Quik Thinking

We had planned to attend a New Year's party that would last all night so we took it easy on the 31st. Michal's guide book had recommended an Indian place called Gopal for cheap vegetarian fare so we went there for lunch. While it was certainly cheap (at ~$2/meal), the quality of the food was pretty mediocre.

JenMarie and Michal wanted to see if they could find new shoes for the party so we went to a mall next. I was fascinated by the diverse and oftentimes strange mannequins on display there. In addition to a wide variety of ethnic looks and amusing poses, ome of them had half their heads sliced off at the top! We even saw a manniquin that resembled ET.

At the shoe store, whose owner spoke excellent English, JenMarie found not one but three pairs she liked and since the price tag said they each cost under a hundred bucks, we figured that with the 7:1 exchange rate this would be a steal at a mere $41 for 3 pairs of dress shoes. She paid for them with her credit card and even Michal bought a pair. On the way home, as we were vocalising astonishment at the low prices, JenMarie happened to glance at her receipt and was horrified to discover that the prices had been in US dollars.

Upon telling Daniel's family about this predicament, his mom Rosa revisited the store with the girls to return the shoes. Unlike stores in North America, however, stores in Bolivia don't let you return goods; you can only exchange them. But JenMarie could not afford the extra couple of hundred dollars she'd accidentally spent so they asked to return 3 of the 4 pairs. The store owner was initially reticient but when they threatened to dispute the charge with Visa, he capitulated.

Once they'd sorted things out, we all took naps to fortify ourselves for the long night ahead. We'd planned on leaving shortly after 9pm but Rosa got stuck in a long queue at the hair salon and we didn't acually make it out of the house until after 10:30. Fortunately, the party wasn't very far away and we got in with plenty of time to ring in the new decade, which involved throwing confetti on everybody around us and making a lot of noise.

Food was served in short order and an enormous queue formed to partake of it. But Daniel's cousins and I jumped the queue so I didn't actually have to wait that long. It was ironic that they suggested it, since they'd only recently returned from a four year stay in the UK, where queues are practically sacred. With the eating portion of the night out of they way, we then danced until morning. I didn't begin to feel sleepy until we were on our way back so the nap must have worked.

We woke up in the late afternoon to celebrate Rosa's birthday with a BBQ. Many more members of the extended family came over. They used lemons to clean the grill, which seems like a great idea and I plan on trying it the next time I need to clean mine. I also had a chance to eat a Bolivian tamale, which tastes nothing like the Mexican and Salvadorean ones I'm used to. I think it's my 2nd faourite Bolivian food after saltanas.

Saturday was a big day. We flew to La Paz in the morning, checked into our hostel, ate lunch and then wandered around buying trinkets for a bit before going on a private tour of the city. Our tour guide was awesome. First she took us to the Valley of the Moon, where decades of acid rain have eroded the rock to form a breathtaking terrain. At first I though it was named because people thought it looked like the moon but our guide informed us that the name actually predates the acid rain and was given to the area by the people who once lived there because they believed that the moon would protect them.

The next stop on our tour was a lookout point in the midst of the city, from which we could see the entirety of La Paz stretching out in every direction. We also visited the cathedral and parliament building before ending at a market where our guide explained to us the significance of some mystical props that were on sale there. Since we were in the market, we had dinner at an organic vegetarian restaurant to counteract all the meat we'd been consuming over the week.

Finally, I got a haircut before we retired to our hostel room for the night. Even though at 10 bs (~$1.42) it was the cheapest haircut I've ever had, it was also one of the best. In fact, the barber was so skilled with his razor that I got him to shave my beard too. Now I've had my hair cut on 4 contients.

In the morning we took a taxi to the airport to catch our 8:30 flight to Cusco and managed to get there with enough time to grab brekki and mail out postcards. No sooner had we boarded the plane, however, than we were required to disembark due to unexplained technical difficulties. We spent the next couple of hours sitting around in the secure area until they announced that the flight would be delayed by 5 hours and gave us coupons for a free meal.

Sleeping in airports sucks. Don't do it. Seriously. It's worth paying an extra couple of hundreds bucks for your ticket if you can avoid having to spend the night in an airport between flights.

Getting through Bolivian customs and immigration was very easy and quick when I arrived in La Paz. But when I tried to board a domestic flight from La Paz to Cochabamba, they got confused by my Portuguese name, Pakistani birthplace and Canadian passport. They kept asking me if I was Brazillian and ended up searching through all my baggage!

When I arrived in Cochabamba there was nobody to pick me up and my CDMA phone, which worked in Mexico and Peru, couldn't find a signal. I didn't have an address for my friend Daniel so I stood around looking lost for a couple of minutes until a random guy who spoke English took me to a travel agency and got them to call Daniel's number for me. In the end it all worked out.

Daniel's family has a lovely house in Cochabamba and after a shower I took a cat nap in the guest bedroom they assigned me. It felt amazing to sleep in a real bed again. We then had tea and hung out in the living room for a while before heading out for supper. Driving around in Bolivia is interesting because there are many roundabouts and no lane markers.

We had dinner with some of Daniel's many cousins at a Restaurant called Tuesday. My Spanish has grown rusty to the point of uselessness but they spoke enough English to hold a conversation. After dinner we met another cousin who took us to this little coffee shop where we got to chew coco leaves.

On the way back we went to a drive-through pharmacy. They also have drive-through liquor stores, although we didn't avail of any. While driving, Daniel's cousin played for us an album of songs about the president, who continues to enjoy popular support. The songs reminded me of the Russian national anthem but with pan flutes. There's an idea for Obama!

In the morning we went to Los Castores for saltanas, a uniquely Bolivian breakfast food that comes in both sweet and spicy varieties. Daniel taught us the correct way to eat them so that we didn't get our hands messy. I chased down my saltanas with a glass of papaya juice with milk. Papayas grow locally so they use fresh ones that taste amazing.

After brekki we wandered around the outdoor market, which was comfortably reminiscient of outdoor markets I've seen in other countries, buying knick-knacks. We were disappointed to discover that the toques had been made in China. Everything else, at least, was made locally. People kept driving cars through the narrow streets, although, at the pace they were moving, I have no idea why they bothered.

Instead of lunch we went out for an early dinner around 4pm. I had a tough time deciding between rabbit, mackerel and chorizo but in the end I ordered the chorizo, which was delicious. Not all of us were happy with our food, however. JenMarie's "chicken soup" turned out to be soup with half a chicken plonked down in the middle of it! Being vegetarian normally, she couldn't bear to stare at the thing and removed it from the bowl to eat the rest of the soup. She ended up taking it to go and we gave it to a little campesino boy who was selling fruit on the street. I'm sure he appreciated it more than she did.

After dinner we returned to the house and took naps. When I woke up Daniel's dad Berto was regaling Michal with tales from his adventures living abroad. He's spent most of his adult life stationed in various developing countries, initially with the Peace Core and then later serving as a microeconomist for a non-profit. That man needs to publish a book on his memoirs!

While he was in the Core, he learned how to play poker and offered to teach us Draw poker. So all of us played poker around the dinner table in the evening. I thought he'd win but his wife turned out to be even more adept than he.

On Wednesday morning I had occasion to talk to Daniel's sister Tania at brekki. She's been following in her dad's footsteps, having already worked in a few different countries. She met her husband while in Sudan for a year and both of them now live in Sri Lanka with their 2 year old daughter. It was from her that I learned about how the tsunami was indirectly responsible for the civil war in Sri Lanka ending a few months ago. Not having heard about that before, I was blown away by the news, since I can remember people leaving Sri Lanka and coming to Karachi in the early 90s.

Tania also helped design some of the fixtures in their house, which the family designed themselves in the mid 90's. My favourite feature of the house is that it has North American power outlets in addition to Bolivian ones.

Once JenMarie and Michal woke up, we went to see the world's largest statue of Christ, 40 metres high and set atop one of the many hills that encircle the city. We ascended the hill by cable-car, allowing us an amazing view of the more populated side of Cochabamba. Once we were at the top, we could see the other side too. Although the ring of hills imposes a natural limit on urban sprawl, the city hasn't yet run up against that limit. Daniel thinks it won't be more than a few more years before that happens though.

The statue itself is hollow on the inside with a stairwell leading up. We walked up it, looking out the little windows as we went. When we got as far as the outstretched arms we walked partway down their length, although we couldn't proceed any further because the route had ben barricaded.

In the afternoon we visited a little restaurant built on the banks of a stream. After eating we played a dice game called cacho that Berto taught us and then rode a zipline across the river. We also drank chicha, a drink made from corn. The girls were not fans of it though. Because I'd gone to bed late and woken up early, I decided to take a siesta upon returning to the house.

A few hours later we had a light dinner and then went out to see what the local bar scene was like. We left around 10pm. Apparently that's way too early because the first 3 bars we tried to hit up weren't even open yet! We decided to kill time at a karaoke bar that was empty. But we soon discovered that JenMarie was the only one among us who could actually sing karaoke with any semblence of accuracy. We also met a girl from SF who was visiting Cochabamba and would be in Peru next so we made plans to try and meet up there if we could. Eventually other peeps showed up and put us to shame wither their excellent singing so we blew out of there and went to a nightclub.

There was a dance floor at the club so we danced for a while before taking a break for drinks. JenMarie's exotic European look attracted the attention of a local boy who asked her to dance. According to him that was the worst nightclub he'd been to in the city. Maybe that's why it was open before midnight.

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