Writing From Bolivia

For a post-New Year's/Christmas vacation (and rest from the ridiculous amount of fiestas in Chijnaya and Pucará) Maren, Daphne, and I decided to venture across the border to the strangely alluring country of Bolivia. So that's where I am now! Writing to you all from the Loki hostel after a day of wonderfully cheap and thrillingly adventurous mountain biking! La Paz (and Bolivia in general) is an unfortunately nerve-wracking place because of all the police around who are supposed to be really corrupt and all the rateros (pickpockets) that are rumored to be around. So far so good, though...knock on wood. Besides that, though, the countryside is beautiful, the city is less touristy than Cusco with just as much good food (went to a great Indian place yesterday!) and great deals on anything you could possibly want! For example, I bought a pair of incredible chrome blue (i'm not sure if that is a possible color combination) spandex shorts for 15 Bolivianos, or about 2 bucks. I was psyched. Anyway, the city is huge and is nestled in a steep valley whose hillsides are covered with houses and other buildings. At night the hills look alive with dying embers---all the streets have streetlights of about the same wattage.

But I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself. So much has happened in Peru between now and my last post! So many fiestas! And all so different! It boggles my mind. Here's how the days unfolded:

12/23: The day of Leidi's graduation from elementary school party. After waiting the customary hora peruana (meaning that everything starts at least an hour after it's supposed to), we were fed a huge bowl of soup, asado de alpaca (i'm really not sure of how to describe this dish...), and then wafer cookies with champagne. Then they had a simple but very nice ceremony in which the students and their padrinos (me included) stood up and were presented to the guests. The kids all looked quite smart in their party clothes...especially Leidi who was wearing a sparkly green dress and sparkly heels that were just about as nice, if not nicer, than my prom dress! Then each student received a diploma, a medal, and a gift. A few "inspiring" speeches were given, as well as a tearful thank you and goodbye from the professor. Then, best of all, the music started and all the students were encouraged/forced to stand up and dance for us! The all stood in a circle dancing and took turns dancing in the center of the circle either alone or with a partner that was embarrassingly pushed toward them. I was quite impressed that none of them died of embarrassment and on top of that managed to dance decently well (especially Leidi!). Finally the grown-ups decided it was time to start drinking more seriously (beer had been passed around the whole time) and that it was their turn to dance. Some grabbed a student (or vice versa) and started dancing with just students. This quickly, though, turned into just adults dancing with adults while the kids escaped outside to play. Maren, Daphne, and I all were dragged to the dance floor and I was lucky enough to be the main event for a good 4 minutes---One of the parents of a boy from the colegio (and also a good friend of the family) decided it would be a fantastic idea to drag me, the poor blonde gringa wearing Daphne's red flamenco skirt, out to the center of the room and have what almost felt like a dance off...except that he would lead me and I would follow, "copying" him, though it was more like we were trying to one-up each other. It was really actually very fun despite the potential for mortification. By the end of the night most of the kids had disappeared, most of the adults were chock full of revelry, and it was raining so hard there were genuine rivers in the middle of most of the streets. At the end of the night it seemed like all I had taken away from the party were soggy feet and an unfortunately drunk neighbor to walk home...but looking back I not only got to show-off my fantabulous dancing skills, but I also had great conversations with Zenovia (Leidi's mother), as well as gaining an ahijada! Pretty cool.

And that was only the first night of the fiestas! They pretty much continued straight through New Year's Day!

12/24: I will write the rest soon! Unfortunately everything else I wrote got erased!

But for your personal enjoyment, take a look at some huayno videos for a taste of what kind of music we get to hear all the time!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGxZhJYbTAg&feature=related :Rosita de Espinar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OykEwDRFiOE :Sonia Morales (maybe my favorite)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3aVumDW19M :Dina Paucar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__L0nrT-Tw :William Luna