This weekend brought me a special surprise, first in Cochabamba and then in the city of Potosí! The surprise: Nora Randolph!
Nora, my friend from Williams, has been traveling in South America for seven months now, backpacking to the end of the continent, dancing tango in Buenos Aires, and taking a back trail in to Machu Picchu. After a month of trekking in Peru, she needed to return to Argentina for her flight back to the States in October, so why not pass through Bolivia?! Lucky for me, that's what she decided to do, and so Saturday night we found each other in the chaotic bus terminal of Cochabamba.
What a joy it was to see a familiar face so far away from home. As many of you probably know, my aunt passed away this week, so it was a great comfort to have a visit with a close friend.
We kept each other up late that Saturday night, wandering around the city, chatting and eating chips of chancaca - a block of unprocessed cane sugar that tastes like solid molasses! Then we were able to spend all of Sunday together exploring the city! We first skyped with Sonja - what a surreal experience to be with Nora in Bolivia talking to Sonja back in North Carolina! Then we meandered through the market, admiring all the delicious-looking fruit. Because Monday was the anniversary of the city, there was a big parade going on through the center of downtown. In Cocha, there always seems to be some festivity happening somewhere each day!
We met a bike tourist in the park by my house! Look at the great panniers that he made out of the cloth that indigenous women use as "backpacks" tied over one shoulder.
Nora and I shared lunch with my family, which included a fabulous pineapple cake in celebration of Cochabamba day! Our first dessert during my time here, and now I know that my aunt is a very good baker! Then in the afternoon, we set out to explore some more and decided to walk up the hill to the north, which was something I hadn't done before. Basically, most of the city's growth is in the south, but some people are building farther and farther up the foothills in the north as well. We went until the pavement stopped and some empty, trash filled lots began, then turned back for the beautiful view of the city. Also, the streets were pretty quiet so it could be a good biking spot for me, though very steep!
The view from up high.
Cristo in the distance!
Once back down, we ended up at a space age-y restaurant for dinner, where I'd had ice cream before. Turns out they have great omelettes! And then we confused them by trying to use Nora's camping bowl for ice cream - something they had clearly never dealt with before! But the effort was mostly successful, other than the fact that they put my order in it so I was the one who ate out of it!
With our ice cream!
From there, we went to the last performance of the Festival of Contemporary Dance that has been going on for two weeks now at a cultural center in the city. Every night, there was a free, outdoor dance performance by a different group from all over South America. I had gone one other night with my family and thought it was fabulous. This performance was as well, with lots of humor and fireworks going off in the background!
Though we didn't leave the dance until nearly 9:30, but the night was only getting started for me, I was to learn. My friend Ale, who I biked with the previous weekend, is a drummer in a rock band, and they play a concert at his house the night before Dia del Cochabamba every year. So we headed over there, feeling accomplished because we were showing up an hour and a half late, but of course even when we arrived the concert was far from starting! So we headed out again with my other biking friend, Oscar, to go collect our other friend Lenka. At eleven we returned and the music was almost ready to start. At that point, Nora decided to go back to her hostel to sleep, which would probably have been a good decision for me as well! But I was with the three Bolivian friends who I have so far, who are all wonderful and goofy and a blast to hang out with, so I decided to stay for the duration!
The band. My friend Ale is the drummer.
That ended up being till 4am...way out of the norm for me but worth it for all the fun I had. The bands were good, the guys there danced like madmen (there were only four women there total) and a sickening amount of Coca Cola was consumed.
At last I went home, slept for two and a half hours, then hopped on a plane with the group to go to Sucre and Potosi! My visit with Nora continued because she came to Potosi for her next stop as well! So she joined our group for an afternoon before parting ways for the immediate future, she concluding her trip and me just beginning mine!
(More on Sucre and Potosí coming soon.)
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