Going away with the 5000

When my family invited me to go on holiday with them to Copacabana I really didn’t know what to expect but it was not what it turned out to be. Literally there wad 22 members of the family including cousins, arties, grandparents and then me! We journeyed the 12 hours between cocha and Copacabana in the party bus which the my host dad drives and arrived at 9AM on Friday morning, it is a beautiful place but situated at 4000m I was too worried about my breathing to take in the views, but after some coca leaves which really do help, i felt fine. Then came the realisation that the prime reason for this trip was for religious devotion to the Virgin of Copacabana who is of great importance to many Bolivian families, and there was me thinking we were on a tourist holiday! They were very shocked when I told them that I was not catholic, however out of respect did visit the virgin once. As Copacabana is a very touristy place I did bumped into many a gingo who was just travelling and had dinner or drinks which was a nice, however I was with my family and spend most of the days with them. We climbed a mountain to show your devotion to the virgin, when we reached the summit, there are stalls where you can buy little items such as cars, houses or  even passports which you give to the virgin and hope that she will make these things real in the next year, this a tradition throughout Bolivia, for many families. We spend the afternoon in the neighbouring town of Yongo, in Peru. I was rather excited about getting another stamp in my passport but we just walked straight through to my disappointment, so I must have been an illegal immigrant in Peru for a few hours! The following day without my family, I travelled to Isla del sol, which is the place of the Inca creation myth. This was insanely beautiful, situated in the middle of Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. We visited the Inca ruins, including the sacred rock, which the Inca’s prayed to every day for the rising of the sun. After almost missing my boat back to Copacabana I got back to our hotel exhausted after a full day of walking and being a gringo. After another long bus trip I am now back in Cocha, looking forward to my Bolivian Christmas, If i don’t post again, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and new year, sending much love and wishes from Bolivia! 

First thoughts of Cochabamba

After a 24 hours  flight which included passing US immigration and a re-route due to two erupting volcanoes, I arrived in Cochabamba early Wednesday morning  My first thoughts were about the wonderful weather, hot, sunny and not a cloud in the sky, very different to the British weather which we are having! I was first taken to my family who seemed really lovely and welcoming. They offered me all the food I could ever want, and were very interested in why I had come half way around the world to help in an orphanage. I then was able to visit where I was going to be volunteering , an orphanage called hogar de sueños, (house of dreams) which offers accommodation and food for children who have been abandoned. Many of them do have parents, however their parents are not financially able to take care of them, or have addiction problems. There are 17 children aged 2-9 who live there. I wanted to try to do some music with the children, so my idea about playing Christmas songs  was abandoned when I got out the recorders I had brought with me and they just loved making the wonderful high pitch squeaking noises that recorders make. I think it might take a while before we have cracked Jingle Bells! On Friday I experienced Bolivian nightlife which was a lot of fun, crazy dancing and good music. Make better by trying to get into my house in the early hours and not being able to, my mum then had to come down and assist me of which she was not very happy with spending the rest of the weekend being the centre of all family jokes about how I was grounded. The market was an experience, apparently the biggest market in South America, which had everything you could possible want, I just found it difficult to keep up without getting lost, let alone look at all the wonderful things there was. After my first weekend I am now back to the orphanage and Spanish lessons which should get rid of my accent which they also find hilarious. The highlight of the city is the 32 meter jesus statue which I climbed as my sunday morning activity to be close to God!