Hurricane Holidays

Phew!  It's already the end of January?  The last two months have been a whirlwind of family, friends, colleagues, students, landlords, and apartment buddies; dinners, side-trips, apologies, and work.  Who knows?  Maybe a cat will get thrown into the mix before long, too! (Granted, we still need to talk to Antonio, our landlord, about it...)  Let's begin with the december holidays: Christmas and New Year's Eve.

Some gifts from Mike's family,
assembled... in January.

I have had about four "Christmases" this year:

• First, IE had a staff Christmas dinner which was delicious and fun.  
• Then, Mike and I celebrated Christmas over a weekend in December because we would be traveling to the states separately and returning (hopefully) in time to celebrate the New Year together in La Paz.  On "Christmas Eve", we made dinner together (red wine-soaked steaks with new potatoes and other vegetables) and put our presents under our fig tree for the morning.  In the morning, we opened the gifts and went to see the latest (and last) installation of The Hobbit. I was entirely too excited about it.  That evening we danced and watched a movie.  It was really nice.
• Finally, I had actual Christmas with my immediate family, cousins, friends, and my brother's new fiancee!
• After it all, Mike and I had a second Christmas in January, when some packages from Mike's family made it through to the Gravity office, so we got to celebrate with foods and gifts and a tiny pine tree.  Truly, there were packages from October to December in that "kit".

Christmas back home was absolutely fantastic.  I greeted my family in a Christmas elf hat that shined, "Feliz Navidad" on the front.  We were all thrilled to be a whole family, in person, again.  I mean, Skyping them during Thanksgiving dinner in November was wonderful, but there's really nothing like being there.  Even Dad couldn't contain his smile!  It was fantastic.

    

                           

Not to mention, Max decided that he would propose to his then-girlfriend on the Tuesday before Christmas (she wanted to do a dress-up dinner, so he thought it would work well--and it did!).  I was so excited that I told ALL of my students at IE before I left and even mentioned it to a couple on one of the plane-rides to the US.  THRILLED.  So, we got to add in Max and his FIANCEE to the mix; it was a joyful setting indeed.

While I was only home for five days, it was entirely worth it.  Other travellers warned me both ways-- that it could feel way too short of a time to spend with them and I would miss them more when I left, and that any longer than ten days would feel too long.  True, I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see or do everything I wanted to do (I haven't been lap-swimming since before I originally left for Bolivia and I'm still trying to fill that exercise hole!), but five days was enough for me to get a positive, non-restless taste of everyone and still miss them.  I am definitely excited to see them in June!
                                                                              ~~~

The week after Christmas, I was back to work at IE, but with the New Year holiday approaching, it was a short work week for me.  I was quite thankful for this, as returning to the altitude in La Paz had no ill-effect other than fatigue.  It was incredibly difficult for me to get up in the morning, even if I slept for 10 - 12 hours (this is normally UNHEARD of for me).  Nonetheless, I managed.

As the next holiday approached, Mike wasn't sure if he would return by New Year's Eve due to a complication, but everything ended up working out in spite of it all!  He arrived on New Year's Eve morning and for that day and the next few, we were stranded on a wifi-less island with all or most of our friends out-of-town for the holidays.  That night was pretty low-key: we shopped for food and "lucky" underwear for the New Year (it was being sold EVERYWHERE-- a red and gold Bolivian tradition), we played chess to pop and jazz music, ate 12 grapes in 12 seconds (and cheated the whole time) at midnight, admired the sound of thousands of illegal fireworks showering the new sky like rain, and build a blanket fort, in which we slept for the night.

Over the next few days, we cooked, deep-cleaned the apartment, played chess, went shopping (for the apartment), and watched movies during this time.  We just tried to enjoy each other's company before we both returned to work.
                                                                              ~~~

January was filled with a lot of work.  English classes at the institute are in demand, as everyone seems to have some deadline or new resolution, and it's fantastic, but incredibly busy.  Still over the weekends, I've found time to escape it all with some people.

Groups practicing for Carnival in the rain.

For example, on a rainy Saturday in mid-January, I met up with a friend, Ramiro, to go watch the dancing groups practice their routines for Carnival (in mid-Febuary).  It was awesome!  Every dance has a story behind it because the movements and sequences are all based on one folkloric legend or another.  I think my favourite dance is the Tinku dance, which is actually supposed to be a fighting dance, but the version I saw wasn't violent and looked quite fun!  They used all three levels of dance-space and there were a lot of arm swinging and alternation--really elaborate.


I was also invited to "help out" a friend's friend with her documentary.  She needed to attend a gringo party to show the different types of things she's done while in Bolivia.  Basically, I got to go hang out with friends while Sisa filmed her documentary.  It was a relaxed evening and I love Ashley and Bill's apartment because of the fireplace! (It's more than difficult to light a fire when there's such little oxygen.)

Sisa and her camera crew.

A Scottish flag was gifted by Ashley (Scottish) to
Tomas (Chilean) during the festivities.

                                                                             ~~~

On another Saturday, Mike and I hiked La Muella Del Diablo a second time with one of my friends and cohorts, Lizzie and her husband, Lew.  Here are a couple of photos from that trip:

                                                                              ~~~

Last weekend, Mike and I went to see the Cascadas (waterfalls) in Coroico (we ended up seeing them on the second day).  The first night we were there, we stayed in Carlos' (a biking friend of Mike) house, much of which he decorated himself.  The lush vegetation surrounding the house was almost beyond imagination.  While there, we hiked and visited with two German friends whom we had gotten to know in La Paz.  It was a nice break from the city.

                

This is a banana plant; a hummingbird is
on the bottom, right side of the flower that
is dangling from the bananas.

Mike, protector of the Bolivian amazon.
(Unfortunately, not of the mosquitos!)

The second night in Coroico, we stayed in a hostel called "Sol y Luna".  They must have prided themselves on their gardening and water-piping systems, as the flowers were vibrant and abundant, the views from the rooms were breath-taking, and the in-ground pools (2) and hot tub (1) were luxuries that Mike and I weren't used to in chilly La Paz.

An example of natural piping.
(My dad would be pleased, I'm sure.)

A nearby view, on the way to the waterfalls.

We almost walked into a thunder and lightening storm,
 but turned around in time!

Some of the plants at the hostel had faces. ^-^

More plants!

                                                                                 ~~~

Most recently, a friend of mine, Lorea, is leaving La Paz, so we've been spending a lot of time with her lately.  She's moving from her internship with the German Embassy in La Paz to Quito, Equador to do more internship work.  I'll certainly miss her!

These pictures are from a dinner Mike and I had this past week.  After a few snafus, we finally got a chance to eat the prized, roasted chickens around 11pm.  It was still a really nice time!  Everyone was enjoying each other's company.

                           

Though rapid, it's been a memorable past couple of months.  I'm excited to see what Carnival, other side-trips, and my experience on the Death Road (I haven't been on it yet.) will entail.  June can wait a bit longer, but I have a feeling it's not going to!

Ñatitas: An Afterlife Experience

Please feel free to view my latest blog on ESL101.com here.  It involves the traditions of celebrating ñatitas, human skulls that are dressed, decorated, and honoured guests on a hallowed holiday.

Ride and River Tour: The River, Day 6

We all woke up with the sun, tore down our tents, and ate breakfast.  This day was the last full day we would have together as a group.

We were still in this national park, so a man who lives in the area generously gives us a tour of his back- and front-yard, the jungle.  He was shoeless, carries a machete to help create a path where the plants have grown over, and carries nothing else.  He told us about medicinal properties of some plants, dying properties of others--demonstrating a leaf's dying property by turning part of a Frenchman's white t-shirt purple.  He pointed out which trees have vines that will provide good, clean water and which trees the ants like to harvest from the best.  When we asked him if he ever gets lost in the jungle, he explained that he knows it very well and normally doesn't get lost, but when he was younger, it was not uncommon for him to lean against a tree and sleep if the jungle became dark before he arrived home.  He used his knowledge of the trees to provide him with nourishment and learned how to identify when an animal would be territorial or not.  He was fearless of this realm because it was just as much his home as the animals.  Toward the end of the tour, he encouraged us to try leaves that stave off thirst, because no one brought water and the air was, as always, hot and humid.

We walked around his jungle for perhaps three hours, learning about the wildlife and vegetation.  As a matter of fact, he also informed us that we probably didn't see any wildlife last night because Marcos had taken us through the northern part of the jungle and all of the animals are currently in the southern part of the jungle.  The animals migrate from section to section during each season, so they will return to the northern section when the rainy season begins to flood the southern section.  He was incredibly informative.

In this part of Bolivia, few people speak Spanish, but we were lucky to have a guide who does.  --We were also lucky to have Mike to once again translate the wondrous information to us.  The dogs also accompanied us on and off during this portion of the tour.  Our guide moved deftly through the foliage and kept our group moving at a quick pace, stopping every once and a while to tell a story or explain the benefits or detriments of a certain plant.

At the tour's end, we were all sweaty and ready to get back in the boat to rest and embark on the final parts of our journey.  Our riverboat picked us and our guide up at the edge of the jungle and we rode back to where we first stopped the previous day to drop off our guide.  Members of his family were waiting for him at the top of the hill.  They seemed excited to have him back.

 

The final riverboat ride involved a brief rainstorm, lunch on the boat, and took pictures of the scenery and the people living and breathing around us.

Before reaching our final destination: Rurrenabaque, we made a quick stop to the national park headquarters to pay a fee for passing through.  While there, everyone took many pictures of some huge and intimidating spiders that nested in a pavilion outside.  For example:

.

After the stop we continued on the river for perhaps an hour and a half more.  As usual, we chatted, napped, snapped pictures, and enjoyed the nature around us.  The weather cleared up some, too.

Then we reached Rurrenabaque.  We unloaded and took motorcycle taxies (sounds absurd, right?) to our accommodations for the night where we had real showers, fabric hammocks to recline in, and clean beds.  There were even ceiling fans in every room!  That evening, we met up for our final reunion.  We played a few rounds of pool, laughed, ate dinner, and made jokes about the sandflies that had taken a bit more from some members of the group than they would have liked to admit.

Overall, the trip really was quite remarkable.  We saw and did amazing things, were informed by knowledgeable and considerate guides, were well-fed, and spent more time in nature than is normally possible, as least that is normally possible for me.  We went through Mike's company, called Gravity. They offer many different tours, among the most famous is The Death Road tour.  I still have yet to do that one, but hey, I have some time left in Bolivia.

P.S.-  Thanks for reading!  Gravity's official webpage is here, if you would like more information.

Ride and River Tour: The River, Day 5

So, more on this dream.  For some reason, I had been able to shed all thoughts of the humid heat and fall into an unusually deep sleep.  In this new realm, my mind decided that I really need to help an unknown friend of mine back his large truck up on a street.  The scenery was from the US somewhere.  Everything was going well until I noticed that we were no longer in the street, but he was backing up into an enclosed garage and I was being backed up into the rearmost wall of this enclosure.  At this realisation, I began screaming at the top of my lungs so my friend would have the chance to hear me over the roar of his engine before I reenacted the would-have-been garbage disposal scene of Star Wars, Episode IV.  I blacked out for a minute, but was still screaming, when I realized the engine was off and my friend had gotten out of his truck and had his hands on my shoulders, shaking me gently, and asking me if I was alright.

Then, the friend morphed into Mike.  I was in a tent, not a garage, and everything around me was confusing and dark.  I stopped screaming.  I heard a comrade from Austrailia in another tent ask, "Claire?  Claire?  Are you okay?  Is everything alright?"  Through the tent, I assured him that 'yeah, sorry, it was a bad dream' and we both went to sleep.

Now, I have been known to occasionally sleep talk, but not in a long time, and when I was a child I slept-walked some, but I had never screamed-- that had a part in my grandmother's stories.  Though, I almost always dream vividly and remember my dreams, this experience is entirely new for me.  I could only hope that I hadn't disrupted the other campers and would be able to go back to sleep.  Keep in mind, we were "pulled over" on the bank of the Mapiri River, somewhere in the middle of the Bolivian amazon with little to no collection of civilisation nearby.  Hopefully, no one would notice or remember.

Unfortunately for me, I woke up to Marcos asking almost everyone else who was already up: "Did you hear the scream last night?"; "Was that you?"; "Who screamed last night?"  ANY hope I had of forgetting that the nightmare wasn't all in my head evaporated instantly.  I had no choice, but to admit to it.  I found myself wishing I had had a more dramatic dream..

I gathered my nerve and exited the tent, wishing to stop the questions from echoing in my mind.  Of course, Marcos saw me exit and asked, "Did you hear the scream last night?  Was that you?"  And I had to sigh and explained, in brief, that yes, it was me and that I had had a nightmare, but everything was fine.  I apologised for scaring him and everyone else, but I apologised to everyone in small groups.  This elicited a few different responses.  For example, a Frenchman asked me if I had seen or acted in the movie, "The Blair Witch Project" and my Australian friend told me that after my scream, he began to dream of children being taken from their families and slaughtered.  Another asked me if I had been dragged out of my tent by some creature last night... So much for not disturbing anyone!

The good news is that, like being in the back during the biking portion of the trip, everyone generally seemed to accept me for me and was still as supportive and inclusive as ever... I must have some kind of lucky charm or habit that I don't know about, but hey!  Thankfulness goes a long way, right?

Anyway, breakfast was fantastic: pastel (a deep-fried, but pretty thin pastry served with powdered sugar or in our case, honey), eggs, and coffee, tea, or water.  So, we all ate up and after the meal and some residual questions, we took down our tents, packed everything up, and were guided by a native Bolivian through the jungle to a swimming hole.  Along the way, he made it a point to explain some about the rubber trees in the area and how vital they were to support the family who lived on the island.  Granted, he explained everything in enthusiastic Spanish, so the members of our group were grateful to have Mike, who has wonderful Spanish language skills, translate everything in English for us.  While the trail we took was through the jungle, it wound over smaller inclines and we spent some time walking on river rock.

When we returned, refreshed, to the campsite, our gear had been loaded into the boat and once again, we set out to relax on our vessel for another three-and-a-half to four hours.  Today, we had lunch on the boat:  chicken and rice with salsa, yum yum, and continued to relax and chat while we passed the sounds of a living forest, water rushing past us, and gold miners, hard at work.

Among other animals, we also saw the largest rodent in the world, a Capybara, swimming in the river and running away from us on the bank.

After stopping briefly for meal supplies at a village, we arrived at our next campsite.  We all hopped off the boat and formed another assembly line to get our gear from the boat to the top of the ridge.  We significantly improved our line-effectiveness and time because the sandflies were vengeful, so we were all eager to get into some shade.  Below, is a photo of the view we had from our spot.

Supposedly, the sandflies would disappear with the sun, so we were encouraged to head into the forrest and explore some while we waited for everything to cool down.  Mike started out with me, but went back for his camera.  While he was back, he surprised me by pitching the tent and putting our things inside, so today, I had to do very little work!  I did manage to find a couple of trails off of the main path and some interesting vegetation.  The forest was a welcome relief from the sun and sandflies.

A "walking" tree.  According to legend, this tree has the ability to move voluntarily
--and does move from place to place, on occasion.

At the end of one of the side-trails was obvious carpentry work.  Someone on this part of the river was building a new boat.  There was also a bog hear here.

On the other hand, the main trail lead to what we were told was a village, but when I climbed the silty path, it looked to be just one family's home.  There were many dogs and chickens roaming in the yard, but some of the dogs looked injured or in some way deformed.  Everyone we met was friendly, though, and barefoot.  Everyone who lived here was always barefoot.  I found this to be impressive, considering the fire ants among other insects and creatures were just as abundant here, but I also found, much like John Smith in Disney's Pocohantas, that I had much to learn.

This boar is headless and he is carrying only a machete.  An Australian friend gave me a head's up on this (no pun intended) before he passed me on the hill.

That evening, after dinner, we went on a nighttime nature hike to look for some of the nocturnal wildlife in the area.  While we found many insects, we were unsuccessful at finding monkeys or other animals (some of which I was glad we didn't find).  At one point we turned off our headlamps and torches ("flashlights" for Australians) and appreciated the immense darkness of the forest at night.  At times there are fireflies that flit about, but I suppose a troupe of 13 people who don't know the ways of the forest are about as silent as a stampede.  To be honest, because of our large group, I wasn't incredibly hopeful of finding many animals, though, I did enjoy the walk.

After we returned, we talked around the campfire for some time and roasted the marshmallows--comparing marshmallow-roasting strategies among countries--before heading to bed for the night.  Dark clouds rolled in and everyone was glad for the rain flys for brief periods throughout the night.