zoodles

almost a year?

2007-06-13T06:21:58+02:00

I CAN'T believe it's been almost a year since we got back!

Mauricio has a new best friend:

Her name's Abby. I haven't told my sister yet, who has two cats that she is trying (?) to find homes for. Cringe! Oh well, we wanted our own cat if that makes sense. Or is that just really consumerist? Mauricio bought a globe the other day (?!?) and I saw it in the spare room today. I told him, you're really becoming North American now; you buy things to store them! Ha ha.

Abby's cute. She has a penchant for biting when you pet her. My friend Pattie calls these love bites. Savage love in Abby's case. She's really friendly though, if that sounds possible. She likes to be around us and has already made a habit of sleeping at the foot of the bed, which is the clincher for me... too cute.

Here's a picture from a recent day trip to Edmonton to visit Treena, my kind of cousin, on the occasion of her mother's visit to the west!

Edith and I are on the back of the mower come theme-park-tractor-train! Treea's Mike is giving us a tour of what Mauricio calls their Hacienda in Spanish :o) There were some HUGE mosquitos loitering in the shade, but Mauricio and I seemed to be the only ones that were bothered by them, being the city-folk that we are.

rustle... rustle...

2006-11-24T19:10:17+01:00

still here...

missing in action

2006-08-30T07:35:47+02:00

I don't think this is the first time that I have titled one of my posts MIA.

I’m back... I think.

I have been debating retiring this blog, perhaps most readers have already assumed that much. But then I happened to see in the site statistics that there have been quite a few visitors to my blog of late. Now, I have no idea who they could be, or who in general would visit a blog that hasn’t been updated for 4 months. Yikes, has it been that long? But, in the meantime, while I decide to blog or not to blog, here are a few thoughts and photos.

For most, by now, it shouldn’t be a surprise that in the time since my last post, we finalized Mauricio’s immigration papers, bought our tickets to Canada, packed up house and home, made the dreadful 24 hour voyage from there to here, and are currently in the throes of settling into a new/different/old way of life.

I won’t detail the eeriness of skipping the train tracks of my life again, again returning to the ongoing Calgary plot (I’m behind by a few chapters and catching up, though I know the story, perhaps too well.) Nor the unsuspected sense of nostalgia that settles into me when I remember Bolivia through pictures, and through words, in conversation with Mauricio. I'm feeling confused about my blog, which I created to record my impressions of living in Bolivia, which I no longer am. Humpfh.

Those were a few thoughts, now a few photos.

On this great, sunny, warm day (and there have been many this summer) we went to a water park downtown with my sister and her daughter Mira.

Este buen día, calientito y soleado (y ha habido varios este verano) fuimos a un parque de agua al centro de la ciudad con mi hermana y su hija Mira.

We also made a trip to the mountains (different day) so Mauricio could see the Real Canada. Here’s Mau by the lake…

También hicimos un viaje a las montañas (otro día) para que Mauricio véa el verdadero canadá. Aqui está Mauricio por el lago...

The mountains themselves…

Y las montañas mismas...

Some Canadian wildlife, a big horn sheep…

Y un poco del salvaje canadiense, una obeja de cuernos grandes...

And some little baby wild strawberries that my sister picked…

Y algunas frutillitas salvajes que recogí mi hermana...

the creepy road to coroico!

2006-04-20T04:22:18+02:00

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Coroico a couple of weekends ago (where does the time go?) Coroico is the little village where Mauricio’s mom lives with her fella, Wilmer, a native Coroiqueno. It’s in the lush tropical valley called Las Yungas. The drive is absolutely breathtaking; the fact that it’s a one lane gravel road makes it more so! This picture is close to the mountain pass that you have to cross, before descending into the valley. We were literally in the clouds. Check out the tiny bit of road in the corner. Eeeeks!

Here is the village of Coroico. I don’t know if it comes across in the picture, but the village is on the peak of a mountain. The green you see is the face of another mountain in the distance. This was taken from a church on top of a hill above Coroico.

We did lots of great things like… we rode in the box of Wilmers gigantic gravel truck, out to the veterinary school in the hills. Riding in the back of trucks is a popular mode of transport here. But we got a lot of stares from locals though. As crass as it sounds, it must be weird to see white people riding in the countryside that way. Here we are looking over the cab of his truck as we leave the narrow village streets. Yes we were able to squeak by the row of parked vehicles!

We also went for a great hike into the mountains one day. The neat thing here is that you hike until you’re tired, or until the sun starts to set (the case that day). When you’re ready to call it a day, you head downhill to the nearest little miniature village and wait on the main road for a taxi, or a big truck, like I mentioned above. Here’s a picture from our hike. You can see our trail cut into the mountain. I love the mountains here, they seem so soft an huggable! And the clouds, clinging to the mountain peaks like bouffant scarves.

Here’s a picture of a typical coco plantation, cut into the mountain like steps. Yes, that’s right, the plant from which cocaine is made!! But before you tut-tut the coco plant has a lot of traditional uses here Bolivia and other Andean countries. It’s used for instance to combat the effects of altitude and it’s supposed to be good for digestion. The leaf itself isn’t harmful though; it would take something like 5000 tea bags of coco tea, I heard, to make just one gram of cocaine.

Here’s one more pic of the creepy trip home. The traffic etiquette here is that vehicles going up have right of way – get to drive on the “inside” – because the roads can be steep. So if two vehicles meet up face to face, the one that is going down has to back up, to the tiniest of ledges, spaced out along the road, in order to let the other vehicle pass.

Well a giant oil tanker was coming down and around a CURVE when it met up with an equally big truck that was going uphill. The tanker going downhill couldn’t backup on the curve, and the truck going uphill wouldn’t back up, so as you can see we got a little jammed. I took the opportunity to jump out and take this picture. The drivers managed to figure something out after about 40 min. and we were on our way again.

another little road trip etc.

2006-03-25T17:12:39+01:00

We went on another exploration, this time with Mauricio’s dad, and his dad’s sister (Elba) and Elba’s daughter Carmiña. We ended up at the water reservoir high in the mountains that is the drinking water for La Paz. Here we are on the way up.

And this is the reservoir.

Elba was worried because we didn’t know where we would end up. As the road turned from cement to gravel, then gravel to dirt, she kept getting more nervous. And when the road turned to mud, she really started to freak out, so we turned around and went home. It was a really desolate (in a beautiful way) and quiet area … populated only by a few llamas, and a little black dog that appeared out of nowhere.

Mauricio’s mom and I made donuts the other weekend!! Here she is cutting out the dough.

Then she switched to frying, while I did the donut cutting! I got carried away and started filling them with jam and dulce de leche, then in the form of gingerbread men. When we were done we had a MOUNTAIN of donuts to eat!!!

I was eating them for breakfast, lunch and supper!!

more horseing around...

2006-03-03T16:33:03+01:00

Well I’m so happy to not be going into my old crumby office!!. I’m busy with my painting/drawing class and additional horsing around with Mauricio and his dad. We went on another trip, this time to a lake tucked into the mountains. Luckily we had Tia Elba’s 4 by 4 because the road was MIS-ER-A-BLE, but it was worth it in the end.

Here is Mauricio with his dad:

And here I am dipping my fingers into the COLD water:

The lake almost reminds me of Lake O’Hara my favorite place in the world. The interesting thing, though, is that people live way out there by the lake, in stone and mud huts, without lights or running water. It’s absolutely a different world.

We visited an old fellow, Mario, that Mauricio’s dad met over 20 years ago when he worked in the area. Mario is now 70-something, practically blind, and retired. He lives in this little hut, and catches fish for the people who live in the area. While we were visiting, a family showed up for the fish they’d ordered, and we shared some cookies with the little girl. Her brother was too shy; he ran and hid when the camera came out. We also bought some fish, and ate it the next day with Mauricio’s dad and brother.

Here are some furry little friends we made:

And a few more:

On the way home the sky was spectacular as the afternoon showers moved in:

We just finished Carnaval here in La Paz, but better known for the one that takes place in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. I believe it happens all over Latin America, and I saw a news report that it happens in Germany too (?!?!) The tradition in Bolivia is to throw water at unsuspecting people in the streets. I managed to avoid getting wet but Mauricio was hit in the back with water bombs as he was leaving a video rental store – by the cashiers!!! The common denominator among countries, though, seems to be that it is a huge drinking binge, which is the part I don’t like. People are drunk in the streets from 10 in the morning. We passed three accident sites in just a few hours and almost ran over a blurry eyed party-goer as he dodged a water bomb. Crazy. On the news they report the number of carnaval deaths at the end of the weekend. There were something like 75 in Bolivia and for the region of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru (I think) something like 350. Expensive fun if you ask me.

walking on sunshine!

2006-02-20T23:21:00+01:00

For curiosity, here’s one of the cracks in my wall, yes that’s sunshine peeking through!!

It seems like the rain is letting up. So when the sun came out, we escaped with Mauricio’s dad for a drive in the country, which is always an adventure. We toured an area where there has been a lot of flooding lately. The rivers are wide and flat; when it rains they are so full and fierce; when it’s sunny and dry, they are misleading.

We passed through a mountain valley only an hour outside the city. Green is the word. People still till their land manually here. Mauricio’s dad seems to think the country people are more happy.

We stopped several times to pluck fresh fruit from the trees. The only one I knew was the fig. Yummy, delicate and beautiful. Then there is one, like a dense, dry apple which I’m not so fond of. And a small, oblong, orange fruit filled with tiny seeds that took my breath away a bit, because they are the juicy red color of raw flesh. But yummy.

In other news, we finished the translation of Mauricio’s university program, that’s 160 pages of dense mathematical yuckiness. So glad that’s done. Also I signed up for a painting and drawing course at the Academy of Fine Arts here. So that’s been keeping me busy with classes four mornings a week and with homework on the evenings and weekends.

in the meantime...

2006-01-30T18:15:49+01:00

Well I've been missing in action for a while now, but here are some of the things that happened in the meantime:

Mauricio was sick again, so New Year’s Eve was mellow.

We were almost mugged one night!! I had heard stories from co-workers about a new scam in which someone on the street gets close to you and tells you a story such as: they can’t read, and can you help them find this address... Then they try to give or show you a paper. You’re not supposed to take or be anywhere near the paper, because you quickly become drugged, and are susceptible to the suggestions of the attackers, such as, you go the automatic teller and withdraw a pile of cash, or you take them to your apartment and give them your laptop etc.

Well, we were looking at movie posters in a cinema downtown, at night, it was pretty busy. A creepy lady with a fake flower in her coat pocket approached us and asked with a thick accent, do you speak English? I said, I speak English, and right away knew something was up. She began to fake sob and recounted a retarded story in poor English about how she had just arrived in the city (she was so obviously from here) and that someone had stolen her wallet and passport and that a man had offered to meet her later to help her, but that he hadn’t showed up. I was looking around to see if she was working with anyone, I couldn’t tell. I noticed that her fake flower was bobbing awfully close to Mauricio’s nose. Then she proceeded to take out a business card, supposedly belonging to the fellow who was supposed to meet her, and holding it by the corners, began to raise it to my face, for my inspection. All of a sudden, it clicked and I remembered the stories that my co-workers had told me. I did a slow motion karate block with my left arm, pushing her hand away from me, and then pushed Mauricio, who was by that time starting to feel dizzy, in the other direction. I was a close call, but I’m happy to know that I’m pretty street smart, even in Bolivia.

Evo Morales was elected president with a 54% majority, the first indigenous leader in Latin America in the more than 500 years since the Spaniards first landed. It’s a pretty historical moment. He grew up really poor, as the son of a miner, eating orange peels. He’s made a policy of not wearing suits etc. The striped sweater that he wears here, during part of the inauguration festivities, sold out in the markets in a matter of hours!! Unfortunately, I didn’t move quickly enough.

Mauricio’s friend Fabio and his girlfriend Fabiana visited from Brazil. We did some kung-fu fighting, generally horsed around quite a bit, and had a great time.

I quit my job. In short, too much hypocrisy, and too little real work going on. My immediate plan is to paint and read and just generally indulge in life.

I got a stomach infection. It’s a little bar-shaped bacterium called shigella flexneri and it’s transmitted by consumption of water contaminated by feces from infected individuals, which basically means I drank poopy water somewhere. The only thing I can think of is I was feeling bold the other week and had a glass of strawberry juice at a popular restaurant here called Dumbos. Here’s the little fellow at work, "causing bacillary dysentery by invading the colonic mucosa".

It’s been raining practically non-stop for a month. So rivers are overflowing everywhere, people, vehicles and homes are being swept away daily. We have no immediate travel plans.

That's about it for now...

Nova Scotia

2005-12-02T17:25:12+01:00

Well I’m still not sure where to start about my trip to Nova Scotia to meet my father. I had a wonderful time, meeting new people, remembering old places, eating, going to Frenchies!! walking on the beach, did I say eating?.I feel like I want to remember the food I ate: Corned beef and cabbage; fresh apple, squash, coconut pie wherever you turned; fireman’s breakfast; homemade baked beans; m-m-meatloaf; turkey dinner; and of course FISH and CHIPS!! Well, I was basically spoiled during my visit :o) My father and his wife gave up their bedroom for me, and Asher the front seat of the car :o) And all the rest of the extended family received me with such warmth and generosity. What can I say but, I can’t wait to go back!!

Here are a few pictures:H
Here we are at the airport. This is me (duh!) my father, Ramon, his wife, Ann, and their son (my brother!) Asher.

Also at the airport were Ann’s sister Peggy and their mom Greta.

In this photo though, we are at my father’s house and this is the night they threw me a surprise wedding shower. I knew that a few people were invited for dinner, but then more and more people kept showing up until the house was packed. I naively thought that the word had spread that we were having dinner. When Ann announced the purpose of the gathering, I was her audience of one because everyone else knew. What could I do but blush?

This is my father’s house from the outside. He built it with his own hands, and with the help of his late foster father. Amazing!

And here is the cottage that he built, this time, completely on his own, using found materials where possible. Inside on the main floor is his motor boat and tools and guy stuff etc. Upstairs is an old, black woodstove for heating and a great view of the lake, which in this picture is hidden in the fog.

Just outside the cottage is this raft that Asher and his friend have built. Very Tom Sawyer! I hope to be able to take it for a spin next summer when I visit!!

This photo was taken during a pit stop on the way to Peggy’s Cove.

We took so long getting there that we thought we’d missed the turn off. So we took another pit stop for beer-battered fish and chips!! and to ask directions. We arrived at Peggy’s Cove at just in time for sunset.

And here is the actual cove.

We also visited lots of different beaches. Here is one, I can’t remember the name though, I think Crescent Beach. That day, my father and I and the pup, Reilly went for nice walk along the shore. It was windy but not too cold for mid November.

Here's a picture fo the fog behind my father's house, one foggy day, because I love it. And I used to say that all my memories of Nova Scotia were "foggy"!

And one more, the deer lights outside Edith and Jim's cottage, next door to my father's cottage.

Tastebuds intact!!

2005-10-27T17:10:00+02:00

Well first things first, Humpty, that is Mauricio, is back together again. It was “only” a second degree burn, so he will survive!!

Here they are making new friends…

I admit that I was looking forward to his trip to Brazil, being the independent and kind of solitary person that I am, as a chance for some me-time. But the weirdest thing is that I CANNOT sleep at night. I’ve resorted to a light sleeping pill, but that just kind of straps me to the bed with a groggy heaviness, but I still don’t find sleep until the wee hours. Who would have thought?!?

Well I’m off myself next week to Canada to visit (meet) my father and his family. I’m really looking forward to it, but also kind of nervous too...

This Friday I’m going to the graduation party of Mauricio’s cousin Marianella. It’s a big personal landmark here to graduate from university. Maybe it is in Canada too, and it’s just me that downplays stuff like that :o)