I apologize that this letter is a little late, but my laptop was in the hospital and I wanted to wait until it got out before I wrote this so that I could send pictures too (I spilled an entire cup of hot tea on my keyboard...)
In the past month I went on 2 very exciting trips-- one was a religious retreat with my school, and the other was a Rotary sponsored trip to Concepción for the Orchid Festival.
As I am not a particularly religious person, the retreat was an entirely new experience for me. My school is Roman Catholic, and everyone in my class went on the retreat. We spent 3 days praying and listening to lectures about religious topics (no sex before marriage and the like). For the first time, I saw people speaking in tongues and having religious experiences.
The Rotary trip left on Friday morning in a micro (which is a giant colorful bus well-known for driving quite badly). The front of the micro was covered in all these colorful stuffed animals. It sure looks funky and interesting to have swinging bunnies in front of you for more than 5 hours.
Above: The Micro.
They had told us to bring clothing for cold weather, and I did just that... only to regret it. The humidity on the trip was absolutely insane—so much so that my sweat could not evaporate. It was also incredibly hot, probably easily over 100˚F. I have never been that sweaty in my entire life!
There were a total of 22 exchange students on the trip. 21 came from Santa Cruz (3 French, 2 Canadians, and 16 from the US), and one US boy came from Sucre.
Our first stop was in San Javier for lunch. We drank chicha, which is a Bolivian drink traditionally made from corn fermented with spit. The kind we drank, though, (or so I hope), was not fermented and was made with water instead of spit. They call this "chicha camba" as opposed to the traditional "chicha colla."
We toured an old church in San Javier that was entirely painted in natural, earth-based paints. Much of it had been reconstructed, but our tour guide claimed it was still 90% original. Inside we listened to a small concert of baroque music with 3 violinists and saw some really neat old mannequins which had interchangeable heads, feet, and hands so as to represent the different saints... sort of like old-fashioned religious Barbie’s
.
Above left: Church in San Javier. Above right: Mannequin.
After that, we got back on the bus and drove some more. On the way we listened to Mariachi music and danced in the micro. We stopped on the side of the road when we saw a giant herd of... BUFFALO! They were grazing and swimming... it was SO awesome!
Above: Buffalo!!!
Then we went to a nearby lagoon to go swimming ourselves. We saw chanchos de montañas (mountain pigs) that were super cute and little, and a loro (parrot).
After that we finally drove to Concepción and our hotel for the night. I stayed in a room with 3 other exchange students. I spent my free time walking around looking at the tiendas (shops). The tiendas in Bolivia are by far one of the coolest things... they’re all over the sides of the streets and they’re so colorful!
On Saturday we went to a little pueblo (tiny village) outside of Concepción—a view of the 3rd world side of Bolivia. There were lots of straw roofed huts and everyone was in traditional dress. The locals made us a lunch of chancho (pig), and some pieces still had teeth attached! They also did some traditional dances for us and let us take a quick ride on their burros (donkeys)-- just for fun. Afterwards, my friend Leah and I made friends with a little 8-year-old girl from the pueblo named Ximena.
Above left: Ximena. Above right: Burro.
A short ways from the pueblo, we went and saw a small exposition of orchids. Then, we went on a hike.
The hike took almost 3 hours in total. I have never been so nasty, sweaty, dirty, and disgusting in my entire life. I wasn’t even that tired-- it was just that the humidity was at its maximum and the sun was SO hot!!! I had tons of these annoying little black bugs crawling all over my body in my sweat.
After about 2 hours we got to the bottom of a mountain and took a short break. Then we continued the hike to the mountain’s base and climbed up a short ways. It was pretty intense, but the end result was worth it—the mountainside was covered in orchids!
Above: Hot and sweaty at the top of the mountain.
After that, we hiked back to the bus and headed to Limoncita, another small Bolivian pueblo. The drive took an hour and a half, and when we arrived in Limoncita we were still sweaty and gross.
It was exactly like those movies where the tourists come into the village of the natives. I was aware of a large contrast between us (exhausted, nasty, pale, foreigners versus clean, dark, dancing natives).
Above: Limoncita dancers.
I have never felt so much like a tourist in my life. The people of Limoncita were dressed traditionally and dancing for us. We purchased some chicha and then moved on to Concepción for showers and sleep.
Sunday morning we ate breakfast right outside our hotel rooms in a small courtyard area. In the tree above our heads, which was shading over the breakfast table, we spotted a tiny little monkey climbing about. It was awesome!
In the morning we spent a lot of time looking around the city. Later, we went to the orchid festival exposition, which had all the different colors and patterns of orchids. It was so beautiful!
Above: Orchid exposition.
We went to San Javier again to see a museum about the history of the church that we had seen on Friday.
Then, we drove to a cavern made of cement that had been built on a mountainside. The artist had simply built the cavern around the mountain’s rocks without changing the position of the rocks. Our guide poured water on the ground in a particularly rocky area, and stuck one end of a huge bamboo stick in the wet rocks. She then had us put our ears to the other end of the bamboo and listen... a weird humming noise was coming from the ground! It was very cool.
Above: Cavern.
Yesterday was Halloween, and although Bolivians don’t celebrate it the same as in the states, they do try to wear costumes and eat candy. I went to a costume party on the 30th, and my host mom helped me to dress up as a cholita, or a colla girl. I was a little worried that this might be culturally unacceptable, but my mom insisted it would be okay. She was right; I won the costume contest.
Above: Halloween Cholita.
I´d also like to note that I have officially voted for the first time-- absentee ballot!
I hope everything is going well with all of you! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Chau chau,
Maija
