Sleeping nuns, flat tires and shining cities

Location: Sucre, Bolivia
October 29, 2009

Lots to report...from La Paz

Below is one of the schools I went into outside of La Paz. Oscar is the man in the picture, and I ended up meeting him through my hostal. He helps to teach English at the school and I got to go and have a classroom on my own! The first class was tiny, only 3 students (see picture below)...basically, Oscar just left me there with the girls, and we chatted in English and Spanish, all about their experiences in Bolivia and mine in the US. It was fascinating. This is one of the English-teaching schools in Bolivia, and is located on a military base. It was a bit overwhelming entering the school- you had to salute the guard and then I got ushered into the captain´s quarters...I got to chat with the teachers and then meet with the first class of girls. Next, I moved on to the classroom nextdoor, where there were more than 30 students, just sitting and looking to the front of the room. A friend of mine had been answering questions for them so they could pratice their English, and so I came along and we both got ïnterviewed¨.

Afterwards, I got to go with some of the students to the local market, where we chatted and ate local foods. It was fun to be with them inside and outside of the classroom.

A natural landmark outside of La Paz called Valle de la Luna, reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah. It´s amazing to travel from a crazy bustling city to these natural beauties sitting just beyond the city line.

From La Paz, I traveled by train to the tiny city of Tupiza, where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid were theoretically caught and killed after robbing a Bolivian bank. The city feels a bit like the wild west, and is super dusty. Here, I paired up with a few other gringos and engaged i the town´s ¨triatholon¨ aka Jeep tour, horse tour, and then biking tour...it was crazy!

First part of tour- part by Jeep and part on foot. We almost got hit by a bus as we were passing through the tunnel...

Enjoying the prettiness!!!

Second part of the triatholon- horseback riding- so beautiful- the canyons we rode around looked like being in the Red Rocks...
The last part of the triatholon...as many of you know, I broke my elbow when I fell off my bike this summer...yet, I decided to take this mountain bike (brakes didn´t work so well) and bike down 3000ft of a mountain. Scariest thing I´ve done in a long time. I´m smiling because I am at the top of the mountain!

After Tupiza, I headed north into Sucre, Bolivia on a 8 hour bus. To get to Sucre, you must pass through the mining town of Potosi, where mine conditions are terrible- no ventilation, runaway trains, really dangerous conditions overall. I wanted to do a mine tour, but since the bus arrived late from Tupiza, I decided to head to Sucre right from Potosi. At night, there are no more buses to Sucre so you can take a taxi with other people headed the same direction. I ended up in a taxi with 3 other passengers and the driver, and I was in the middle of the back seat. On the way to Sucre, the woman next to me ended up falling asleep and snuggling into my shoulder. She happened to be the cutest little nun, and she was sleeping soundly. At one point, the driver hit a patch of rough ground too quickly which shook the taxi and made it bounce a lot. The nun grabbed my hand saying, Ädios Mio!¨and woke up...turned out we got a flat that we had to change right away. I tried to calm the poor scared nun, we changed the flat and we headed into the bright white city of Sucre!

A little map for your reference...

http://geology.com/world/bolivia-map.gif

Tupiza is north of Villazon.