Back To Reality

Well my posts kind of petered out the last couple of days because we were traveling so much and the wifi was sporadic at best.  Two days ago I was sitting in one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite bars in Havana drinking a mojito in 30 degree weather and this morning it was -22 and my truck wouldn't start.  How is that for a welcome home!!  So this is the end of the journey and I sit here at my desk thinking how lucky I am to have been born in Canada and have the opportunities I have.  Both Bolivia and Cuba have some grinding poverty and crushing bureaucracy that limit what people can do with their lives and define the experiences they will have over a life time.  Only the fortunate, educated, privileged few will escape those chains.  Here in Canada, the world is your oyster   It was a great experience with great people.  

Havana bound

Managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the plane. Not feeling too tired.  In Panama City international waiting to board the next leg.  

One of our little friends

This guy was pretty friendly.  We often found him lying on the door mat in the morning looking for attention. The owner has a yellow lab named Duke, 2 small dogs ( Michael and Angelo) and 3 cats.  Duke was pretty nice.  I wanted to take him back with me.   

Heading for Havana

It's 10:45pm and we are getting ready to head to the airport for   Our trip to Havana. The flight leaves at 2am and gets us to Havana around 10:30 am with a stop in Panama City. Tomorrow night we will spend a night in a converted monastery in old Havana. The rooms are the original monks cells. This should be interesting. 

We left Samaipata this morning around 11:30 and made a stop at a waterfall to take a few photos. Sorry nothing to post because I used my camera instead of the iPod. We missed the festival in Samaipata by hours. It started this afternoon. There was a steady stream of traffic into Samaipata and the neighbouring villages. It was like a long weekend back home with people escaping the city. We passed a couple of camp grounds that were packed with tents, not an rv to b seen. People were coming by the truck load literally. There would be a 10 ton truck like you would carry animals or produce in and it would be full of people standing in the back along with their luggage and mattresses. Yes, that's right,  mattresses.  They must just put them on the ground and crash. The festival goes on until Tuesday.  Most people have Monday and Tuesday off. There are festivals all over Bolivia right now.   

El Pueblito

El publito is the name of the hotel we are staying at in Samaipata.  It translates as little village. The owners are an  Italian and Bolivian couple.  The hotel is actually a series of cabins modelled after a small Spanish village with cabins surrounding a square.  The lady of the mountain as she is called is an artist and decorated all the cabins.  This place is like an oasis after spending 11 days in Coachabamba. 

Samaipata bound

We are in a van e route to Samaipata.  The van is quite sketchy  by our standards and would never pass inspection in NB. But the longer you are here the more normal this becomes.   The trip to Samaipata will take 3 hours and is very scenic.  It's actually only about 150 km but there seems to be a speed bump every 100 metes.  Which is good because we don't want this thing to get up to speed. 

The trip took us across the Santa Cruz plain and into the foot hills of the Andes where we climbed up into the mountains on the most unbelievable road I have ever been on.  They had the worst rains here in 20 years and the road was being cleared of land slides. Last week it had been closed for only a day before they were able to get it re opened. But despite my last comment the road is very scenic and safe.  Although my wife would have bailed after the first kilometre and walked back to Santa Cruz.  The road is not for the faint of heart. I was sitting next to a tinted window the didn't open so I have no pictures for this post. 

We arrived at this hilltop hotel overlooking the village of Samaipata. It is hard to describe how beautiful and peaceful this place is especially after spending a week in a city of a million + people.  I think this will be the icing on the cake for this trip. I will get some photos up tomorrow. 

Tiquiapaya Planning dept.

I thought you would like to see where Juan and I have been working all week.  This is the community planning dept:

 

Tiquiapaya Main Street

This is the Main Street that rinds in front of city hall.

Local funeral shop

This guy has a combo business funeral monuments and carpenter.  I think he is building caskets....

La Cancha Market

This is probably the largest market I have been in.  If you can't find it here you probably don't need it.  They have everything from local fruit and veg to bathtubs.  You could spend hours here looking through the rats warren of stalls and shops:

Bolivian Crazy!!

Everyone needs one of these:

I'm not sure what it sells but everyone needs a little crazy in their lives!!!

Bolivian counterfeit

So we were sitting in a cafe relaxing after work and the waiter comes out and asks us if we think the $100 US bill he is holding is fake!!  After much debate we agree that it is most likely fake be we don't want to commit since we are just a bunch of Canadian who don't really know anything about fake money. A lady had come into the cafe and ordered a coffee and tried to pay with $100, fishy right.  So the waiter runs across the street to the pharmacy for a second opinion eventually he returns and turns down the lady who hops in a waiting car and leaves.  All very strange,  but out translator tells us that this is common and there is no shortage of counterfeit bills floating around Bolivia.  Who knew.....

Safety impressions

I took a stroll for a couple of hours around Cochabamba and I must say the city seems pretty safe. At no point did I ever feel threatened or unsafe. The Cochabambambinos ( as the locals are called) are very friendly and easy going.  I think this place is a little off the beaten track for north American travellers and therefor does not have many of the trappings of the more touristy destinations. The weather here is awesome - mid 20's in the day and high teens in the evenings. The place is full of life. 

Hotel room Anteus

I am staying at Anteus Hotel.  I'd have to give it a thumbs up.  It is on Ave. Potosi just down the street from the Simon Patino house.  It is located in the more upscale Recolete residential neighbourhood. There are lots of restaurants and coffee shops near by. They have free wifi and the desk staff speak better English than I do.   I ended up in a suite which is actually only $40 a night if my guide is right.  The rooms are very clean and bright and the water is hot so what more do yo need. The rooms overlook a well maintained courtyard and in the background the eastern range of the Andes.  Cochabamba is a pretty compact city so it is quit walkable.  I've been here almost a week and have never felt unsafe in my surroundings.  My room.

Traffic....

Some kids in town for the day.  They come in from the county side for the festivals and sell rides to the kids.

Food fair

This is a little food fair we stumbled across while out for a walk.

Construction techniques

I wonder where the building inspector is:

It was a good run but.....

I can no longer fart with confidence.  Yes, the diet finally got me. I was more careful on this trip than in the past.  I used the purell, didn't eat the greens and only drank the bottled water but I still got nailed.  Maybe I shouldn't have had that second helping of guinea pig.  And let me tell you a Bolivian public washroom is not where you want to be any longer than you have to.  Looks like I'm eating in tonight.....

Cochabamba dispatches

Oh I forgot to mention that I got moved from my first suite with the loft bedrooms. For the first time every my room had no cold water!!  Yeah I know,  usually in these travels cold showers or at best Luke warm showers are the norm but here it is the cold water that they have trouble getting to the room.  The new room is still a suite.  Don't feel bad for me though it's been 8 days since I've shovelled snow;-)

End of a busy day

Had a very busy day work wise but enough of that stuff.  I am sitting in the courtyard of the converted stable of a 18th century tin Barron (Simon Patino) eating a wood fired calzone. How did I end up here!!  In its day this stable would have been worth millions in today's dollars. Simon Patino built this mansion in Cochabamba and at one point Was the richest man in the world. His mansion is near the hotel and I hope to get to take the tour on Sunday.  

Bolivian speed bump

Local cultural festival

I have no hope in knowing the name of this place so I will update this post later when I get the name.  Today is a local festival for the men of this region.  The women serve them and honour them in special festival just for them.  If I understand it right all the men go out and celebrate with their god children. There are small festivals going on in little towns all over the place leading up to the national Carnival festival next weekend in Oruro.  We were the only foreigners in the crowd.  Here are some shots  :

Cochabamba dispatches

Wow what a day!  It started with a massive thunder storm at 5am.  The mission is going really well and we are getting a lot accomplished but I will not bore you with that stuff.   I went into the market this am and bought some fresh figs and tuna. Tuna is a really tasty local fruit.  The figs were amazing,  never had fresh figs before.  We worked through lunch and late in the afternoon headed to this local cultural festival.  There were dancers in full costume and all kinds of local food. The highlight was non other than roast Guinea pig. Have a look:

  

Handsome bugger. 

Here is a sample of some of the other food:

Sausage

Pork:

It was all delicious and just so you know the Guinea pig didn't taste anything like chicken. More like rabbit and it was really greasy.

The best fruit juice

Tiquipaya sits in a very fertile mountain valley that is perfect for growing fruit among other things.  They make these blended fruit juices here and bottle them locally.  They are awesome.

 

Tiquipaya city hall

Here we are at city hall

View from the back step

The market

Motor bike parking 

Lunch

Going to have the local dish of pico - beef, sausage, fries, tomatoes, hot pepper, all covered in mayo, mustard and ketchup.  They made this hot sauce at the table and covered it all.   Interesting .....

This one is called charra - boiled eggs, potatoes, and corn and a mound of beef jerky.  Not like our jerky but really saltyand deep   fried,  I like to call it the heart stopper special.  Tasty but even I wouldn't want to eat this every day!!!  Oh I forgot the big mound of dry cottage cheese....  How could I forget that!!!

City park

This is the city square in front of city hall. 

This is a statue of Saint Michael patron saint of Tiquiapaya 

The shrubs are all sculpted like birds.  This picture does it no justice.

Because we are here on the tail end of rainy season every thing is vibrant and lush.  The last time I was here every thing was parched and brown.  It's beautiful here the pictures do it no justice.

Holy altitude

The altitude is kicking butt and taking no prisoners.  I have a altitude headache and my brain is a little muddled ( no comments please). Its work to climb a set of stairs.  I think 2500 meters is around the level one can get altitude sicknesses and we are at about 2600.  considering Fredericton sits at 8m i'm a long ways up.  I will be fine in a day or two once I acclimatize.  Don't feel bad for me,  I haven't shovelled snow in 5 days.  

Foothills of the Andes

  

A view from my window

Nice view of the Andes foothills from my hotel window.

 

So how does 2600 metres feel?

Cochabamba sits in a mountain valley in the Andes at an altitude of 2600m.  Coming in from sea level is a little strange.  My head is a little spiny and I have a altitude headache but once I acclimatize in about a day I will be fine.  A lot less freaky than the last time when we came in at La Paz at 3500m

 

A tour of the room

Not our usual digs.  The hotel Anteus is filled so I ended up in this two bedroom suite until a regular room becomes available. Check it out:

Pretty cool.   It's a little tired but clean and comfortable.  They have a new section with modern rooms that they will move me into later in the week.