Adventures

In my two days on my own in Cochabamba I have managed to get lost at least 14 times. How is this real life? Some stories:

1. Today, I was in the center of the city and, since Cochabamba does not have maps of their buses (everything functions via the memory of the drivers/passengers sans maps), I wasn't sure which bus to take in order to get home for lunch. I asked a police office. The police officer told me to get on certain bus-- note that buses here are not "buses" like in the states, they are normally car-sized vehicles that have been gutted and refurbished with more seats where the trunk normally would be-- and it would take me to the cross street that I need to go (I showed him a map). But one thing that FSD warned us about is that Bolivians really want to be helpful, which means if they don't know where you need to go... they will make it up. So I got on a bus, naturally ended up on the complete opposite side of the city, and ended up walking for about an hour until I found a familiar street and bus line. But I got back safe and sound and I burned all of the calories from my cerveza the night before!

2. This afternoon I went to La Cancha which is one of the biggest and busiest markets in the world. It stretches across about a dozen blocks in the south of Cochabamba and it is CRAY. They sell everything from traditional Bolivian hats and dresses, to toiletries, to mock-prada purses, to vegetables, to speaker systems in tiny stalls that are squished next-to and on top of each other. I wish I had pictures, but we were warned not to bring ANYTHING of value other than the money we would spend hidden and dispersed across our person. I bought a belt (because mine broke) and some sunglasses (because I sat on mine and broke them) and deoderant (because mine melted on the plane ride here and I've been scraping it out of the bottom of the container for the last week)-- are you sensing a theme of me being negligent toward my belongings? There is also a ton of street food in La Cancha that would probably give me parasites but looks dankity dank (= delicious)

3. This weekend there is a conference in Cochabamba for diplomats from all over Latin America, which means that the Bolivian military is out in full force. Walking around in the city center means walking past dozens of armed men (with giant guns) every few blocks.

4. Lastly, I was getting off a Truffi (small bus) today and someone on the bus tried to snatch my watch right off my wrist (watch = $15 at Target, not a great steal). They did not manage to actually take it because I swatted their hand away, but they did break the band. This means I must go without a watch for awhile which is going to be, a) Terrible, and b) Good because it might help get rid of my watch tan line.

Check out this sick interactive map I made of the places I go often in Cochabamba (I realize this is kind of an invitation for someone to stalk me... but, like, I'm just going to hope for the best, if someone really wanted to attack me they could probably figure all of this stuff out without needing the map, right?):




View Cochabamba in a larger map