Our blog name is, Los Bros Adventuros, we were originally going to make it all in Spanish, but the word for “Hands” and “Bros” are both “manos”, which made Google translate it to “The Adventuring Hands.” So we ended up sticking with Los Bros Adventuros…For the record that honestly did happen.
There are a lot of stray dogs in Cochabamba, fortunately though they are all very nice, and they look well fed. It’s surprising how many different breeds there are, we’ve seen at least 36.5 different types of dogs, and most look pure bred and beautiful, we’ve even seen those weird kinds that our sister likes (Shar Peis & Pugs) that don’t seem very functional in the wild, but here they are, trying to be wrinkly short nosed wolves.
Right now it’s Summer Vacation for the kids in Cochabamba, the seasons are different here, so they will go back to school in early February, which the kids in the family we live with aren’t too excited about. But the weather here is something to be excited about, as long as we remember sunscreen next time.
Over the weekend Daniel and I visited a lot of the sights in Cochabamba with the father of the house we are staying at, who’s name is also Daniel (You think it’d be confusing, but they pronounce it very different). We visited the market, which is actually the biggest market in all of South America, there were whole blocks dedicated to one type of fruit or vegetable, all still very fresh. The banana neighborhood looked like
a scene from Donkey Kong; all of the bananas were in huge bunches still on the branches they were cut from. We wandered around the market for an hour and a half, getting fruit and veggies for the week, and after all that time we only had just visited the produce section of South America’s largest market. In the future we will definitely visit it more.
The city of Cochabamba is nestled in a pleasant valley surrounded by beautiful mountains, of multiple colors. In the center of the valley is a mountain, which the city wraps around. The mountain is barren except at the very peak, where there stands the largest Christ statue in the world, very similar to the one in Rio, seen every day during the Olympics, but even more grand, though a lot less famous.
The city surrounds the mountain so it really offers a great view of the entire area, it was stunning. We paid 2 bolivianos (30 cents) to walk up through a series of claustrophobia-inducing spiral stair cases that went through Christs torso to what I thought would be the top, but ended up being somewhere in his throat, with tiny holes drilled through his jugular so that you could see out and get a little oxygen.
The same staircases that were used to go up were also used to go down, and we also visited on a Sunday, so it was a little interesting trying to “vamos” through Christ’s busy abdomen. We also saw our first white people at the statue, but their clothes were a dead giveaway, even before we heard them speak that they were not American, nor spoke English. But give us a couple of months and we will probably have weird clothes too.
Most of the people in South America, Bolivia, and Cochabamba specifically are Roman Catholic in culture and heritage. One example of this is that the family we live with aren’t practicing Catholics but on a small piece of paper taped to EVERY wall and ceiling in the house is a protection prayer in Latin. I asked them all about it and they said it doesn’t mean much to them, but it offers protection from fire and other things. The only thing that I will say is that it’s kind of ironic that the thing offering protection from fire is made of flammable paper.
If you’ve ever seen the show “Burn Notice” then you can keep reading, but if not, then I’d suggest you watch an episode (or the intro) first because it won’t make any sense. So, Daniel and I were super bored at the airport this past week when our flight was canceled and in our many other layovers so we rewrote the intro to the show to fit our situation, it’s cheesy, get over it, we were bored.
My name is Michael Westen. I used to be on a flight until....."We've got too much snow, your flights canceled. (Whistles). When you’re canceled you've got nothing. No plans, nowhere to stay, your flights history. Your stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in. "Where am I?"..."Miami". You rely on anyone who's still talking to you. (Laughs). A twitter happy ex-girlfriend. "Should we shoot them?"(About to take video of people). An old friend who used to inform on you to the T.S.A.(Clip of him pointing that Michael has some contraband to TSA agent.) "You know fliers a bunch of whiny little girls.” Family too. "Hey is that your mom again?" If you’re desperate. And a down and out flier you met along the way. "That how we book it people". Bottom line as long as your flights canceled you’re not going anywhere.
Extra Pics:
