Thanksgiving in La Paz

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that you all enjoyed yet another north american holiday centered around eating, I can tell you one thing, I missed it like crazy. For a few brief moments I felt inspired to cook Thanksgiving dinner here in La Paz only to discover one minor set back, they only have Turkeys at Christmas :(

Aside from missing Thanksgiving and my friends and family I must admit that I feel as though I have a lot to be thankful for. After a day spent sick in bed on saturday and a strict diet of bread and water (it was bound to happen and I accept it) I had an amazing day in La Paz yesterday. Woke up at the crack of dawn (8:45 am on a Sunday is the crack of dawn for me) and headed to Valle de la Luna with some friends. Named after it's striking resemblance to the geography of the moon Valle de la Luna is about a 20 minute bus ride from my house in La Paz. We spent the morning hiking around and taking in the amazing vistas from the park. It was unbelievably peaceful, even more so than usual thanks to two Bolivian guys who were walking around playing wooden flutes (ok not exactly a flute but something in the flute family that would be heard in an Enya song). After a couple of hours in the park we headed to the downtown centre where the main streat "el prado" was over taken with street vendors (ok that's actually normal), information booths, musical stages, theatrical performances etc. It was a lot to take in and the street looked amazing in the 20 something degree sunshine.

After a busy morning I jumped in a minibus (by myself might I add, my first solo ride in a mini bus) and returned back home to spend the remainder of the afternoon with my host family. We ate a big lunch, drove around to the market to pick up a couple of things, I watched Patti take a driving lesson from her brother and was pleased with her astounding potential to drive sooner than expected and watched a horrible north american comedy together - to be honest the afternoon was pretty similar to what thanksgiving would have been like if I were at home in Canada (substitute my family for a Bolivian family, the market with the Walmart in Parry Sound etc and they are almost interchangeable).

Above are a few photos of the Valle de la Luna for your enjoyment. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Week 1

The past week has been filled with numerous firsts and adventures. Since my last post I have officially started work, moved in with my host family and taken my first weekend trip out of La Paz.

My job appears to be quite interesting and I am looking forward to getting into it. I`ve spent the last few days researching marketing in developing countries, the organic markets, marketing of agricultural products etc and am happy to report that it is far more interesting than I had expected. My office is great, on the penthouse floor of a very nice office building in down town La Paz. The view from our balcony is amazing and it`s hard not to feel lucky. The office consists of about 12 staff members, all of whom are extremely friendly. It`s been an interesting battle speaking Spanish but thanks to google translator and the patience of my co-workers I have been making some good progress.

My host family lives in an area called Zona Sur which is about a 20 minute cab ride from my office, down in the lower part of La Paz. To get there you more or less drive through a canyon and it is quite the ride. La Paz is different from say LA, in that the more prosperous areas are lower down rather than up in the hills. I am living with a Veterinarian father, auditor mother and 29 year old lawyer daughter. Patty (the daughter), Sam (fellow intern at Pro-Rural) and I share private cabs every day to and from work. The normal working hours here are 8:30 am - 12:30 pm, then everyone goes home for lunch and a siesta, returning for work from 2:30 pm until 6:30 pm. The new hours have taken some getting used to, and it almost feels like punishment having to return to the office after a 20 minute nap, but it is a nice way to break up the day. I have to admit that after a month of being nervous about staying with a host family I couldn`t be happier with my situation. It is extremely comforting to go home to other people, my spanish is already improving (only the daughter speaks a bit of english) and I have a stellar balcony with an amazing view of the city.

This past weekend the other volunteers and I went to a place called Choroico which is a two hour drive down the mountain, along side the world`s most dangerous road (literally). We went down about 2000 metres and the weather was amazing - 27 degrees, sunny and the view from our hotel was insane - it reminded me of Hawaii only without the ocean. It`s amazing that 2 USD can get you a 2 hour bus ride and 12 USD can get you a decent hotel with a pool and breakfast included. We had a great time hiking along a mountain road, `swimming`` in a waterfall (it`s dry season so there was only about 2 feet of water), laying by the pool, observing the numerous stray dogs that travel in packs at night (I was obviously terrified after my most recent incident)and singing Karaoke (which I must say is something else here - it is taken very seriously, people don't stand up, they remain seated and at the place we were at sing up to 3 songs at a time - I'm not sure how much they appreciated our renditions of great english classics like "Africa" by Todo). Definitely great to have an escape so nearby and I look forward to going back in October!