Forgot One Thing
I can't believe I forgot the highlight of the day. If you go to the pictures on the post below, the last picture or two are of this huge spider Melody found when she was looking next to her bed. If any of you know Melody well, you will also know that Melody absolutely HATES spiders and she set a new land speed record out of the bedroom when she saw it. The boys of course thought it was great and we took pictures before it met its end.
Observations from the First Full Day
Today was a bit of an orientation day and some basic shopping for food etc that we need to survive. First thing in the morning, we went to El Jordan which is actually a couple of blocks away from where we are staying, and had an orientation meeting and a tour of the school. They actually have a fairly large building, but most of it is still quite empty. The computers were a little better than I had expected so I don't think cleaning them up will be as bad as I expected.
After our meeting, Ken came by and we all went over to his house to meet the boys and have some lunch. Time isn't really important here, so by the time the food was ready, it was 2:30. We were all really hungry by then and luckily, the food was pretty good. The meal consisted of a mixture of ground meat, rice, potatoes, and some other vegetable type plants. This was served with a side of fried plantains (really starchy bananas) and topped with a fried egg. Don't know why, but they love to put a fried egg on top of pretty much anything. Either way, we were all hungry and it was all pretty good.
We then went to get some fruit. Since we have figured out that meal times may vary, we decided it would be best to get some fruit to take with us for such a situation. We purchased a bag of peaches, bag of plums, 2 pineapples, and a bag of a strange fruit with a hard shell. Each bag was about 1 kilogram each and the whole batch cost us about 8 dollars. I will put a picture of the strange fruit when I get a chance to take some. It has a sort of white almost fuzzy looking flesh on it around a very large pit. Tastes like a peppery banana but quite juicy and shaped like a small plum. The fruit stand was fun and there are lots of other kinds to try. I know we also paid a "gringo" price but it was all still a lot cheaper than at home.
From there, Ken took us out to a "hotel" as he called it, but to me it was more of a ranch with two cabins on it where he is hoping to take us this weekend to avoid the full on carnival treatment. The weekend of Carnival turns into one giant water balloon and paint balloon fight in Santa Cruz where people will drive around heaving balloons at anyone they feel like. He said with kids, it is best to leave town for the weekend, so that is the plan. The ranch had a small lake and lots of nicely cared for gardens. They also had two small pigs that followed us around everywhere and a howler monkey which liked the kids but did not like the adults very much.
One interesting thing about Bolivia that is very different from Canada is what I like to call the "Tableau of Smells". The tableau is not necessarily a bad thing. As you drive or walk, every hundred yards or so, you experience a totally different smell. Sometimes its flowers from the plants or tiny stores nearby, and sometimes its sewage. On the drive to the ranch, we experienced the sweet smell of sugar cane fields, the vegetable oil plant and some of the fragrant trees. We also experienced the smell of rotting fruit discarded from the fruit stands, manure from the farms we passed, and my personal favorite, which was some kind of unidentified stench from some factory we passed.
Overall, the day was good and we have learned a fair bit about the day to day things that need to be done or not done here. Tomorrow, I will explain about the driving habits, and also about the little garbage can next to the toilet.
Here is a link to some pictures of our trip and first day.
After our meeting, Ken came by and we all went over to his house to meet the boys and have some lunch. Time isn't really important here, so by the time the food was ready, it was 2:30. We were all really hungry by then and luckily, the food was pretty good. The meal consisted of a mixture of ground meat, rice, potatoes, and some other vegetable type plants. This was served with a side of fried plantains (really starchy bananas) and topped with a fried egg. Don't know why, but they love to put a fried egg on top of pretty much anything. Either way, we were all hungry and it was all pretty good.
We then went to get some fruit. Since we have figured out that meal times may vary, we decided it would be best to get some fruit to take with us for such a situation. We purchased a bag of peaches, bag of plums, 2 pineapples, and a bag of a strange fruit with a hard shell. Each bag was about 1 kilogram each and the whole batch cost us about 8 dollars. I will put a picture of the strange fruit when I get a chance to take some. It has a sort of white almost fuzzy looking flesh on it around a very large pit. Tastes like a peppery banana but quite juicy and shaped like a small plum. The fruit stand was fun and there are lots of other kinds to try. I know we also paid a "gringo" price but it was all still a lot cheaper than at home.
From there, Ken took us out to a "hotel" as he called it, but to me it was more of a ranch with two cabins on it where he is hoping to take us this weekend to avoid the full on carnival treatment. The weekend of Carnival turns into one giant water balloon and paint balloon fight in Santa Cruz where people will drive around heaving balloons at anyone they feel like. He said with kids, it is best to leave town for the weekend, so that is the plan. The ranch had a small lake and lots of nicely cared for gardens. They also had two small pigs that followed us around everywhere and a howler monkey which liked the kids but did not like the adults very much.
One interesting thing about Bolivia that is very different from Canada is what I like to call the "Tableau of Smells". The tableau is not necessarily a bad thing. As you drive or walk, every hundred yards or so, you experience a totally different smell. Sometimes its flowers from the plants or tiny stores nearby, and sometimes its sewage. On the drive to the ranch, we experienced the sweet smell of sugar cane fields, the vegetable oil plant and some of the fragrant trees. We also experienced the smell of rotting fruit discarded from the fruit stands, manure from the farms we passed, and my personal favorite, which was some kind of unidentified stench from some factory we passed.
Overall, the day was good and we have learned a fair bit about the day to day things that need to be done or not done here. Tomorrow, I will explain about the driving habits, and also about the little garbage can next to the toilet.
Here is a link to some pictures of our trip and first day.
Say Hello To Bruce
Bruce is the one without the shocked look on his face in case you were confused. Melody has the look on her face because Bruce just squished the grape he was eating on her back. Bruce likes to climb up on people
and sit on their shoulders with his tail wrapped around the neck for support. He has an amazingly strong grip with his tail and sometimes he squeezes a little too tight. The kids were all over Bruce and he helped brighten up the afternoon of our arrival since we were all tired and a little sick from the altitude in La Paz.
and sit on their shoulders with his tail wrapped around the neck for support. He has an amazingly strong grip with his tail and sometimes he squeezes a little too tight. The kids were all over Bruce and he helped brighten up the afternoon of our arrival since we were all tired and a little sick from the altitude in La Paz.
RAIN!!!!!
I know the picture is a little small, but the internet is spotty and slow here at the moment. What you are looking at is a picture taken from inside the truck we were driving in on the way to the school this morning. What you see looks like a lake because it was raining hard.In some spots, the water was up to a foot deep, but people are so used to it, they just drive on through.
Trip and Arrival
Definitely one of the longest days of our lives. We got up at 3:30 in the morning in Saskatoon to get to the airport. The taxi driver had a "hernia" issue so was unable to help at all with the bags. Saskatoon went smoothly and the flight to Toronto was fine. Toronto became another story altogether.
We were scheduled to have a 4 hour wait in Toronto which is fine since we had to grab all our 10 bags and check them through US Customs which took a little while. By the time we got through, we had about 2.5 hours to wait. Just before boarding time, we got the news that there was a little problem with the fuel line in the one engine, so they delayed us an hour and moved us to another gate. Everybody got up and walked across the entire terminal to the other gate, only to arrive in time for them to announce that they were going to fix the first plane, and delay us another hour. Everybody was very happy of course to hear that news and the whole army of us walked all the way back to the original gate.
Eventually, we boarded the plane about 2.5 hours later than we were supposed to which of course made our time in Miami a lot tighter than it was planned to be. For those who haven't been to miami airport, flights from Canada are about six million miles away from the gates for South American flights. It was a good half hour walk to our new gate with all the information and people movers shut down for the night.
We got on the plane finally and made the very uncomfortable to sleep on trip to La Paz, where we quickly figured out what altitude sickness feels like with all three kids getting sick, and the adults not feeling well either. We also figured out luckily that our bags were scheduled to stop in La Paz and not continue to Santa Cruz. They apparently always have pursers on the planes to South America and he was very helpful in getting our bags back on the plane to Santa Cruz.
Either way, we all ended up arriving with all our bags intact.
We were scheduled to have a 4 hour wait in Toronto which is fine since we had to grab all our 10 bags and check them through US Customs which took a little while. By the time we got through, we had about 2.5 hours to wait. Just before boarding time, we got the news that there was a little problem with the fuel line in the one engine, so they delayed us an hour and moved us to another gate. Everybody got up and walked across the entire terminal to the other gate, only to arrive in time for them to announce that they were going to fix the first plane, and delay us another hour. Everybody was very happy of course to hear that news and the whole army of us walked all the way back to the original gate.
Eventually, we boarded the plane about 2.5 hours later than we were supposed to which of course made our time in Miami a lot tighter than it was planned to be. For those who haven't been to miami airport, flights from Canada are about six million miles away from the gates for South American flights. It was a good half hour walk to our new gate with all the information and people movers shut down for the night.
We got on the plane finally and made the very uncomfortable to sleep on trip to La Paz, where we quickly figured out what altitude sickness feels like with all three kids getting sick, and the adults not feeling well either. We also figured out luckily that our bags were scheduled to stop in La Paz and not continue to Santa Cruz. They apparently always have pursers on the planes to South America and he was very helpful in getting our bags back on the plane to Santa Cruz.
Either way, we all ended up arriving with all our bags intact.
Strange Requests
We are all packed and ready to go now and almost all the little details are out of the way. Our house sitter came by for a tour to learn all the quirks and more importantly, how to use the entertainment gear. We have managed to split the weight pretty evenly through the 10 bags and have managed to keep them all a few pounds under the 50lb limit.
We have received some interesting requests from our friends in Bolivia. Apparently there are some items that they miss and can't get down there. So, when we hit Saskatoon and head to our hotel, we are going to have to make a Costco run. The shopping list includes:
We have received some interesting requests from our friends in Bolivia. Apparently there are some items that they miss and can't get down there. So, when we hit Saskatoon and head to our hotel, we are going to have to make a Costco run. The shopping list includes:
- Pancake Mix
- O'Henry Bars
- Cheerios
- Arrowroot Cookies
- Chocolate Chips
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)