Fiesta!

It is Saturday and today there will be two celebrations. First it's Fernando junior's 14th birthday today. I promised to make them pancakes this morning. 

Also today there will be the big celebration of the Entrada de la virgin de la Guadalupe with a huge parade of dancers, musicians and singers in the city. I am lucky to still be here for this very colourful fiesta. I will send foto's later.

It has been a busy week. I have finished my Spanish classes yesterday with an excursion to the Museum of the indigenous arts with Claudia, my conversation teacher. It was odd to say goodbye to my teachers with whom I have spend so much time this week. In the mornings I and Damla from Australia had lessons from Mariano. In the afternoons I had conversation lessons from Claudia and in the evenings I had to do my homework. In addition I had a city tour by one of the other teachers, Hugo, on Tuesday night. And on Thursday night Damla and I attended a cooking class at Marlenes house. We made Pique macho which was delicious. I still have to get the recipe from Marlene. 

There is just one thing about the food - every (and I really mean every) dish contains meat or poultry. This is no place for vegetarians ;-)

Another thing is the extreme poverty of part of the population. I knew this before but but indeed you are confronted with it every day. There are many old people begging in the streets and every day on the way to the school I pass a woman who is living on the streets with her 3 incredibly dirty young children. Also the weavers villages are extremely poor. They live in remote areas in adobe houses without water or heating. And up here the nights can be bitterly cold especially in the winter. And there is not much firewood available. What is there is needed for cooking.

But the people in the city are also struggling. My hosts Elizabeth and Fernando who own the language school just sold their car in order to get money for finishing the work that needs to be done on their house. Now they have to do the shopping for 6 people on foot.

Tomorrow I will travel to Potosi by bus and further to Uyuni on Monday. Potosi is at almost 4000 m altitude. So far I had no problems with soroche als they call altitude sickness here. I will see how I will feel up there. But a bit of coca tea might help. You can get it everywhere - coca leaves and tea are legal in Bolivia but naturally cocaine is not.