Tourist.

We have been so busy being as touristy as possible in Peru. Actually, the majority of our first day was spent catching up on sleep and then eating a really big dinner in Cusco's Plaza de Armas, which is enormous and beautiful. Yesterday, we got ourselves up and sorted out our transportation to Quito, which made us all feel a million times better. It'll take about two and a half days on bus, but we're game haha. The seats are called semi-camas, which means half beds. They don't recline all the way, but from the picture they look nice and comfy. Our bus from Cusco to Lima and our bus from Lima to Quito both leave at 6 pm, so maybe we'll sleep for the majority of the time. Hopefully. After we got that all straightened out, we took a mini-tour of Cusco. Our bus took us to six major sites in the city.  All of them were sites of old Inca ruins. I'm always a little unsure how to feel around ruins.  Sometimes its just so hard to imagine what it used to look like, especially at the sites we saw yesterday. They had been dismantled by the Spaniards during the Conquest for materials to build Catholic churches. The only parts remaining were the huge boulders the Spaniards couldn't transport.  After the tour, we did a little more city exploring on our own and ate yet another big dinner haha.

This morning we got up super early, checked our luggage into storage at the hostel in Cusco, and headed to the train station to catch our train to Machu Picchu! Of course, we read our tickets wrong, so we got to the station about an hour early haha. The train ride was quite comfortable, and the weather got really warm as we got closer, so I just napped in the sunlight. Like a cat haha. Our hostel is literally a five minute walk from the train station. And right in the center of town. It worked out really well. The only downside is that the internet signal doesn't reach to our room. I'm sitting on the stairs talking to my parents and uploading pictures haha. We took the bus ride up to the top of Machu Picchu. I can't even put into words how incredible it was, so I'm just going to direct everyone to my Facebook album ha. I feel very privileged to have gotten the opportunity to go. It was always something I dreamed about and said I was going to do one day. I can't believe it actually happened! Definitely one of the major highlights of the trip so far.

We're headed back to Cusco tomorrow morning on the train. We have a little time, because our bus to Lima doesn't leave until 6 pm. We'll arrive in Lima at 2 pm the next day, and then get on another bus to Quito at 6 pm again. We'll finally get to Quito at 8 am on Saturday, supposedly.

I think the people in the room I'm sitting outside of are getting down to bed, so I'll cut this short. My next post will be from Ecuador!!!

Adios.

Today is my last day in Bolivia. Its very strange to see that in print. I can't say that its flown by, but it definitely does not feel like its time to leave. I emailed my professors my final paper about twenty minutes ago. All 22 pages of it. I feel like not doing my thesis on this topic would be a significant waste of time after all this work haha. We'll see though.

I had to go to the doctor yesterday :/. I've had a sinus infection for awhile, and it seemed to be getting worse not better, so we all thought it would smart for me to get some meds and knock it out so it doesn't turn into something nasty in Peru.  The doctor was very nice, and he went to medical school at Emory, so communicating my symptoms to him was not a problem. I got some nice antibiotics to knock whatever it is out of my system.  Yesterday, I packed up some of the clothes I won't wear in Ecuador and sent them home. I definitely overpacked. I didn't think I had though, and I didn't realize it until I got here. I guess I was just really really really thorough about being prepared for any situation haha. Oh well. At least I know better now for my semester abroad.  I'm pretty much all packed for my flight to Cusco tomorrow. We're leaving the house bright and early at 6 am. Tonight, we have plans to have one last dinner with our Bolivian friends. I'm really going to miss them! Sarah and I made a pact that we're going to come back here and visit during our semester abroad, so hopefully this isn't the last of my Bolivian experience. If it is, I guess I'm okay with that. I've have a wonderful time here, and learned so much, in and out of the classroom.

Tarde.

I've gotten so behind in my blogging. We've been so busy!  Last week was the last week of class, and we learned how to do quantitative analysis, basically different ways to manipulate data.  I enjoyed making connections in an organized way, although a lot of the reasoning behind the methods was over my head haha. But that kept us really busy.  And then last weekend was Gran Poder, this huge festival kinda like Mardi Gras, except no floats.  Its a celebration of a saint that is highly venerated in El Alto.  There were 40,000 dancers this year.  They're all organized by syndicates, and they all have specific symbols and costumes that somehow represent their group.  Very much a manifestation of the collective sentiment that exists here. They start all the way up the mountain and dance all the way down for miles and miles, from 7 am until 2 am the next day, wearing heavy costumes and high heels and drinking lots and lots of alcohol.  Some people say they go into a trancelike state while dancing, probably due to a combination of the alcohol, exhaustion, and altitude.  Those can do funny things to your brain.  Anyway, we went down to the Prado and watched the dancing for awhile on Saturday.  We were sitting in the front row, so we got interviewed by news stations a couple times haha.  One of the dancers pulled Anastasia up and got her to dance with him haha. It was lots of fun.


Yesterday morning, we got up at 3:00 am and took a van to Tiwanaku, a town that is the site of pre-Inca ruins.  Yesterday was the celebration of Aymara New Year. It occurs on the solstice, because that is the only day of the year on which the sun will rise and hit La Puerta del Sol.  We greeted the sun as it rose up over the mountain, and saw Evo and company fly off in his private helicopter. Tiwanaku itself is beautiful, wide open but surrounded by mountains in the distance.  A large percentage of the ruins is still un-excavated. Who knows what's underneath the centuries of vegetation that has grown over the stone?  Even though we were there for a giant party, the town still gave off a sense of antiquity and cultural importance.  I guess thousands of people gathering in Times Square to watch the ball drop is along the same lines, but somehow it seemed different.  Maybe because the ceremony they were performing is centuries of years old.  Also, although everyone in attendance had been drinking for hours, everyone quieted as the sun began to rise over the mountains and held up their hands, palms facing the sun to welcome it.  The solstice celebration is not just a party, its an expression of an ancient culture whose practices are still significant today.

On Sunday, Emily, Anastasia and I fly to Cusco, Peru. We'll spend two days there, then take a train to Machu Picchu.  After a night there, we're going to return to Cusco, and then begin our travels to Quito, Ecuador.  That involves taking a bus from Cusco to Lima, because the only direct bus from Peru to Quito leaves from Lima.  However, we don't know if that bus runs every day. If not, we're going to have to take a bus to the border, and then transfer buses to get to Quito.  Either way, we'll be busing for about two and a half days total. Gonna be an experience!

Troubles.

This week has not been the easiest.  Firstly, I managed to lose my debit card. Like a dummy. I really can't figure out how it happened. I had it in my coin purse, because I needed to go get money out of an ATM in dollars to pay the travel agency for my flight to Cuzco. I used the ATM in the post office while I was mailing postcards, and that's the last time I saw it.  My best guess is that it fell out on a minibus while I was rooting around for change to pay the fare.  It's not a huge deal, my parents cancelled it almost immediately, its just inconvenient to not have any way to access money.  My new one is already in the mail.  I just hope it gets here before I leave for Peru next Sunday!

The other frustrating aspect of this week has been my research.  I finally got an interview scheduled with this woman I've been trying to track down since the second week...and she didn't show up! She did email me the day after to reschedule. It was supposed to be this morning, but she didn't get back to me with what time to come before I left for class, so I'm going to her office in a couple hours.  Its been so difficult to arrange, because even though I have her phone number, I'm out of minutes on my phone and don't have money to buy anymore haha. So we've had to do it over email. Fingers crossed it works out this time! It seems like everyone is having the same sort of issues with being stood up and gaining access.  We're all piecing information together bit by bit, though.  Everyone's projects will come together, I'm sure.  Its just all very stressful.  

Tomorrow is our last day of class.  Unbelievable. I have a little over a week left in Bolivia! I'm going to miss it here. This project has been very difficult, and I'll be glad to be done with it, but I really really like it here. I hope I can make it back someday without something like this paper hanging over my head haha.  I'm very excited for our trip through Peru and up to Ecuador.  My only worry is getting my new debit card in enough time to square some things away before I leave Bolivia.  I'm planning on shipping some of my really heavy and dressy clothes and some books back home, because I won't need them in Ecuador, and that will lighten my load considerably. If anyone know where I can procure a giant cardboard box in Bolivia, let me know.  

Another downside to this week has been the hot water, or the lack thereof.  When we got home from Coroico on Sunday, the living room carpet was soaked, because the hot water heater had exploded.  The owner of the house called someone right away, and they came the next day to rip the carpet up and put in a replacement water heater.  However, the immediate replacement is old and small, since it had to be delivered so quickly.  We get about 3-5 minutes of hot water every few hours haha.  Showers have been very interesting.  They're installing the new one right now though, so I think we're all going to race for the shower as soon as they get done. Hopefully I can get one before I go do this interview.

Tonight, the Bolivian students are taking us to this Tex-Mex restaurant called Highlanders that is supposed to be really good. I'm excited! Most of our "fun" excursions have been in other cities, because when we're in La Paz we're so busy with class and our projects.  Maybe we'll get a little better taste of the La Paz college scene tonight. I'm going to try to get a little bit more work done before I head out.  Gran Poder is this weekend, so I want to get a lot of work done before Saturday so I can enjoy it.  Gran Poder is one of the largest cultural festivals in La Paz.  People have been practicing for it for months.  We've been told that this weekend the city will basically shut down and everyone will gather outside on the main avenues and watch and different groups dance down the mountain from El Alto.  This will go on for basically 48 straight hours.  Gonna be crazy!  I'll post again after I experience it.

Coroico.

We took another trip this past weekend!  This one was a lot more relaxing and vacation-y than our first trip. Friday afternoon, we went and hired a minibus to take us to Coroico, a small town in the Yungas.  The trip was about three hours, but there was incredible scenery the entire way.  To get there, we had to first go up really high to about fourteen thousand feet above sea level and then drive straight down. I think Coroico is only at about five thousand feet.  We drove through the cloud forest, so we were literally driving through the mountains surrounded by clouds.  I took so many pictures, but they don't really look like much haha.  The mountain scenery was beautiful, though.  Our hotel was on the outskirts of town up on a hill, so we had an incredible view.

It was kind of chilly our first night there.  We met up with our friend Alvaro who is in our class.  He's familiar with Coroico, so he took us to places to get dinner and dessert.  Then we went to this really cool place called Carla's Garden Pub, which is exactly what it sounds like haha a bar out in a garden.  And then we went dancing.  The next morning, we got up earlyish, ate breakfast, and went to find instructions on how to walk down to the river at the bottom of the mountain.  The man working in the tourism office helped us arrange a taxi to pick us up at the bottom so we wouldn't have to walk the three hours back up the mountain. So we set off with a bag full of pringles, ritz crackers, and water haha.  It really did take about three hours to get down.  At first, we were walking on the main road, and it was easy enough.  Then we had to get on this tiny, narrow trail that was angled practically straight down.  That was not as easy. But we made it!  We spent a few hours cooling off in the very cold water and lounging around in the sun.  Our taxi driver got there around 4:30, but Alvaro and Anastasia decided to walk back up the mountain! Crazies. Emily, Sarah, and I took the taxi haha. We had already paid for it anyway.  And the taxi driver turned out to be awesome.  We ran upon a herd of sheep at one point, and he got out and chased down this baby lamb so Sarah could hold it!

After dinner that night we all just walked around a little bit and then hit the bed. We were super tired from walking.  When we got back to La Paz, we found out that our hot water heater had burst and flooded our living room! The workers came today and ripped up the carpet and replaced the hot water heater, but we're still waiting for it to heat up enough water for us to shower. Also, there was a transportation strike today. Kinda. No one really followed through with it haha there were taxis and minibuses on the roads this afternoon. We did have to have our morning class at the house though, because we couldn't get down to the university.

I think that's about all for now...I'm meeting with my embassy contact tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully I'll get some good info, and I'll be able to knock out this project pretty soon!

Update.

I'm still in class all anxious for this afternoon, because we're taking another trip!  We're going to a small town called Coroico.  Its close the to Yungas, so it will be much much warmer.  And I've heard tell of waterfalls. And monkeys!  I can't wait for a little downtime.  All my friends are going on beach vacations, and I've been a little jealous haha.  We were going to Lake Titicaca, but the blockade is back on at the Peruvian border, so that's just too risky.

We haven't had typical class the past two mornings.  Our afternoon field trips got moved to the mornings to accommodate the schedules of the locations, both of which were in El Alto.  On Wednesday, we went to Lafar pharmaceutical company and toured the entire production plant.  They produce both traditional and Western forms of medicine.  We had to dress in full space suit gear haha, body suit, hair net, shoe covers, face mask, the works.  I thought it was kinda hysterical.  We couldn't take pictures, but our tour guide took pictures of us on his cell phone and is going to email them to us.  I'll be sure to share them haha.  Yesterday, we went back up to El Alto and visited Radio Pachamama, a Bolivian radio station that broadcasts in Aymara in addition to Spanish.  When we got there, an Aymara broadcast was finishing up. I couldn't understand a word of it, but it was still very interesting.  We learned how to say, "How are you?" and "I'm good" in Aymara. I'm not going to attempt to spell it out on here haha I know I'll murder it.  For the first hour or so, we just had a discussion (off the air) with three Bolivians who blog in Aymara.  They are associated with the Global Voices program, which is an initiative to unite bloggers from all over the world who blog in their native tongue.  They told us about their experiences and their current projects that are geared towards providing more Aymara content on the internet.

Other updates: We found an Arabic restaurant yesterday!!! I was ecstatic. I gorged myself on hummus and fried kibbee.  I got an informal interview at the Ministry of Justice on Thursday.  I talked to the coordinator of the human trafficking office.  He recommended other people for me to talk to, so I'm going to an organization called Para Los Niños (For the Children) on Monday.  They provide safe houses throughout La Paz for abandoned children.  Their website calls for volunteers, so I'm going to ask if I can help out for my last couple weeks here.  Also, I got an email back this morning from my contact at the US Embassy.  I'm going to meet with her Tuesday morning for an interview and then she might take me to one of the NGOs that works with human trafficking victims in La Paz. Maybe I'll get this project done after all.  We're getting our trip to Ecuador all straightened out.  The plan right now is to fly from La Paz to Cuzco, Peru on Sunday the 26th.  We're going to stay in Cuzco Sunday and Monday nights then take the train to Maccu Picchu, bus up to the top of the ruins and stay a night in a hostel or hotel up there.  Then we're coming back to Cuzco and taking a bus to Lima where we can catch a straight trip to Quito, Ecuador.  From Cuzco to Quito, it'll take two and a half days total. Gonna be a long week haha but really fun!

I'll post again after this weekend!

Outings.

Its been a bit since I've posted, but I just didn't have anything interesting to report.  We started diving into our research projects last week, so I've been consumed with trying to organize myself for that.  Also, two of the girls have been sick, so we've all just been kind of hanging around the house.  However, they both got antibiotics and are already feeling much better, so we've ventured out the past couple days.  

Last night, one of our Bolivian friends from class, Nicole, invited us to go to a concert with her.  It was a really famous (and really talented) Bolivian classical guitarist named Pirai Vaca.  One of the classes at Governor's School is a classical guitar class, and the man who teaches it, John DiChiaro (spelling?) is amazingly talented.  I've seen him play several times.  But this guy....I've never seen anyone play any instrument with that kind of passion before.  The passion of the music really showed on his face.  It was moving.  Passion is something I've picked up on a lot during my time here.  There are certain things people are very passionate about, and Bolivian pride is definitely high on the list.  This guy seemed to cater to wealthier classes, but I was once again struck my the sense of unity in the building, just like at the museum when everyone in the crowd was dancing and singing together. No one danced or sang last night, but they all knew his music and called for the same songs during his two encores.  I'm writing about community in my research project, so its something I've been searching out the past few days.  Honestly, its not all that hard to find.  Things are very community-based here, and people can usually claim membership or citizenship in several different groups.  For example, every profession has a union or sindicato, even the illegitimate ones.  Indigenous people commonly claim membership in their ayllu, or kinship network, which is broader than just blood family.  Students have membership in their specific carrera in their university, which is like majors in the States, except Bolivian students have to declare what they want to study before they enter and then take only classes related to that subject.  But those relationships go way beyond school or work and carry with them a sense of responsibility and reciprocity.  Its very interesting.  We went to the cemetery today to do participant observation, and I observed a sense of community there.  Bolivians as a whole care for their deceased very well.  One's membership in a family or group doesn't end with death.  People here believe very strongly in the presence of spirits and ancestors after death.  Once you have a place in a community, its hard to lose your "membership" and all the benefits that come with that.  Consequently, if you aren't a member of any community, its very hard to have any agency in Bolivian society, on any level.  I'm working on describing this phenomenon for young women who are victims of human trafficking and who don't have a home to return to once they're rescued.

See, people are even buried in their worker groups.

I got some souvenirs today! I got some awesome pants that I've been wanting since I got here, and then I found presents for my dad, my brother, and Adam.  After the shopping, Sarah and I went back down to UNICEF to get some more information for our projects.  The lady who works in their library is really nice and helpful.  Now we're just back at the house after dinner and some grocery/movie shopping.  Sarah and I are watching Criminal Minds in bed haha. We love it.

Downtime.

After two weeks in Bolivia, the roommate and I have decided on a few things Bolivia could use:

1. vending machines (but only if we can use our flex dollars)
2. turkey-apparently they don't thrive in the altiplano?
3. more crosswalks, or more people dressed like zebras to help people get across the street (this is not a joke)
4. golf carts-to help us get up the hill (aka MOUNTAIN) to the university every morning
5. warning signs over the gaping holes in the sidewalks
6. Dr. Pepper (really thats just cause I'm an addict, and I actually saw some in the markets in El Zono Sur)
7. better. internet.

Some things that Bolivia has that the US could use:
1. 75 cent bootleg DVDs
2. amazing beds (the beds in Sucre were especially lovely)
3. a gray market (we got our cell phones there)
4. super fresh fruit (nom nom nom)
5. saya
6. awesome weather
7. graffiti (not really, but its cool to look at)