By the way, we went to Puno.

So, we went to Puno, a friend and I.  For one day.  To make sure a friend could leave and re-enter the country safely.

We were successful.


Here's how it went:

On a September Saturday morning, we met up to catch a bus from La Paz, Bolivia to Puno, Peru.  She needed accompaniment just because no one should have to travel alone over that kind of distance--so, I went with her!  We made it an adventure.

We experienced televised entertainment while waiting in the bus terminal--everything from animated animals singing "In the Jungle" to N*Sync. 

After finally boarding the bus, we took some selfies, talked, and I took a nap (which she, also, unfortunately documented).  The thing about this bus ride is that you have to cross over part of Lake Titicaca in order to continue. Passengers exit the bus and take a small boat while the bus takes a ferry, of sorts, over.  There's some wait-time here, too.

Eventually, we crossed the Bolivian boarder to Peru (though, it was actually late at night and these pictures were taken on the return trip):

  

After another hour or two or three of bus-riding, we made it to Puno, had a (late) nice, candlelit dinner (of alpaca and trout, respectively) and went to a local bar for some drinks (Pisco Sours, of course) before heading to the hostel for the night.

  

The next morning, we decided to take a tour of the floating islands, since that's the touristy attraction of Puno.  Though, being a Sunday, nothing was open for breakfast, making our food-run interesting, to say the least.  We got to walk around many parts of the city!  The floating, reed, islands are quite amazing and lovely, though!  Certainly worth the tour.  Here are some pictures:

Yes, people live, work, and thrive on these reed-islands.  They were incredibly accommodating, showing us around the inside of their homes, telling stories, and singing to us.  Not to mention, bearing our presence and the nosey photographs taken by us and passing boats.  Tourism is part of the economy on the islands, so it seemed that, for the most part, they were more than used to us.

At around one in the afternoon, the tour was over and we left to catch our long, but pretty comfortable bus back to La Paz, Bolivia.  We listened to Podcasts and chatted.  Both glad for the retreat.

Once we had crossed the boarder, we decided we needed a picture with the Bolivian border sign, which is lovingly posted below.

The primary mission of the trip as a whole was a success and the islands were a wonderful added bonus.  It was a nice way to spend a couple of days for sure--and with great company!

My Small Town is Showing

On and off, I have moments that can only be described as, "my small town is showing".  To give you an idea of what this means, I have some scenarios listed below:

• Walking past the homeless, my heart pangs and I used to give them change and food, if I had it, but this month, I don't think I'll be able to do so.  
• Hearing the fishy-kissy noises, hoots, whistles, etc. from men as they, or I, walk past make me irate because, for one, I can't understand their goal--do they really think someone will turn to that kind of degrading attention?  I find it disgusting and it's very difficult for me to not react.  An American from New York sees it as unfortunately normal, but being from small-town West Virginia, it's just really not okay for me.  I haven't grown up with that kind of treatment before, so I now try to find ways to want to walk around outside in spite of knowing that I'll get unwanted attention.  Granted, I stand out a good bit, even if I am the same height as most of the people here.  
• Surprisingly enough, walking past cars and through heavy traffic with relative ease isn't too much of an adjustment--I suppose I got practice with walking though crowds in high school and college! (This is definitely comparable here.) 

All-in-all, I still find life in La Paz to be an adjustment.  Though, I can't decide if life here is getting (based on perspective, alone, because, in essence, nothing has changed) worse because I've currently made another "small town" acquaintance.  Hopefully, this acquaintance will dissipate before it becomes too friendly, but I'm not sure if I should hold my breath on that just yet:  I need to find something I look forward to doing here.

I do enjoy teaching, but the hours at my school are strange and make for long days and of late, I've been asked to stay longer in the actual building to do work, which is fine, but I will definitely need an outlet.

Last night, Mike asked what I enjoyed doing/ would do in an ideal world/ looked forward to every day, week, or month... the amount of answers I had for him was rather pitiful.  The only one I could be sure of went something like, "Well, the only thing I can really think of that makes me excited is the end of each month."  Shoot.  That's not good.

So I'm trying to become more involved, but I'm still not really sure where to start/ how to go about doing it.  Here are some of the considerations so far:

• A friend has gotten me in touch with a book club in part of the city that's about a half hour away (by mini-bus), but they seemed to be concerned with how late I work on Fridays (they meet once a month-ish on Fridays).  I only work until about 6pm at the moment, which is actually pretty good, considering the school is still open until 9pm (every other day of the week, I work until 9pm, with gaps in my day).
• I also want to try to swim some, but pools here are either expensive, closed, or only open when I work.  I've been trying to exercise  regularly, but when I got into a really good routine, my body decided I was getting enough energy to stop sleeping at night... needless to say, that one wasn't quite working, but I have been searching for other ways to work out and still sleep at night...
• During these inquiries, I've been applying to different types of writing jobs.  I'd like to practice writing for different audiences, so maybe that's a venue.  
• For the past couple of weeks, I have taken some Spanish classes, but that's during the work week, for me, and the cost of them is slightly daunting when held to my salary... I'll need to cut back on them a little.
• Everyone I know here likes to drink and go out and all of that, but that's never been appealing to me... though, if and when I do go out with friends and coworkers, it's not uncommon for me to return home on my own, and that's a bit of a deterrent, too; though, the city is pretty safe.
• I've tried baking, but I would like something to get myself out of the house more often.  Today, I plan to explore some and find the botanical garden before dinner with a friend.
• Of course, I read and write almost constantly.
• I will soon, hopefully, be volunteering at a soup kitchen (the first I've heard of since being here) on Mondays, beginning the Monday after next!
• The churches are incredibly intimidating for me, since my Spanish speaking and understanding abilities leave much to be desired.  Though, perhaps I'll go back to one of the ones I visited during the first two months here and try to get involved... the problem comes with my work schedule and getting back home after dark on my own.

All in all, I'm not sure what I should try to look into or try to find.  I don't really know what I could afford that would be something to look forward to, even once a week.  I don't know what there is for free, either (generally, nothing is free here, but everything is cheap-- a notion taken from Mike).  Looking for a place to start.  (It just seems like a daunting task, doesn't it?  La Paz is huge!)  Or, maybe something that I've begun to look into will pan out.  Perhaps these are just growing pains of a new city.  Optimistically, I'll find something soon!