Heat, humidity and oxygen
I made it, without the slightest hint of the protests or military I was warned of when I left Potosí for Santa Cruz. Also, the ¨rumours¨ that Santa Cruz is a horribly dangerous place have escaped me so far. Hopefully that doesn´t change as night falls, but so far, I haven´t had any problems cruising around on public transit by myself.
I´ve spent the day wandering around Santa Cruz, taking in the city (or, I mean the ice cream) and visiting the local zoo. The zoo was interesting, although very sad and maybe a perfect example of why zoos are closing down. As an example, they had 2 bears in a cage around 6´ x 12´ with nothing but a small log in the middle. And, despite all the signs around that told people not to bother the animals or to feed them, everyone from kids to adults were throwing cheezies and the like over the fence while someone else was banging on the fence / cage trying to get whatever animal that was inside´s attention.
Getting out here was fun. As soon as I was in the car on my first segment to get from Potosí to Sucre, my heart was pumping with excitment! I love the thrill of heading off to places I haven´t been before and ¨discovering¨!
From Sucre to Santa Cruz, we made pretty good time at 15 hours on the bus. Because it´s Christmas time, the buses were packed. I ended up getting the last seat (literally and figuratively) on a ¨normal¨ bus (which means the seats don´t recline all that much). And, when you´re in the last row on a bus that is traveling all night on a gravel road, it makes for a bit of an interesting sleep.
When I finally woke up (by literally being levetated out of my seat after the bus driver took a run at a big rock), I seriously thought I was back in South East Asia from my trip with Nic 5 years ago! The smell in the air of ¨fresh earth¨, the humidity, the heat, being crammed in next to someone on a bus, etc. When I woke up, hitting someone in the process, I was back of that time and ended up saying ¨sorry¨ to him. It wasn´t until the guy looked at me funny that I realized I´d just spoken English to him.
Another noticable and fun thing about the trip was our ¨dinner¨ stop at a small ¨middle of no where¨ town at 9pm. I was the only white person and that, as usual, made me stick out a bit. But, the town was pretty fun. It felt like I was in a 100 year ¨mexican¨ type town. I went about a block up the road until I found an old man with a sign that said ¨baños¨. Not knowing what to expect, I paid my 5 cents and went through this door to find a room with metal pots hanging off pegs from a brick wall. Behind that was a row of mud walls with cardboard ¨doors¨ propped up to divide each ¨stall¨. Classy.
Eitherway, I then went back and found a group of women around my age frying up stuff at the side of the road. For 30 cents, I got a plate of fried potatoes, random meat and fried salad. As is custom, I then squatted at the side of the road by candle light with a few other women eating the same thing with a toothpick, while listening to Christmas carols resung in Spanish.
The independance of being out and figuring it out on my own, as I went along, was JUST what I needed to get the blood flowing and excited about the up coming couple weeks with Nic visiting! A perfect start!
Now, I just need to wait until Nic´s plane arrives tomorrow!
I´ve spent the day wandering around Santa Cruz, taking in the city (or, I mean the ice cream) and visiting the local zoo. The zoo was interesting, although very sad and maybe a perfect example of why zoos are closing down. As an example, they had 2 bears in a cage around 6´ x 12´ with nothing but a small log in the middle. And, despite all the signs around that told people not to bother the animals or to feed them, everyone from kids to adults were throwing cheezies and the like over the fence while someone else was banging on the fence / cage trying to get whatever animal that was inside´s attention.
Getting out here was fun. As soon as I was in the car on my first segment to get from Potosí to Sucre, my heart was pumping with excitment! I love the thrill of heading off to places I haven´t been before and ¨discovering¨!
From Sucre to Santa Cruz, we made pretty good time at 15 hours on the bus. Because it´s Christmas time, the buses were packed. I ended up getting the last seat (literally and figuratively) on a ¨normal¨ bus (which means the seats don´t recline all that much). And, when you´re in the last row on a bus that is traveling all night on a gravel road, it makes for a bit of an interesting sleep.
When I finally woke up (by literally being levetated out of my seat after the bus driver took a run at a big rock), I seriously thought I was back in South East Asia from my trip with Nic 5 years ago! The smell in the air of ¨fresh earth¨, the humidity, the heat, being crammed in next to someone on a bus, etc. When I woke up, hitting someone in the process, I was back of that time and ended up saying ¨sorry¨ to him. It wasn´t until the guy looked at me funny that I realized I´d just spoken English to him.
Another noticable and fun thing about the trip was our ¨dinner¨ stop at a small ¨middle of no where¨ town at 9pm. I was the only white person and that, as usual, made me stick out a bit. But, the town was pretty fun. It felt like I was in a 100 year ¨mexican¨ type town. I went about a block up the road until I found an old man with a sign that said ¨baños¨. Not knowing what to expect, I paid my 5 cents and went through this door to find a room with metal pots hanging off pegs from a brick wall. Behind that was a row of mud walls with cardboard ¨doors¨ propped up to divide each ¨stall¨. Classy.
Eitherway, I then went back and found a group of women around my age frying up stuff at the side of the road. For 30 cents, I got a plate of fried potatoes, random meat and fried salad. As is custom, I then squatted at the side of the road by candle light with a few other women eating the same thing with a toothpick, while listening to Christmas carols resung in Spanish.
The independance of being out and figuring it out on my own, as I went along, was JUST what I needed to get the blood flowing and excited about the up coming couple weeks with Nic visiting! A perfect start!
Now, I just need to wait until Nic´s plane arrives tomorrow!
posted by Sandra @ 11:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home