Santa Cruz, BO - Monday, Our Third Day

Today, Monday, our third day in Santa Cruz, began down at the breakfast buffet. Actually, I had woken up around 6am, read some, written some, then went back to bed, until we woke up at 8:30. After breakfast, we headed back to the rooms where I continued to read my book, and the rest of the family watched shows and relaxed. With our stomachs a bit less full, we got dressed in more comfortable clothes and headed over to the spa. We rented a walleyball court for an hour, and had a great time playing 6 games or so, mixing up teams and playing competitively but without rigorous rule-enforcements. The net and ball were in surprisingly excellent condition, and the guy who hung the net made it nicely taught. The floor was a very slick hardwood that made it very difficult to maneuver without slipping and falling. Mom took a pretty hard fall once, and cracked her head on the floor, but swore that she was fine, and kept playing with us as if it never happened. We were all very concerned but she was not. She bounces around like a little girl; it is really amazing. After an hour of walleyball, we returned the equipment and took out the ping pong paddles and ball. I lifted weights for a while, and Chris went to the pool while the girls played ping pong. Then I played a few games with Vee and Mom, and we eventually finished and went back to the rooms. We got changed again, and met up with Chris, and took a taxi to the city plaza where we walked around for a while. We went in to a massive Catholic church, and were begged by a lot of poor little kids and campinas on our way out. It is so sad to see so many people on the streets with nothing. I just wish that I could help them all. In the plaza, there was a peaceful stop going on in front of one of the government buildings. We found a “Picolo’s” restaurant and we stopped for a coffee to hopefully warm us up. It was a nice break and we stayed for a while, having some desserts and coffees, etc. We walked around town a bit more, but soon got a taxi and returned to the hotel. The plan for the night was to get pizzas and watch the Eagles opener against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Unfortunately, according to the people at the front desk, there are no pizza places nearby, and they do not allow pizza to be delivered to the hotel. So, plan B is to order room service for anyone that is hungry. I ate an entire avocado, and snacked on some crackers, and Vee does not sound very hungry, so we may be fine with nothing more. Since we still had a bit of time before the game, we went down to the wifi area and attempted to get some things done online. While we were sitting there, a young couple came up to us and the guy asked me if I knew whether or not the Eagles game was going to be on ESPN tonight. I said that I really hoped so but I could not say with 100% certainty that it would be on. He explained that he saw me wearing my Eagles hat and that the was also from Philadelphia and that he and his girlfriend Sonia just got off a plane from Cochabamba and that they have a place here in Santa Cruz. He is a journalist and is teaching down here. I introduced Vee and I to them and explained what we do, and what we were doing here in Santa Cruz. We agreed that if the game would not be on ESPN, we would meet back up with them in 10 minutes in the lobby and go to a sports bar he knew of that would almost certainly have the game. They seemed real nice and we half hoped that the game would not be on ESPN so that we could get together. I told them our room number but didn’t think to get theirs. It turned out that the game was on ESPN, and so Chris, Vee and I had a great time staying up late watching the game despite the disappointing loss to the Falcons.