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!!!!