Memory lane

My initial plan was to work on my investigation untill beginning of august at least, and then head to La Paz en Cochabamba to visit all the buddies from the 20th century. However, my supervisor sent me an email advising me to reconsider my case in Guarayos, and since he is kind of right, I decided to go to Cbba and La Paz now and then work hard the last 5 weeks.

So last wednesday I took the bus from Sta Cruz to Cochabamba, overnight. I arrived in Cbba at six in the morning and strolled to the city center to find a hostel. I found a nice little place, took a small nap and a shower and then headed into town. I went up to the Cristo de la Concordia by cable car, which didn´t exist when I used to live there, and is a great improvement. The whole town seemed to have developed alot and it was GREAT walking through it´s streets and remembering things from my childhood every time I turned a corner. I also visited some museums, making my first 2 days in Cochabamba more cultural than my entire stay in Santa Cruz, which doesn´t really have much to offer in that aspect... I also went to Quillacollo and the pilgrimage place of Urkupiña. Cochabamba has a special place in my heart, definitely...

After a couple of days of lovely weather and food in Cochabamba, I went to La Paz, which celebrates it´s 200 year independence this year and has organized all sort of festivities. There was a big parade with folkloric dance, la entrada Universitaria, which I enjoyed to the fullest. I took more than 400 pictures and still felt the rythm of the drums in my chest when I was laying in my bed that night.

I stayed in the house of doña Estela, one of the sweetest ladies on this planet. She was our empleada during the 6 years that we lived in La Paz, and allthough her job was to clean our house, she became part of our family, as did her children. It was great seeing them again and laughing at the crazy things they remembered I did as a kid and all the sweet memories.

I just arrived from the 17 hour bus drive back from La Paz to Sta Cruz and there are so many small details I enjoyed that I would love to share with you guys, if only I could just stick my finger in the USB drive, and upload it all... but my brain just isn´t functioning right now, and the different languages on my harddrive are starting to mess with my brain, so I´m keeping it a little shorter than normal. I´m sure many of you don´t mind, and those of you that are interested can ask me about it on another occasion.

Time is flying by and I will have to work hard the next couple of weeks to be able to head back with the information I need to write a decent thesis. I have already collected all sorts of impressions but I could study the situation for many months more, because there is still so much to understand.

In December there will be elections here, which will be crucial for the future of this country. Obviously, elections always are, but in this case even more so.

OK guys, I´m turning the lights down low and closing my eyes for a while...