Travis' Spanish Immersion

First, briefly, I´ll tell you that the last night in La Paz we (Tom, Brendan and I) went out in search of a local Bolivian bar/club with extreme success...and were the only white people in there. This was quite a novelty for the locals, and the women were paying us a lot of attention. We found a seat next to a group of traditional dance students who were there for a birthday, and they took us out and showed us their dancing. It reminded me of Russian parties in movies, they circled up, swung each other around arm in arm, and then all took shots of this fruity passion fruit drink and then drank from some kind of pitcher. Anyway, we had a great time, and I stayed up till my 8am bus since I knew waking up would be tough.

The bus ride was 14 hours (90 minutes at the border...fortunately Peru is easy for US citizens but the line was immense). Drove past Lake Titicaca, which was beautiful, and snapped a few pics despite the fact that I slept the majority of the trip. Arrived in Cuzco frightened because I wasn´t 100% sure where my place was, didn´t have much cash and hadn´t eaten much all day. I found the address on the internet, took a cab to the school (my room is IN the school!) and then walked to the plaza for dinner. I was feeling great because I have a nice room, and the plaza and the town are absolutely beautiful.

School is fun, for a change there are many Americans. I´ve been palling around with Ethan and Erin, an engaged couple who live in Minnesota - he´s training to be a Lutheran Pastor and she´s finishing medical school to be a pediatrician. Also have a friend from New Orleans and a few Germans, Aussies, Dutch, Canadians and a Malaysian.

Class here is much better. Have two great teachers and am learning a lot and quickly. Had a really obnoxious American in our class and our teacher called her out today for constantly interrupting him and trying to teach the class herself, so she flipped out and stormed out of the class. Ethan is in the beginner class so Erin and I have been telling him all day how happy we are that this girl is gone from our class. hooorraayyy!

Last night had AMAZING ceviche, and tried Alpaca, which wasn´t too bad. 8 people tried to get us into their restaurants so I said whomever offered us 2 free Pisco sours each got our dinner business. It worked and the food was awesome. About 7 of us went looking for a nice bar and found a small place with room for maybe 40 if packed in, and had a band setting up. As soon as they started, 40 or more piled in, and the band was incredible. I was trying to think if I could fly them to Austin and manage them. Haha. Anyway, the night was a blast.

Today we went to an orphanage, and thankfully the kids are well taken care of (Dr. Erin verified that they didn´t suffer from problems relating to lack of exercise). The kids had downsyndrome or other mental or physical problems, but were very cute and just wanted to be carried around for a bit. It was a really rewarding experience and I was happy we got to do it today.

I have my plane ticket to Lima for Sunday, then Sunday night I fly home (have about 8 hours grace period btwn flights), so I may have a bit of time to see Lima, but am not stressing about it. Haven´t bought my ticket to Macchu Picchu but plan to today...and if all works out I will see it Saturday morning. Then we´ll have a sendoff Saturday night.

Haven´t tried Cuy yet (Guinea Pig) but it´s a delicacy here and we´ve all discussed hopefully having the guts to do so. It´s about double the price of everything else and there´s this scary looking Guinea Pig on the plate with it´s face and everything. I´ll let you know how that goes. Oh, and Alpaca fur is awesome. I bought socks for a friend at their request for $2, and they´re comfy, but then I felt a blanket and had to buy it because it was the most comfortable blanket in the world. Probably could have had it for less than $17 but that seemed like a steal to me for the best blanket ever.

This may be my last post for the next few days since it should be more of the same here in Cuzco, but I´m checking my email every day so if you need to reach me I´m around!

See most of you soon...

Trav

Last noche in La Paz was fantastic, bus ride okay, school is great, view from my room is incredible! I already hope to come back someday. I will be here for 7 days so I will have time to update soon. So happy to be here! HOpe you are all well.

-Travis

There are a lot of funny "highest in the world"s in Bolivia, such as the "highest Irish-Owned bar" and the "highest swiss fondu" in the world, so as we drove up to 4,700 meters we decided that Travis had just participated in the "highest outdoor peeing" in the world. This was also very Bolivian-esque because people just pee everywhere. Even the native women, who wear bowler hats and huge colorful dresses that enable them to squat anywhere and just look like they are hanging out looking like a big colorful mushroom. Anyway, lots of funny sights in Bolivia and many inside jokes were had.

So Brendan, Tom and I decided to go on the mountain biking trip and the girls who had either already gone or had no plans to tried to keep us up till the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully two of the more persuasive ones ended up in the too much fun club and were put to bed by 12...enabling us to get some sleep before the big journey.

We get up to about 15,000 feet and after some instruction and warmup we head down the highway for a bit. The views are beautiful, and we´re moving fast but have a car in back and a guide in front and back so feel pretty safe. The biking came back to me quickly (like riding a bike, haha) as we flew down the hill with our helmets and gear on. We get to the dirt road and head that way. It´s all dirt and gravel, and we stop for some amazing photos along the way. Included is a photo/video DVD and tee shirt, as well as several meals, a shower and a place with a pool/sauna after, all for about $35 US. There were spots that were a bit scary, but we´d surmised that it´s only dangerous if you´re stupid or really unlucky, and the three of us hung in back while the really stupid father-son combo both crashed into ditches. We went under and through small waterfalls, through streams, and fortunately stopped many times to get pictures in front of the amazing valleys and waterfalls everywhere. We didn´t want to look while biking for obvious reasons. I hit a huge rock and got a flat, but disaster was averted and I had a new tire in less than 10 minutes.

We got back to town by 8pm, picked up our DVD´s and tee shirts and are gonna take naps before enjoying a fun night for my last night in Bolivia. It´s just a shame to have to leave a place where $1000 US would probably last me three months, but I´m headed to Cuzco at 8am tomorrow and will start classes on Monday morning.

Tomorrow´s just a bus trip all day, so I won´t post for a day or two, but the rest of the trip should be less worrysome for my parents since Peru´s a bit more commercialized than Bolivia.

Ciao!

I had a few drinks with some new friends Tuesday night as a sendoff, although Eugene from Singapore and his fiance Caroline from Belgium were going to do the same trip 12 hours later. At close to midnight I go to the station and get on the bus and we´re off. I wake up at the border a bit nervous about getting across as a US citizen, but don´t have too much problem (I´d printed out bank statements, flight and hostel info, and had a photo of me taken). As I was changing money I hear the Irish guy behind me say he´s going to La Paz, so when I suggest we travel together.

The city, Villazon, has been without power for over 2 days, and at the train station we´re told to come back at noon. I suggest we get a bus ticket as a backup, which would turn out to be a great decision as the train filled up really quickly and we had no chance.

Villazon was a dump. But I felt good about being in a country most people give little thought to. We got an almuerzo, which in Bolivia is a full meal with salad, soup and main course, and with a 2-liter of coke it was $5. That´s TOTAL, not per person. I´m starting to think I´ll love Bolivia.

We kill a few hours then board the 7pm bus. It immediately starts pouring. Then the lightning and thunder starts. We had some Argentine girls sitting on the floor next to us who had waited for the train and could only buy standing room only seats, but fortunately one was a translator so she helped us a bit. After 3 hours of horrifyingly bumpy dirt roads we reach a little town where the girls were going, and the guy announces that we´re going to stay here till 6am because we need light. While disappointed about the trip being extended 8 hours, I¨m happy to not be on this death defying trip and to be able to sleep.

We get going in the morning, and hour by hour the roads get better. You can see that in 5 years they may have a full network of highways. We see what Brenden describes as "a whole lotta nothin" along the way, but there was some very beautiful scenery, and seeing the Bolivian way of life was a bit like going back in time, and was somewhat enlightening. We stopped in Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4000 meters, and got to see a 500 year old city that had exploded in the 1500´s after silver discovery. Now it´s a sad place with a depressing mining industry, combined with beautiful old buildings.

All in all it was an interesting drive, but we were craving both food and a beer as we approached. We get in at 11:30pm instead of noon, but check in with no problem and decide to hit the bar before going to the all night eatery. Well, when you´re at 3200 meters (almost 10,000 feet) things are different. Climbing two flights of stairs requires a rest. Two 1-liter beers on an empty stomach gets you wasted. So we eat, I drink two waters, then crash. Oh...and fortunately the National Championship game was on (I thought it was always 1/8!!??) so I saw the UT backup QB almost mount an amazing comeback.

This hostel is amazing. Brenden and I are a bit old for the 19-23 year old range that´s here, but there are about 100 beds and a very fun bar, and the people here are all here for the tremendous amount of adventure trips nearby...which means a very fun and outdoorsy crowd. I had some 19 year old Norwegian girl from Trondheim hitting on me and of course I hated every minute of it. She and her friends are headed to Cuzco Monday, so maybe I´ll see them again.

Woke up today with a mouth that was drier than the sahara and a realization that altitude makes hangovers really bad. I´ve since had about 5 liters of water today, as I´m told it helps prevent altitude sickness, and I´m just always thirsty here. At breakfast an American girl, Rachel, sees my Austin shirt and starts chatting about normal stuff, as well as her application to UT Law school and whether Austin is awesome. So later I go with Rachel, an English guy named Tom, Brendan, two Aussies and a Brit and we walk around the shops of La Paz. We walk very slowly because a 1 block uphill hike (La Paz is built like San Francisco) results in shortness of breath for all 7 of us. We complain when things are $3 because it´s a scam or a ripoff. Tom and I try to buy ridiculous ties made of Alpaca, but they wanted about $9 and we thought it was outrageous. The group scatters one by one and Rachel, Tom and I have an almuerzo for 18 Bolivianos...which is $2.50. I had a salad, a cream of mushroom soup, and this pretty typical dish with a steak with a fried egg on top and rice on the side. It was very good, and again, $2.50. I still do love Bolivian prices!

Everyone here goes on this famous old road mountain bike trip, so Tom, Brenden and I book for tomorrow morning at 8 am. We go up to 4700 meters by van and then bike half the day till we get to 1200 meters. At which point there´s a pool, a bar, a shower, and some happiness. Rachel´s already been and provides tips on what to wear and how to not hurt ourselves. Tom had been suffering almost three days with altitude sickness so he´s happy to leave his bed. I book my ticket to Cuzco on what is supposed to be a beautiful bus ride that MUST be done during the day, so tomorrow night I´ll go to bed, wake up at 6:30 and be in Cuzco by 8 or 9pm Sunday hopefully.

May have an update tomorrow night, but since I´ll be busing all day Sunday this may be my last post till Monday afternoon! I´ll be at Amauta school in Cuzco, Peru, staying at the student housing.

Cheers!

Hey everyone,

Everything is going great! In La Paz after a wild and long bus ride. It´s 3200 meters elevation so going up 2 flights of stairs leaves me breathing heavy. Gonna head to Peru tomorrow and will be one step closer to home. Gotta run now cause there´s 5-6 ppl waiting for the internet, but I just wanted to update you all. More details on the last 2 days coming soon.

-Travis