Grand Ambassador Hotel Cochabamba

... night Blazing Saddles in our hotel room, a rare luxury for us cheapos.

The following day we headed out to explore Cochabamba. I had been here several times before, but it was always after a month or more in the jungle and I was generally more concerned with cleaning myself up and enjoying a bar than doing anything touristy, but this time we were here as tourists and we wanted to head up to Cochabamba´s prime attraction, the giant ...

... to adapt, no hot water, washing machine, bad toilets, dirty streets and unrecognisable food. As mentioned in the title of this blog i have actually eaten a cows heart (i can imagine dads face right now), i did have to draw the line at eating the brain though, i didnt ask what animal it was as it wudnt hav made the slightlest bit of difference, a brain is a BRAIN - made for thinking NOT eating in my opinion!
I have to say i did have chicken tonite thou which ...

... goodness for facebook...), but i was about ready to be on the move again, new places new faces and all that. So what better way to spend my last night in Cochabamba than by packing my things, heading out to a party and then a night on the town, and realising that at 6am there really is no point going to bed at all when you need to be at the bus station by 8am. Good times i must say, But goodbyes were to be had, despite how much i hate them!!

... volunteers recent hospital experience), and thus i was to wait until the following week when test results will return, and i am able to volunteer without fear of catching the flu. In the meantime, i managed to find myself taking a visit to one of the local health centres, providing primary health care to around 40,000 Cochabambinos, many of whom were quite young, had numerous children, limited if any education, and therefore minimal knowledge of ...

... such as how much? how long? when do we leave/arrive? I think 6 months would be a sufficient amount of time in South America, along with a few courses here and there to pick up the language. We quiz each other most days on new words, but still have lots to learn. We are headed to the big Bolivian capital of La Paz next, which is quite exicting. And Machu Pichu is just around the corner!!! I have also added up our bus hours, and we are at 110 hours, with many more to go!

... out stinky rotten egg air at an impressive speed, or huge dangerous steaming pools of bubbling silver stuff. Apparently gets up to 130 degress! No thanks! A more tempting 37 degree termal bath was waiting for us at our breakfast spot - bliss! It was pretty freezing up there, so the thought of getting half naked wasn't the most exciting thing in the world. But it was SO worth it! The bath is really just a walled off and cleaned out part of another mighty stinky laguna, but it ...

... Etter 5 min var jeg omringa av nysgjerrige folk. Jose, en eldre herremann paa 52, fortalte meg at det ikke var saa ofte at turister kom og satte seg ned, at de fleste pleide aa komme i taxi, ta bilder av plazaen og dra videre. han introduserte meg for alle vennene sine, dvs alle som satt paa benkene rundt oss, og fortalte at han hadde jobbe for Evo Morales´ kampanje. Da jeg fortalte at jeg studerte statsvitenskap og latin-amerikastudier ble han veldig nysgjerrig og inviterte meg paa ...

Today I left the orphanage where i've worked now for 7 weeks. My entire job description was to give the older kids (3-5 years old but walking, talking, and toilet trained (mostly!)) some much needed attention, and they really needed it! There are over 50 kids in those two rooms, looked after by two 'mamas' who are mostly busy sorting them out with clothes, food, tidying and cleaning (yep i'm acknowledging a difference mum) the rooms and washing the kids to ...

... were constantly throwing up in bags.

I didn't really have any set tourist destinations there, just stopping by for a quick visit, as I knew a couple of guys there. There lives the brother of my jungle-friend Einar, and a Chilean friend of his brother's.

They showed me around a bit - we went to El Prado boulevard, and to the statue of Christ - "Cristo de la Concordia" - measuring a meter for each year in Jesus' life. Both the Cristo ...