A Very Special Place, Cotoca

A week after I arrived in Bolivia we went to a little town named Cotoca, It's half an hour away from Santa Cruz. This town is very famous over here because of the Virgin that they have inside the church. People all over Bolivia have very deep beliefs in the Virgin. They believe that she makes miracles, and people are to devout to her that they walk all the way from Santa Cruz to Cotoca as proof of their faith. Here you can read a little bit more about Cotoca.

Here is a picture of the front of the church. I couldn't go inside because it was closed, but I think I'm going next week again and I hope I can take pictures inside.

After we looked at the church, my friends and I got hungry and we went to this little restaurant right in front of the church. Here is a picture of the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, my daughter noticed the funniest thing, plants growing on  the roof, so I had to take a picture of that, just to show you. I guess that happens because they use mud to make the shingles, and maybe it has little seeds, so that causes this crazy phenomenon. 

When we finished having lunch, we walked around the town. There is this street where they have little tents and stores. There is so many things to buy, specially pottery and native handcrafts. It was a very rainy day, so I didn't buy anything.

I think that next week we are going to a town that is in Brazil, but very close to the Bolivia frontier. I really hope we can go, so that I can take a lot more pictures.

My Short Trip to Cochabamba, Bolivia

There is so little time to do regular stuff when you're on vacation. I am hardly ever home, so I have hardly ever time to post, but  I really want to show you guys some pictures of my trip to Cochabamba, Bolivia. This next picture I took while flying over some of the mountains that surround Cochabamba, It isn't very clear because it was very cloudy.

As soon as we got we certainly realized we were in Bolivia, because the airport entrance was blocked by the people from LAB Airline, who where complaining that the air transit people where not letting them fly, so they decided that they where going to take a stand by blocking all traffic coming and going to the airport. Thankfully my cousin was waiting for us very nearby, so we didn't have to walk that much to get out. After he picked us up, he took us to his car dealership because he wanted me to see it. My husband and him have co-ownership of the dealership. They have really good cars, if you want to take a look, their website is www.autosgallery.com. Here's a picture of the entrance:

 

We went to Cochabamba because I wanted to see my brother and sister, but also because we were going to baptize my friend's daughter. They had named us godparents before she was born, so we couldn't miss such a joyful occasion. In this picture we are lighting a candle with Alexia and her mom Mariella at the church.

We had so much fun at the party after the baptism. The day after my husband left to Santa Cruz again, because he had things to do, and I stayed with Rebecca and Camila. We had lunch with my uncle that day. The next day I had to come back to Santa Cruz, and I thought I wasn't going to be able to travel, because there was a fire in one of the hills nearby, and usually when there is fire it gets very foggy and airplanes aren't allowed to fly. It was a good thing that the fire wasn't that big and the wind was blowing away from the airport. Here you can see when the fire started. It was very close to the city.

Internet, please leave me comments. If you like my pictures or if you think they are stupid. Tell me if they are boring, so that I can know. If you don't like them, I will stop posting about Bolivia, but if you like what I post, be nice and drop me a line. OK?

My Last Day in Guarayos

I couldn't post all weekend, because I traveled to Cochabamba, I was very busy and didn't have internet connection in the apartment. I still have a couple pictures from my trip to Guarayos before I post anything from my weekend in Cochabamba.

On our last day in Guarayos we went fishing again and at first nobody thought we would catch anything, but the river proved us wrong. The first one to catch anything was my friend Sonia, and then I followed, but they were very little piranhas. After a while everyone had caught something, except Herland, and as soon as he said he was not going to fish anymore, he caught the biggest of the piranhas we saw that day. 

After he caught that piranha, my friend Didi asked me if I wanted to keep fishing, so we went to a deeper part of the river and after waiting for half an hour she caught this fish:

When we got tired of fishing we decided it was time to go back to Santa Cruz, because it was getting late. 

I'm going to try and post tomorrow some of the pictures I took in Cachabamba.

Coca Leaves, a Church and Piranhas

In my last post I wrote a little about my trip to Guarayos, in Bolivia. After we left my friends farm, a couple hours before Guarayos, we saw the most beautiful scenery. This picture is of a little hut we encountered on the way there.

Then we stopped at another little town called San Ramon and there were a whole bunch of little stores where they sold stuff like soda, water, cigarettes and yes, of course Coca leaves. Over here people chew the coca leaves to stay awake and work harder, and also to not feel hunger when they are working. It is very common to see big bags of coca leaves like this one:

When we finally arrived in Guarayos, we drove around the little town, which you can do in about  fifteen minutes, and we passed by the town church. Churches in Bolivia are very pretty and full of history. 

 

After we got to my friend Jessica's house in Guarayos, we left our stuff, took a shower and left to drive a little bit farther. We passed by a bridge where little kids where fishing piranhas. It amazes me how they just grab them with no fear of being bitten. This next picture is of a kid grabbing a piranha he just caught. They are all dirty because they fish them and throw them to the ground, and when they get enough of them, they take them home to fry them.

This is the river where they fish piranhas, they also swim and take baths there. The little girl with the pink pants was washing clothes and her friends where jumping off the bridge and swimming.

I will keep posting pictures of this trip to Guarayos in my next post. Tell me if you like them.

Barges, Aligator, Jaguars, and The Cutest Tapir

Other than the stomach virus I just got, I'm having the best time of my life. I didn't post on the weekend because we got invited to go to this little town called Guarayos, which is like 4 hours from Santa Cruz. We almost didn't go because one of the bridges got blocked, but then our friends told us that there was another way to get there. It was going to be a little longer. A little longer became the whole night. 

We had to leave on Friday at 6 p.m. but when we finally decided to go the longer way, it was 10:30 p.m. We drove for like 2  1/2 hours, and by the way, the longer way wasn't on a paved highway, it was on a dirt road, and then we got to a huge river but there was no bridge. Although the river is very wide, it is pretty much dry this time of year, but there is still like 1/4 mile of water to cross, and with no bridge. They have this wooden barges that makes you cross the river. We were driving a Lexus RX 300 that had no double traction, and the first barge we saw we tried to get on, but there was too much mud at the bottom, and the car skidded off the wooden planks that they use, and we kind of fell to the side, but then they told us that there was another barge that was on a much lower side of the river, so we drove to that one. We waited for the barge to cross with other cars to our side for like 1 hour, until it was time for us to get the car on it.

This is a picture of my friend Jessica driving the car onto the barge: 

While we were on the barge crossing the river, there was this guy inside the water pushing the barge. Mind you, it is winter and it was freezing cold. They do this at least fifty times a night.

When we finally got out of the barge, we drove for an hour and a half more until we got to one of the farms that belongs to Jessica's dad. Since it was very late, the gate was locked, so two of our friends had to walk for a mile to go and call the keeper so that he would open it. The farm is very beautiful. They have so much wild life that they have skins of many animals hanging from the walls of one of the cabins.

The next picture is of an alligator skin and the other one is of Bolivian jaguars.

When we got up in the morning, the maids had our breakfast ready so that we could continue our trip, we still had a few hours of driving to get to Guarayos. We had breakfast along with a new friend I made, a Tapir. This one in the picture is one of the big ones, they had baby ones too, but they ran away so I couldn't take a picture.

Look at this face. Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I will be posting more picture of my trip to Guarayos, so keep checking.

I Hope You Missed Me!

Hi internet! I just got my internet connected here in Bolivia, and finally I can start regular posting. So far I've been having so much fun, seeing people That I haven't seen in a long time and also meeting new friends. 

Downstairs from my apartment, lives a couple who are friends of ours from Miami who just moved back here after living in MIami more than 18 years, so we see them every day. We also have other friends that used to live in Miami that moved here in January, and we have been getting together every day.

The day after I got here to Santa Cruz, my mom flew in from Cochabamba just to be with me, and to see my kids before she left to my family's Farm. She stayed here a couple of days and then she took Leonardo to our Farm, because he loves being over there, something about being around cattle and chickens makes my son happy, it's probably in his blood because I love it too. 

Ever Since we got here, the invitations haven't stopped. Everyone invites us to lunch, dinner, and even breakfast. I don't know how long that will last, but we are enjoying it while it lasts. 

People let me tell you other than the city being A LITTLE DIRTY, I am loving every minute of my trip, I honestly recommend that if you are planing to go on vacation and you don't know where to go, to come to Bolivia. There is so much to see and so much to do, and people are very friendly, and very polite, of course, in occasion you meet people who are jerks, but I think that it can happen anywhere. 

I hope that by tomorrow I find my camera's cable (I don't remember where I put it), so that I can post some of the pictures I have taken.

COME TO BOLIVIA, YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

My Vacation Starts Tomorrow

Just finished packing for my trip tomorrow, and let me tell you, going on vacation is hard work. I haven't stop doing things since Herland told me we were going to Bolivia. I think that my Internet is already connected in the apartment, but until I get there I won't know. I hope the Internet connection is as good as in the US. I really don't know, because every time I've been there, I haven't been on the Internet, so I will have to check on that, but I think I won't have a problem posting from there. Keep checking here, because as soon as I can I will start posting pictures so that you can see my country. It is actually very beautiful. For now I say, See you later Internet! I will miss you.

No More Puppies for Me, Pigs Are All I Want

Oh my God! I want a piggy. Yes, you heard me Internet, I said a piggy. This video totally made me reconsider why I've been wanting a dog, when all this time I could have been wanting a piggy. It really doesn't make a difference what I want, because as it seems, I'm not getting either one, so hey, I can wish for a piggy and get the same outcome. Just watch the video and you'll understand me, and you will also notice how tender and soft guys get when they are holding them. Piggies, they are sooo cute.