bolichori

Good news: I managed to find a tourist bus to get me back to La Paz, so no hitchhiking/donkey riding for me! (Hitchhiking IS on my South America bucket list, but I guess that will have to wait for Patagonia.)

It was so nice to not be on a bondi lleno de bolitas stankin’ up the place. I was a bit nervous crossing the lake in San Pedro de Tiquina, as the little boats just didn’t seem strong enough to carry such a large vehicle. But alas we made it, after waiting for forty minutes with bolichori all around us. We arrived in La Paz around 5:30pm on Saturday afternoon and got right to mercado wandering and pirated DVD scouting. La Paz, on top of being 3,200 meters above sea level, is also an incredibly hilly city, so you can imagine our exhaustion after walking around for three hours. We came back to a delicious meal of SPICY chicken (yes, spiciness actually exists in Bolivia!), arroz, and “fried potatoes,” according to the menu. (Also known as French fries…I love broken English translations.)

The sights in the actual city of La Paz are rather limited, so Sunday was devoted to lots of salteñas and more mercado browsing.  Taking advantage of the boliviano-dollar exchange rate was beyond epic.  Sunday night, dinner at the hostel was bolichori…obviously I went for seconds.  So good.

All in all, Bolivia was amazing.  Ten days was by no means enough time, so I definitely want to go back soon.  Uyuni, Potosí, and the Amazon are on my Bolivia part two checklist.  Being back in BA has been great though, lots of parciales so I have been rather busy.  Today I got my first Argentine haircut!  I was beyond nervous going into it, but they did an amazing job!  It feels amazing having my hair short again.

I am about to walk out the door to head to the bus station.  This weekend I’m going with Jenny and some of her UBA friends to Villa General Belgrano, in the provincia of Córdoba, for some Argentine Oktoberfest!  I am beyond excited, but also a little nervous to see how all of this goes down.  Details to follow.

Chau,

audgentina.

copacabana y boobiepoopie

For the past three days I have been in Copacabana, about four hours northwest of La Paz.  I write this post bundled up in my alpaca scarf and gloves, sipping on my coca tea, praying that the temperature doesn't drop any further. I wasn’t exactly prepared for this brisk weather when I was packing for Bolivia.

The bus ride from La Paz was brutal.  I don’t even think it would be appropriate to call it a “bus ride,” seeing as it was more of a van, jam packed with the smelliest humans I have ever encountered.  Lu warned me about the Bolivian smelliness, but I had no idea how bad it was actually going to be.  This is how I can sum up this scarring experience: homelessness, mildew, a month-old sweaty gym towel, smelly feet, and the worst body odor imaginable.  Try putting yourself in a small metal box (with ZERO circulation!) with that wretched stank for four hours.  Needless to say, I am riding a donkey back to La Paz today.

Because we are at 4,000 meters above sea level, the ability to breathe is actually a luxury. Walking up the stairs between the dining quarters and the dormitories, I am more winded than I am after running 5 miles.  Drinking coca helps a bit, but what would really be great would be a respirator.  At least I don’t have to worry about fitting in my daily workout!

Despite the cold and my lack of appropriate abrigos, I have been aprovechando of the fact that I am here in Copacabana.  Thursday was a beautiful day, and not too cold during the afternoon, so I went on a day-long kayak tour around the islands nearby on Lake Titicaca. The water is so blue and we could see all sorts of things swimming underneath us.  The infrastructure of the kayaks were extremely questionable, but it was all part of the experiencia boliviana.

One of the many things I love about Latin America: PIRATED DVDS.  Seriously, they are everywhere.  There are actually STORES that sell pirated versions of DVDs and CDs.  A lot of the time the pirated version sucks, whether it’s the bad quality, the fact that the whole movie isn’t on there, or it's dubbed in Spanish with no way of changing it to the original version.  When I got back from the kayak tour on Thursday, I poked my head into a pirated DVD store in town, just to see what they had.  I found that the DVDs they sold were the real deal—real DVD quality, the complete movie, full menu, different languages, subtitles, special effects, etc.—and for SIX bolivianos…around 86 cents.  My DVD collection is officially complete.

I was hoping to go to Isla del Sol yesterday, but it was very cold and rainy, so instead I wandered around the little village of Copacabana, eating lots of fresh fish, and meeting some new, interesting people.  Rural Bolivians are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, but some of their cultural divergences catch me off guard.  For example, I was laying down on a bench, reading, and a guy literally popped out from behind the bushes and said to me “eres muy linda!” and ran away.  Maybe this is not a cultural divergence rather lack of being exposed to many gringa-looking humans…

This afternoon I am going to make my way back to La Paz.  Tomorrow I will be hitting up the infamous artisan market, loading up on souvenirs while I can still take advantage of their developing economy.  As much as I love Bolivia, I am looking forward to returning to springtime in BA!  It is supposed to be 73°F when I return on Monday.  Can’t.  Wait.

Chau,

audgentina.

frío en la paz

I got everything sorted out and have made it to the capital of Bolivia in one piece! Barely though, the turbulence coming into La Paz was out of control. My flying anxiety only has gotten worse the more I travel. It is 5°C at the moment since the city is around 3,200 meters above sea level, so the alpaca scarf I bought in Cocha is finally getting some use out of it!  It is unreal how much I am feeling the effects of the altitude already; I legitimately ran out of breath walking up a small ramp in the airport.  As Paloma knows from our adventures in Salta and Jujuy, I don’t exactly handle altitude change well.  And by that, I mean not at all.  This is going to be fun.  Tomorrow I head to Copacabana, right on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca (hehehe), and I’ll be there until Saturday.  Hopefully by the time I get there I will be mature enough to hold back my laughter every time I hear someone say that word.  Doubtful.

Chau,

audgentina.

más salteñas, porfa!

Greetings from Bolivia!

I arrived in Santa Cruz around noon on Thursday, welcomed with a nice 28ºC breeze. My flight to Cocha wasn’t scheduled to leave until 7:30pm that evening, so I decided to leave my bags at the airport and go into the city to explore for a few hours. Santa Cruz is more of an industrial city, but the center of town is filled with colonial architecture and traditional Bolivian elements (such as indigenous women roaming the streets wearing their conventional garb and pirated DVDs being sold on the streets alongside skewered papas and cow hearts). I explored the various mercados, tasted some of the local food, and enjoyed finally being able to wear a sundress.

It would be quite the understatement to say that Bolivia is a little less developed than Argentina; for one, the “bondis” are more like painted vans, a good decade older than I am, and whose ability to survive a crash test is doubtful at best. Traffic lights are more of a surgerencia than anything else, and you negotiate cab fares with the taxista, since none of the cabs have meters. It’s definitely a change of pace from life in Argentina (and especially life in the US), but I’m enjoying it!

I got to my hostel in Cochabamba very late on Thursday night, and after a very long day I was ecstatic to arrive to a very new and clean private room, with a private bath, double bed, and television...for the same rate as a dorm in any Argentine hostel.  I LOVE taking advantage of Bolivia’s underdeveloped economy.  These past few days I have really enjoyed exploring the city, while getting a serious bang for my buck.  My wallet has never been so happy with me.  

Cocha reminds me a lot of Mérida: colonial, indigenous, traditional, and tranquilo.  I have made my way to the mercado de artesanía, La Cancha (a HUGE market where they sell everything from manzanilla to dog food), but most importantly, countless salteñerías.  Salteñas are Bolivia’s empanadas, but are made out of corn meal instead of flour, so they are a lot sweeter than normal empanadas.  Inside the salteña, the filling is a lot soupier, and includes hard boiled eggs, olives, and some peas along with the carne (or pollo!).  They are significantly more filling than Argentine empanadas.  Like Paloma once said to me, I literally could have salteñas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and be completely satisfied.  (Except I was recently told that eating salteñas for dinner isn’t something they “do” here...quite stupid and senseless if you ask me.)

On Saturday I went up to El Cristo de la Concordia.  Think Cristo Redentor, but much, much smaller. Still amazing, though.  At first I was considering walking one way, but after seeing a sign that read in English In order to avoid getting mugged, we recommend not to use the stairs,” I was quickly convinced to use the teleférico.  Getting to the top was absolutely breathtaking, looking over the city of Cochabamba and the entire valley.  After spending quite a bit of time taking in the view, I went back down and obviously made my way straight to a salteñería.  After stuffing my face with three salteñas (which you know, if you are familiar with salteñas, is a LOT), I was wandering through Plaza Colon where I bumped into Ladi.  We decided to go to Cochabamba’s second annual Arabic festival, something I definietly was not expecting to do in Bolivia!  It ended up being a lot of fun; lots of good food (delicious baklava!), Sangria, and international dances, including a Hawaiian hula dance. 

Yesterday I went with Mariela to La Cancha, where we bought some fresh hojas de coca and sipped on some delicious tea in Plaza Colon.  We ended up drinking the coca tea out of my maté, a wonderful fusion of two Latin American cultures.  I am going to do my best to bring some coca back to Argentina, it is so delicious and really wakes me up!  

Unfortunately I have wasted all of today figuring out my money situation.  Bolivia is apparently on some list of restricted countries with both of my banks, thus both of my debit cards have been frozen.  I literally have $70 bolivianos to my name.  Tomorrow night I am supposed to be heading to La Paz, but unless I get one of my accounts unfrozen, it looks like I am stuck in Cocha! 

Chau,
audgentina.

la belleza de la lengua...y otras cosas

Esperanza, lluvia, estrella, sonrisa, caramelo.  Sarah, you’re right: some things are just better in Spanish.  Spanish has a wonderful way of making the most explicit of words incredibly sentimental and romantic, one of the shortcomings of the English language.  I’ve been able to pick up on an amazing amount of language, mannerisms, and taboos while living here, including that coger does NOT mean to take, but I have loved learning about all of the linguistic emotions.  By now, I am speaking solamente en castellano, and oftentimes I will just sit back and listen to my friends talk, relishing the passion and sentiment that is so easily expressed through everyday words and phrases.  That is how I would describe Argentina: romantic, emotional, and passionate.  The most stereotypical of all Argentine cultural elements, the Tango, captures Argentina’s fondness of romance and passion.  Overhyped, a little outdated, and uncomfortably romantic (it’s a little strange to be that close to someone I’m not romantically involved with), it is one of the many touchy-feely cultural divergences that we don’t find in the US.  Personal space doesn’t really exist among Argentines; meeting someone for the first time and embracing them a kiss on the cheek is perfectly normal.  In fact, it is considered rude not to do so.

Speaking of la lengua, I have been having exceptional difficulty nailing the Spanish “rr.”  I’ve never been able to roll my tongue, but on Sunday, Meli, Lidi, and Lale made it their mission to teach me how.  God bless their patience, this was much more grueling than my “speech therapy” with Anj.  Using ejercicios para pronunciar la RR as the teaching platform, we spent the entire afternoon repeating/screaming words such as forro and borracho over and over again. (I hope the neighbors don't have any young kids…) It became more trial-and-error than anything else, but with lots of práctica I will hopefully have it down by January.  Forrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrro.

I came across this article the other day, 20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world, and it got me thinking about how—for lack of a better word—awesome the art of the language is, considering there are over 6 billion people speaking nearly 7,000 different languages.  Did you know that there are more Spanish-speakers in the world than English speakers?  Yet for some reason, I find that most Argentine’s knowledge of English is far more proficient than most American’s knowledge of any second language, let alone Spanish.  A little embarrassing, no?  Unfortunately, I know very few people who are proficient in a second language, and even fewer who are considered to be fluent.  This may have to do with the fact that so many aspects of American culture are incorporated into Argentine society.  At times, I forget exactly how far away I am from home, as I pass a Starbucks or McDonald’s on my walk home, or turn on the television and flip to Friends or Grey’s Anatomy in English, with subtitles.  But still, I do not find this to serve as much of an excuse, as we are just as capable of fluently speaking a second language as any European or Latin American (unless there is something in the water preventing us from doing so, which I doubt is the case).

Tomorrow morning I leave for my ten-day adventure in Bolivia.  I will try to periodically while I’m there, but cannot make any promises...

¡Hasta el 26 de septiembre!

Chau,
audgentina.

¡moríte, mapeche!

To my ladies:

How excellent is this photo? This should have been us showing the damn ‘coonz that they messed with the wrong chongz:

But seriously, I’m still having ‘coon-mares.

Chau,
audgentina.

mi filosofía

qué cagada

After being cooped up in bed for the past three days, I'm just about going nuts.  The only thing that is getting me through (what I have determined to be) this stomach bacterial infection is knowing that in less than two weeks I will be in BOLIVIA!  I could not be more excited.

Lago Titicaca, Bolivia

Let's just hope my BRATTY diet doesn't have to last much longer.  I'm dying for some real Bolivian salteñas and charque.

Chau,
audgentina.