february, march

well hello. it has been quite a while since i wrote on here. i'm not the most punctual with blogs i've come to realize :-) haha

well, the last blog i wrote was in january, so wow, thats a long time ago. 

well lets see, february was my vacation month. the first week i worked and then that first weekend in february i moved into the MCC compound because my friend, Egon, from paraguay was heading out here to Santa Cruz for a week. On saturday i picked Egon up from the bus terminal and by the time he got moved into the room and cleaned up it was supper time, so we headed out to Capri pizza and had some pizza ;-). The next day (sunday) i showed him around santa cruz a little bit and took him to the artisans market that opens every sunday behind the main catholic church in santa cruz. Monday and tuesday i had to work. Those were my last two days of work before vacation! man did they seem to take long! but tuesday afternoon i took egon to my work and showed him around and he joined us in taking the kids to the park. at the park, right when we arrived, it started raining and the kids a blast getting soaked and playing in the rain :-) and we (the bigger people) enjoyed watching the, :-)

then tuesday night Egon and i had wanted to head out to samaipata (its a small tourist town about three hours away from santa cruz. its in the mountains as well :) ), but the taxi service didn’t want to drive out at night that Tuesday. So after a few other phone calls and a bit of a heated talk with the taxi folks, we had to wait till the morning to head out to samaipata. So, the next morning we finally got a taxi and were on our way to samaipata. We got to samaipata at around lunch time or a bit before that. We settled into our hostel. Oh man, let me tell you about the hostel. It was great! Its owned by this dutch dude and his bolivian wife. The room we got was really small but had a sweet balcony and the breakfast was really good! The day we got in to samaipata, we just walked around the town, checked out the plaza and then for supper went at ate out in one of the many restaurants that samaipata has. The next day, it rained all morning, on until the afternoon. so we walked around the town again. We found an abandoned building, checked that out and then had some amazing coffee (it was kinda cold in samaipata). The restaurant where we had our coffee is owned by a german dude, so we chatted with him and decided to check out his restaurant for supper. It eventually stopped raining and we were able to take a taxi out to the incan ruins that are not too far away from samaipata. We were the only ones doing the hike through the ruins and it was a fun time. There was this one spot that echos quite well, so we stood there for a good fifteen minutes and just yelled J after the ruins, we hung out in the hostel, had some terere and had a nap. A nice long nap. That night for supper we headed to the german restaurant and had some good food and then terere J

the next day we packed up in the morning, had breakfast and then headed to the main plaza got into a taxi and quickly told him to drive off so two other people wouldn’t join us. It was quite exciting J hahahahaha

we got back that afternoon and spent that Friday night at Hans and Elmas, watched a movie with them and slept in their backhouse. Oh and elma gave me a haircut.

The next day (Saturday) egon and i packed up our things and did some last minute buying with egon and then headed out to the bus terminal to head off to Paraguay. I spent two weeks in Paraguay. That first week in Paraguay, i met up with old school mates and friends, went out for supper with them. and got a tour of asuncion. We even drove past my old house in asuncion. Man, everything was still the same, the park, the corner store, the neighbours houses. The only thing that changed a lot was the house itself. The house got redone and it looks really nice now. Not that it wasn’t nice before. It just was improved J

That weekend i headed out to the chaco with a few friends. They dropped me off in loma plata (thats where my relatives  and grandmas live). I spent the entire day in Loma Plata visiting the grandmas, aunts and uncles and i also started getting sick that day. It was really neat to see the two omas again and chat with them. that evening i went out for supper with one of aunts and uncles in filadelfia. It was good food there. After supper i met up with my friends again and i joined them for the night. That next day after lunch we headed back to asuncion. Man that was a hot ride back. We stopped a few times on the highway to take ‘highway’ pictures and the second time we did that, the airconditioner wouldn’t turn on for about fifteen minutes! With a fever that was not too enjoyable but it was bearable. We got back and i was feeling quite under the weather. I had had a high fever for two days and my eyes hurt and were bloodshot and i had not eaten much for the last two days. The next day, the symptoms were still the same, and i was really weak. So ....... i had dengue. Great, for the last week of my vacation it has to come. But at least i can say i have had a tropical disease. At first people might freak out! But its a good conversation started J hahah

But yeah, i survived it. The Friday before i had to head back to santa cruz, some of my friends and planned a class reunion and i was feeling a little bit better so i went. It was so great to see everyone again! It had been ages and classmates that had left the school early as showed up and it was sweet. The food we made for that night was way too much so some of us decided to drive around the next morning and hand out the hotdogs to the homeless. It was a great experience and a lot of fun!

And then it was time to header back to santa cruz. The bus ride wasn’t bad going back. It was only 19 hours compared to the 22 hours so that was a nice three hour cut off the normal run.  

So that was February. And on to march

March had a tough first week. I was just back from vacation and it was tough adjusting back to santa cruz and to work again. But things have improved most definitely since then. In the middle of march the SALT group headed out to Cochabamba for four days. We took an over night bus. Ok, well the bus it was a double decker one and the seats were like first class plane seats! It was amazing! J hahahha

At Cochabamba we had full days. We got there in the morning and went straight to a meetings, went to a market and bought some artisan things and then in the afternoon had another meeting and then had the evening off. We all had the chance to check out different restaurants and see Cochabamba at night. It was great! The next day we had meetings all day and as well one with dinner. But these meetings were not ones that put you to sleep. They were quite interesting. The best meeting we had was at the Andean Information Network. At least i think that is what its called. A lady there talked about Bolivia and drugs and the new constitution. It was really interesting.

Now its the end of march, my moms birthday and we’ve got three months left. Time is flying! Though it is tough at times, i’m really enjoying this experience.

Peace out!

toni