Too much to tell (Vol. 1)

Whew, I have alot to write about... I haven't updated in a while because I've been traveling all around for the past month. But I am back in California now and have time to fill you in on my final days in Bolivia.
I'm bad at goodbyes, so it was hard to have to go to the orphanage, and the kid's gym specifically to do just that. I knew it would be harder at the orphanage though, and I was tempted to just not go at all, simply disappear. I knew I would end up regretting it though, so I forced myself to go. I took along my camera as well so I could snap some final photos.
The girls were excited to see me, I helped them with homework and then told them I had brought my camera. As I expected the usual frenzy took place with everyone wanting to take a picture. I let them play with it for while I sat with the other girls and watched telenovelas. After the shows were over though the little ladies wanted to take photos with me, so here are some of the results:






I couldn't say goodbye... so I determined that I would come back, if only for a day to say goodbye to the girls. I was planning a trip to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina with my friends Alex and Marissa, so a stop in Oruro wouldn't take us off course too bad. I'll tell you about that trip and my final day at the orphanage in my next post.

My last day at the kid's gym was easier... but only because I wimped out and didn't tell the kids I was leaving. I suck, I know. I did tell the coach, so I'm betting she told them. I brought my camera and was able to get a few shots before the kids tackled me and took it over. I have hundreds of blurred shots and closeups of eyeballs now. But there were a few salvageable shots. Most of the boys wanted pictures of themselves doing acrobatic moves on the rings. I was able to settle them down for two group shots though.





After saying my goodbyes, my abuela, my cousin Adrian and I went to the bus station. Our flight was early in the morning leaving from Cochabamba, 4 hours away. We took the overnight bus with arrived at 2am. But the airport does not open til 5am. The bus lets you stay on until 5 though, sleeping in the back as it is parked. It was rough for me... I got an hour of sleep. We were the first ones to arrive at the airport though, but we then had a 4 hour wait. They don't make it easy to travel out of Bolivia... there are so few flying options. But anyway, we made it into Buenos Aires, Argentina. The bulk of the family now lives in Buenos Aires, and we stayed with my Uncle Hector.
The next day it was my abuela's birthday, so of course we had a big party. My Uncle bbq'd tons of steak, brought out the beer and put on the music. Alex and I wanted my family to taste a bit of Mexican cuisine, because none of them ever had tried it. We searched all day to find a Mexican grocer but to no avail. We had to settle for a small international section in a supermarket called Jumbo that had a tiny selection of Mexican food in between the German and Japanese section. There were some cans of beans, some tortillas, dipping sauce... not much, but we bought what we could and and bought the ingredients for mojitos (my idea:) The food turned out great, and the mojitos were a hit, even with my abuela, who soon got up and started to dance:


Even I got in on the action...


So I finally got the tattoo I've been talking so much about throughout this blog. I woke up one day in Buenos Aires and didn't want to wait anymore. I looked up a tattoo parlor and went! Remember the Bolivian Devil mask painting I saw on the side of a building? Well I printed it out and took it in for the tattoo artist to look at. The mural isn't there anymore by the way, they painted over it a week after I took the pic. Anyway, it took three and a half painful hours, but I got it done! It felt as if someone were using a serrated knife to cut into my skin the whole time, but I didn't cry... as much as my cousin Adrian and friend Alex wanted me to, as they stood nearby waiting with cameras. Here is the pic that inspired the tattoo:

The reason I like it so much is that it plays a big part in all of the festivals in Oruro, and this mask in particular originated in Oruro. Different cities in Bolivia have different masks, and this one is specific to Oruro. I found a cool website that shows you many of the other masks, scroll down to the bottom to see the devil mask: http://www.musef.org.bo/mascaras/02.html

But here is me getting the tattoo, and the final result:




I will tell all about my trip to Peru next time.

So this weekend was one big party. As I've mentioned, they like to party here, and this weekend was no exception. Festivities began on Friday and didn't stop til' Monday morning. Each day was a different reason to celebrate... Saturday was the "day of the Market" and parades and flowers lined every street. Live bands were set up around every corner too. I'm not sure what the other days were. But they have a day for everything here! Anyway, I took lots of pics as usual.






This is a panorama shot, click it to enlarge it:


My abuela doesn't like all the festivals, she says they are excuses to drink. And she's right! Everyday there are plenty of drunk people stumbling around, or dancing around, or more often fighting. Her store ran out of beer, every place did. I liked seeing women in their 60s and 70s downing bottle after bottle and dancing in the streets. Alot of people just end up passing out on the streets, like this guy:

I couldn't help but take the pic! He was laying in front of the place I make calls from... he was asking for it!

Sunday was the craziest of all the days. Besides all of the parading, they had set up carnival type games all along one street. After finding out I'm a terrible shot when it comes to shooting down cans, I played it up on the foosball tables, and also bought some raffle tickets. But this wasn't your regular raffle; instead of giving away junk prizes like toasters and what-not, they were giving away something far more tempting: puppies! The ticket salesmen held up dozens of tiny puppies, dressed in little outfits, and sold tickets for 2 pesos each (25 cents). I knew it wasn't a good idea to try and win a puppy... but I couldn't help myself. I bought ten tickets and gave half to my cousin. When it came time to announce the winning numbers, my cousin ended up winning a baby chicken and a puppy. He chose a husky, which go for 6-700 dollars in the U.S., we won it for $2.50. We gave away the baby chick, I figured my abuela might eventually try and cook it.
So we surprised my abuela with the pup, who promptly peed and poo'd everywhere in her house. We don't have a name for it yet, I suggested naming it "163" after the number that won it ;)



I take off from Bolivia this Saturday, and begin my backpacking adventures through Argentina, Bolivia and Peru the week after. I want to see Machu Picchu, Iguazu falls, Lake Titicaca and of course, lounge on the beach in Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata. But we'll see how many of these places I actually make it to... I might just get lazy and not want to leave the beach...

Tattoo-less Chris

Last weekend I hit up La Paz again. My whole reason for going wasn’t to experience the sites or culture, but to finally get the tattoo I’ve been wanting fooorever now. There is a good tattoo artist there so I made a trip of it (peckatattoo.com). I brought along my cousin Adrian and my abuela too. Bring along my abuela probably wasn’t the best idea… she didn’t seem to get that my cousin and I were heading to Bolivia purely to get tattoos. Instead my abuela would wake up at 5am and want to go sight-seeing… no matter if it was still dark out or not. This was made harder by the fact that Adrian and I enjoyed drinks from room service and watching TV til late at night.
Anyway, turns out that the Friday we went was another Bolivian holiday (there is one every week!), so the tattoo place was closed. Then the Saturday we went, we realized that the place is only open Monday thru Friday… so no tattoos. Instead, we indulged abuela and went to see the sights… all of which were closed. We ended up heading an hour outside of La Paz to visit Tiwanaku, which was an important spiritual centre for the Incan people. I read a bit about it before going to La Paz, and was pretty excited to go. Um, unfortunately, the place was a bit of a let-down. They haven’t finished excavating the site. There really wasn’t much to see. Though my abuela made it more entertaining by trying to get me into the site for a discount. They charge more for foreigners to enter, a lot more, so my abuela tried to say that we were all from Oruro and were Bolivian citizens. The fact that I tower above my abuela and cousin, and that I don’t have a Bolivian ID or speak fluent Spanish made the story a bit hard to believe, and I had to end up paying 8 times what they paid. Anyways, here a few pics I took of the few things that were there to take pics of.



My stay in Bolivia is quickly coming to and end, and when my time is up here I’ll be heading to Germany for Christmas. But I’ve decided that I’ll be staying there longer than originally intended. I realized that what better place to continue my globe trotting than in the center of Europe. It will also give me a chance to spend some time with my folks and also pursue some goals I have in mind. So if anyone wants to visit Europe, you have a friend in Germany!

People like to celebrate here… a lot. There are always small parades going down random streets on random days, it is a normal thing here. But this last Saturday was an especially big celebration, called the Universities Festival – which is exactly what it sounds like, all the Universities in Oruro come together to put on a big festival for the town, and everyone comes out to watch, dance and drink… but especially more of the latter. Even though Oruro is a small town, there are A LOT of universities here, and they all came out to parade on the streets. Their costumes are colorful, flamboyant, and in many cases – heavy! Some of the male costumes weigh anywhere from 50 to 70 pounds, which they dance in during the sweltering heat, often uphill, for hours. Which is why almost all the male dancers have teams of people running drinks to them during the march, and why all of them have big wads of coca leaves on one side of their mouths. It wasn’t uncommon to see a few of the dancers looking pretty rundown and trailing behind the others, and I even saw some cases where some of the men had passed out and had to be carried off. Anyway, the parade went on all day, from morning til’ 4am, and all day there were onlookers getting their drink on. My family warned me there would be a lot of drunk people out that night, and they were right! There was a lot of stumbling, women crying, and in the afternoon the next day – a good deal of passed-out people sleeping in the streets.
I took tons of pictures of the parades all day, so check them out:










My abuela was insistent that I get "cholitas," so I obliged. Cholitas are what they call the girls here who wear more traditional clothing (large colorful skirts and a brimmed top hat). Of course the outfits are alot more colorful during festival time.



On the subject of drinking, teenagers here have found a low-cost way of getting drunk: rubbing alcohol. Yup, my abuela sells small bottles of rubbing alcohol in her store, and they’re most often bought up several bottles at a time by teenagers who don’t appear to have any large gashes on their bodies in need of disinfecting. They buy them with soda and drink up. Also popular amongst the teens here: bandaids on noses. At first I thought it was to protect their noses from the sun, or maybe to help heal a sunburn, but no. Boys wear bandaids on their noses here to get girls. It’s a fashion thing and girls seem to go for it. Maybe I’ve gotten too old, but this is one fad I just don’t understand.

Like I was saying in the beginning, people like to celebrate here, even at work. My cousin Adrian works at a furniture store, and invited me to come by after work on Friday. What I found when I arrived was a case of beer and a fire-pit being started up inside of the store. The last Friday of the month, stores here burn-up good luck charms in a fire and fill up their stores with smoke. It is supposed to bring good fortune and profit to your business in the next month. Oh, and of course lots of drinking is a part of the ceremony as well ;) 12 large bottles of beer were split between four of us, and after “cheers-ing” we would pour beer on the floor and drink up. I was doing fine, until I found out that we had to repeat the whole ceremony again in their other store, and another case of beer was brought out. I quit after the first store though, like a good boy… and also because I couldn’t handle all that beer!




Here is a cool mural I found painted above a garage door. I would pass it a lot in a taxi as I go to help out in the kid’s gym, and finally I set out on foot to find it. After getting lost for a while I finally found it, and was able to get a good pic of it by having my cousin sit on my shoulders with the camera. It is a painting of the devil; this is what the devil is depicted as in Oruro. And the train underneath it symbolizes how Oruro was the first in the country with a train. …Wouldn’t this make a cool tattoo?? Yes it would… on my arm.

Attack of the Little Ladies

So I had to end up buying a new digital camera, because I left my other camera’s charger in Buenos Aires. But that’s ok, because now I can bring you an update!

I finally have some photos of the orphanage I work in. I'm going to run you through a typical day there for me. I was reluctant to bring out my camera, as I was expecting most of the girls to duck and cover at the sight of a camera lens pointing at them. But quite the opposite happened, and I ended up being completely mobbed with young girls wanting to take a photo (now I know how Justin Timberlake feels). They were pretty excited to handle the camera be in front of it, I eventually had to put it away when fighting started so we could get back to our game of ‘Tijeritas’ (kind of like ‘duck duck goose’). So here is a bunch of photos of the little ladies:
This is what the place looks like on the outside, it is known as “Logar Penny” around here.
I go into their study area and help with homework… as much as I can at least. Today someone asked for help with Chemistry, but I’m afraid they’re seven years too late for that (and even then I wouldn’t have been much assistance… sorry Mr. Sparks). The picture is blurry because I couldn’t get a clear shot with all the girls jumping in front of the camera; you can see a bunch of hands poking up from the bottom.

After homework time, which is very strictly run by the director of the place, the girls line up for their afternoon snack. They get a piece of bread with some jam and an orange. I haven't stayed for dinner so I'm not sure what the menu is then.

They come back inside for their favorite time of the day: telenovela time! The girls love everything on Nickelodeon too, I sat and watched Aladdin 2 with them yesterday, and then a teenage telenovela after during which all the girls sighed over all the boys in the show... 'sighed' isn't the right word, 'screamed' is more accurate. They are at that boy crazy age I guess!


And here are photos of the girls themselves during play time. Oh, and me :)





I have tons more photos of the little ladies, they all loved being in front of that camera!

I should probably mention that I joined the Bolivian police force. Well no, but I did try on the uniform. My cousin Adrian stopped by after work and let me try on the uniform. We took photos, of course.



I look pretty tough right?

Last weekend my Abuela and I went to Cochabamba. It is one of the biggest cities in Bolivia, and also where Bolivians come to vacation. But unfortunately, I forgot to bring the photos of the trip with me to the internet café… so that will have to wait til next time. But I can tell you about the adventure we had as we were leaving the house to catch the bus there.
My Abuela is good at a lot of things – haggling for one. In fact every time I go somewhere with her she always tries to bargain, and she usually gets her way. If she doesn’t, she waves her hand at the salesman and says something under her breath, at which point I apologize to the person in broken Spanish. My Abuela is also good at getting me to eat much more than I really want to. If she sees my empty plate, she asks “Mas? Quieres mas? Estas flackito!” If my plate is not empty, she pleads “un poco mas, solo un poco por favor!” I often sneak my leftovers to my cousin Adrian… I dunno how such a skinny guy can consume so much.
Anyway, one thing my Abuela is not so good with is keys… they seem to go missing a lot when she handles them. It doesn’t help that every door in the house has a different set of keys to open them. As we walked out the door with our luggage that day, it suddenly occurred to my Abuela that she forgot the keys to the door we just exited from… and all the other doors had been barricaded from the inside. Luckily our neighbors offered to help, by pushing their 6 year old son through a small kitchen window with bars on it. I didn’t think he’d fit, but with some “help” i.e. shoving, he made it through and landed on top of the stove. He let us in and then the search began. My Abuela has a drawer dedicated to keys, many of which she doesn’t even know what they belong to, but the drawer’s existence didn’t surprise me since she’s kept every free toy that I ever got from a box of cereal or a Kinder Egg since I was just a wee boy. Anyway, after a box full of keys we finally found them. We locked up, again, and were about to take off when my Abuela realized she had misplaced the keys we had just used. Another search ensued and they were discovered in one of her many bags. We were finally ready to leave and as I followed her out the front gate I found the keys sitting on the ground in the middle of the alley way … at this point I took the keys and put them into my pocket for safe keeping… which I almost lost once we got off the bus and they fell out of my pocket into my seat. Runs in the family I guess. I love my abuela!

I'll try to get to the internet again soon to bring another update! Nos vemos!