Everything went smoothly in Peru--I got a new 90 day visa which was ideal. However, I ended up bribing the wrong person to get back into Bolivia; I guess it’s just a skill I’ll have to work on. A few weekends ago my friends and I all traveled to Potosà to explore the silver mines and then to Sucre to stare at white houses. All future travelers to South America: nothing is ever open on Sundays.
The mines of Potosà were great. After we were picked up and geared up our guide stopped our van to purchase mine crew “necessities”. This included a bag of coca leaves, tobacco, alcohol potable (96%), dynamite materials, and orange soda. We all cheers with a cap-full of the alcohol, spilled a little for the Pachmama, and threw it back. If death has a taste that was it. Once at the mines our guide showed us how to pack the dynamite and we all took turns holding it in our mouths (or elsewhere) while posing for pictures, but once the wick got short we dropped it and ran... When we finally got to journey inside I found myself without problems venturing into the unknown darkness, nor did I spook looking down the 100 meter deep pits, but when it came down to getting on our hands and knees to crawl down a narrowing tunnel... yikes!
This past weekend the Austrian (oh yeah, the German speakers are even now) and I went to the Salar de Uyuni, or the salt flats of Uyuni. A MUST DO! If you have only three or four days in Bolivia, not kidding this is IT. As soon as I get a camera chord I will upload pictures, but as I’m sure you know a picture can never fully capture the awe-inspiring sights that we tend to encounter. The bus ride there makes you pay for it--a total of 13 hours, mostly on a VERY bumpy dirt road with a change in Oruro, but we had an absolute blast. The main attraction was a huuuuuuuge salt flat, more than 10,500 sq. km, but the tour took us to three gorgeous lagoons with wild flamingos, natural geysers and some amazing rock formations (arboles de piedras, or trees of stone). What made it so great though, were the people on our tour--3 from Germany (go figure), 1 from Holland, 2 from Australia, 2 from England, 1 from Peru, 1 from Spain, the Austrian and me, the U.S.A.-ian. It is always the people around you that make the difference and this group made it such a positive one!
I’ve fallen in love with my kids. It had come with endless frustration but also encouragement. I can’t even express how gratifying it is to help them discover that yes, they CAN do it: they can write the letters, they can recall the numbers, they can finish. Every one of them is so incredibly different, it has been quite a challenge finding a way to motivate and help each individual. Some finish their projects in record time and just want your thumbs up, some need a bit more direction (an “R” is a line, an arc, and a tail.... a line, an arc, and a tail, a line.... an arc.... and a tail....), and others are just flat out bored and need to be shown that learning can be fun. Remember Mikel? Nothing is fun unless it is followed by a high five and a fist pound. Have I mentioned that they are all only four years old?
