Gratitude

Why are there so many rad things to do in Bolivia?! I met the Austrian in La Paz last weekend to bike THE DEATH ROAD, supposedly the most dangerous road in the world, which entailed a 35 mile downhill mountain bike ride along the cliffs of the Andes, starting at about 16,000 feet above sea level. It was absolutely incredible, despite my sore bum at the end of the ride. My friend from the states was passing through Bolivia so we decided to meet up as well and do a pampas tour in the jungle. We had quite an ordeal with TAM (never fly with them, your chances of actually taking off are slim to none), but eventually we got to Rurrenabaque. Just a side note- If you were wondering where all the Israelis are, this is where to find them. I am certain that at least 90% of the tourists in Rurre were Israeli. The first things we did when we got there was find a hostel to throw down our stuff and eat. The first thing they did was rent motorbikes, and I don’t think they got off them until the following day. Another give away was that on every corner there was a powwow piping away at a shisha--even at 10 in the morning while eating breakfast! Anywho, the pampas tour was great, but I must say that the majority was spent gawking at alligators, which I have plenty of in my backyard in Florida. I think my favorite part was canoeing at night and being able to see more stars in the sky then I have seen in my life, and with what seemed like an equal number of fireflies all around us. It’s these gentle ambiences that take my breath away.

I meet so many new people every day from all around the world and it is so refreshing--I’m already building up a nice vocabulary in German, French, Portuguese, and Hebrew! Besides this trip I have been traveling strictly on the weekends, but I have found myself running into a lot of the same people, which reminds me that there are no true goodbyes. I have learned so much from the people I have crossed paths with, of myself, culture, beliefs, Israeli card games, French humor, and all the places I have to see. I have been offered an infinite numbers of couches to sleep on if I am ever “in the area” and I have well-diversified my facebook friends list. God makes life sweet, and he does it through people.

Anyone going to be in NYC this week?! There is going to be a fashion show on May 6th at the Cooper Square Hotel which will promote and give proceeds to our women’s handicraft group, Tantakuna. Right now we are shipping off products to New York and finalizing our catalog so that we can hopefully get some good publicity. More exciting news is that we are starting a greenhouse initiative in partnership will Karl Rabeder so that we can involve the community in sustainable organic farming! I am very excited about this one; I just hope I can see it through before I have to go back to the states.