Viva Blooming!!! Goooooaaaaallllllllll!!!!!

With the house overflowing with volunteers, there is always someone around with whom to talk or plan an outing into town. Thus we've had a lot of excitement around here since our arrival. The first highlight was two nights spent at CruzExpo, one of the largest fairs in the world where you can find everything from live reggaeton music to autodealers to massive, prize-winning cows to cerveza gardens to crowded dance clubs. The fair began this weekend as Monday marked the day Santa Cruz was founded. The town's center is the beautiful Plaza of September 24th (photo) and Monday was a major holiday here. Dr. Douglas warned us we would be amazed by the number of Bolivian super models in attendance advertising at the various booths--we even got to see Miss Bolivia dancing in a live advertisement for a new caffeinated beverage. Our herd wandered through it all, amazed at the creation of such elaborate structures for only 2 weeks. The end of the night included jumping a fence into a jammed, and sweaty (ahem...I mean hip and happening) dance club. A good time was had by all.

While the fair was interesting, the best experience of our first week in Santa Cruz had to be our outing to un partido de futbol! To review common knowledge, futbol (soccer) is definitely the sport of choice in Bolivia. Santa Cruz's Tuhuichi Aguilera stadium is within walking distance of the volunteer house. Thus we clearly had to check out a game right away. Plus, we had the great fortune of arriving just prior to one of the biggest games of the season, a match between the cross-town rivals of Santa Cruz: Blooming vs. Oriente. This is Santa Cruz's version of the windy-city classic. Dr. Douglas and Ethan are die-hard Blooming fans while our new friend Javier, hermano de Veronica, lives and dies with Oriente. We had been caught in a tug of war between the two sides during the days leading up to the game, unsure of where our allegiances would lie. In the end, and naturally, Charlotte and I jumped onboard with the boys in blue, especially since their rival team wore green and gold. Learning the Oriente's full name was Oriente Petroleo only reinforced my choice. Viva Blooming, brother team to the Osos de Chicago!

The game was excellent and exciting down to the last whistle. Tons of hustle and passionate play by both sides. We had fun with our new Blooming gear and a loud plastic trumpet blown at key moments of the game by Mike Molitch-Hou. Oriente had the first goal late in the first half and went into the break in the lead. The fairly even, back and forth play continued into the second half until Blooming managed to get a dribbler into the net to tie it up. Then the stadium came alive. With 5 minutes to go, Blooming drilled in the game winner (all 3 goals were off corner kicks). We were on our feet singing with our section and poor Javier looked like he was going to be sick. Some Oriente fans went as far to light a few fires down in their endzone before they left. To top it off, this game knocked Oriente out of playoff contention. I felt as if we had just sent Farve back to Mississippi for a long off-season with our new fight song:

Vamos!
Vamos a ganar!
Te llevo Blooming
dentro de mi corazon!

Santa Cruz

We've now been here for almost a week and have had lots of fun so far. In addition to the other volunteers, D and I have met many wonderful people already. Among those people are the Villaroel family. Douglas Villaroel is the doctor here in Bolivia who has worked over the years to help create and maintain the clinic. He and his family have done so much for all of the volunteers who have come down here. Before the volunteer house was built, the volunteers used to live with Douglas and his wife Chemita at their house. They have three kids: Daniel, Diego, and Susan. At the volunteer house, besides the volunteers, we also live with several other people. Nico and her daughter Johanna live here. Nico helps maintain the house and cooks the most amazing lunches for us when we are here. I am still getting used to the huge, late lunches and very small dinners! Veronica and Zoila also live here. They grew up in Palacios (where the clinic is) and are original volunteers. They are now living in Santa Cruz and going to university. We are getting great Spanish practice in with all of these native speakers around!

Last weekend, all of the volunteers went with the Villaroel family out to lunch at this amazing spot. We drove down a dirt road for about twenty minutes to what seemed like the middle of nowhere until we finally arrived. We paid 65 Bolivianos (about $8) to have an all you can eat Bolivian buffet. Not only was the food spectacular, but the setting was too. The restaurant was situated next to a beautiful pond filled with coi fish and surrounded by palm trees and small hills. As we explored the area after lunch, we found playgrounds, a small go-kart track, huge stone slides, and best of all a zip line! We took our turns flying down the line! It was one of the weirdest places I have been, but it was so beautiful and we had a wonderful afternoon.

This week, we had an overlap of volunteers so the clinic dormitory did not have space for all of us to come. So Derek, our friend from Northwestern, Ethan, and I stayed in Santa Cruz this week instead. We've gotten a start on our projects and been able to meet more people here in Santa Cruz including the staff at Douglas' endocrinology office. On Tuesday, Ethan and I visited a clinic patient who came to a hospital in Santa Cruz for surgery. I hope to spend some time with a local OB soon to ask some questions about my cervical cancer project. I have also made plans for some Spanish lessons with Chemita.

So there is a lot going on here, but we are excited to get to the clinic next week to see what that is like. As we had been told, this area of Bolivia is much different than the rest of Bolivia. Much of Bolivia's wealthy population live here in the lowlands. With the country's first indigenous president who is "a man of the people" fighting for the rights of the poor, the call for autonomy can be heard loud and clear throughout this city. The president, Evo Morales, was actually just on the Daily Show the other night. Jon Stewart did not press him too hard on any of the issues that people have with him here, but it is an interesting interview to watch.

We miss you all and will keep the updates coming!
Love,
Char

It happened on Bueno Street

Coming into La Paz was amazing, as I´m sure you´ve heard from anyone who has been there. Our bus stopped to let all of us tourists get out and take some pictures of the amazing city that sprawls up from the valley into the mountains that surround it.

We immediately got our bearings as we walked up and down some huge hills to get to our hostal - a mansion that was a residence for a former president. We spent our first evening at a fancy Italian restaurant listening to smooth jazz covers of the Rolling Stones!

The next day was our full day to explore the city. It started out with a stop off at a chocolate shop and the students´plaza. It was on our way to lunch that it happened...We were at the corner of Bueno Street trying to cross (which can be very hard with such small sidewalks and such crazy drivers!) when I heard a ripping noise. I thought it was the velcro pocket on my purse being opened, so I swung it around to see. I was right that someone was trying to get into my bag, but not by opening it, but instead by slashing it with a knife! Luckily, the hooligans weren´t able to get anything, but I saw them running up the street ahead of me as a I figured out what had happened. Needless to say, my bag stayed around my front the rest of the day!

The incident put a bit of a damper on the day, but we were still able to enjoy the Coca Museum, which outlined the history of the controversial plant, as well as the Musical Instruments Museum, where D and I got to play a few of the instruments ourselves!

La Paz is one of the busiest and most interesting cities that I have ever been to, but it was also a little overwhelming! It was a great stop on our travels, but we were getting very excited to get to Santa Cruz to setttle in for a while and start our volunteering.

So we have made it here now, after a very exciting bus ride last night. At about 1:30 am, we were rear-ended by another bus. That bus had a shattered front wondow, and our bus required about two and a half hours of work on the engine before we could get going. So the ride that was already a long 10 hours from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz became about 13 hours! But we made it and arrived to a wonderful volunteer house where we are looking forward to meeting everyone this evening and getting to work this week!

Lake Titicaca at the Copa...Copacabana!

After saying goodbye to Cusco with a night on the town with our guide, we made a very quick stopover in Puno before heading into Bolivia. We stayed for a couple of days at Lake Titicaca in Copacabana. Our hostal, La Cupula, was a wonderful recommendation from our friends Andrew and Laurel. It was definitely the most comfortable and most beautiful place that we stayed. With views overlooking the lake from our front door and hammocks swinging in the front gardens, it couldn´t have been any better.

We took a boat out to Isla del Sol for he day and hiked from the north end of the island to the south and saw pre-Incan ruins as well as the historical stone from which the Incans were born. It was a beautiful and surprisingly quiet hike along the ridges of the islands´mountains.

For each meal while we were there, Derek ate some form of trucha (trout) - whether it was fried, sauteed, stuffed, or baked, it didn´t matter as long as he could eat it fresh from Lake Titicaca. It was quite delicious!

We were sad to leave Copacabana behind, but we pressed on for all that was to come in La Paz...

La Glorieta, so much potential

North of the cold clear waters of Lake Titicaca, Puno is the folklore capital of Peru. Highlights of our stay there included a ride on the tricycle taxi, a grilled alpaca lunch, a hunt through the city for the post office to mail postcards, and, after discovering that post offices do not have mail drop boxes in Peru, a long micro ride with campesinas to Chuicuitos, just southwest of Puno.

Chuicuitos is a small and sleepy village also perched above the beautiful lake (the top half of which is also known as Chuicuito). In our web research back home we had discovered a hostal "off the beaten path" called La Glorieta that was not in any of the Peru guidebooks. The setting couldn´t be more stunning and romantic. The habitaciones are found in small stone buildings with spanish tile roofs and solar water heaters for each room. The quaint decor features alpaca and sheep wool apolstery and hand carved furniture. You´d think it really would be the place to rest after an arduous trek and get away from it all. Unfortunately, the comforts and service could be drastically improved.


Being so remote and undiscovered, we were actually the only folks staying at the hostal that night--or even that week--except of course for a couple new cute friends who really knew how to spit (see photo). As a result, the hostal caretaker wasn´t the most available and helpful as others along our journey. In addition, being so high in elevation, it was quite a chilly at night, even in our room. And the beds were a good "mind over matter" experience, to put it delicately. The shower stall was the entire bathroom itself, toilet and all, and the room would fill up quickly with water during the shower as there was only one small drain about 1 cm in diameter. It had emptied by the time we returned from our trout dinner up the hill. Needless to say, Char was ready to move on.

We set off for Copacabana with higher hopes and daydreams of running our own inn, because settings like this have too much potential!

Reflections on Salkantay

Our Salkantay "deep trek" north of Cusco was so excellent, it deserves another post. Char and I keep talking about how much fun it was and how we miss our days on the trail. Like any extended backpacking trip, it is our companions that we will miss most.

At least 3 times a day we miss Loriano, our trip Chef. It was quite surreal to arrive to camp to an already prepared piping hot meal. Such a feast always began with a delicious soup and usually included two of our favorite staples: rice and potatoes. We are missing those tent dinners these days, although I have not eaten anything but fresh trout since we arrived in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca-grilled, stuffed, fried, or de diablo, trout is delicious no matter how they serve it.

Then there is Esteban, the best muleteer in the Andes. Not only was he kinder and more gentle to the mules than other muleteers on the trail, but he seemed to have a deep connection with his animals (trekking companies here hire a muleteer and his mules). Esteban constantly was working hard but always took time to smile and say "hola amigo." One of our best camping spots was in Esteban's yard. The most beautiful yard on the trail.

Our fellow trekkers were a friendly and comical group. Kason and Melissa, hailing from Toronto Canada, were a fun loving pair that kept us laughing all week. They really pushed themselves on this trip and it was fun to see them succeed. Melissa is a med student in Toronto and while Kason is in finance, we discovered his real calling is mule riding. Then there was Ikuko, a Yale School of Forestry grad from Japan now working at the World Bank in DC. Her enthusiasm and wonder along the trail were such a great contribution.

Last but not least, we will miss our fearless guide Milthon (pronounced Milton...as in my least favorite economist). A born leader and a real character, Milthon got a kick out of our group. He usually hiked ahead with Char and I so we really got to know him well. He was so curious about married life and seems to be headed that way soon...but he'll have to give up the breakfast in bed he gets from his mother when he's in Cusco! Milton has been leading trips for 5-7 years and spends most of the nights each year on the trail, but still considers himself (and dresses like) a city boy. We began to call him El Jefe like the campesinos and muleteers on the trail do. The best part about our leader though was that he loved to party at night. His highlight I think was our night back in Cusco when we went out with him to the clubs. I introduced him to tequila shots (uno, dos, tres) and eventually he and Charlotte were tearing it up on the dance floor! We had a bittersweet departure but may soon meet again if he comes to visit us in Santa Cruz.

Great people. Great trip. And now on to Bolivia!

Salkantay Trek

After our very important acclimating trip up in Huaraz, we made our way to Cusco to get ready for our trek to Machu Picchu. It was a wonderful trip! We started off by meeting our other trekking mates (2 from Canada and one from Japan), our guide (Milthon), our chef (Lorriano), and our muletier (Esteban). Yes, we had a wonderful chef and a person in charge of the mules who carried all of our heavy gear. This was the beginning of a great trip! On night one, we slept up in the mountains at about 4000 meters just before the mountain pass. It was a bit chilly, but we survived. After crossing the pass the next day, we made our way down through a beautiful valley for the next couple of days. It was amazing to go from below zero temperatures to lush vegetation so quickly (all while enjoying gourmet meals along the way)! We visited several hot springs along the way and met some other trekkers along the same path. We made it to Augas Calientes last night and went up to Machu Picchu this morning at 6am to see the sunrise. Yes it is as amazing as everyone says! Our guide told us that we were lucky to have such a clear and sunny day since Machu Picchu is so often cloudy. We enjoyed the morning walking around the ruins before returning to enjoy our last lunch together before heading back to Cusco.

We´ll keep you posted as we head to Bolivia next!
Miss you all,
Char

A Great Start to the Trip

We couldn´t have asked for a better beginning to our trip. We were able to acclimitize and enjoy the beautiful mountains. In addition to our walk through the countryside, we also took an amazing bus trip up to Lago Llanoyuco outside of Huaraz. The lake is situated up in the basin between Huascaran (highest mountain in Peru) and Huandoy. I had my first mouthful of coca leaves to chew on up in the mountains! We met some nice people and hiked down from the lake to enjoy the mountains. For lunch that day, Derek and I enjoyed the traditional meal of cuy, otherwise known as guinea pig at home. It was served with head and feet on...eek! It tasted a little like chicken though.

The next day, we took it up a level by actually hiking to a mountain lake, Lake Churup. The day hike involved scaling rock faces and using rickety ladders to get up the mountain. Needless to say, we were spent by the end of the day, but it was a beautiful hike. It´s funny how in Spanish, the word ´caminar´, which means to walk, is the word for hike, trek, walk, etc. It makes it a little tought to gauge how intense a day might be! We made it though, and I had no power failures or meltdowns, which means that Derek did a good job keeping me well fed. We finished off the night with some good pizza in the town square!

Off to Cusco...

Huaraz - City of Snow Capped Peaks

We made it to Huaraz on schedule despite our doubts on Wednesday morning. But we found a very comfortable bus to take us on the eight hour journey, including a short stop along the way for a real Peruvian lunch.

After arriving, we were pleasantly surprised by our wonderful accomodations at the Hostel Churup. The hostel has a wonderful common room/bar on the top floor with panoramic windows overlooing the mountains.

Today, we had a nice walk through various villages above the main city. We saw lots of dogs, pigs, and donkeys (they were really cute!). Derek thinks there are more dogs than people around here. The climax of the hike was a visit to Wilkahaurin, ruins from the Wari people from 700 despues de Christo. We made some great new friends including Pasqual y Margarita. If we ever return to Hauraz, we've been offered a free room at Margarita's casa!

We're now off for our second Peruvian dinner. We both wish we knew Spanish better, but our new friends are helping us improve. We'll keep you posted on our progress!

Talk to you soon,
Charlotte and Derek

El primer paseo de un gran viaje

Vamos a Sudamerica! El dia de partida ha llegado finalmente.

We are very happy to report that the first leg of our honeymoon journey is complete, with stops in Andersonville, Minocqua, Madison, and Lake Bluff. After a truly amazing wedding celebration (see photos), we have enjoyed plenty of running, swimming, biking, packing, golfing, and time with our families. In the meantime, Derek has helped Henry Crown and Co. begin to get their ducks in a row on energy and climate change issues and Charlotte has surpassed her husband in spanish speaking skills thanks to the Rosetta Stone.

Thanks to you all, our family and friends, we have both gained some new gear, lost some hair (see photo below), and put on a few pounds from many wonderful send-off dinners.

We are most excited for the months ahead and hope that you will enjoy a few select cuentos (stories) that we share on this Blog (short for weblog to those new to such things). For you die-hard fans, you can use the link below to subscribe to the atom or RSS feeds so that you are alerted with each new post.

The adventure begins mañana;. Our belongings for the months ahead now reside in 4 backpacks - 2 large, 2 small (see below). First stop: Lima, Peru. Then we plan to meander north and south through the Andes, eventually making our way down through Bolivia to Santa Cruz where we will be volunteering at the Centro Medico Humberto Parra. Deep in soul of Bolivia, we are looking forward to a perfect basecamp in a community of fun and passionate medical volunteers.

Enjoy and stay tuned!
Derek and Charlotte

Before

After

"All our bags are packed and we're ready to go..."