June 1: 13,925 steps in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Today was our last day in Santa Cruz. We started the morning by taking a rainy walk to a less than exciting replica of the Rio Jesus statue. I didn’t wear my rain jacket today, of course, so thankfully Ally shared her umbrella with me. After Jesus, we walked through the market then headed to a café. Kristi and I sat at our own table and ordered café con leche and chocolate cake. We were there for about an hour, and during the time both My Heart Will Go On and Take My Breath Away came on the radio, in Spanish. It was a lovely experience listening to Spanish Celine Dion and looking out the rainy window at the Cathedral de Santa Cruz.

After the rain let up we went out to the town square and spent a solid half hour playing with the massive amount of pigeons. One almost landed on Kristi’s head and she had to go away from the pigeon mob on account of dirtiness.

We went up into the cathedral’s bell tower to see the city from up high for 3 pesos, which is about 50 cents in American money. There were very few tall buildings, and a lot of red shingle roofs.

After that we went for lunch, in the same café as before, only this time we sat with Judy. Judy is Kristi and I’s age, but is a fashion merchandising major working on her masters. She is from China, so we spent the majority of lunch talking to her about life in China and how it is different from the United States. We also have a student from Turkey traveling with us, so it’s been interesting getting to know them and their different customs. Our professor Ana is from South America (Buenos Aires, Argentina specifically), Spodek has travelled a lot as a professor, and Kristi has travelled the world, so our traveling group has all kinds of culture!

After lunch (we started eating a late lunch at 3:00pm) we headed to the airport. I was a little nervous flying from one city in a third world country to another, because I assumed their airlines weren’t as regulated nor their pilots as well trained. But the flight went fine, and they even served drinks and snacks like all airlines do. I am becoming more and more aware of my ignorance to the world, and just how much I am spoiled by the American lifestyle.

Tonight we are in a hostel in La Paz, Bolivia, our last Bolivian city. This city supposedly is well known for its souvenirs, so I’m excited to go shopping for some in the next couple of days! The drive from the airport to the hostel was the coolest yet. This city is literally built into the hillside, but it’s really big so everywhere you look are hills with buildings built into the side of them. And of course since it was at night all we could see were the lights, so it was amazing! Our hostel is also really cool, definitely my favorite place we have stayed so far. All of the girls are in the same “room” if you can call it that. When you walk into the French style double doors, there is a bathroom to the right. A couple steps down are 3 bunk beds, where only 3 of us girls are staying. Upstairs in the loft area are 2 separate “bedrooms” that are enclosed entirely by glass. Kristi, Paige, and I are in one of them, each with our own bed, and Ana is in her own across the way, own bathroom, TV and all. Us girls are sharing 2 showers and 1 toilet, which we have done before, so no biggy. And we all have big fluffy orange down comforters. Such luxury!

Being at a higher altitude, it is important to stay hydrated. So when we got to our hostel Kristi, Paige, and I went on a quest to find some water bottles. We figured we would just find a place easily, but when we went out to find one, everything was closed. This was odd to us because it was only 10:30pm and that is the normal dinner time for people in South America. We asked around and stumbled on a small corner street diner that had big 2 liter water bottles for 1 american dollar. So we loaded up on those. And got some delicious papas fritas (French fries).

My cold is much better today. My ears no longer feel clogged, my head doesn’t feel pressure, and my runny nose is slowing down! I do have a cough, but it’s nothing a little halls cough drops and some tea can’t fix! Ana, aka mother hen, does keep forcing me to wear a scarf and hood though.