First, my apologies for the sporadic and very limited posts. Most of the places we´re staying don´t have internet, so we have to go out and find internet places, which isn´t hard, but it is a time commitment, as is typing detailed accounts of everything I´m doing. There will be a few more posts yet though!
Cards- I've taught my fellow travelers how to play Rummy, which we have down solidly and have played while waiting for every meal recently, Scratch, which is still new but quite successful and will probably be our game of choice for the rest of the trip (because it is great and doesn't require much table space) and Euchre, which may have been a bit too complicated for a late-night (10 pm) card game session, but I'm still hopeful! Since meals take FOREVER to come here, playing cards is great. It's also a lot of fun after dinner when it's still to early for bed but it's also dark and cold outside.
Temperature-Beautiful during the day and shorts and a t-shirt would be fine except that it's often windy, so I tend to wear a layer or two more. At night, it's cold. It is winter here, after all. I have fleece pants, two fleece jackets, and a beanie, and I've been wearing all of them every day. I can't wait to do laundry! Also, the pants and one of the jackets were a total of $10 max at Value Village. Definitely one of my best investments.
Restaurant service- Not like the US. You might get your tea two minutes before your entree, which comes 40 minutes after ordering, which was 20 minutes after coming in the restaurant. Or, you might have pretty speedy service, but don't count on it.
Dogs-they are everywhere. I've concluded that they must survive off garbage, because no one appears to treat them nicely and yet they don't appear malnourished. This brings me to my next point:
Garbage- Good lord! You'd think the people here had never heard of a garbage can. It is disgusting. There are wrappers and bottles and paper everywhere. Also, stormwater systems are combined with sewer at best, and often seem to just flow into a convenient body of water (say, Lake Titicaca), so that could be improved.
Transportation- My next post will touch more on this after an adventure we had, but basically, the transportation system here blows my mind. For the most part, everybody who lives here knows how the transportation system works but foreigners have no idea and have to ask how to do everything. Also, they seem to have all routes optimized quite well by number of departures and size of vehicles. For example, we´re currently in Sorata, which you get to by minibus, (technically an 11 seater vehicle I think, although often they have a fair few more people than that) and it seems like everybody knows that obviously you take a minibus rather than a big bus to get there, and obviously they don´t leave from the bus station, they leave from a different part of La Paz called The Graveyard. No joke. Somehow, they seem to fill every bus up but there are never huge waits, eigher for more people to fill the bus or for more buses since they´re all full.
Also, the people selling you tickets will tell you whatever you want to hear to sell you the ticket (rounding down the time the journey will take, for example). This doesn´t suprise me, though.
Finally, I think gringos like us finance plenty of the transporation system since we´re always paying more than other passengers going the same distance. We only have so much bargaining power, though, and at some point you just have to accept this because we do have so much more money than most people here, and paying a few, or even B$10 more is less than $2 USD more, so it´s not that big a deal.
Jobs- And I don´t use the word career here intentionally. I have NO idea how most people here make a living. It seems like half of the country sells candy, crackers, soda, and alcohol in little tiny shops/booths, and every places sells the exact same products. Then you´ve got hundreds of women who sell either cups with jello, or a bowlfull of beans, or potatoes. a) Their wares are dirt cheap, and b) there are so many people who sell the same thing, in the same place, so they don´t even have the advance of a scarce product. I think the option of a career for a future is pretty unlikely for most people (judging by the infrastructure and construction we´ve seen here, there certainly are not very many construction, geotech, structural, or general civil engineers here! we´ve definitley been enjoying gawking at the styrofoam and chickenwire/newspaper used in building construction here. Almost makes me thankful for ASCE7. Almost.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Lake Titicaca
Copacabana
On Wednesday, we (Carley, Garry, Nate, Matias, Kasia, Lisa and I) got up rather early and took a seemingly very nice tour bus to Copacabana, which is on the southwest shore of Lake Titicaca. We sort of got fumigated but La Paz pollution and/or bus exhaust fumes for the entire ride, but other than that, I really enjoyed it because we got an excellent view of the La Paz and the countryside. The city is HUGE and incredibly hilly because it's in a very steep valley, with several beautiful mountain peaks in the distance, so it was enjoyable to look at as long as you don't look at the ground or any water features, which are covered in trash. Once we got out of the city, the landscape became pretty flat and very dry. There is not a lot of green here since it's the middle of “winter.” (I wish Seattle winters were this warm!) At one point in the drive, we had to get off the bus and take a boat across a strait (we were also fumigated on this trip from the two-stroke motor) while our bus was ferried across by a long, low boat. Very sketchy. The rest of the bus ride was absolutely beautiful because we could see the lake, which I am in love with. I could spend an entire vacation just sitting and watching the water throughout the day as the sky/sun reflections gradually change. I highly recommend that if you're ever in Bolivia, you come here.
Copacabana, our destination, was far more touristy than anywhere else we'd been thus far in Bolivia, so it was really weird to see so many other white people and permenant hippies who sit on the road and try to sell weird foods and jelwerly that they made while working our growing out the dreadlocks. There were also a ton of small booths with beautiful textiles and I've had to exerise significant self control to not purchase anything yet because I absolutely do not have room in the backpack I brought with me (I think 40 liters would be perfect for traveling; 30 is just a bit too small). We spend some time wandering around the town and then climbed up one of the large hills/small mountains on the edge of town, which had stunning views of the water. I probably would have spent the rest of the day sitting at the top but I was with other people who eventually suggested we continue exploring and get food, which are certainly reasonable options. We had an absolutely fantastic dinner based on Lonely Planet's suggestion (that is my guidebook), and although it took about three hours, plus an hour wait outside playing cards since the restaurant wasn't open yet, it was definitely worth it. A typically meal (and by typical, I mean the standard meal that you have to work pretty hard to avoid) is soup, probably quinoa with carrots, beans, and salt, and then a meat (trout, chicken, or beef), with rice, french fries, and a few vegetables. This is fine but it does get a bit old and I can't wait to come home and eat delicious and healthy salads!! Anyway, this restaurant had better food so I had a top-notch quinoa/veggie side and excellent trout (trout is definitely a specialty for the lake region) and as a group we also had great hot chocolate, wine, pasta, and cognac-soaked bananas drenched in chocolate sauce. Normally, one puts just a bit of alcohol on the bananas and it cooks out, but not these ones. This was definitely our most expensive meal thus far, but so worth it. The next morning we fulfilled one of Garry's goals, which was to go swimming in Lake Titicaca. It actually wasn't as cold as I was expecting, even though we're at about 12,000 feet. It wasn't bathwater by any means, but I did enjoy it (for the 30 seconds I was in the water). We also met another one of Garry's goals, which was to buy a charango, a small 12-stringed guitar-like traditional instrument. I took a video of the guy playing it but it would take a year to upload it from here, so you'll have to wait until I come home to see it! I'm really tempted to buy one for myself. They are sweet.
Carley and Garry then left for La Paz, since they had the first tickets back home, and the rest of us climbed up a different hill/mountain to what was supposedly a pre-Incan astronomical observatory; we didn't find any ruins but we did have another great view and we spend an hour or two just relaxing in the sun and enjoying the lake. Food did eventually call to us, though and we had dinner where we had lunch, at a Mexican-ish Bolivian restaurant which served higher-quality versions of the boring tradition meals as well as other food. They took a liking to us since we came back in the same day, so we got a free plate of nachos, made with Doritos (Oh, Bolivia). They were still good, though. We also enjoyed a DVD of a George Michaels concert in London and all walked out of the restaurant thinking we might buy a CD of his. The food was, as we expected, excellent; I had vegetarian tacos with guacamole for lunch and dinner and was quite pleased, and everyone else's food that I sampled was equally as good.
Isla del Sol
On Friday morning we took a boat to the Island of the Sun, which is the main destination from Copacabana. It was a somewhat chilly ride at 8:30am, but quite beautiful. We also got a fantastic view of the Cordilleras, which are a mountain range that runs through Bolivia (and maybe farther?) I've taken about a million pictures of the biggest peaks, so hopefully a few turn out well. The island is about an hour away from Copacabana, so by the time we left a bit late, made a stop at the other end of the island, and then got off on the north end, it had warmed up outside, which I appreciated. We had our basic lunch and marveled at the number of tourists who all arrived at the same time we did, as the boats seem to run on a regular schedule. So many gringos. Then we spend much of the rest of the day walking across the island. First, we went to the northern tip and saw several Incan ruins. I don't really need to see any more ruins for at least 10 years after seeing so many in Greece, but I did enjoy being outside and taking pictures of the lake framed by various window and door frames. I was also completely surprised by the number of incredible beaches on the island. Most of the Isla del Sol is, at the moment, very sunny and very dry. There are some plants, but most of what we had seen thus far was rock/sand/dirt and hardy plants which like arid weather. The beaches, though, were more like what I saw in Greece (not quite as good though so don't worry). We walked from the north to the south end which we think was about 8km, and somehow I still do not feel acclimated at all. It was very enjoyable, though, and I was really happy to be moving around instead of sitting at either a restaurant or in a vehicle all the time. Also, my backpack's mesh back/frame did a good job of keeping me cool, which I was pleased by. Eventually we made it to the south end, where the town sits on and spills over the crest of the island, so there were spectacular view of water on both sides, and the Cordillera mountains in the late afternoon light. We stayed at a hotel which costs B$25 a night, which is under $4 USD, so it's not exactly fancy, but that's basically free so I'm not complaining. I might splurge more for the next hotel though. I would like to have soap and a wall outlet, for example. Still, we have a killer view which is fantastic.
We were all starving so we picked the first restaurant with a good view of the mountains and had our typically Bolivian meal, which satisfied my expectations. I was so hungry that I even ate the french fries and some of the rice. I should note that for this kind of meal, the french fries and really thick cuts, extremely greasy, and often undercooked. Luckily, they were find tonight. We had panqueques for dessert, which seem to vary between thick crepes and thin-medium pancakes. We waited probably 30 minutes after ordering dessert to actually receive it, which was excruciating, but so worth it because they were delicious and had chocolate and banana inside. My diet is absolutely atrocious here (Karstin, you would be soo proud). I have eaten a ton of dessert/candy, even more gross starchy food, and very few vegetables. Eating real food (with flavors other than salt!) will be nice.
On Wednesday, we (Carley, Garry, Nate, Matias, Kasia, Lisa and I) got up rather early and took a seemingly very nice tour bus to Copacabana, which is on the southwest shore of Lake Titicaca. We sort of got fumigated but La Paz pollution and/or bus exhaust fumes for the entire ride, but other than that, I really enjoyed it because we got an excellent view of the La Paz and the countryside. The city is HUGE and incredibly hilly because it's in a very steep valley, with several beautiful mountain peaks in the distance, so it was enjoyable to look at as long as you don't look at the ground or any water features, which are covered in trash. Once we got out of the city, the landscape became pretty flat and very dry. There is not a lot of green here since it's the middle of “winter.” (I wish Seattle winters were this warm!) At one point in the drive, we had to get off the bus and take a boat across a strait (we were also fumigated on this trip from the two-stroke motor) while our bus was ferried across by a long, low boat. Very sketchy. The rest of the bus ride was absolutely beautiful because we could see the lake, which I am in love with. I could spend an entire vacation just sitting and watching the water throughout the day as the sky/sun reflections gradually change. I highly recommend that if you're ever in Bolivia, you come here.
Copacabana, our destination, was far more touristy than anywhere else we'd been thus far in Bolivia, so it was really weird to see so many other white people and permenant hippies who sit on the road and try to sell weird foods and jelwerly that they made while working our growing out the dreadlocks. There were also a ton of small booths with beautiful textiles and I've had to exerise significant self control to not purchase anything yet because I absolutely do not have room in the backpack I brought with me (I think 40 liters would be perfect for traveling; 30 is just a bit too small). We spend some time wandering around the town and then climbed up one of the large hills/small mountains on the edge of town, which had stunning views of the water. I probably would have spent the rest of the day sitting at the top but I was with other people who eventually suggested we continue exploring and get food, which are certainly reasonable options. We had an absolutely fantastic dinner based on Lonely Planet's suggestion (that is my guidebook), and although it took about three hours, plus an hour wait outside playing cards since the restaurant wasn't open yet, it was definitely worth it. A typically meal (and by typical, I mean the standard meal that you have to work pretty hard to avoid) is soup, probably quinoa with carrots, beans, and salt, and then a meat (trout, chicken, or beef), with rice, french fries, and a few vegetables. This is fine but it does get a bit old and I can't wait to come home and eat delicious and healthy salads!! Anyway, this restaurant had better food so I had a top-notch quinoa/veggie side and excellent trout (trout is definitely a specialty for the lake region) and as a group we also had great hot chocolate, wine, pasta, and cognac-soaked bananas drenched in chocolate sauce. Normally, one puts just a bit of alcohol on the bananas and it cooks out, but not these ones. This was definitely our most expensive meal thus far, but so worth it. The next morning we fulfilled one of Garry's goals, which was to go swimming in Lake Titicaca. It actually wasn't as cold as I was expecting, even though we're at about 12,000 feet. It wasn't bathwater by any means, but I did enjoy it (for the 30 seconds I was in the water). We also met another one of Garry's goals, which was to buy a charango, a small 12-stringed guitar-like traditional instrument. I took a video of the guy playing it but it would take a year to upload it from here, so you'll have to wait until I come home to see it! I'm really tempted to buy one for myself. They are sweet.
Carley and Garry then left for La Paz, since they had the first tickets back home, and the rest of us climbed up a different hill/mountain to what was supposedly a pre-Incan astronomical observatory; we didn't find any ruins but we did have another great view and we spend an hour or two just relaxing in the sun and enjoying the lake. Food did eventually call to us, though and we had dinner where we had lunch, at a Mexican-ish Bolivian restaurant which served higher-quality versions of the boring tradition meals as well as other food. They took a liking to us since we came back in the same day, so we got a free plate of nachos, made with Doritos (Oh, Bolivia). They were still good, though. We also enjoyed a DVD of a George Michaels concert in London and all walked out of the restaurant thinking we might buy a CD of his. The food was, as we expected, excellent; I had vegetarian tacos with guacamole for lunch and dinner and was quite pleased, and everyone else's food that I sampled was equally as good.
Isla del Sol
On Friday morning we took a boat to the Island of the Sun, which is the main destination from Copacabana. It was a somewhat chilly ride at 8:30am, but quite beautiful. We also got a fantastic view of the Cordilleras, which are a mountain range that runs through Bolivia (and maybe farther?) I've taken about a million pictures of the biggest peaks, so hopefully a few turn out well. The island is about an hour away from Copacabana, so by the time we left a bit late, made a stop at the other end of the island, and then got off on the north end, it had warmed up outside, which I appreciated. We had our basic lunch and marveled at the number of tourists who all arrived at the same time we did, as the boats seem to run on a regular schedule. So many gringos. Then we spend much of the rest of the day walking across the island. First, we went to the northern tip and saw several Incan ruins. I don't really need to see any more ruins for at least 10 years after seeing so many in Greece, but I did enjoy being outside and taking pictures of the lake framed by various window and door frames. I was also completely surprised by the number of incredible beaches on the island. Most of the Isla del Sol is, at the moment, very sunny and very dry. There are some plants, but most of what we had seen thus far was rock/sand/dirt and hardy plants which like arid weather. The beaches, though, were more like what I saw in Greece (not quite as good though so don't worry). We walked from the north to the south end which we think was about 8km, and somehow I still do not feel acclimated at all. It was very enjoyable, though, and I was really happy to be moving around instead of sitting at either a restaurant or in a vehicle all the time. Also, my backpack's mesh back/frame did a good job of keeping me cool, which I was pleased by. Eventually we made it to the south end, where the town sits on and spills over the crest of the island, so there were spectacular view of water on both sides, and the Cordillera mountains in the late afternoon light. We stayed at a hotel which costs B$25 a night, which is under $4 USD, so it's not exactly fancy, but that's basically free so I'm not complaining. I might splurge more for the next hotel though. I would like to have soap and a wall outlet, for example. Still, we have a killer view which is fantastic.
We were all starving so we picked the first restaurant with a good view of the mountains and had our typically Bolivian meal, which satisfied my expectations. I was so hungry that I even ate the french fries and some of the rice. I should note that for this kind of meal, the french fries and really thick cuts, extremely greasy, and often undercooked. Luckily, they were find tonight. We had panqueques for dessert, which seem to vary between thick crepes and thin-medium pancakes. We waited probably 30 minutes after ordering dessert to actually receive it, which was excruciating, but so worth it because they were delicious and had chocolate and banana inside. My diet is absolutely atrocious here (Karstin, you would be soo proud). I have eaten a ton of dessert/candy, even more gross starchy food, and very few vegetables. Eating real food (with flavors other than salt!) will be nice.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Important
Well. It has indeed been quite an adventure. We have ruined a clutch and gotten stranded in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service, completely thrown away our original project designs for a a new one, and have gotten kicked out of the municipality where we were working, so our project is now over...!
Here's the short story, since all the details have a) gotten jumbled in my head and b) would take forever to explain because they are so ridiculous. Basically, EWB UW started working in Yanayo, another small, rural community, six years ago. We paid two people, who I will name Juan and Marie, there to do extra work for us (translating, cooking, facilitating, and generally helping. Marie's husband, Diablo (can you see where this is going?) is an alcoholic sociopath who decided he did not what Marie making more money than him and working with Juan so much because rumors had started about them having an affair. So, he beat one of his children, burned down Juan's house, and got mad at EWB/Donee. He has also since claimed Marie and EWB have stolen from him and tried to kill him, which are petty ludicrous accusations. Unfotunately, it turns out he's an extremely charastatic person who is connected to what seems like every person in the Bolivian governent (including the President!) and many people owe him favors. Diablo threatened to file a denuncio (I think that would be denunciation in English) against our organization, which would, I believe, get us kicked out of the country and prevent us from working here again. Obviously this was a bit of a problem so after all sorts of conversations with people in various communities and with many lawyers, Donee met with Diablo, local community leaders, and the mayor of the province we were in, and wanted a guarantee that we would be able to work free from the threat of a denuncio. The leaders of the communities/mayor were only willing to help gaurntee our ability to work this summer but not in the future (Diablo can file this denuncio any time in the next two years) and since we were not willing to stay there and work without this gurantee, the mayor told us to leave. So, we had a brief midnight group meeting, packed up all of our tents, and drove the four hours back to Cochabamba. It's kind of a bummer but this kind of thing can happen in a developing country with corrupt government officials. Ten out of the eleven of us paid exorbitant fees to American Airlines (MY LEAST FAVORITE AIRLINE COMPAY) to come home sooner since we are all a bit tired. All ten of us, with in the span of three hours or so, called the same customer service number to change our ticket and we all received wildly different information regarding flight availabilities and cost. It was absolutely ridiclus. I did, however, somehow manage to get a flight on the 14th (in business class!) even though there weren't any open seats that day at the beginning of my conversation. So strange.
We spend about two days in Cochabamba figuring things out, sending materials that we had already purchased to Piriquina and Taconi, repacking, etc. We stayed at the Hotel Monserrat (EWB always does when we're in Cochabamba) and luckily they are very accommodating and allowed us to check out late (as we did every single time haha) and then hang around the hotel waiting to leave later in the day. We did do our frrst touristy advenure and go up to the “Big Jesus”, which is a giant statue on top of a large hill in the middle of Cochabamba. The road up to the top was cobbled, which was too similar to rural roads for my taste, but the view of the city was fantastic. Buildings are all several stories tall and the roads are narrow, so you can't actually see more than a block or two away when you're walking around, but the city is actually huge and very pretty from a distance. (Unfortunately it's kind of gross and covered in trash when you look close). We then took a gondola down the mountain, mostly because it was awesome and walking in the hot weather wasn't super appealing, but there were also rather entertaining signs warming us that if we took the stairs, we would get mugged. We exited the gondola into an entertaining playground/park/series of (dry) fountains and spend a while playing and imagining how dangerous it actually would be for kids to play there: cracks in the concrete, weird pieces of rebar sticking out of the ground by a jungle gym, broken swings, and somewhat sharp pieces of metal welded on to the edge of the monkey bars. Welcome to Bolivia. Also we enjoyed nerding out and talking about the 63mm HDPE pipe that was laying around for irrigation. (We bought some 50mm for our project!) We then packed up all our stuff and went to the airport for a flight to La Paz and a trip to Lake Titicaca! More to come soon on that story and the other adventures we've had so far!
Here's the short story, since all the details have a) gotten jumbled in my head and b) would take forever to explain because they are so ridiculous. Basically, EWB UW started working in Yanayo, another small, rural community, six years ago. We paid two people, who I will name Juan and Marie, there to do extra work for us (translating, cooking, facilitating, and generally helping. Marie's husband, Diablo (can you see where this is going?) is an alcoholic sociopath who decided he did not what Marie making more money than him and working with Juan so much because rumors had started about them having an affair. So, he beat one of his children, burned down Juan's house, and got mad at EWB/Donee. He has also since claimed Marie and EWB have stolen from him and tried to kill him, which are petty ludicrous accusations. Unfotunately, it turns out he's an extremely charastatic person who is connected to what seems like every person in the Bolivian governent (including the President!) and many people owe him favors. Diablo threatened to file a denuncio (I think that would be denunciation in English) against our organization, which would, I believe, get us kicked out of the country and prevent us from working here again. Obviously this was a bit of a problem so after all sorts of conversations with people in various communities and with many lawyers, Donee met with Diablo, local community leaders, and the mayor of the province we were in, and wanted a guarantee that we would be able to work free from the threat of a denuncio. The leaders of the communities/mayor were only willing to help gaurntee our ability to work this summer but not in the future (Diablo can file this denuncio any time in the next two years) and since we were not willing to stay there and work without this gurantee, the mayor told us to leave. So, we had a brief midnight group meeting, packed up all of our tents, and drove the four hours back to Cochabamba. It's kind of a bummer but this kind of thing can happen in a developing country with corrupt government officials. Ten out of the eleven of us paid exorbitant fees to American Airlines (MY LEAST FAVORITE AIRLINE COMPAY) to come home sooner since we are all a bit tired. All ten of us, with in the span of three hours or so, called the same customer service number to change our ticket and we all received wildly different information regarding flight availabilities and cost. It was absolutely ridiclus. I did, however, somehow manage to get a flight on the 14th (in business class!) even though there weren't any open seats that day at the beginning of my conversation. So strange.
We spend about two days in Cochabamba figuring things out, sending materials that we had already purchased to Piriquina and Taconi, repacking, etc. We stayed at the Hotel Monserrat (EWB always does when we're in Cochabamba) and luckily they are very accommodating and allowed us to check out late (as we did every single time haha) and then hang around the hotel waiting to leave later in the day. We did do our frrst touristy advenure and go up to the “Big Jesus”, which is a giant statue on top of a large hill in the middle of Cochabamba. The road up to the top was cobbled, which was too similar to rural roads for my taste, but the view of the city was fantastic. Buildings are all several stories tall and the roads are narrow, so you can't actually see more than a block or two away when you're walking around, but the city is actually huge and very pretty from a distance. (Unfortunately it's kind of gross and covered in trash when you look close). We then took a gondola down the mountain, mostly because it was awesome and walking in the hot weather wasn't super appealing, but there were also rather entertaining signs warming us that if we took the stairs, we would get mugged. We exited the gondola into an entertaining playground/park/series of (dry) fountains and spend a while playing and imagining how dangerous it actually would be for kids to play there: cracks in the concrete, weird pieces of rebar sticking out of the ground by a jungle gym, broken swings, and somewhat sharp pieces of metal welded on to the edge of the monkey bars. Welcome to Bolivia. Also we enjoyed nerding out and talking about the 63mm HDPE pipe that was laying around for irrigation. (We bought some 50mm for our project!) We then packed up all our stuff and went to the airport for a flight to La Paz and a trip to Lake Titicaca! More to come soon on that story and the other adventures we've had so far!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Bolivian Adventure: Introduction and Arrival
Obviously a “Bolivian Adventure” doesn't quite fit with the URL for this blog, and since I'm here doing a project with Engineers without Borders, the title of my blog doesn't make too much sense either, but I hadn't anticipated documenting any future travels beyond my two quarters studying abroad, so bear with me! (Also, if you want to reflect back/compare to past trips, particuarly Ecuador, you can do so easily!)
The premise of this trip is implementing a water distribution system in a small, rural community called Piriquina. They have a water system at the moment but it's old and needs to be fixed in many places. Our UW chapter of EWB has worked in this region of Bolivia for 6 years doing water projects and roofs and stoves projects (shameless plug: http://students.washington.edu/ewbuw/ ). I've been involved with our chapter since I started at UW and I've donated the majority of my free time, as well as some time which should have been spent on things like school, to this project for the last 6 months or so. My fantastic team, who will be important characters in this story so I'll introduce them, are: Carley, fearless leader, Master's in Public Health student, and team mom who worries about health even more than me; Matias, other fearless leader and Brazilian/Urugyaan/French Spanish speaker (aka invaluable team member since he can actually communicate); Nate, fellow classmate and enormously entertaining storyteller; and Garry, Carley's husband and resident professional mentor who is the whitest person on our team despite being from South Africa (also, he has a fantastic accent). Other important people are Donee, who is the most knowledgeable person about Bolivian projects since she's worked here with EWB from the beginning (EVErYONE asks abouut her when you meet them and say you're with Ingenieros Sin Fronteras); Nate, (too be refered to as Nate2, not to be confused with my teammate Nate) her husband; and the 2011 Roofs and Stoves project team (Johnny, Craig, Kasia, and Lisa).
So far this trip has been kind of crazy. I stayed up all night packing and between Emily, Peyton, Mikk and Jenn was distracted, got everything assembled, and made it to the airport. Before I had even gotten there, though, I got a call from Nate, one of my teammates, who was already at the airport and couldn't check in for his flight because apparently American Airlines actually requires you to show all of your international travel documentation for your final destination. In this case, that meant that to check in to a flight to Dallas (in country), to catch a connection to Miami (in country) to fly to Bolivia, we had to show them all required paperwork for getting a Bolivian Visa. According to the embassy website, you need $135 USD, a yellow fever vaccination card, a visa application form, a letter of invitation or a destination address, and two passport photos with some explicit rules about how large your face can be compared to the rest of the photo. Now our Engineers Without Borders chapter has sent people to Bolivia for 6 years and NO ONE has EVER needed to show the yellow fever vaccination card or the passport photos to get into the country, including a few people who went earlier this summer. Of course, American requires you to have all of this. Nate, unfortunately, didn't get the passport photos because that was an extra errand he ran out of time for, and the rude lady at the ticket counter was not helpful or willing to ignore this dumb rule (Lady: “Would you like me to read you the list of fines I could incur if I let you on this plane?” Nate's sarcasm, which luckily he withheld” “Why yes! That's exactly what would help me right now!”). I got there and we waited in the long line together to talk to a different person, and therefore missed our 7am flight. The nice lady who helped me ut me on the 9am flight, but the third lady who helped Nate still made him go get passport photos at the Walgreens in Seatac. $50 for a cab fee later, Nate got put on some flight to the Bay Area, and then he was supposed to meet me in Miami. (Perhaps you can tell the story doesn't go quite as planned?) Meanwhile, I get to Dallas and Miami without a problem, other than having to completely repack my carry on bag at Security since it was packed rather densely with every electronic item I had with me. There was no Nate to meet me in Miami, though, because the Bay Area was, of course, cloudy, so his flight was delayed and he would have missed the flight out of Miami. Instead, I found out later (the story does work out in the end!), Nate got rerouted through Peru, where he had to pay a $140 visa fee just for passing through the airport. It was a rather expensive day for him.
I made it to La Paz, Bolivia, without incident, and I literally slept for the entire plane ride on all three flights, including the takeoff from Seattle. In La Paz, I paid my $135 visa and gave them my visa form, and did NOT show my photos, vaccination card, or destination address. Garry, another team member who had arrived a few hours before, met me at the gate, which was fantastic, and we bought $45 plane tickets to go to Cochabamba on the 7am AeroSur flight (I love South American prices!). We had a nice breakfast and then went to investigate our flight. Unfortunately, we had incorrectly calculated the time difference, so we had already missed our flight... After some choice words by Garry, we went back to AeroSur and paid a small fee to change our flight to the next available option, which was 8:30pm. We then set up camp and I passed out for about 4 hours, which was wonderful. We just relaxed on our Thermarests for a while and attemped to contact Carley, who was already in Cochabamba. We found out from her that we could buy Nate's plane ticket as long as he checked in with his passport upon arrivial, so we went to do that, but by this time, there were only first class seats, so we payed $90 for him to have snacks and legroom for a 90 minute flight. We definitely all noticed the elevation (about 13,600 feet), which made climbing one flight of stairs difficult. None of us were happy about being short of breath after going up 20 stairs, especially because the bathroom was TWO floors down and we each drank at least 3 liters of water...
We got to our gate really early to make sure we did not miss our plane, and this time managed to fly with no problems, which was refreshing. We all had all our luggage at the other end, and the hotel had sent a cab to pick us up so there was a nice driver waiting with a sign for us. Driving through the city was remarkably like Ecuador, so I guess many places in South America are similar (gated houses/buildings/yards, graffiti, crazy driving), but it felt (and still does feel) great to be back..
We met Carley, Donee, and Nate2, who had already been in Bolivia for a month doing research, at the hotel, and had a nice dinner and Jugo con Leche (juice with milk), which is more or less a light milkshake, for about 50 Bs (Bolivianos), which is just over 7 dollars. You can even have meals which are in the 15-20Bs range :)
I really have done a lot more than sit and sleep on airplanes, but I've been bad about keeping up with what we've been up to, so there will be more; I'm just not sure when!
The premise of this trip is implementing a water distribution system in a small, rural community called Piriquina. They have a water system at the moment but it's old and needs to be fixed in many places. Our UW chapter of EWB has worked in this region of Bolivia for 6 years doing water projects and roofs and stoves projects (shameless plug: http://students.washington.edu/ewbuw/ ). I've been involved with our chapter since I started at UW and I've donated the majority of my free time, as well as some time which should have been spent on things like school, to this project for the last 6 months or so. My fantastic team, who will be important characters in this story so I'll introduce them, are: Carley, fearless leader, Master's in Public Health student, and team mom who worries about health even more than me; Matias, other fearless leader and Brazilian/Urugyaan/French Spanish speaker (aka invaluable team member since he can actually communicate); Nate, fellow classmate and enormously entertaining storyteller; and Garry, Carley's husband and resident professional mentor who is the whitest person on our team despite being from South Africa (also, he has a fantastic accent). Other important people are Donee, who is the most knowledgeable person about Bolivian projects since she's worked here with EWB from the beginning (EVErYONE asks abouut her when you meet them and say you're with Ingenieros Sin Fronteras); Nate, (too be refered to as Nate2, not to be confused with my teammate Nate) her husband; and the 2011 Roofs and Stoves project team (Johnny, Craig, Kasia, and Lisa).
So far this trip has been kind of crazy. I stayed up all night packing and between Emily, Peyton, Mikk and Jenn was distracted, got everything assembled, and made it to the airport. Before I had even gotten there, though, I got a call from Nate, one of my teammates, who was already at the airport and couldn't check in for his flight because apparently American Airlines actually requires you to show all of your international travel documentation for your final destination. In this case, that meant that to check in to a flight to Dallas (in country), to catch a connection to Miami (in country) to fly to Bolivia, we had to show them all required paperwork for getting a Bolivian Visa. According to the embassy website, you need $135 USD, a yellow fever vaccination card, a visa application form, a letter of invitation or a destination address, and two passport photos with some explicit rules about how large your face can be compared to the rest of the photo. Now our Engineers Without Borders chapter has sent people to Bolivia for 6 years and NO ONE has EVER needed to show the yellow fever vaccination card or the passport photos to get into the country, including a few people who went earlier this summer. Of course, American requires you to have all of this. Nate, unfortunately, didn't get the passport photos because that was an extra errand he ran out of time for, and the rude lady at the ticket counter was not helpful or willing to ignore this dumb rule (Lady: “Would you like me to read you the list of fines I could incur if I let you on this plane?” Nate's sarcasm, which luckily he withheld” “Why yes! That's exactly what would help me right now!”). I got there and we waited in the long line together to talk to a different person, and therefore missed our 7am flight. The nice lady who helped me ut me on the 9am flight, but the third lady who helped Nate still made him go get passport photos at the Walgreens in Seatac. $50 for a cab fee later, Nate got put on some flight to the Bay Area, and then he was supposed to meet me in Miami. (Perhaps you can tell the story doesn't go quite as planned?) Meanwhile, I get to Dallas and Miami without a problem, other than having to completely repack my carry on bag at Security since it was packed rather densely with every electronic item I had with me. There was no Nate to meet me in Miami, though, because the Bay Area was, of course, cloudy, so his flight was delayed and he would have missed the flight out of Miami. Instead, I found out later (the story does work out in the end!), Nate got rerouted through Peru, where he had to pay a $140 visa fee just for passing through the airport. It was a rather expensive day for him.
I made it to La Paz, Bolivia, without incident, and I literally slept for the entire plane ride on all three flights, including the takeoff from Seattle. In La Paz, I paid my $135 visa and gave them my visa form, and did NOT show my photos, vaccination card, or destination address. Garry, another team member who had arrived a few hours before, met me at the gate, which was fantastic, and we bought $45 plane tickets to go to Cochabamba on the 7am AeroSur flight (I love South American prices!). We had a nice breakfast and then went to investigate our flight. Unfortunately, we had incorrectly calculated the time difference, so we had already missed our flight... After some choice words by Garry, we went back to AeroSur and paid a small fee to change our flight to the next available option, which was 8:30pm. We then set up camp and I passed out for about 4 hours, which was wonderful. We just relaxed on our Thermarests for a while and attemped to contact Carley, who was already in Cochabamba. We found out from her that we could buy Nate's plane ticket as long as he checked in with his passport upon arrivial, so we went to do that, but by this time, there were only first class seats, so we payed $90 for him to have snacks and legroom for a 90 minute flight. We definitely all noticed the elevation (about 13,600 feet), which made climbing one flight of stairs difficult. None of us were happy about being short of breath after going up 20 stairs, especially because the bathroom was TWO floors down and we each drank at least 3 liters of water...
We got to our gate really early to make sure we did not miss our plane, and this time managed to fly with no problems, which was refreshing. We all had all our luggage at the other end, and the hotel had sent a cab to pick us up so there was a nice driver waiting with a sign for us. Driving through the city was remarkably like Ecuador, so I guess many places in South America are similar (gated houses/buildings/yards, graffiti, crazy driving), but it felt (and still does feel) great to be back..
We met Carley, Donee, and Nate2, who had already been in Bolivia for a month doing research, at the hotel, and had a nice dinner and Jugo con Leche (juice with milk), which is more or less a light milkshake, for about 50 Bs (Bolivianos), which is just over 7 dollars. You can even have meals which are in the 15-20Bs range :)
I really have done a lot more than sit and sleep on airplanes, but I've been bad about keeping up with what we've been up to, so there will be more; I'm just not sure when!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Friday, June 4, 2010
Traveling!
On Tuesday morning we left for our end of the program adventure. We've been to multiple really cool historic sites and I'm currently in Athens, staying at a hotel which charges 5 euros ($7 ish) for 90 minutes of internet. SO I went and found an internet cafe which is cheaper, but since I'm still paying, I'm not going to take the time to write a whole entry at the moment. However, there will be new entries and pictures up eventually. Tomorrow we're going to the island of Evia, which is where my professor was born. It is supposed to be GORGEOUS and I'm really excited! I double I'll have internet there though so you'll hear from me in a few days :)
Love Alex
Love Alex
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The End of Classes, the Start of Greek Vacationing!
On Monday, I had my last Greek class. We listened to Greek music and Fay brought us a delicious apple pie and we all sat at the cafe. I wish class was always like that :)
After, we cleaned our rooms and got back our security deposits. Greece doesn't seem to big on donating things; there are no Goodwills as far as I can tell, so we filled up all three dumpsters.
Then, I went into town for my last afternoon in Ioannnina with three other girls. I had a fabulous salad and then we studied at a cafe next to the water and had chocolate milkshake-like drinks, which definitely helped the learning.
We went back to school and crammed in a few minutes of studying and then took our Greek-Albanian final exam. I also submitted my paper so I am DONE with classes!
For dinner, everyone in our group went out to dinner with out teachers and program administrators at one the restaurants we had been to a few weeks before. It was delicious, as always, and it was fun to have everyone together one last time. After, we enjoyed the town at night; we went on a neat spinning ride by the lake and all hung out, with our professors, until extremely late. I got one of hour sleep and then got up so we could depart at the ungodly hour of 7 am. Luckily I A) had no trouble waking up and B) had already packed. The same could not be said for two of the boys in my group; me and several other girls literally shouted, jumped on their beds and fought over blankets in order to get them to wake up, and then they still had to finish packing haha. We made it with all our stuff to the bus, though. The departure was extremely rushed since everyone was still half asleep and in a hurry, so I feel like we didn't really comprehend the fact that we were leaving; it just happened.
5.5 hours of napping later, we made it to Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games. The site is actually gigantic; there's a lot more there than just a field for foot races; Olympia is actually a sanctuary and while there are no actual buildings today, there are a zillion pillars and wall/building remnants. We had a tour guide who was extremely smart, although since I was exhausted, not everything she said stuck. She did tell us that the idea of the "Olympic flame" which is never extinguished originated purely as a practical matter; priests kept a fire going all the time because it would be too much work to have lit it every day.
We then walked over to the archeological museum, which had some beautiful sculptures, some of which were surprisingly intact (several heads still had noses!) Picture uploading is taking forever, but I might add some photos later, and I'll put them all on Picasa. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant and then drove (aka slept) to Sparta. Our hotel is extremely fancy, which is a nice change after our last hotel and the whole bed bug calamity. We had a four course dinner and used every piece of silverware provided to us. First, we had spaghetti. I thought that was the meal, so I ate a large plate and then half of Kelsey's. Then, they brought out bowls of tomatoes and onions. Then, we had an entree of beeftecki, I think, which is chunks of meat on a skewer with some veggies, and a side of potatoes. For dessert, we had divine chocolate mousse. That was several hours ago and I am still very, very full. In order to help digestion along, we took a walk around town. The area we are in has lots of clothing and shoe stores and cafes. It feels different than Ioannina or Thessaloniki, but still Greek.
After, we cleaned our rooms and got back our security deposits. Greece doesn't seem to big on donating things; there are no Goodwills as far as I can tell, so we filled up all three dumpsters.
Then, I went into town for my last afternoon in Ioannnina with three other girls. I had a fabulous salad and then we studied at a cafe next to the water and had chocolate milkshake-like drinks, which definitely helped the learning.
We went back to school and crammed in a few minutes of studying and then took our Greek-Albanian final exam. I also submitted my paper so I am DONE with classes!
For dinner, everyone in our group went out to dinner with out teachers and program administrators at one the restaurants we had been to a few weeks before. It was delicious, as always, and it was fun to have everyone together one last time. After, we enjoyed the town at night; we went on a neat spinning ride by the lake and all hung out, with our professors, until extremely late. I got one of hour sleep and then got up so we could depart at the ungodly hour of 7 am. Luckily I A) had no trouble waking up and B) had already packed. The same could not be said for two of the boys in my group; me and several other girls literally shouted, jumped on their beds and fought over blankets in order to get them to wake up, and then they still had to finish packing haha. We made it with all our stuff to the bus, though. The departure was extremely rushed since everyone was still half asleep and in a hurry, so I feel like we didn't really comprehend the fact that we were leaving; it just happened.
5.5 hours of napping later, we made it to Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games. The site is actually gigantic; there's a lot more there than just a field for foot races; Olympia is actually a sanctuary and while there are no actual buildings today, there are a zillion pillars and wall/building remnants. We had a tour guide who was extremely smart, although since I was exhausted, not everything she said stuck. She did tell us that the idea of the "Olympic flame" which is never extinguished originated purely as a practical matter; priests kept a fire going all the time because it would be too much work to have lit it every day.
We then walked over to the archeological museum, which had some beautiful sculptures, some of which were surprisingly intact (several heads still had noses!) Picture uploading is taking forever, but I might add some photos later, and I'll put them all on Picasa. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant and then drove (aka slept) to Sparta. Our hotel is extremely fancy, which is a nice change after our last hotel and the whole bed bug calamity. We had a four course dinner and used every piece of silverware provided to us. First, we had spaghetti. I thought that was the meal, so I ate a large plate and then half of Kelsey's. Then, they brought out bowls of tomatoes and onions. Then, we had an entree of beeftecki, I think, which is chunks of meat on a skewer with some veggies, and a side of potatoes. For dessert, we had divine chocolate mousse. That was several hours ago and I am still very, very full. In order to help digestion along, we took a walk around town. The area we are in has lots of clothing and shoe stores and cafes. It feels different than Ioannina or Thessaloniki, but still Greek.
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