Ghetto life in Bolivia

Take seven gringos related to the University of Dayton. Pack them into a van. Descend eight thousand feet in three hours and suddenly change climates from semiarid mountains to the middle of the freaking jungle.

Basically, the weekend was awesome. It was probably my first time in Bolivia when I didn't want to go home. I was with UD students: Kim and Alex had come in from La Paz, Mike and Colleen had finally made it to Bolivia filming their ETHOS Global Awareness Program documentary, and Mike's hilarious brother and cousin were along for the ride. It was the most refreshing change of pace I've had from work and the boss man (Song lyric of Bolivia, from Bruce Springsteen's "Night:" You wake up every morning at the sound of the bell / You get to work late and the boss man's giving you hell.) And it was great to talk to people about my experiences who've had similar experiences and had similar moments of scratching their heads and thinking "What the hell?" and reference Seinfeld and South Park.

On Friday, the whole posse arrived and we headed out to a place called Brazilian coffee, which strangely has a large sushi menu. We talked, then the CEDESOL leadership left around midnight and we did what you do in Cochabamba on friday night if you're young, hip, and free from unpaid volunteer employ for a while: you go to dance clubs. I'm more of a swing dancer myself than grinding /shuffling your feet awkwardly in a circle while no one partners up to crappy electronica mixes, but it was all OK because here I finally was with people from Dayton. Alex and I headed back early at 3 A.M. and everyone else got back at 6. Asi es Cochabamba en Viernes.

Saturday once everyone had woken up we ate at this great breakfast place which Mike said had the only waffles in Cochabamba. He'd know, too, having lived here for six months. The waffles were wonderful, the syrup was maple instead of sugar cane, and I had real coffee.

Then Mike arranged us a van to take us to Villa Tunari where he and Colleen had to film stuff in the wildlife preserve there. Villa Tunari is in Chapare, which is in the jungle. I took bug spray. When we got to the town we checked into our hostel and played euchre and talked. it was a really nice hostel with an actual pool which we took advantage of.

Sunday morning breakfast was in the town market: Egg sandwiches and instant coffee again, but strawberry milk, which is just about the most delicious thing you can think of drinking in a humid environment. It would go over big in Northern Kentucky and Southwest Ohio. Basically, you take fresh strawberries, cold milk, and sugar, and blend it into a beverage that makes smoothies incredibly passé. Actually, by far the best thing about Bolivia has been the exposure to new foods, like empanadas and api and fruit milk. I'll be bringing recipes back to the States.

We went to the park and paid 21 Bs for the gringo rate (seriously, there was a gringo rate made explicitly clear: the sign said niños 2 Bs., mayores 4 Bs., extranjeros 6 Bs., camera 15 Bs.) 6 Bolivianos is still less than a dollar, but not too much anymore since the dollar's buying power is sinking apparently by the week. Then we had to take everything except out cameras out of our pockets and lock them up for safekeeping. In the park, there are monkeys and some of them in former lives were trained to be pickpockets. Crazy.

The first thing we did was hike to this overlook where we could see Villa Tunari, the mountains to the west, and the rivers which encircle the town. It was beautiful and breathtaking and I got a picture which really doesn't do it justice. In a rivers and cities related note, Villa Tunari is built right at the confluence of two rivers with wide floodplains, and in the rainy season they say the town completely floods out. Sounds like some small cities in Southwest Ohio I know about, without the sophistaced and wonderfully-engineered flood control system. Why people think building on floodplains is a good idea and are then surprised when the town floods out I will never know. People need to pay more attention to ecology and the environment when they build things, because too often they end up screwing something up which comes back to destroy their livelihood like one of the ten plagues of Egypt.

After the overlook, we met up with Mike's friend Paula who works at the park and went to see the Puma, which is old an arthritic... but still has jaws that could probably crush your skull. Some of us got to pet it. At one point it jerked around and play-bit Mike's brother's arm. He stayed impressively still, which is probably a good idea. You don't want to make any sudden moves around a carnivorous jungle cat. "Play" was the operative word of the bite, so it didn't actually do any damage at all. Not flinching was what was impressive about it.

After the puma we went to see the monkeys, which were hilarious and smart and amazingly dextrous. They'd randomly just climb up on you and sort of hang out, and they tried to feed Kim raw fish. Luckily no one got any stuff stolen although one monkey bit Colleen and Mike's video camera.

After the monkeys we left the park and ate lunch at a place with surubi, which is an almost boneless fish. It was grilled over charcoal and uncommonly delicious. In the afternoon, we hung out at the pool and played more euchre, talking about our experiences and about life. At 6:30 our van returned and we piled in for the night trip back to Cochabamba. Kim and Alex have headed back to La Paz, and this morning I headed to work and made some progress with a new engineer on the plasma cutter. Hopefully, we'll be in business soon.

All for now,
Drew