I'm back!

My Nan told me it was about time I wrote another blog…so here it is…

I'm not quite sure how I've already been back for six weeks after a lovely Christmas at home, but apparently I have. Actually, if I'm honest, it felt like it took about six weeks to get back to Cochabamba, and that, my friends, is my first nugget of blog…

So, I'll be honest, I left it a bit late to book my internal flight from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba, but it is a small airline and you can usually buy tickets the same day/at the airport…and "usually" is a keyword in this story. I managed to book a flight, but after a delayed flight from Madrid (I just wrote "fright" by accident, and indeed it was) I missed my connection and was unable to swap onto the next flight out because there had been a landslide on the main road from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba, meaning everyone who would usually drive or take a bus was now flying too…FUN. Long story short, I had to stay overnight in a hotel that a taxi man found for me (not dodgy at all, no) and get a flight back the next evening. But don't worry, all is not lost, I discovered Cinnabon at the airport (about all you can buy there apart from fresh meat, snacks and Alpaca clothing (made out of Alpaca, not for Alpacas) and wow, those cinnamon rolls are YUMMY.

Anyway, I was SO happy to be back after that situation, and probably didn't feel as guilty as I should that my suitcase broke the boot of the taxi, whoops. (When I told the driver that it wouldn't fit, and that maybe I should get a different taxi rather than him driving around with the boot open, he really should have listened!)

The road blocks however, do not end there…It's referendum day today (another no car/no alcohol/no shops open day - a good day for blogging it turns out), and leading up to this there have been many road blocks and other situations as protests etc. meaning getting to work has been a struggle sometimes, talking of struggles, let's just talk about water balloons for a moment…

I just never thought that I'd ever choose getting the bus home instead of walking for any reason other than laziness, but turns out that this month there was a much more important reason… the water balloons. Now I'm all down for a water fight, especially in this warm weather, but when my boss told me that her friend broke her nose a few years back after being hit by a water balloon here, I was slightly concerned.

So,  some context, Carnaval is the biggest festival/parade in Bolivia, and it is celebrated in different cities on different weekends in February (the main one is in Oruro and it is amazing) - in Cochabamba it was last Saturday and it was a lot of fun! It apparently started out as an indigenous religious festival but is now a giant colourful parade, drinking fest and water fight. The lead up to Carnaval is, however, a little less fun. And this is where the water balloons come in…for a good few weeks before the festival young people, especially guys, like to throw water balloons at strangers walking along the street, their main targets are other young people, girls and foreigners, so, well, enough said there…

They throw them from cars, trucks, balconies or just street corners and you never know when you're safe! The first time I got hit I decided it wasn't so bad, just a bit of fun and actually quite refreshing…but a few days later when I was targeted the whole hour-long walk home and hit from all angles, I thought enough was enough… ha. One time I took a taxi somewhere (taxis are super cheap here, it's great!) and the second I stepped out of it I got hit on the shoulder…these youths are seriously on it!

And then there was the foam…you think there is no harm to be done when it's just cute little children spraying pink foam at you when you walk past…but then you get home looking like Mr. Blobby and realise it is not so easy to get off your skin/clothes as you hoped. Oh Bolivia. But overall it has been a lot of fun, if not slightly putting me on edge whenever I see a group of youths, or even when a car goes past slowly.

It's been so nice being back and settling back to everything I got used to here, and although I still have some language barrier situations, all is mostly well. An example of that 'mostly' is when a friend was describing someone to me and I asked whether she had a curly horse, rather than curly hair…I was trying to use some South American Spanish and it definitely didn't work out so well at that moment!

I feel like there are probably other stories from over this time, but the blog is getting quite lengthy so we'll leave it here for now, scroll down for some parade photos though :)

Lots of love,
Liza x

The bus got all dressed up for carnaval!

Just a little flamingo

Even the people dancing in the parade got covered in foam!