast and coffee. Nothing like it. We realized that the two guys from the bus ride (the two American brothers that were standing behind us/that we had to translate at Immigration while crossing the border) were at the same hostal as us. We invited them to spend the day with us at Bio Centro Güembé, which was this animal/butterfly park which museums, canoeing and swimming. So off the four of us went. Task 1- flag down a taxi. So, we flag down a taxi and get in and the first thing we notice is the dashboard thing-you know, where it shows how much gas you have, how many miles/hour you are going, etc.-well that is on the right side of the car in front of the passangers seat. Ive never seen that before. I was skeptical because the other cars in Bolivia were not like this nor where other taxis. But, none the less, we befriended our taxi driver-that is for all of 4 minutes. In four minutes, we broke down 6 times-taxi just stopped in the middle of the road. So, we ended up having to wait for another taxi guy to pick us up from the middle of the highway. So, clearly I loved how the day started-and I say this with no sarcasm-the taxi driver and his crew found it hilarious. So off we go. First stop is the museum where we see all these cool animals and where I read about my monkey resemblances. The resemblance is just canning!

Then we did the whole butterfly tour and visited the butterfly dome. Here are butterfly eggs. They are so tiny and stay as eggs for about a week.

There they grow into caterpillars and crawl around as little caterpillars for about 3 weeks and then head to the larva stage for another 3 weeks or so.

When they come out of their cocoons, their wings are wet with fluid. Most butterflies life span will be anywhere between 24 hours and 9-10 months depending on the species.

They also had this cool tree, well it was a fake tree but it is suppose to be a symbol of the tree of life. It was done by an artisan who carved nature, animals, humans, and well all different forms of life into his art piece. I really liked it.

Big tortoise!

Super cool looking flowers and trees and leaves.

Peacocks and Parrots!

We climbed this tower to get a view from above. So cool.

We were really glad we ended up inviting the boys because they were such a blast. Their names were Kevin, 34 years old and Aaron, 27 years old. They quit their jobs and were traveling S. America together. At some point in their trip, ALL of Kevins things were stolen-ALL. All he had was the tshirt on his back and shorts on his bottom, literally that was IT. Talk about living lightly! Seeing the brothers together really made me miss my brothers so much. Mike and Chris we have to do a decent travel experience together. Bucket list MUST DO. Went swimmmingggg

Lifted some weights!

Had some canoe races!!!

Turned into butterflies

Kevins wing grew out of his butt.

I would also like to side comment that Bolivia has the most interesting manicans I have EVER seen.

After a fun animal butterfly swimming canoeing filled day, we headed back and shared typical backpacking food=cookies and crackers for lunch and saved out money for a Mexican dinner treat! We picked up another buddy at our hostal from Holland who was real fun too and who told us how he stayed in an underground town when traveling in Australia. How cool is that!

Krystina went out with the boys for some karaoke fun while this grandma went back to the hostal excited to journal, read and get some rest after a long day.

Next morning, up bright and early again for free hostal breakfast/worldly chats with strangers. HAPPY EASTER! We were off to Cotoca for the day which is this town that holds a big market every Sunday. It is located by this big church so its tradition for all the locals to go to church Sunday morning and then go to the market to buy their groceries/pass their Sunday morning/early afternoon. So, eager to meet some more locals, try some more typical foods, and just experience more culture, we were out and about! We asked the girl that worked the hostal desk, who was Bolivian to tell us the best local foods that we have to try. She gave us a list and we were on a mission. First up was Sonso which is grilled yucca with a pinch of sugar and melted cheese around it on a stick! It was really yummy! The womyn selling the sonso was so curious about us asking us about our lives and what we were doing in Bolivia/South America. We ended up hanging out with her for a bit, talking about Bolivia, South America and the US and ended exchanging contact info to keep in touch. She was sweet.

Next we tried Chica de Mani which is like that Somo Frio drink I explained earlier except this drink is made with peanuts instead of corn. It was okay, but we both preferred the Somo frio.

Oh my Gosh! Choclo! The corn! The corn in Bolivia was one of the first things Krystina and I were mesmerized upon arriving to Bolivia. Bolivia has the largest corn I have ever seen. One kernel is bigger than my thumb fingernail and it was a must try! We couldn’t even finish one cob between the two of us because it was so filling. For real!

Next up was Tablilla which was this block of pure honey and pure sugar cane with peanuts inside. It was wayyy to rich for me and I love myself some sweets but this way too much, for me at least.

Up next are Paraguayos. Of course we had to try these feeling our Paraguay pride. We asked everyone why these were called Paraguayos but no one knew why. Anyways, they were these hard bread like things with powdered sugar on them. Not my fav. We also tried som Cuñape which are these hard cheesy bread ball-like things.

Oh, we also tried this other typical drink called Mocochinchi which is made of dried peaches, all natural. That was good!

The streets were filled.

On our taxi ride back, as we both squeezed in the front seat because there was a family of 6 in the 3 back seats, we encountered another passenger side dashboard.

After a morning adventure we were off to Trompillo Airport where we awaited for out 18 passenger plane.

Off we went to walk to our plane

With all 7 windows!

Hello pilots! Although I will admit, I was a bit scared in this mini plane, it was really cool to be able to see out the front window of the plane!

It was really cool to be in a small plane and see the transition from going from the city of Santa Cruz to the more mountainous Sucre.

45 minutes later, we landed into Sucre and met up with the girls (the two other volunteers, Marianne and Nova whose placement site is Sucre, Bolivia). After a running embrace and much excitement and hugs, we were off to find a hostal where we ended up talking for hours just sharing stories after stories about South America, experience-both rough times and amazing times and just laughing in solidarity of life of a South American volunteer. Jelly sandwiches and chips for lunch. Thanks to Mariannes brother, we treated ourselves to pizza for dinner. All was going well-more story sharing and laughs over dinner, until I found myself vomiting in the restaurants bathroom. Altitude sickness here you come! We went to find some coconut tea which apparently helps with altitude sickness.

That didn’t work. As I walk hunched over back to the hostal, I just DIDN’T make it in time and ended up hurling right in front of the hostal door. What a dainty way to enter, huh! So Marianne and Nova then told me I have to go to the hospital. I told them that I am fine and don’t need to go to the hospital for vomiting. I will be fine. If I continue to vomit, I vomit but I don’t need to go to a hospital for that. They insist telling me it is going to get worse... they have lived there for 7 months now and they know better and that I have to listen to them. So, off to the damn hospital emergency we go! Not even in Sucre for 5 hours and we are in the Emergency room. I cant! Ha, always an adventure!

While Krystina has got the brunt of hospital visits in Paraguay, I guess it was my turn for a change in Bolivia. Funny, even in the midst of the not feeling well, it all really was so funny.

Meds for the week for Marianne, Nova and I- Nova's flu, Marianne's body=one big bacteria, mine altitude/bacteria sickness. haha i cant (and we are missing two more med boxes in this pic!)

Doc ends up telling me I need a needle/to get a shot and I immediately turn him down! Im not even 5 hours in a foreign country, Im not ready to settle for some needle injection. I ask for the altitude pills, as I have heard of them before, know people who have taken then and therefore just feel safer (because they are more common) taking them. So, we leave with the pills and well lets just say that night was not pretty. I vomited the most that I ever have in my entire life. Totally worse then even stomach viruses. Fever- chills- the whole 9 yards. The girls were right- it for sure got worse! Plus it didn’t help that we were in a hostal with no heat. I was an icecube with a fever and that’s just not fun. So we get up the day and I look like Godzilla so we change hostals for an extra few bucks to go to one that has heat and then head back to the Emergency room where I am now desperate for this nurse to give me that shot! Ive never gotten a shot in my butt before so I pulled down my pants and was pretty much mooning the nurse meanwhile the nurse ended up putting the needle on the very top of my butt cheek, aka no need for the full mooning. The nurse definitely looked at me like I was from another planet and was disturbed by my mooning. I awkwardly apologized. The shot made me feel better in just 30 minutes. Turned out I had a mix of altitude sickness and caught bacteria (from either food, water, or toilet). So with the shot, some pills for my fever and some antibacterial pills, I was good to go! I still felt queasy, in fact the whole time I was in Sucre I felt nauseous but I could either sit in the hostal and feel nauseous or explore Sucre and feel nauseous. We were off to La Plaza 25 de Mayo and then to a place the girls wanted to take us right away which was called Chocolate Para Ti. Sucre is known for the best chocolate in Bolivia and some even say in all of South America. So, the girls got chocolate shots!! YUM! (I still couldn’t even look at food at this point but promised myself I had to try it no matter how I was feeling before I left!)

So we did a little bit of walking around and then headed back to the hostal to take it easy/try to reboost and kicked it back middle school style with a game of truth of dare. The next day we were up and cooking in the hostal. Soaking the food in a solution to kill the bacteria then boiling EVERYTHING! We also had quite the experience with the burners that shot out fire. (The Bolivian volunteer last year burnt her face on a brick oven experience so we were feeling extra scared and sketched using this hostals burners!)

After we ate, we were out and about. The girls brought us around to all the markets showing us the artisans craftwork and much more. We were able to visit the Handcrafting Justice shop which was cool. Handcrafting Justice is the fair trade program that Krystina and I worked with last year in NY/that we are working with this year here in Paraguay. It was cool to see Bolivias fair trade store and make all the connections! (Levántate La Mujer is like Lift Up the Women).

We ended up returning to this one lady, Sofia's, shop like 6 or 7 times within the week and ended up getting to know her a bit. Before we left she each gave us free bracelets, tied them around our wrists and told us not to forget her. How cute is she!

It was cold there so it was a nice change from the heat from Paraguay! Sucre is really cool, its like this big city that sits in between all these mountains.

I would also like to sidenote we made a trip to the hospital everyday except 2 days for one of us, whether it was my shots in my butt or Marianne with her intestine bacteria or Nova and her flu. This became quite the trip humor! Off to more Plazas to see more mercados and artisan work/cultural shops and such.

We stopped and got Papa Rellenos for lunch which are fried breaded potatoes filled with either egg or chicken or cheese.

Of course we couldn’t end the night without going back to Chocolate Para Ti for some Chocolate shots. Later that night, Marianne taught us how to play Cacho which is this traditional Bolivian dice game.

She brought us to this bar that is known for Cacho tournaments. But before this, Marianne and I were practicing our bachata and merengue! 

Merengue- which I like the most/is super fun!

So off we went to play this traditional game! I absolutely love it!

Nova won and I was a sore loser. There Nova I publicly posted that YOU WON.

We decided to try to find somewhere to go dancing and succeeded but only lasted about 4 or 5 songs because we there were too many messy drunks and creeps so we dipped out and went back to the hostal to place truth or dare like middle schoolers.

The next morning we were out and about again, trying to conquer the most we could in the time we had! It was really cool to hear the different Spanish they spoke in Bolivia as compared to Paraguay. The girls said that we have such Paraguayan accents which we never thought of before until they said that. Paraguay pride! So we headed to Villa Margarita which is one of the sites that the girls work. We wanted to see where their worked and get a little taste of their service work. The buses are definitely smaller in Bolivia than in Paraguay, well I feel like everything in Bolivia is smaller than in Paraguay. Villa Margarita was beautiful. You could really see some amazing views of how Sucre is like this big city sitting in a valley between the mountains. Villa Margarita is a bit more on the outskirts of the city and closer to the mountains.

Piggggy crossing! Exsqueeeze me!

It was very interesting, heart heavy-to say the least- seeing and discussing the conditions of living/life in both Bolivia and Paraguay and different places in South America that we have been. Marianne is from the Dominican Republic so it was also interesting hearing her perspective, being someone who wasn’t born in North America. The world has so much to teach us. All we have to do is walk outside and open our eyes.

Anyways, so we went to visit the Childrens Center in Villa Margarita. We walk in and are tackled down by about 30 kids ages three to seven. To say they were cute is a complete understatement. I feel like most kids that age are just always so happy and excited about anything and everything. They were jumping all over us and making me feel like I was a celebrity. Of course I ate it all up! It was so so so good to spend time with the little ones! We have been working with an adolescent and adult population in Paraguay so it was so fun to be around the energy that 4 and 5 year olds bring. SO FUN! They were rehearsing a dance for El Día de Los Niños, Childrens Day, which was the next day. So cute watching them trying to remember their little dance steps! I couldn’t even handle it..sooo cuteee! Nova usually does recreational activities with the kids during the week. The girls also work at a Domestic Violence Center in Sucre which at times can be very challenging. It was cool to be able to see their service sites and all. Good times. After kid time, we heading back to el centro de Sucre and walked different parts of the city. There was a free public concert as an opening night for kids celebrating Childrens Day, which was the following day. We also came across a bunch of people playing soccer where Nova volunteered me to play with them! Ended up playing soccer with these people for a good 45 minutes and it totally was a blast! One kid gave me his necklace after the game and said it was a gift to remember my Bolivian soccer friends! How fun is that!

hmmmm... oh- April 12^th, 2012 HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY KATHLEEN MCCONNELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! And FELIZ DÍA DE LOS NIÑOS!!!! So in many countries there is a holiday that celebrates Children, kind of like Mothers Day and Fathers Day except this is kids day- DÍA DE LOS NIÑOS. In Paraguay, they celebrate it in August. In Bolivia, its April 12^th. So, we felt SOOO LUCKY to be visiting Bolivia during this holiday because we totally got to experience the festivities which were so much fun and FREE!

We started the day off by heading back to Villa Margarita to celebrate Día de Los Niños with the kids that Nova works with, the ones we hung out with the day before. That was AMAZING! We walk in and all the kids are dressed in traditional Bolivian clothing. Cholitas is what you call the womyn with their beautiful long dresses and very colorful wardropes.

The boys, Campesinos, were absolutely adorable too!

The boys singing.

Most of their mothers were there to see their performance which was so cute. Missing and forgetting steps, looking up at the sun or the bird that flew by their head. I could not get enough of it! The kids were so beautiful. I was obsessed with two of the girls, one named Lucero and the other named Julie. They had quite the little personalities! Such such such an awesome experience that I will never forget.

Julie!!

Here is Lucero!

I cant--tooooooo cute.

Hahaha..What did he do now to deserve the choke grab?

Moms are here for the Dia de Los Ninos Celebrations! Moms rock!

How cute is he!! I really cant even handle all of them!

 We also got to meet the Bolivian sister, Sister Rosa who was beyond welcoming and sweet!

I vote this day, this experience, as my favorite out of my whole Bolivia trip!

FREEEEDOMMMMM!! RUNNNNNNNN! Its your day!!

After that we headed back to el centro where Nova got dreaded up and where one of the artisans made me a necklace that I asked her to design. We ended up hanging out with them for like an hour. They were fun.

We went to a Water Dance show!

We saw a street dog show.

There was tent after tent after tent up filled with all the local artisans selling their crafts. There were tents and tents and tents of cakes for the kids! Nothing like sugar to celebrate Childrens Day! There was so many cool looking creative cakes everywhere!

This lady and her daughter work together. Krystina bought really cool coconut earings from her! Her daughters creativity blew us away.

Of course we had to stop at the mini tree sales!

Clowns! Booths set up regarding Childrens Rights and people dressed as bananas and other characters with nutritional fun games for the kids!

SUCHHHHH A FUN DAYYYY! Off we went to Chocolate Para Ti to Celebrate an amazinggg day/our last night together!

The next morning Krystina and I were headed to the airport and took the same mini flight back to Santa Cruz from Sucre where we would catch our bus back to Paraguay the next day. The return flight was quite bumpy and being quite bumpy in such a small plane feels like you're riding a bull during some moments of intense turbulence. There were five of us on the return flight home, including us two. So after some sicknesses and tough hostals stays in Sucre, we felt like Divas returning to Hostal Jodanga where the swimming pool was. We got in, put our bags down in our room and laid down. We ended up sleeping the entire day until 9pm at night. My body still had the uneasy stomach feeling like it did the entire time I was Sucre. I was hoping I would feel better in Santa Cruz because the altitude is not as high there but I still didn’t feel like myself. So, our bodys took over, kicked us on our butts and we rested basically the entire day. We got up at 9pm and took much needed showers, grabbed some food and went right back to bed. The next day, we relaxed again and felt better than the day before. 7pm hit and off we were, the start of another adventure-the 24 hour bus ride from Bolivia back to Paraguay. Ahh, here we go… More creepy military stops, immigration stops.

One stop we had to get off the bus and line our bags up in a straight line/have all our bags sniffed and then we had to line up in a straight line to be checked too. We each had to open our bags and go through them with the military guy.

Passing through the Chaco on the way home was not fun either. There is one dirt road to take and parts of it were flooded and we had to make it through on our bus. It took us over a day to get home but we finally made it back to Paraguay, ate some food with the retired sisters and hit the hay because we had work at 7am the next day! Really cool trip that I will never forget! Really awesome to be able to spend Easter and spend time with the Bolivian volunteers and get to see and taste a little bit of Bolivia! Even the hospitals visits and all were nice spices to the trip! I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to see and spend time in Bolivia! And so this South American adventure continues…

Great song... check it...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fig7zr3N8aw