Travelin´ thru...

I have left Bolivia. Which is sad because it was really cool there. I am now in Arequipa, Peru, just fo one day before I begin the most arduous part of my trip; at least 2, and possibly 3, nights on a bus. In a row. At least in Peru the buses are nice. At least when you pay for a better company. Yesterday I took the cheapest bus I found from Puno, near the border of Bolivia, to Arequipa, and we ended up waiting 1.5 hours to try to find more passengers, and then 30 minutes at some checkpoint for Go-knows-why (I had decided at that point that I just didn´t care, there was nothing I coul do, and that was what I got for saving $1.60 on the trip). I didn´t need to get to Arequipa at any specific time so it wasn´t a big deal.

Its actually amazing I got to Arequipa at all. For the past 2 weeks apparently there´d been a lot of bus blockades and the road I needed to take from Puno to Arequipa (Also the route from Puno to Lima) had been blocked. Thank god I didn´t know that until I had boarded my tourist bus in Copacobana, Bolivia, that would take us over the Bolivian border to Puno in Peru. Because I would have been stressing over my travel plans if I had known, and in the end it all worked out. In South America, blockades are a way of life. They are actually even more common in Bolivia, usually done by the indiginous people (and according to my host sister, with little result). The week I left my family in Cochabamba, there were lots of blockades, althought never on the route that I took...although that is a blog entry for another time. I hve most of my experiences written down in my diary - its the first time I´m actually keeping a good one of a trip, but I have no time to use the internet, or at times not access! Maybe tomorrow when I´m in Lima waiting to change buses for my 2 miserable bus trip days.

As for the blockades, we had to wait about 15 minutes in town midway between the Peru/Bolivia border and Puno. Teachers were marching becacause the government is asking them to take a test to continue to be teachers, even ones who have been teachers fo a long time. Once the march was over, traffic started moving, and we passed rocks and big bricks of mud that had been placed on the road to stop traffi. We were just really lucky we didn´t have to wait long there, and yesterday the government talked with whoever about whatever, and all the roads are fine. Can you imagine if all the highways in the US were blocked for weeks?

From what I´ve seen of Arequipa, it is very beautiful, but much more modern than what I am used to after 6 weeks in Bolivia. There´s a big, famous monstery here I´m excited to visit. I think that I might have been happy studying or volunteering here, but at the same time its a little less comfortable than the other places I´ve stayed because its bigge, and because Peru just feels a little sketchier than Ecuador or Bolivia. Of course, whenever you are used to a place you like it more (or, you get bored sick of the place and hate it). In any case I probably could have stayed another day or two here, but I already bought my bus tickets out. Which took forever because...because its South America. The company I am going with has a computer system in its huge, separate terminal, but the one window that could sell me a ticket from Lima (remember, I´m in Arequipa) was closed, so after I waited and looked bored and frustrated, a really nice guyat the window next door used his cell phone for like 20 minutes to call the main office and hand wrote me my ticket...then we had to go to another building so I could use my credit card (the first time in 7 weeks I´ve been able to use it!)...the whole thing took far longer than it should have. But I am excited about what I have planned to do in Ecuador...which changes daily, as I sit on one bus or another and write out different itineraries for the 2 weeks I will have. I actuall ejoy all the plnning, it would drive other people crazy. That is the benefit of traveling alone - I can be as crazy as I want about how much I am squeezing in a minumum amount of time.

I´ve been sitting here for 2 hours trying to make reservations and plans for the next few weeks so its time to get moving (my fingers are cold, which happens to me when I´m home and sit at the computer all day).

A Very Bolivian Fourth of July

Just like many of you, I ate burgers and corn-on-the-cob for the 4th of July, and drank beer. Only it was Taquina rather than Budweiser, the burgers were Bolvian style (which doesn´t mean they were that dfferent) and the corn was white, with bigger kernals and not as good as genetically modified, 50% articificial, whatever-they-do-to-American-corn yellow corn. We had a lot of people over to the house for the 4th...all in all, 3 Bolvians, 7 Americans, 3 Germans, and some represenatives of various other countries. My host sister has more international friends than Bolivian friends. I was alone in the house until about 6:30 and was worried that preparation of the apple pie was going to be up to me - and I obviously had no idea what to do. Luckily, the other American girls soon arrived home, and then Rommy, my host sister. We had a little hickup when the girl who had the grill was too tired to come, and her new boyfriend was too nervous about "bothering" her to be willing to go to her house to pick it up...but in the end she, and the grill arrived. We grilled on the roof, which is where the other girls sleep in a tent. It took a long time to get thegrill going so in the end the Goerge Foreman-like grill was reverted to. The best parts of the mean in the end were apple crisp and a guacamole Rommy made. There were no fireworks (although we did have sparklers) but it was a fun evening all the same. The weather made it feel not like Jluy 4th (it is pretty cool at night, maybe 60 degrees). I actually have to keep reminding myself that it is in fact the summer in the US, since I left at a non-vacation time from the states and am sort of stuck in that mindset.

Tomorrow is my last day of Spanish classes here, and I am taking an overnight bus tomorrow night. My last class can´t come soon enough! I´m not sure I´m excited about speaking Spanish ever again...its not Spanish specifically or course, its the whole process of learning a language. What is even more amazing is that young kids don´t have to go through the process - they just absorb and replicate.

A random assortment of photos from Bolivia

In no particular order...
A picture of me looking quite uncool on "The Worlds Most Dangerous Road¨
A capybara
A squirrel monkey
The largest pizza I´ve ever seen
Watching the sun rise at the Winter Solstice in Tiwanaku
A flag for the indiginous people of Bolivia over the ruins of Tiwanaku
The mountains on "The World´s Most Dangerous Road
In Chapare, a region near Cochabama famous for rainforest and growing coca, the plant used to make cocaine

Before and after

So, I did it. I got a haircut. I have curly hair again. And I don´t like it. Never have, never will, I think. I have to say, though, for a $4 haircut it isn´t that bad.

Overdue

Sorry I haven´t been good about writing. Its partly because I no longer have free internet and partly because once I fall behind, its a little overwhelming to catch up. Since I last wrote, I´ve mountain biked down "The World´s Most Dangerous Road," gone to the jungle where I saw anacondas, caimans, capybaras (the worlds largest rodent, and so cute), and a president, landed on a grass airstrip, felt like I was on the set of Lost, played a German card game, visited a wild animal reserve and seen nocturnal birds. And that´s all been in one week. And the fun hasn´t really started yet, because I am going to start traveling "for real" (as in all my posessions on my back, no stopping until I´m back in New York) on Friday. I´ve set out an incredible tight - and therefore totally unrealistic considering the variability of Bolivian public transport and roads - for the next month, which allows me to do pretty much everything in Bolivia and Ecuador that I really want to do. I also might just avoid traveling through Peru during the national holiday, which would be nice. And if the traveling gets too exhausting and I just want to stay put for a few days (since my style of travel doesn´t really allow for any stopping to smell the roses or staying in one place for more than I think 2 nights), I can always sign up for another week of classes somewhere in Ecuador.

Sometimes though, I am very content here and think about scraping the travel plans to stay with the family longer. I have friends, its safe, and its an experience I won´t have a chance to repeat any time in the near future. Like last night, when we all sat around watching Grey´s Anatomy and Lost and the other american girls make cookies. But then I realize that I could sit around in NY and watch Grey´s and Lost, maybe not with Spanish subtitles, but that another week won´t add to my experience immeasurably. And I´m sick of Spanish. The teacher I found is really good but tough and sometimes I just want to say "forget it! I dont REALLY need to know this language anyway." I´m sure thats natural when learning a language, and if I ever have kids they will definitely have a nanny who speaks another language, go to a bilingual school and only be allowed to watch TV in Spanish. So I think that in the end, after 5 weeks in Cochabamba, I will be ready to go. And one day maybe I´ll come back to Bolivia for my host ssiter´s wedding - she was saying its at the point where all her maids of honor will be foreigners!

If I get more time I´ll fill in the details of my adventures. Its amazing how with only 2 hours of classes a day i still dont have time to do everything I want to do, like study, read books on Bolivia, watch TV in Spanish, hang out with the family and get a decent amount of sleep.