A Piece of Home In Cochabamba

As I was planning my big South American Adventure, I came to learn about lots of friends that people have in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. In fact, my dad works with someone from Cochabamba, Bolivia (one of my destinations), and so it was arranged that I would give his brother a call when I arrived. I thought this meant dinner or maybe an insider`s tour of the city.

I had no idea!...

First, there was a huge miscommunication between the hostel owner`s and the guy I was supposed to meet. When he called the hotel asking about ¨a group of Americans¨ soon to arrive, they told him that there were no groups coming (a protection measure for us). When he continued to call and later stop by, they called the police and had someone patrolling the grounds!! Finally, he mentioned me by name and the matter was cleared up. So I met Andre, who very thoughtfully greeted me with a welcome balloon and a bolivian greeting card. He told me that a small reception was being arranged and that, if I could make it, he would pick me and 2 friends up at 4pm.

Wow! A reception? This was already way more than I expected!

We arrived at Tito and Daisy`s house at around 4:30pm. They had a great place, where double doors in the kitchen opened up to a tiled patio area with a huge outdoor bar and open grill. And boy did Tito know how to make drinks! I`m fairly certain that within the hour, me, Alicia, and Buff (my two Aussie friends that came along) had had a Taquina beer, a liqour drink with limes from the trees in the backyard (something like a mild tequilla), and a cup of Chicha (a strong traditional drink made from corn).

And as the drinks flowed, so did the amount of people that came in. By 6:30pm, we had met just about everyone in Tito and Daisy`s family - their 3 kids, sisters, grandparents, friends, grandchildren, neighbors! It was great. It was the first time in a long time that we had been around family like that...and they were lovely.

I worked on my spanish, trying very hard to understand Daisy´s fathers words of wisdom on love, and Tatiana, their 21 year old daughter, practiced speaking english with us. But there would be little talking as we devoured an amazingly delicious meal of grilled meat, chorizo, roasted yuca, salad, cheesy rice, and a spicey salsa to top it all off. And I won´t even mention the 2 pieces of cake I ate (it was Daisy`s bday the next day), because I`m on a ¨low sweets diet¨. Oops. Guess I shouldn´t have taken that Para Ti chocolate factory tour today. What can I say? I´m all about buying products to support the local economy. ;)

And after all the food and drinks, we had plenty of fuel for some traditional bolivian dancing!! We were so inspired, we picked up a CD of a famous bolivian music group from a street vender the next day - Kjarkas (I have no idea if these uTube clips are any good).

So it was a beautiful day and one of the most ¨real life experiences¨ (Intrepid Travel`s tag line) I`ve had on my trip so far!

Other Cochabamba experiences included taking a cable car up to the highest statue of Christ in the world (Stands almost 40 meters tall), and watching the new 007 movie, Quantum of Solace, in a proper movie theatre with popcorn and a coke (did I mention I was on a diet? :)) Salud! Cara