Santa Cruz Struggles

So I was in Santa Cruz from Sunday March 25th until the night of Thursday the 29th, and clearly I have been strugglin to get these blog posts out.  Cool stuff happened, lots of our plans got cancelled, then I came back to Cochabamba with a big ol' project looming (due today (Tuesday)! GAH!)  So here's a quick run-through of the main important stuff.

Sunday, March 25: Took a 45-minute flight at 6:20am.  We usually do early flights.  Struggles, yes?  They're usually only 30 minutes so this was a long one!  Then we hopped on a bus and rode for some hours, maybe four or five.  Santa Cruz is HOT and HUUUUUMID.  When we stopped for lunch we got to walk around town a bit (cute town, I'll post pics eventually, or come visit me when I get home if you want to see them).  Tons of people bought shorts or skirts or dresses.  We all packed hot weather clothes but forgot that hot-ness SUCKS in long pants!  I had on jeans and sadly couldn’t really roll them up very much…luckily I had a tank top under my rain jacket (the jacket I obviously took off),

So then we drove another hour on the bus (did I mention it was hot?) and arrived at Concepción.  Forgot to mention all our suitcases were on top of the bus.  Not really important, I promise they won’t fall off later in my story or anything, I just thought it was cool and adventure-y.  Right before we got to Concepción, we stopped at a buffalo cheese farm.  To the disappointment of our director, they didn’t have buffalo cheese (they said tomorrow they would have it) but there were lots of cool rocks and animals.  I befriended a kitty who sat in my lap, but then a pig came over and took over my lap.  She was pretty darn snuggly.  So then we left and drove a wee bit more to arrive at Concepción.  The hotel was AWESOME and had a courtyard and a pool and some hammocks and a cat!  Our room had a little stairway up to the LOFT, which was right next to the AC unit!  Score!  I slept there!  Then we went to a religious museum and a Catholic Mass.  The Mass was obviously in Spanish (I did catch some of the words of the songs we sang…they were about sinning.)  The church was GIANT, also.

Monday, March 26:  Had a pastry-filled breakfast at the hotel.  We were going to visit a community nearby, but the road was muddy (they were mostly dirt) and it looked like it might rain (which would mean we couldn’t get back).  So instead we went to these BIG huge flat rocks and walked around.  Some of us climbed a tree and other people chilled on the warm rocks.  I climbed the tree (lucky thing I wore shorts).  Then we went back to the hotel and had lunch nearby.  There was a parrot at the restaurant, which was fun.  It liked to give people friendly nibbles on their fingers (at least, he probably thought he was being friendly).  I also should mention that outside our hotel room there was a parrot pay phone.  Instead of that box pay phones have around the phone part, it was a giant parrot with its belly hollowed out.  I’ll post the pics, I promise.

At 2pm-ish, we left Concepción for Buena Vista, our next destination (a 4.5 hour trip).  Partway there, we realized that the shortcut was blocked by the river, so we had to turn around and go the long way.  TEN HOURS later, we arrived at the restaurant for dinner.  At midnight.  Around 10pm we had stopped at a supermarket for “10 minutes” (read: 1 hour, but literally).  So cookies + peanut butter + sleepytime for everyone = NOT very excited for dinner.  Also, the town of Buena Vista looks so similar to Concepción that I really thought we were back there and I was wicked confused.

Tuesday, March 27: We were going to go to a national park today, but the road was too muddy so we couldn’t.  Instead we went to a malnourished children’s center in San Carlos run by nuns.  The organization rehabilitates malnourished babies and toddlers.  We got to hold the babies for a little while, which was really sad.  I don’t know a whole lot about babies, but I held an 8-month-old boy who looked more like 1 or 2 months to me.  A lot of people in my group want to do their independent study project with that organization, and help them improve their funding/education of the mothers.

Afterwards, we went to the central Plaze in San Carlos.  We made cheese and veggie sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches, with cookies and an apple each.  Some kids came by when they saw our directors handing out food to us, and we shared with them.  Word traveled fast and other people came by for a sandwich—a few men, a pair of women, and a little girl.  I talked with the little girl for a while.  She told me she’s 9 and her favorite subject is gym class.  There were a ton of chickens walking around the Plaza, and my little friend told me they were wild.  Fun!  Then we had to leave, and she asked when I’d be coming back.  I felt so bad saying “I don’t know, maybe never…”

After lunch we went for a walk on a trail and saw lots of cool plants.  Our guide, Andrea (he’s a man but he’s from Italy, hence the second “a”) knew a TON about everything!  We got to eat some cacao, what they make chocolate out of.  It was white and slimy and tasted nothing like chocolate (the seeds are where the chocolate comes from).

Wednesday, March 28: We left the hotel in Buena Vista to go to Santa Cruz.  We stopped at a cool artisan shop with woven hats and little boxes, and windchimes/wall hangings.  Then I walked around town with some friends.  (Yes, I do have friends!)  As we drove to Santa Cruz, we passed a ton of strip-malls and I felt like I could be back in the US of A.

We got to the hotel and had to drop our things off quickly (we were late for our next appointment, as usual).  Then we went to CIDOB, an organization that works with indigenous people and protecting their rights.  The organization is helping with the current TIPNIS conflict, in which the president (and the Brazilian highway company) want to build a highway through a national park to connect to main cities (which aren’t connected by any other roads right now).  The indigenous people who live in the TIPNIS park don’t want a highway because it’s a protected park and they were given that land to live on.

After CIDOB, we were going to go to Plan 3000, a marginalized barrio on the edge of Santa Cruz.  After a big flood, the victims were relocated to the jungle, where they built a community (which is now Plan 3000).  The government promised they would help these people recover from the flood, but they never did.  The roads there are still dirt, the city dumps its trash there, and the people don’t have clean water.  So we were going to go there, but the leaders never called to confirm so we went back to the hotel instead (and watched Aristocats aka Aristogatos).  It’s cool, in Bolivia you have to be flexible!

Thursday, March 29: Today we went to the Lomas de Arena (aka Sand Dunes).  It’s a bit of a mystery how all this sand (when analyzed they realized it’s from Argentina) got all the way to Western Bolivia (aka landlocked country).  But the dunes were really cool!  As we were driving in, there was a HUGE puddle in the road so our bus driver and our 2 guides got out and walked around in it, to see how deep it was and if we'd be able to cross.  I suggested we caulk the bus and float, but instead we forded.  Luckily, no casualties.  Our bus also did get stuck driving on the road because it’s sandy like the beach around the dunes.  We walked around on the dunes for a while and then returned to the bus.  The bus had gotten stuck again, so some people pulled a chain attached to the front and others pushed it from behind.  Success!!  But then the bus got stuck 3 more times, within the same 200 meters.  So needless to say we were all pretty hot and tired by the time we got to the restaurant!

After lunch we went back to Santa Cruz and had the afternoon free.  I was feeling a little woozy so I hung out in the shade by the hotel pool, and then walked to the Plaza (3 blocks away).  Off the Plaza was a blind museum, with tactile exhibits and the captions in Braille and written Spanish.  There also was a walk-through exhibit where we wore black glasses (that we couldn’t see through) and walked through the “jungle” (leaves on the ground, jungle sounds) and the “city” (trash on the ground and a step that we didn’t know was coming).  Definitely a cool experience!  Outside the museum were some jugglers!  They offered us papaya and then did some juggling for us.

We left that night for Cochabamba otra vez!

Walking around in the giant puddle

Cacao

Parrot phone!

Check out my facebook for the sand pictures--a lot of them other people uploaded and I don't feel like waiting to upload them onto my blog.