Bolivia 2009...finally

This weekend will be a week since I 've been back and what I have to say I miss the most is my grandma, Mama Alicia. I miss waking up and having breakfast with her; hot chocolate or mate with maraquetas, margarina, queso, y mermelada. I miss her stories and gossip she'd tell us at night while we laid on her bed before going to sleep. I miss her laugh, and her facial expressions. As I kissed her goodbye at her bedside last Friday at 4am, she just put her head down and quietly wimpered trying to not cry in front of me. I loved spending time with her. She is a beautiful women.

You live your life hearing about so many places and when you're actually there, it's incredible. My mom took my older sister and I to Bolivia when I was about 1-1/2 yrs old for my younger sister to be born there. I stayed until I was about 3. I don't remember anything. So I grew up in the states going to many boliviain parties, I learn the dances, I eat the food, I represent Bolivia in the D.C. parades, I participate in a bolivian pageant, I learn all about Bolivia and the day finally comes where I finally get to go as a grown up and experience all I can in two weeks. One of my favorite moments was traveling to Copacabana in a minivan, they call a minibus, and staring out the window while the driver played music from Los Kharkas. It was as if I was home. A home I had missed, and couldn't remember but the feeling of comfort and peace was unmistakable.

Getting off the plane I was hoping I'd be fine, y'know since I've got bolivian blood and all, but nope, the minute I got off the plane I was already feeling weary from the altitude. I began drinking my mate de coca right away at the airport, and kept on drinking. Didn't get high off of it or anything, but I kept drinking my coca and sorojchi pill for the altitude throught the next day. Soon enough I was all chipper and ready to explore.

I love water, so Lago Titicaca was my favorite tourist place. The Calvario is there, and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of that climb while Lili was hanging on my back pocket, at I don't know how many thousands of feet above sea level, up quite a steep hill, to finally reach the breathtaking view of the huge lake that looks like an ocean.

There was a big, all day parade held by a University and I got pulled into the parade twice to dance-that was fun. No D.C. copy cats-the real thing, live in La Paz, Bolivia.

The dogs looked so happy roaming streets and having buffets around piles of trash. They seemed to have an extra bounce to their walk.

Very polite people, even the thieves are so polite, they don't even let you know you got robbed.

We got to see the ruins of Tiwanaku, a tribe that lived before the Inca Empire. We saw altars where they sacrificed animals, we layed in some special, meditative, magnetic eneryg rock, and saw many symbols representing the condor, the snake, the puma, and fish. The tour was 3hrs long. After about 2hrs we kept asking what time it was.

We traveled to Cochabamba, another department eight hours away, to see more family. Cochabamba is a much warmer place than La Paz. We loved the weather. We were also warned by many about the crime there being worse than La Paz. The lady that ran the hotel was kind enough to tell us that she had gotten help up with a knife and that they had slashed her hand three times and hit her in her face, showing us her scars. Not comforting. One night when we were coming back from using the internet down the street, we arrive at our hotel, and we're walking through the open garden to get to our door. The walkway to our door was very poorly lit. We turn the corner very wearily and Lili is in front of me, and I've got her back-when all of a sudden this HUGE shadow appears in front of us. That freaked us out, but especially poor Lili. Well, the guy probably had gotten just as scared as us and we all start to laugh, except Lili was only barely laughing cuz she was pretty shooken up by this tall dude with a big hat. He made some kind of duende joke, meaning to watch out for the trolls.

Oh yeah, something Lili kept getting a good laugh at was how many times people made comments about my poor Bolivian accent. At Lago Titicaca, some argentinian ladies said I had a yankee accent. At church, a guy was leaning into my face asking wheather I understood him at all, another older man commented "pero se esta olvidando su espanol!", and Lili probably remembers more examples.

Okay, another big moment was my first visit at a tatoo parlor accompanied by whoelse, but my Tia Parmenia. The guy had hair down to his bottom and he was playing Bob Marley when we walked in. No, I didn't get a tatoo. Not even tempted, maybe in college a little tempted, but not now. I was so nervous. Sweaty hands, butterflies in my stomach, felt anxious, got second thoughts, but Mauricio was so gentle and patient, I was able to go through with it. You'll have to ask me or see me to find out what I got done, and very poorly done I must add, cuz when I got home a couple of days after getting it done, it mostly peeled off with my first hot shower I took. I didn't follow the post care instructions all the way either.

The food was good and I never got diarrhea, but boy did we get gas, big time, major gas.

Shopping was fun, and I did convince some cholitas to lower the price, but no where near as good as my Tia Parmenia. She knew how to laugh and joke with the cholitas, and she had that certain way of talking that bolivians use to ask for things. My Tia drove us around La Paz alot, on top of having to drive around for Papi Adalberto, grandpa, to dr appts, and driving around for school. She was awesome. When I was buying a CD with her, I had the kid pop the CD in for us and pump the volume up for my Tia Parmenia and I to sing to it. We were singing all loud on the side walk jamming to "Te Quiero" by Flex or Nigga while Lili pretended she wasn't with us.

And ofcourse, there was all the family I met that before was only a name of a family member people would talk about, but on my trip we got to eat, catch up and laugh together.

I've got an awesome family in Bolivia. And La Paz itself, I miss the huge mountains, like the snowy topped Illimani, the night lights, the differnet smells of yummy food as I walked by restaurants, the bread, the cholitas, the windy roads. The sweet manner in which the people speak. I miss it all.

I am so grateful I got to go. I'm only left with a greater desire to return, but this time with my kids so I can stay even longer. Maybe I'll actually pick up on the accent better next time. Ha!

I know this got long. If anyone read this, I hope you enjoyed it.
May we all be enriched by finding our roots and discovering the endless beauty of our heritage.

I'll end with a link to a Kharkas song called Munasquechay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GKSey7piXQ&feature=related