a new path

This Summer changed everything. There are times in a persons life when they think they have it all figured out. My life was going in one direction. Then it did a 180. I wouldn't say I'm going backwards, just not the way I thought I was going.

Now instead of the Andes mountains, bus rides with chicken and dirty faced children, and colonial architcture, I'm surrounded by cornfields, hill-billys (not really) and 'Iowa nice'.

A few months ago I found a new path to take. The Burmese (Myanmar) people that have settled in Des Moines are in need of so much help, and they are so kind.







So though I'm stuck in Iowa, I've found a reason to get out of bed in the morning. A new people and culture to learn about. I'll try and update this blog more often, and I'll include photos from my travels. Hopefully to Thailand and NYC.

Not much to report

A busy, but mostly boring couple of months...




Visitors and swine flu are my latest excuse for not writing. :)



I didn’t realize till yesterday that it’s been more than two months since I last wrote. Mom said a few of you had asked about it, sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s see, where did I leave off?

We've had lots of visitors in the city. Some from Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Sweden and Germany.



This coming weekend we’re off to Potosí. We’re going early on Saturday. I’m excited because it’ll be the first time I get to do some touristy things there. I’m going up with the Brits and Emily. On monday we’re going to a hot water spring that’s really deep, and they’re doing a tour of the mine...which I think I’m going to skip. Being trapped under a mountain riddled with carelessly dug mine shafts whilst dynamite goes off isn’t my idea of a good time.

I’m still in love with my new apartment, though it’s been a bit more crowded than it was at first. We’ve had a visitor, Jenny Golyer, for almost two months. Unfortunately Jenny got really sick. We thought it was a problem with altitude and her hypoglycemia at first. But I was getting really worn out being the main caretaker and dealing with other dramas, and got sick myself. Turns out the swine flu has been making the rounds here in Sucre. Let me tell y'all, it’s not fun. I lost almost three weeks, not sure where they went. We got a case of extreme cabin fever, as you can see from the pics below.








Other highlights include a puerto rican party and taco night, check out the rest of my pics on my FLICKR page.



Until next time!

I've found that the road I find myself going down is constantly finding ways to challenge me. There's always something new to try. Most new things don't scare me, or at least I can pretend it doesn't to get myself through it. Yesterday I tried something new, at first I didn't think it would scare me. But there were a few minutes where I didn't think it would happen. But having two older brothers has helped me learn to push through my fears. So I climbed to the top, and I might have found a new addiction. Here are the pics.


Emily said she doesn't really like rock climbing...
...but she made it to the top like a pro.
Judd was belaying Emily.
Steve trying to get over a tricky part of the rock.
Ben working out the best way over 'el ojo'.
Judd doing what he calls a 'jump start'

It's been a while

It's been such a long time, I doubt anyone even checks my blog anymore. But for you faithful here's a bit. :)

I've been back in Bolivia for about two months. The first month I spent in the Amazon regions of Beni and Pando. It's really a whole other world from where I live in Sucre. I honestly loved it. From La Paz I flew with friends to Rurrenebaque. As we took off from El Alto airport we passed by the Cordillera Real part of the Andes. We were so close I thought we would crash if a strong wind came. Almost instantly the mountains dropped out and everything was green. The rivers snaked there way across the jungle floor making their way to the mighty Amazon. The difference in altitude and humidity was super notable as soon as we arrived. Being a Florida girl I felt right at home. Even the bugs made it feel more homey. haha

After spending nearly a week lost in tourist-ville I took a 16 hour to Riberalta. For some reason while looking at the map and reading up I thought I would really like Riberalta. The people I met were great, but the town it self was a giant red dust ball.

From Riberalta it was another 10 hour bus ride to Cobija, my final destination. The bus ride was memorable for the two river crossings. The bus approaches the river where everyone gets off before it can load onto a barge of sorts before everyone gets on after it. The first crossing was rather short. The second we took quite the ride down river before meeting up with another river.

Cobija is a nice city of about 50,000 people. I loved that it's border with Brazil. It was my first time being around Brazilians. I went to Brazil for the day, it was so much fun.

I enjoyed each leg of my journey but hope to go back and visit Cobija.

Other than that life has been normal. Just trying to settle back in and work on my two year visa requirements.



Well there was the day we ate minnows in the market, but I won't get into that.

Lake Titicaca

Quite possibly the worst named body of water in the world. Or is it? ;)



The lake is at an extremely high altitude of 12,500 feet, though the island we were on (isla del sol) was a bit higher. Believe you me the climb up to our hotel was not enjoyable, even though I paid a local boy to carry my pack up. Just when I thought I was getting in shape! The views tho...unforgettable. We stayed on an island called Isla del Sol which translates to island of the sun, there is a smaller one called moon island or isla de la luna. The water was a deep blue, and the lake so vast I could almost trick my mind into believing I was at the ocean. In the afternoon watching the clouds come in covering the land (Peru) across the lake was amazing.



My mind wondered and I wondered what the spaniards must have thought when they first arrived. If they came in rainy season and it was just as cloudy would they have thought they found another ocean? What must they have thought of the sun worshiping indigenous population. But then it just makes me think of how they exploited them, and who wants to think such sad thoughts. Almost as sad as the documentary I saw on the mines in Potosí. It was called 'The Devil's Miner'. If anyone wants a real look at how life is for the miners in one of the worlds oldest and largest mines you should check it out. It show's how life really is here, and honestly it's pretty sad, but worth a look.



After two days at the lake we spent some time in La Paz. I love the hustle and bustle of a big city, but only for a few days. The taxi drivers are crazy even for me, which is saying a lot considering I grew up with driving with my Dad who is quite possibly the craziest (or worst depending on how you look at it) driver west of the Mississippi.



We went to some amazing restaurants. You can eat delish gourmet food for what it would cost you to eat at Applebees back in the states. I was spoiled since my friends that were visiting treated me. I love having visitors. :)
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in La Paz (especially the visit to this great little modern art museum) but I am glad to live in a smaller less hectic city.

Next month I'm making a trip back to the states for work, though I don't really want to my bank account is demanding it. :) So no more posts for a while. If you know my Dad don't tell him I'm coming, I'm trying to surprise him. Hopefully I won't give him a heart attack. But at his age you never know! lol

Rostro Asado

For nearly a year before my move to Bolivia I was vegetarian. I quit for two reasons: I wanted to eat one last time both Popeye's chicken and Bún chả from Lucky Dragon and secondly I knew being a vegetarian anywhere in South America, especially Bolivia, would be difficult. But I have to say after this past weekend I'm strongly considering being vegetarian once again. Here's what happened....



I went with some friends of mine to the town of Oruro, which is near the border with Chile. It has extremely cheap electronics and we went to buy portable dvd players to help with the volunteer work we do with the deaf community here in Sucre. We also wanted to enjoy some of the regional dishes Oruro is famous for. Just to be clear I had no idea what any of them were.



On Friday we enjoyed Charki-khan. It was a plate of Llama meat that had first been dry-cured over several days then fried. It's accompanied by mote (something similar to hominy), boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, and cheese. Not forgetting the hot sauce or llajua. To be honest, I enjoyed the simple combination. I enjoy food you are supposed to eat with your hands and we ate it with a cold beer. mmmmm



The next day was filled with more shopping, I scorred an awesome wok for $5 and a coat for $2. Then in the evening we were in search of another gastronomical adventure. Generally I'm very adventurous. I had a fried fish head in Haiti, guinea pig in Ecuador, even chicken feet (tho I didn't really enjoy them). But this next adventure has nearly put me over the edge as far as becoming a vegetarian once again.

We were in search of Rostro Asado. I felt as tho I were a guest host of the Andrew Zimmerman show. On the corner of a downtown street there was a lady with a huge plastic bag sitting inside of a tiny shack. 'Rostro Asado?' she asked us. 'Ummmm sí' was the tentative reply that launched us down the path to the carnivoric atrocity to follow. Reaching deep into the bag she pulled out the specimen to show us what we were buying. Minutes later we were in my friend Teresa's house, sitting around the table and contemplating the monstrosity in front of us. Some of us took it better than others.



Having come this far I couldn't back out. If I had it would have just confirmed to the Bolivians we foreigners are weak-bellied cowards.



So I partook of his cheek, which wasn't that bad, and finally of the ceso (brains) which had the same 'coat your throat' effect of pure cream that makes me gag. That was the last straw. My eyes were opened and I realized what I had just ate. As soon as my stove/oven gets back into working order and I can cook at home I will begin my path back to veggi-dom.

Trip to Tarabuco

I’ve written about Tarabuco before, one of the isolated towns we preach in. It’s also a popular market town and tourist trap. I’d been there for my volunteer work many times, most of the week it’s a sleepy mountain village. Sundays are a completely different story. I went with the four french sisters, we arrived about nine thirty and the town was already abuzz. It’s nice at first to have such a variety, until you realize what a tourist trap it is and how much they overcharge. Haggling is expected and even necessary if you want to get a fair price.

We walked around, people watching until lunch time. They wanted to go to a restaurant that was full of tourists...thinking that it must be good and ‘safe’ for their stomachs since other foreigners were there. Not wanting to rock the boat I went along. After waiting for close to a century a little girl brought us our soup, but she got distracted before bringing them all. A old typical Tarabuco man staggered out with the last soup and all I could think of was the remark I’d heard many times that they rarely if ever bathe. The little girl informed us he was the ‘cook’. Then Gaelle found two hairs in her food and we saw an unidentifiable dead stuffed animal through the kitchen door. To top off the trip on the bus ride home there was a bag of live chickens under our feet, but we didn’t realize they were alive until one of the french girls slightly stepped on them. Days like that all you can say is, Welcome to Bolivia!

My New Favorite Thing

In the states, ketchup was far from my favorite condiment. When I was little I could have eaten in on anything. I wonder how many gallons the average public elementary school goes through in a week? Since I turned ten though and it lost it’s childhood mystique it rarely was welcome on much more than my french fries and meatloaf. In my eyes it pales in comparison to homemade barbecue sauce, hidden valley ranch (mmm wish I had some now) or some good brown mustard. Here the ketchup is SO bad. So when I found myself in the condiment aisle at the local supermarket the other day I was strangely attracted to an over-sized (read-american sized) red bottle. Mesmerized by the promise of high fructose corn syrup and ‘natural’ flavoring in the list of ingredients I quickly put the bottle in my cart. Never mind that this one item was half the cost of my grocery bill.
As I write this I’m enjoying some on my salchipapas (french fries with cut up hot-dog on top) that I got from a street vendor near my house. The Heinz company really knows their stuff! Now I have to figure out what to do with 43 3⁄4 oz that are left.