Up the Cruz (Shore Rd Brazilians)
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
14
50
Trip End
Ongoing
Santa Cruz,
Bolivia
Saturday, October 20, 2007
We booked into a hostel called Jodanga, one of THE best hostels we have ever stayed in. It has a small pool, table football, TV room and it is way cleaner than Chez Anfield ha ha ha. The staff and owners are awesome, very helpful and always organising nights out or barbies in the place. The pool is cracker, especially on the hot days, although a team from National Geographic called the other day after hearing sightings of the lesser spotted pale, pot bellied red back:-):-)
It's great I reckon I'm losing a wee bit of the flab, my "moobs" are down to a C cup and chins are down to single figures!!
Bird on the phone
!Santa Cruz is unlike ANY other Bolivian place, they make money here, a mint of it. Everywhere else in Bolivia is extremely poor, but not this place, for some. It is still overwhelmingly poor but there are a small group who are loaded. Most of the wealth comes from the Coke industry...............and I don't mean the fizzy pop. There is a lot of corruption and a fierce battle for "autonomia" between the Cambas(lowlanders) and Chollas (highlanders).
We have met loads of smashing people here and had a lot of great nights out and in, i reckon a few might end up in sunny Carrick some day:-)
The climate here is much better than Trinidad. It is still 35C during the day, but there is a breeze and it cools a bit at night. It's great, it means you only have to change yer trunks once a week instead of every 3 days.
We have managed to get more volunteer work at a wee "school" called Luz Del Mundo. It is a place for street kids and children of single mothers who work to come and get some ed-yoo-cashun. The place is more basic than an MLA's grasp on reality... mud and sand floor, a few posts covered by corrogated tin, open sewage floating past (which reminds me, I have been helping them with their numbers) We have also been working on building an enclosed classroom for the rainy season.
The kids are brilliant, eager for ANYTHING you can give them. Julie bought loads of craft materials and has been helping them make necklaces which they can sell at the market......Jules jewels!!!
Butch and Sundance
!I have been teaching them football, some songs and a few pratical jokes:-) one of the wee girls says when she gets to be a big girl she is going to save up and come visit me. But no worries I did the old trick and gave her Sid's phone number ha ha
The school is on 4 days a week so on my other free days i have been working at another place, a home for severely mentally and physically disabled youngsters. It is VERY tough but extremely rewarding. My duties include; feeding the kids, playing, going for "wheelchair walks", changing soiled beds and lifting the children in or out of bed and for bed-pans. Basically anything that can stimulate the children and help improve their quality of life.
We had planned to stay here for 3 days and ended up staying 3 weeks. Sounds a bit like a Civil Service type timescale :-)
BREAKING NEWS: we are due to fly to Salta in Argentina today but it might not happen. There was a riot at the airport last night and things are still, no pun intended, up in the air today. The president Evo is a cholla and is hated by the Cambas.............well just to spice things up, Evo decided to settle an industrial dispute by taking over the airport using the army!!!!!!
Crafty fox
! So the locals got a wee bit cheesed off and decided some civil disobedience was the order of the day!!!!! So the Cambas tried to storm the airport and take it back by force. Cue: gunfire, petrol bombs, teargas, helicopters............. i'm sure you can get the picture. So it is now a waiting game.**update** well we made it out after a lot of delays. Evo pulled the troops out and the local bigshot politician (who had called for 100,000 onto the streets) called for calm, although more protests planned for next week. Well that's the Leaving of Bolivia-pool :-)
Next stop: Salta.............sometime:-)
