Bolivia - First Entry - Waaaay Late But Better Than Nothing

So we're here!!! And, actually, at the date and time of this blog entry, today marks my (Cliff) 4th week here, and Vee's 7th week.

Why has it taken soooo long for us to write anything, and why don't we have any photos, nor any videos up on the website yet?

Hmmmm...good questions. Uh, I think it's because we got somewhat burnt out from all the blogging, picture-taking, video-making and editing that we did in Europe. But I think mostly it is because our lifestyle here in Cochabamba Bolivia is much different than when we were hustling around Western Europe earlier this year. Then, we were living out of our backpacks, on the run each day, taking trains, planes, buses, boats, taxis and rental cars to a new village or city almost daily. Here, in Bolivia we are "tranquilo". We quickly got into a routine and settled. We are comfortable. And travelling is not really part of our agenda, at least not right now. Without the constant bombardment of new places and constantly changing stimulae, we've grown lax about taking pictures, videos and writing blogs, for now.

What is our agenda? Me = learn Spanish. Vee = re-connect with family. And lot's of other stuff. Our days are like this... In the morning, we have a huge healthy breakfast, or at least mine is huge. Vee prefers cereal with milk, fresh fruit juice, maybe an apple, and green tea. For breakfast, we sit down together in our kitchen, drink green tea, and eat and talk about the coming day. Vee has taken over breakfast duties though, getting me two hard-boiled eggs, a piece of bread, an avocado, and fresh fruit juice. At 9:30, my tutor, Jeanette, arrives, and for the next two hours we sit in our office (spare bedroom) and do Spanish lessons. We've moved along quite quickly already, since I had Spanish in high school, but now we're slowing down a bit because of all the new material. My vocabulary is expanding, but I make tons of mistakes, especially when speaking, and I still have a really hard time comprehending what people are saying to me if they are speaking at their normal pace. However, I am definitely getting better. And as a result, my connection with the family is getting stronger. Especially, "Papi" or Fernando, who is Vee's father. I love talking with him, even though I only understand about 30% of his ideas. I understand most of the words, but by the time I actually extract the meaning, I fall behind, and have to play catch-up, missing much of everything else that is said. It is not just Papi, it is anyone speaking at their normal pace. Hopefully, this will not be the case by the time we leave in January.

My Spanish lesson is 5 days/week, two hours each morning. During this time, Vee catches up on house stuff, personal stuff, sometimes food shopping, sometimes food prepping, and lots of life-organization stuff since we are constantly juggling multiple family itineraries as it is a big family, and we want to spend as much time with them as possible without totally sacrificing our own privacy. After my daily lesson with Jeanette, Vee and I head down to the cafe downstairs called "De'Kffe" where they all know us now. We sit and talk, sipping our cortados or cappuccinos, and then head off to the gym just down the street for a lunchtime workout. We've been really good about this, going 4-6 days/week. Usually once per week, I'll meet with Chris and sometimes Juber to play racquetball too. So after our lunchtime workout, we come back to our apartment, eat some fresh fruit and maybe some dinner leftovers, etc. for lunch, get cleaned up and then spend the rest of the day working on our business, reading books, spending time with the family, etc. At night, sometimes we go back downstairs for a coffee, or go explore the city of Cochabamba for coffee, beers and/or food.

On Saturdays, we walk to "El Mercado", or the open market, to buy our fresh fruit and vegetables for the week. Many times, we'll chop most of the fruit up when we get home, and blend it into fruit smoothies that we drink all week long. Normally, our bill, for everything, is about $10. For that, we get a huge papaya, a huge pineapple, a whole watermelon, oranges, apples, avocados, mangos, lemons, tomatos, bagged lettuce, chopped carrots, nuts, bananas, onions, and cucumbers. For other staples, like milk, chicken breasts, beer, water, cheese, bread, condiments, etc., we walk up to the local "supermercado" named IC Norte.

We got set up with Internet access, via "Comteco". It's a hair shy of 500kbps and costs $100/month. OUCH!!!!!!!!! The speed is about a 1/10 of what we get in Philly with Comcast, yet costs twice as much. We first went with a cheaper service, that was faster, via "Entel", but after a huge fiasco, and damaged telephone lines, they couldn't deliver. To get our current Internet service, Vee's father had to call in a favor with a friend of his who got us into the company offices that afternoon, an account set up, and an installation date more or less set. Here, that phenomenon is called "muñeca", which means wrist, or "to have influence"...absolutely essential here to get things done. Other things here are expensive, and or difficult to acquire too. Locating a simple "S-Video" cable, an Ethernet computer networking cable, and eventually a Wireless Access Point, was a HUGE production. In total, we probably had to visit nearly 60 stores to finally buy these 3 things, all of which, can be bought at a Best Buy in under 10 minutes back home. Honestly though, the adventure of shopping is fun, for the most part, as long as your expectations are set accordingly, and you are not in a time-crunch. Now, you have to go to "La Cancha" for everything, which is the HUGE "popular market" in the old city where mostly indigenous folks have little shops set up selling everything from fruits and vegetables, to meats, clothes, furniture, pets, music equipment, CD/DVDs, cars, hardware products, textiles and fabrics, you name it, it's there, unless you are looking for it.........

Thursdays, we have lunch with the family. Typically, Papi or Chris picks us up in the family's red extended cab Datsun pick-up truck around 12:30, and since it is a short ride, we are usually quickly seated in the Delgadillo living room or kitchen sipping some sort of sweet coffee-flavored liquer, and then eating a delicious "almuerzo" of "soup and seconds" soon thereafter. The whole family tries to be together for lunch, but with everyone's work and school schedules, it is not always possible. On Sunday, we do lunch as a family again, but usually out somewhere. It is a really fun time, where we exchange stories, talk about nostalgic subjects, and/or politics. Vee's Mom, or "Mami" to me, always cooks delicious meals, full of vegetables, rices and meat, usually ending with a bit of ice cream.

Last Wednesday, Papi, Chris, Sandra, Vee and I went to the "Wilstermann" futbol match, and ooooooooohhhh mannnnnn what an experience that was. The Wilstermann are THE pro futbol (soccer) team for Cochabamba, and it is getting to be crunchtime as the league championships finish in December, and they are currently in first place. The match was against those nasty "Cambas" from Santa Cruz, and it is historically a huge rivalry, since the "Coyas" of Cochabamba are proud to NOT be Santa Cruceños. I had on my official Wilstermann team shirt, and other than being the only tall, white, blue-eyed, blond-haired gringo in the entire stadium, I fit in quite well. The match was AWESOME with a capital A baby!!! At kick-off, Santa Cruz tried to catch us off guard by charging straight at the goal and shooting without hardly any setup; they missed, and the Wilstermann charged downfield in response and scored a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!! What a way to start the game!!!! And, it only got better. We ended up winning, 3-1. I was treated to 2 red cards, riot police securing the field to mediate a bench-clearing brawl, fireworks, thrown bottles, tear gas, the wave, penalty shots, booing the refs and visiting teams' players as they were ejected ("FUERA"), etc. Afterwards, we stopped at "Frankffurt" for hot dogs and burgers. What a night! We are going back this weekend for the HUGE game against our main rival, La Paz. Can't wait!!!

Two Thursday nights ago, we went out with Chris, Juber, and Chris’ best friend Julio (who is REALLY nice, and is a computer programmer here in Cochabamba) to a live music club to see a local cover band play music from one of my favorite bands ever: “Iron Maiden”. It was unbelievable. These little native guys up on stage, mostly expressionless, and timid, dressed in normal everyday street clothes, and no attitude, absolutely BLEW US AWAY!!! They played the songs almost flawlessly, and the crowd (probably not even 100 people) were going nuts towards the end. They didn’t even get on stage until 11:30, and we did not get home until close to 3am by the time they finished playing. It was so much fun!!! Our tickets cost $3 U.S. each.

Our apartment is fantastic. It is a furnished apartment in the "Recoleta" neighborhood where we have easy access to all of downtown Cochabamba within walking distance and all the conveniences closeby, the most important of which are excellent restaurants, arguably the best cafe in the city right downstairs, a supermarket a block away, and our gym practically right across the street. Spoiled...you betcha, and loving it. Really the only problem is with noise. Alot of popular dance clubs and bars are on our block, and thus on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, it is complete mayhem out there. The taxi drivers and other young punks have those super-loud mufflers installed so you can hear them coming a KM away. And, of course, with the youth being poisoned by the most horrific of U.S. exports, "Hip Hop", we are blasted all night long with that sonic trash booming from their car stereos as they tear up our street. I wear my earplugs every night though, so I sleep soundly now, unlike our first week here.

The weather has been fantastic, in my opinion, although I am sure most Cochabombinos would disagree. Today, many of them were bundled up in jeans, thick coats, long sleeve shirts, etc., while I was wearing my usual cargo shorts and t-shirt. It is "primavera" (Spring) here now, and that means warm sunny mornings, cloudy cooler afternoons, and sometimes rainy nights, with daytime temperatures in the 70's F. Not bad considering back home, it'll be snowing soon, while here, Summer is right around the corner. Here, they complain some about the dust, and yeah, I can see it, but I don't think it's THAT bad. I see mostly blue skies.

Polution is a huge problem here, as is poverty. We are begged daily by lots of "niños" (little kids) and some wrinkly older folks too. It is just so sad and we want to be able to help all of them, but can't. Sometimes we give them something, a few coins, some food, whatever, but ALWAYS show them respect, no matter what, even when saying no. Polution-wise, the automobiles, busses, motorcycles, etc. are almost all from a prior generation of noxious-fume spewing menaces that you just have to deal with. And water here is "interesting", and of course, we drink nothing out of the tap, but then again, I don't in Philly either.

We eat out fairly frequently (aside from our daily coffees) because with U.S. dollar exchange rates, you can eat like a king, and spend hardly anything. For example, two Friday nights ago, we took Chris and Mami out for dinner, and it cost 185 bolivians, or $23 U.S. dollars. Vee had two trout fillets, Chris had a huge filet mignon, Mom had a giant sirloin steak, and I had an even bigger Argentinian sirloin, plus we each had the salad bar, lemonades and a plate of fried bananas. The restaurant is one of the best in the city.

Beer: As you can imagine, the choices here are not anywhere near as plentiful as they are elsewhere (U.S., Western Europe). But, I am thoroughly enjoying my "Huari" pilseners, "Taquiña" stoudts and "Paceña" Extra Tropical pilseners and porters. All are produced here in Bolivia. You can also buy Heineken, Corona, and maybe Budweiser, but why?!?!?! I really want to brew my own, but the expense of shipping a few home-brew recipe kits and a few pieces of brewing equipment would cost over $150 to have it shipped here, in addition to the cost of the materials themselves, so that has been crossed off my list of to-dos.

We are having a fantastic time, and are keeping quite busy despite the relaxed nature of our lifestyle. We are happy, not doing anything all that exciting, but enjoying life. There is lots more to write, but this is plenty for now. Hopefully soon, we'll get some pics and videos up.

Best love to all our family and friends! Ciao-ciao.