Bolivian Christmas
I realized it has been 20 years since my last Bolivian Christmas. I completely forgot how they do it down here and it felt great to be part of the celebration here once again. I got to do this more often.

12-24-2003 Xmas Fireworks
Here they call Christmas Eve, "The good night" instead. Everything in the city was open all day. Miguel and I went shopping in the morning to get some last minute gifts for the family and make sure we had everything. Then we swung over to Tio Jorge's house, had some Mate and then went to Tio Adrian's house. Tradition for Christmas Eve is a late dinner. Usually close to midnight or a little before, we had dinner at about 11. The lechon (pork leg) was awesome and the daughters of Tio Ruben got some fireworks. Everyone made phone calls, I talked with my parents when they called and my grandparents from the USA. I got to talk to Novali and Tamara as well.

One of the most fun parts of the night is when my primo Enrique taught me how to ride his motorcycle. He has a big motor-cross bike, and I have never driven one so I wanted to try. I got the hang of it pretty well I thought. I took it for a spin, nearly got run off the road by some cabs and a micro, but the ride was good. I learned to shift the gears and handle it. Good xmas gift from my primo, free bike lesson.

Midnight is show time. Every house in the neighborhood has fireworks, and not just sparklers. Bottle rockets, roman candles, and even big tube shot fireworks as well. It was a non-stop show for about 40 minutes. At this same time everyone starts to do their saludos, kinda like what we do for New Years in the USA. Everyone gets a hug, a kiss on the cheek and told god bless you. We stayed up talking for a while and then off to bed for everyone.

12-25-2003 Christmas Movie
We woke up, had a big family breakfast and then we all went to the house of my Tio Jorge. His family did not come last night, just too many people. But an afternoon BBQ Jorge's place is great. The older male members of the family fought over politics the entire time, and the rest watched SpiderMan. We had some leftover lechon, and some great ribs! It was a feast.

Miguel made plans to take the four little kids to the Movies. He took them to see La Tierra de los Osos, the new Disney movie. While he was doing that the rest of us 'grownups' went to the Picolo (ice cream place) and then I got in line for some Lord of the Rings tickets. It ended up that I waited alone for the tickets. It was a 2 hour wait for the dumb tickets! Here they sell movie tickets by seat number. So after my wait in line the only 7 they had together was the second to front row. At least we got tickets!

We killed time before the movie (I got the tickets at 7, the movie was at 10) going to a internet cafe, getting some food, and just waiting around for everyone to show up. The movie was good. The amount of cell phones going off was insane. Every two seconds, and the entire theater would start with the "sssshhhhh". The theater was also very vivarent, they would clap and cheer many times throughout the movie. The movie went really long, more then 3 hours, we caught a cab and went home. Long, long day.

The girls getting ready to do their fireworks.

Abuelita covering her ears from the sound of the fireworks.

The kids (and Miguel) and playing Nintendo 64.

The lechon... oh man.

The salad and everything else. Got to have llajwa (hot salsa).

The family dinner at Tio Adrian's. Everyone got more then enough, especially me.

Tio Jorge cooking at house on Christmas day.

Everyone getting their full, again.

The meat was so good... I ate too much again.

And then everyone argued about politics. Good ol' Centellas Christmas.

12-26-2003 Trying to Catch a Tan
Miguel and I had planed our trip to La Paz this weekend on a bus. The bus normally takes about 16 hours. However with the bad rain that we had earlier this week one of the bridges gave out (many people died, it was all over the papers here) and now the buses are taking longer. It was already a big expense of my time to be on the bus during my short vacation, and now with the delay we decided to just fly instead. Now it is an expense of my money instead of time, I would rather spend more time doing things and have less money then have more money and have spent nearly two full days of this short vacation on a bus. It is a 45 minute flight.

Getting tickets was an adventure of course as well. We went with abuelito and he had us cut in front of everyone because of the senior citizen law here, but he was not even buying the tickets. It is really cool a law they have, at any place (mostly banks and big businesses follow it) anyone above 65 gets to go to the front of the line. Everyone was looking at us... but I did not care, we had money in had and were in a hurry. Plus we were late to the water park. Side note: those expecting cool La Paz style gifts (llama sweaters, big monolitos, pewter stuff, etc) will be without because of this extra expense on tickets. But no worries, I will bring some coca tea back with me instead, it will make you happy. - News update: we heard buses are taking more then 24 hours to get to La Paz, and some having to stop over night. Good thing we bought the tickets!

My primo Enrique works at a water park, called AquaLand. He is one of the general managers; the place has water slides, fakes waves and lots of excitement. It is one of the things I really wanted to see before leaving, plus a little more sun can't hurt. I need to catch more sunlight on the rest of my body. I am developing a really bad farmer tan from walking around the city all day.

I went with Felipe, Maira, Marcia, Miguel, and abuelito. We had a great time. It started to rain a little, but the sky cleared up and we had an awesome time. I did not get burned! It was Miguel and Abuelito that got the burns, I came out just fine, and more tan. The park reminded me of the Anderson Water park in Saginaw. Except not nearly as ghetto, but surprisingly just as expensive. Tickets were 10 bucks (american) each, and food was about 20 bucks for all of us, and then the rafts and ice cream added another 2-3 bucks per person. That comes to about 120 dollar trip for as family of 6. That is way too much! Good thing our primo Enrique got us free passes!

The park was huge!

Abuelito road the automatic river all day long, and got sun burnt.

In true Santa Cruz fashion... beautiful girls and a bar, even at a family pool.

I stayed back and took the picture of them riding a big inter tube down the slide.

They had a total of 6 large slides.

The gang in the river, Miguel on his way to getting burnt.

Felipe and I rode all the slides, it was great.

Miguel finishing up his burn before we leave.

Afterwards we were beat. The sun has the uncanny ability to drain away your energy. So what was supposed to be a short nap after a tiring day turned into a long ciesta... so I stayed in, had some Paceñas, and watched some Christmas movies on TV with Tio Jorge and Miguel.

12-27-2003 The Curanderos
I am sick, something I ate did not make my stomach very happy. So I am a little bit tired from not sleeping well. All day each member of the Centellas family came and told me what I should be doing to get better. The abuelita had tio Jorge make me some soup. Abuelito gave me some pills he takes when his stomach gets upset. Tio Jorge said I should drink Sprite and crackers, Miguel said no that the gas from the pop will make me worse. Suddenly all the Centellas family is a bunch of doctors. At least I know they all care. Either way, this makes me more glad I am not taking a 20+ hour bus trip!

I am in the airport. Miguel and I arrived early, he just finished his posting and went to get some coffee, I am heading out now to join him as well. Enjoy this post. I will be online even more in La Paz. They have wireless there... YEAH!

Happy Holidays
The title is PC, but seriously I want to say Merry Christmas. I do not know anyone who celebrates anything else. Not that I am not accepting of other culture´s religions, but I don´t know anyone with other religions to accept. At WMU my Fraternity Brother Geo from India... was Baptist. I had a friend from Israel that was Catholic. None of my friends celebrate Kwanza, not even Reymall (well not that I know of). So it´s just a plain out Merry Christmas.

It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go... even the hot girls who stand in front of the stores are dressed in little red skirts with white puffy trim all dancing around a very tan and hot (poor guy, it must be in the 90´s right now) Santa Claus in his full suit. Not a white snowy Christmas, but I am okay with that.

Tonight Miguel and I will spend with the family, and also call home. The remainer of the Centellas family in the USA will be at my parents house. I will call my little Novali as well, and the Gomez family in Chicago. Hopefully we will get through fine.

I am done shopping for the family here, Miguel and I just had the fattest (or should I say, PHATTEST) buffet of Bolivian food (I gained like two more pounds I swear!), and now we are running home to grab our Christmas cards and off we go to the Christmas Party.

Commenting does not seem to working well right now. So if your message does not show up post it later again. I can not find out what is wrong, but I can not post to any of my friends blogs on the GVSU Blogosphere either. You all know how much I love comments... being without will be hard. Off we go.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Haircut, down pour and the fire alarm
We got Miguel, I got a hair cut (yes of course they charged me extra), checked out some construction sites, thought about retiring in Bolivia, had a down pour in Santa Cruz, our micro never showed up, and the taxis would not stop for us. Just another non-typical day for me in Bolivia. Read on for pictures.

12-22-2003 Hair cut at rock high gringo prices
I met my tio Ruben at 11am, we had an hour and half to kill before Miguel arrived. So I went to get my haircut. He knew a place that was only 5 bolivianos (about 75 cents american, wow, beat that Master Cuts!). I love Bolivian hair cuts. The lady cut all my hair without clippers, she manually cut it all short. She made great work of my naps in no time at all. Then, she shaved the side burns and neck line with a straight blade razor. Nothing is better then a straight razor shave. Smooth. As she finished up and put talcum powder on my neck I went to pay... and guess how much she wanted? 10 pesos. I thought the price was 5? I just smiled like a dumb gringo and gave her the money. My tio have her a look, and she said, its extra for Christmas. Come on... just admit you charge me more cause you know I got it. Little does she know I pay 13 bucks for my haircuts in the USA.

Then we went to the bus station. As we pulled up Miguel was already sitting there. He got there two hours early and had been sitting waiting for us. Off we went to tio Jorge's house for lunch. We got there in time for lunch... and what as lunch it was! My favorite, chuño, with rice, the tomato/onion salad and saice de pollo. It was so good, I ate way to much and then we sat at talked. After a while we left with tio Ruben and Jorge and we went to some of Ruben's construction sites. Ruben is a civil engineer and he is in charge of some of the larger construction jobs in the city. We visited a few places and talked about the prices of houses. He is working with some places, private gated communities with a pool, guards, nice yards and plenty of parking close to downtown for only 25-30,000 dollars. What a place to retire to right? Hum, got me thinking...

We stopped for some afternoon coffee and relaxation. Bolivian's like to relax, I got to remember that when I get back to the states. We sat, talked about politics, the amount of statues in the city, names of the streets, anything that came to mind. It was great, and as it got later Miguel and I walked to the plaza central and hangout. While we were in an internet cafe we heard some commotion. A police man came and started breaking the glass around the fire extinguisher. So what did I do? Grabbed my camera and followed him, it was just a small fire in a furniture store across the street. I took a few pictures and then headed back to the internet.

After that we walked to my primo Oscar's house which was a few blocks away. He took us to eat some steak tenderloin sandwiches. Man they were good. We walked in the rain some more and then waited for our Micro... but it never came. Over an hour of waiting and nothing. Then we went on a taxi. We got the guestroom ready for Miguel, the abuelita worried if we would be warm enough, and then we went to sleep. Well not to sleep, Miguel is ready the back issues of MacAddict I brought him and I am writing this post. I am about to edit some photos to post with this tomorrow. Look out!

12-23-2003 Picture time!
Miguel likes to sleep in. I wanted to get downtown early to get on the internet and post pictures before we have lunch with abuelito. He wanted to eat duck today, but in typical abuelito style he forgot that they only do the ducks on Monday. So next week when I return from La Paz we will go. I love all the different types of food we have here all the time, too bad not on Tuesday though huh? Not the same dull burgers and chicken we get in the states all the time. Something different each day. Either way, I will post about that meal later. For now, enjoy the pictures, and now I must return home, my Tio Jorge is cooking milanesa.
Pictures!

Another view of the plaza in Santa Cruz.

All the stores have pretty girls that hassle and flirt with you until you buy. This girl told me I was the best looking gringo she ever saw, so of course I had to buy a shirt! First person to not call me fat!.

The gas stations all have cute girls that come out and pump your gas.

This was from the night out, these were some of the models walking around handing out flyers.

The flamico dancers.

They were so good.

There were bands and entertainers all over. The place we ate had a jazz band there.

The avenue was just full of people.

The bar owed by DC United Star Marco Echevarria.

The Centellas gang at dinner. It was so good.

The abuelitos before the birthday party.

The clown was great, Maira is the one in the yellow shirt by the window. Over 40 kids showed up.

Cutting the birthday cake, they sang happy birthday in English.

Fernando and I on the way to Samaipata.

The views from the road were awesome, the highway was right on the side of the mountain the entire time.

Here is a picture of the crash, crazy huh?.

A wooden rope bridge that my primo Oscar wanted to cross. I felt like Indiana Jones, just without the indians chasing us. Well actaully the indians were chasing us, but instead of spears they had their hands out asking for change.

The gang again. You can tell we spent a lot of time together. My tio Jorge´s kids showed me around the most so far.

On top of the mountain. Behind us was about a 500 meter drop.

The fort, built at over 2000 meters above sea level.

Our crazy Samaipata eating experience.

At a worksite of my tio Ruben. In the picture from LEft to right, Miguel, Ruben and Jorge.

The down pour in Santa Cruz.

Dinner with Oscar and Miguel.

Busy
I am on vacation, but on the go more then ever. This weekend was the best. I did a little and a lot of everything. Miguel gets into town today at noon, I got up early to come and post and catch up on email. Here is my weekend recap.

12-19-2003 Flaminco
The office of my primo David is in the new towers here, Cainco Towers. He works for Campus Crusade for Christ and his office is on the 12th floor. It was an awesome view and a great building. You can see the entire city from his window, amazing. We talked, check out his new car and the Sony Xplode stereo he bought for it. Nice little turbo Toyota. Everyone has Toyotas here.

Then of course, I walked more. I love walking now. I must walk like 10 miles a day right now. I went downtown, checked out a few things, bought some CDs and clothes to wear out for a night on the town. While sitting in the plaza I saw the most disturbing thing. Quick story.

At all the corners of the plaza are street lights (not many in Bolivia), and little kids are out there asking to wash windows. Most people wave them off as a problem and say no. Some kind people give them 50 centavos (about 6 cents american). This nice Toyota Land Cruiser pulled up, pretty new with a rich looking guy in it. He asked the kid to wash his back window. Quickly the kid ran back there, washed the window and just then the light turned green. As the kid comes around the side of the car he drives off. The poor kid is yelling for his coin and the man drives off. Who robs from the poor? A man in a big truck, robbed a poor little kid who is out there trying to make enough money so he can eat. This country is corrupt, the police steal from the people, the government embezzles tax dollars, stores don't pay taxes... but for a rich man to steal labor from a poor little begger boy trying to make a living. That is ridiculous, and it broke my heart. I don't own a Land Cruiser, but I called the boy over, who was very angry, and I gave him what was owed to him. If the people who are able to help don't, then how will we ever get better? Let me put my soap box away...

I then headed home, and got ready to go out. The night was awesome. The hot dry air of the day, turned into a calm crisp night with a slight wind to keep you cool. It was perfect to say the least. We headed downtown. It was Oscar and his wife Bilma, Fernando and Ivan (Darcy, Ivan's wife met us a little later) and we stopped for a quick show in the plaza. Some dancers and folkloric performances (they danced Malambo) for the Christmas season are having shows on the plaza. Then we waked to one of the streets with some night life.

Before settling on a restaurant we soaked up the Santa Cruz nightlife. On the boulevard they had people performing. A mandolin group singing for people, some models handing out flyers for some club, and street performers. One group came out from one of the universities. They did a theater act with tango. No words, just dance and music. Such a great act. They danced, 6 women and 5 men, and acted out their skit. Crowds gathered and we, by chance, had front row seats.

Once that all cleared out we found a place eat, Solo Pasta, an Italian place called our name. We sat on the second floor balcony that over looked the street. The six of us ate the night away, a bottle of wine and lots of Coca-Cola and Fanta later we left. We made a short stop at the Diablo Sports Bar, which is owed by the famous Echevarria, the soccer player for the MLS DC United in the USA. He was not there, the big night crowds had not yet arrived, we were full already, and so we left.

I wet home, and went to bed.

12-20-2003 Futbol, cornish game hens and a clown
I got up early to go to the futbol game of my primo Ivan. His work has a league and I wanted to watch his game. It has been a long time since I watched a game, so it was nice to be out on a soccer field. Seriously I want too try to play again one of these days, see how this bum knee of mine holds up. They lost a hard fought game 2-1.

Then I met up with my abuelito at the house of my tio Adrian. Abuelito wanted to take me to eat cornish game hens. I love them... so it did not take much convincing. They cook them rotiessery style, 5 per stick. With fried yuca, salad and rice. It was just like I remember. The tourist joke is that once some tourist finish eating the game hens, the waiter tells them they were actually pigeons. I remember the first time they did it to me, I did not buy the store. You can tell they are chickens because of the little wings, but they are so tiny in size that you could believe that they are pigeons. Needless to say the lunch was great.

Back to the house of tio Adrian. It was the 9th birthday of Maira, the daughter of my tio Ruben who is the youngest of my tios. I got her a huge stuffed squirrel. They planned a huge party, gifts for those who come, a beautiful three layer cake, empanadas (not sure how to describe it, but pasteries with meat in them), and a clown. The clown was good, he kept the kids playing and having a good time. The party started at 3:30, but in true Bolivian fashion people kept showing up until like 7... Bolivian's and their tardiness, my abuelita says that is why this country can not get ahead, "we can't even be on time, let alone get ahead."

Then back to the house with los abuelitos. I put on some cream to help my slight pinkish burn on my forehead (I know I know... sun block. Tomorrow I will use it), we had some coffee with Jorge and Loida and then watched the end of Armagedon (the movie). Ivan came to pick up Darcy and his kids, Gabriel and Natalia. Those two kids are so funny, and Natalie is so smart for a little 4 year old. I got some good stories about those two trouble makers, but I will save those for a later day.

Off to bed. Tomorrow I leave the house at 5:30am to meet the cousins and head to the fort at Samaipata.

12-21-2003 There it is
What a long day, and its not over yet. I got up super early and went to my primos house. Of course they were all late, so I could of slept more, but I was ready and excited for the trip. We took a taxi there, all 7 of us crammed into a taxi; Oscar and Bilma, Ivan and Darcy with Gabriel, and then Fernando and I. We made a great traveling gang.

The ride was about 2 hours long, not bad at all. The road was well paved (most of the way), but we did see one really bad accident. A huge tour bus hit a semi truck head on... ouch. I got some pictures of the crash, unbelievable to hear no one was hurt from the look of the pictures. But as a guy who has lived through two accidents I should know how it can be to survive something like that.

The city was small. We got there around 9am and had breakfast. Salteñas and hugo con leche. Basically milkshakes and a small pastry with meat in it, but Bolivian style. Very good. Then we hit the road to the Inca ruins. We got another taxi and went up the mountain. The ruins are 2000 meters above sea level, and it is very windy up there. I can not explain the magnitude of the ruins, but once I post the photos you will understand. The views were amazing and thinking how people built so much, so high up is hard to imagine.

Back in the city we went to the muesum, what a joke! They had like two little pots, some clay jars and ceramics in glass cases and that was it. I paid 80 pesos for all of us to enter... what a rip off. At least the place had clean bathrooms, something hard to find in that little pueblo.

Lunch was a whole nother story. I don't want to write the entire story now, but basically we got the worst service ever (no ice, soup got spilled on Gabriel's head, no yuca, slow, and the guy was mean). And as I went to pay, the guy raised the price! It was from 7 pesos for each person, to 10. I know they always charge the gringo more, but they already quoted the price, they should of lied to me about the price from the beginning like everyone else. Ivan made a stink in front of everyone, said the guy was "pobre educado (poorly educated, or better translation would be poorly mannered)". I threw the money on the table and we left. We were fighting over about 2.25 american... but it was the principle of the matter that was important, not the price. Why do they always have to rip off the gringo?

On the way home we went in two taxis. We were really crammed on the way there so I figured it cost a little extra but we will all be comfortable. Fernando and I rode in one taxi with two strangers, and the rest of the gang in the other car. We left at the same time, but our taxi driver was much faster. We dropped off the other two passengers and still beat the other car to the drop off spot. Then Fernando and I waited... and waited. More then an hour passed. After a hour and half another taxi came, how did this other taxi beat them? We asked and he said he saw their car, the suspension gave out on some of the bumps on the highway and it got a flat tire. Ouch. They caught a ride back on a bus. So we had waited in vain. We went home.

I had another great dinner prepared by my tia Loida. Now I am downloading pictures and getting ready for tomorrow. Miguel gets into town at 12:30 and I need to get a haircut, check my email, and check some more prices on things before meeting him at the bus station.

12-22-2003 The Bus
I got up at 8:30am, which is kinda early for me since I am on vacation. I wanted to get downtown and get somethings done before Miguel comes. I am meeting my tio Ruben in the plaza to head to the bus station together. I had to wait forever to change money this morning, lines everywhere! Then no place for a haircut could see me right away. So just some email and this blog before I get Miguel. More coming soon.