25 December, 2007: Matthew
M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S everybody!!! Haven't got a lot of time here, but just wanted to let everyone know that we have had a wonderful Christmas here. We spent a great day yesterday hanging out for a while at each of the houses of the orphanage, and then spent this morning playing with new trucks and coloring in new coloring books with the kids!! The Thompson family has been great to invite us over and share some Christmas celebration. We even had some turkey and pecan pie today!! Man, I couldn't have been much more pleased.
December 20th, 2007: Nina
We have been really busy this past week. First I should write a bit about the trek we went on. As I mentioned before, it was 3 days, 70 km, mostly downhill trek that began at almost 5,000 meters and ended up in the tropical Yungas. The night before we left the rain poured continuously, but we still had our hopes up. We took a minibus to the start of the trailhead, indicated by a giant statue of Jesus Christ at the highest point of the pass between La Paz and Coroico.
We soon discovered that all the rain we had received down below the night before, had been snow up there in the mountains. We got dropped off on the side of the highway in the midst of pure white nothingness, but thanks to the statue, we found the trailhead. The trail was wide enough that we could see it's vague form in the 6 inches of snow, even though it was dificult to have any depth perception. There were no trees or landmarks, just the whiteness of the snow meeting the whiteness of the sky. Within moments we resolved to the fact that our feet were going to be soaking wet. We noticed how strong the sun felt and put on some sunscreen. We trudged uphill for about 2 hours before reaching the highest point on earth that either of us had ever been, at 15,062 feet. From there, it was mostly downhill. We descended from the snow-covered nothingness into a beautiful green valley with countless waterfalls streaming down from the surrounding cliffs. It was beautiful. The snow was quickly melting and making its way down with us, so that we were practically walking in a stream of water most of the time. At about 4:00 it began raining and we were not yet close to where we had planned to stay for the night. Luckily, we passed through a little hamlet, with stone houses and fences. The first and only person we saw was an old woman walking toward us on the path. We asked her if there was anywhere to sleep for the night and she said that she had a place for us, and indicated to the little cement and stone hut right next to us. She knocked down a few stones from the fence and we climbed over. She showed us inside to what looked like mainly a storage shed, but to us it was more like The Hilton. We were able to get dry and cozy up in the sleepingbags with a plate of rice, potatoes, and fried egg that the woman had made for us. Around this time we began noticing our sunburn, but we had yet to realize its intensity. The next morning when we woke up, Matthew´s lips were bistered and we were both in severe sunburn pain. We had underestimated the intensity of the sun at that altitude, combined with the reflection of the snow. Although we had put sunscreen on twice in that two hour period of being in the snow, and even tried to put it in the unusual places that the snow-reflection can get to, AND it was foggy and cloudy, we had completely underestimated the powerful sun. If only we could take back that first day! The next two days of the trek were tainted by our blistering and burning skin, and in addition, it continued to rain each afternoon. The second day we hiked for 9 hours, I slipped numerous times on the slippery Inca trail paving. Our feet were drenched and aching . We finally dragged oursleves in to a ridge-side "village" which consisted of two houses, and again were given shelter and a plate of rice, potatoes, and egg. The final day was much shorter, but equally miserable as we were feeling the full intensity of our sunburns, and were hiking for the third day in soaking wet feet. All in all, there was some magnificant scenery and it was a really neat trek, but if we could do anything to re-do that first day, we would! We are on the mend now, but being in the peeling stage, still look pretty terrible. We had to meet everyone at Casa de Amor yesterday and explain to each person why we look so hideous!
Speaking of Casa de Amor, we arrived yesterday and were warmly welcomed by everyone! We got a run down of how things work, the history, the kids, and visited both of the houses. One is for the tiny ones ages 0 to 3, and the other has kids from 4 to 11. Matthew and I have a little house behind the Casa 2, which is the older kid home. Today we spent most of our time at Casa 2, getting to know the kids. There are 14 of them and most are either 4 or 5 years old, so as you can imagine, it is very active! We are going to have them all by ourselves tonight for a couple of hours while the "Tias", the Bolivian staff, have their Christmas party.
December 14th, 2007: Nina
We just finished a wonderful week in Coroico, enjoying the beautiful nature, scenery, and climate. We had an excellent spanish teacher named Siria, with whom we studied individually for a couple hours each day. We had a lot of fun with her and right now we are helping her make a webpage. :)
This weekend we are going on a two night trek. We have no tent but we have heard of their being "shelters" to stay in, so we are hoping to find something with which to keep off the rain!! The mountains and hills around here are absolutely spectacular and I expect it to be a beautiful journey!
We are learning more about the political situation here in Bolivia. They have their first indigenous president, a man who grew up in poverty and used to be a coca farmer. It is a neat story, but it sure makes for an interesting political condition. He is good friends with Castro and Chavez, with intentions to raise the living standards of the indigenous and poor people of Bolivia, but it comes with a price, and we all know that too often even the good intentions end up corrupt. The country is re-writing their entire constitution and things are a little unstable. We will try to stay out of the riots. Haha, just kidding.
Well I must say we are really looking forward to our time at Casa de Amor. I have been communicating with the director and so far it seems like a really good fit for us. I think it will be a Christmas to remember and have a feeling we will end up staying a bit longer. :)
December 9th, 2007: Nina
We finally left La Paz after getting our VISA situation figured out, for now. We actually just got an extention, since we had entered before the effective date, which is nice, but it means that we will have to leave the country and re-enter if we want to stay here longer than February. At that time we will need to purchase the actual VISA. So we will just deal with that when the time comes. We stayed in La Paz until Friday night because we wanted to see a Christmas production at the local art center. We weren´t really sure what to expect, but it ended up being really neat. It was a dance production, staring kids of all ages, and the theme was "La Navidad en Bolivia". It began with representations of "Bolivianesque" groups of shepherds, magis, etc, coming to worship the Christ child. The second and third sets were various other representations of different areas and cultures in Bolivia, The Alti-plano, jungle, campesinos, Lake Titicaca, etc etc. Each set must have included about 10 or more dances, with different music and costumes. The costumes were absolutely amazing!! We really enjoyed the evening.
This week we are spending in a more remote town perched high on a hill overlooking the valley, with vast views of the jagged mountain in the background. The town itself is caught in between the jungle and the mountains so the climate is just perfect. We are staying at a beautiful little retreat 20 minutes from the town, and we have our own adorable little "apartment" for the week, complete with our own little kitchen. We have met with a Spanish teacher and plan to spend this week studying in our relaxing abode.
Some great news is that we now know where we will spend Christmas, and are pretty excited about it. Next week we plan to go to an orphanage called Casa De Amor and spend two weeks volunteering. We will spend Christmas there and just try to be of any help we can. During that time we will decide if we want to stay longer, in which we may stay as long as late February. We are looking forward to it.
December 4th, 2007: Nina
I am missing all of you at home and especially during Christmas season. I love spending this time with family and friends. We still are not sure how we are going to spend Christmas, but we would like it to be a memorable experience. I think it will be a learning experience to see this season through the eyes of another culture. But I just really hope that we find a family to spend it with, or recently I have been thinking about volunteering in an orphanage around that time. There are kids who never get to spend this time with family.
We have been in La Paz for a few days. We visited the Coca Museum which was very interesting. Coca is the plant from which they make cocaine. Coca is used all over the Andes, they drink it as a tea all the time. It has been used for hundreds of years and it was interesting to see the ways it has been used throughout the years. From the Incas using it to aid brain surgery to the supressed indigenous minors using it as an energy supplement to help endure long hours in the mines, forced by the Spaniards. And of course in the more recent years, the tragic history of cocaine.
Today we visted the family of Tito, Matthew´s friend from university. We had a fabulous lunch and got to know his mom, little brother and younger sister. You have a great family, Tito!
The next few days we plan to work out a few details with our VISAS. As of the 1st of Dec, they have put into effect new laws regarding American citizens. We all have to apply for a VISA in advance, which is not cheap, and it is only good for 90 days each year. It is of course, all completely political. Although I can not blame Morales and Chavez for loathing Bush, do they have to punish all American travelers?? It all seems completely unfair to me.
December 1st, 2007: Nina
We arrived in Bolivia a few days ago, with only minor problems at the border. Haha... you can ask for more details if you´d like, it wasn´t a big deal really. We headed out to Isla del Sol, on Lake Titicaca. This island is suposedly the birthplace of the sun, so we couldn´t miss it. We checked the legend against other sources, the Genesis account of the sun´s creation story, and found that the sun was indeed created after the land and water, so maybe it´s true. :) We even saw the sun´s first footsteps. This island was very chill, and we spent two nights there exploring ancient ruins by day and watching the sunset at night. Matthew didn´t mention this about the island of Amantaní, but we did not feel very comfortable there. In the last couple of years, the islanders have put all their eggs in the tourism basket and have converted their lifestyle. We mentioned that we stayed with a host-family there, but we felt like they just wanted our money and even obligated us to buy some craftwork. We didn´t even eat our meals with them. Anywhere we walked, we would get begged by the islanders to buy their hats and scarves, similar to what we had experienced in Cuzco. For me, it was sad to see this island culture, which had lived for hundreds or maybe even thousands of years without tourism, now become wholly depended on it. To the point where they have lost their dignity. Are they really any happier now? With that said, I had a more positive experience on Isla del Sol, because they have grown into the tourism scene a bit more gradually, and although the little hilltop village on the south end of the island is full of empty restaraunts and guesthouses, we just felt a different vibe in the place.
One thing about the islands that I wish I could convey is the smells. Two of my favorite were walking through eucalyptus groves and my new favorite, the smell of muña. So far, I have only seen muña growing on the islands of Lake TIticaca. We figure it must be related to the mint family, but the smell and taste are even richer and more earthy. It grows on a woody like stem and has tiny green leaves. It is used to make herbal tea, but also has other curing elements.
When we returned from the islands, we treated ourselves to a fruit platter with Bolvian chocolate fondue. It, as well, was simply amazing. I wish I could share it with all of you!
We are now in La Paz and have found a very kick-ass hostel. The second micro-brewery we have come across on our trip. They even have.. get this... a beer spa! I know some of you will think thats crazy, and we have yet to see it, but appearently beer is good for the skin... haha, we´ll see!