Outside My Southern Comfort Zone: Feliz Año Nuevo!

One of my favorite things in Bolivia.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Years. I spent my New Years Eve day in the boy’s orphanage working. In the evening I went with the boys from Casa de Paso to see The Hobbit 2 in 3D. Afterwards I was pretty tired. So I returned home where many people were in my house eating fondue. So of course since I was hungry I decided to eat some. As it neared midnight, we walked out in front of the house to view the fireworks around the city. I do have to say it was the most beautiful fireworks show I have ever seen in my life. The city lit up at night is already beautiful enough. Picture this, mountain sides covered with twinkling lights in every direction. Then picture a firework show with thousands of fireworks but spread out over the city lights. There were fireworks going off above our head as people from our neighborhood were shooting them off and then there were fireworks going off down in front of us because people down the mountain side were shooting them off as well. There was no planned firework show. Just hundreds, if not thousands of amateurs with matches bringing in the New Year. I wish I would have videotaped it with my camera but I guess now it is too late. Hopefully I will never forget how amazing of a show it was.

View of Muela Del Diablo from my front door

So I thought I would write a short blog today so that when I get back from my trip that I am going on this week it will not be such a long blog. I have to be at the airport Tuesday morning at 5am so we can catch our small 20 passenger plane down the mountain to the jungle. We will be staying in the jungle and searching for wild animals including the Anaconda. Also we may do a little bit of sport fishing for Piranha. It should be very exciting. I’ll make sure to charge my camera before I go so I can capture many amazing moments. But more about all that in my next blog…… This weekend I climbed Muela Del Diablo (The Devils Molar) which overlooks the city of La Paz.

I love these views in the edges of the city

Most of the city. (Not all of it)

Donkey near the Muela

Lisa and I started off waiting for a minibus to take us to the edge of the city to the small barrio of Pedegral. From the bus parada we began our walk up the mountain to get to the small village of Chiraque which is at the base of the Muela. On the way up we were taken away by some amazing views of the city. Also I had to fend off some territorial dogs which didnt seem to be very happy that we were there. After getting by them, it was a nice walk up to Chiraque. We walked through the village where there were cows, donkeys, sheep, and pigs roaming around everywhere. Lisa was so amazed with the animals. I being from the country it really didnt faze me much. We then continued to climb up the other mountain to get to the bottom of the rock which is the Muela. Once there we had to climb up the rocks to get to the top where there is a magnificent view of the city. It was amazing because we were in the clouds peering down through them to the city below. Off in the distance you could see rain storms in the valleys. After climbing a few of the rocks on top and taking some photos, the rain started moving towards us. Soon after it reached the Muela and we began making our way down. The walk back was a lot easier then the way up. The only difficult part was walking by those evil dogs. Before I knew it we were surrounded by 10 dogs. I, wielding rocks in my hands, stared the dogs down swinging at them as they got closer. Slowly walking backwards and continuing to fend the dogs off they lost interest. I am not going to lie I was a little afraid that one of us was going to get bitten. I was already thinking about how painful the rabies shots would be even though I dont believe the dogs had rabies. So finally past the dogs, we were to safety where we could catch a minibus home. Here in Bolivia you have to learn to stare fear in the face and to be brave. I am learning very quickly!!