Hey! We flew out of Rurrenabaque in the morning and arrived in La Paz. Before the flight, a man with a broken leg was hauled into the plane, naked except for a revealing robe and underwear. I wonder how he broke it… We planned to go to our Airbnb straight from the airport (after picking up the luggage we had left at our first hotel), but the person renting it to us was late and we had to wait FIVE hours until we could rest. We made use of the time by going to the mall, and Asher had a three-hour lesson with his new Spanish tutor, Diana. She’s quite short but I think she’s pretty, and I think she and Asher get along well. While we were at the mall, Aba felt sick and nauseous. He could hardly stand up, though now he feels fine. We were eating lunch at a quaint little restaurant when we heard the news: the Notre Dame Cathedral was on fire. Bolivian internet censors live videos, so we could only read articles and communicate with others by text, but we saw the fire and the spire falling. It was dreadful. Dad, as you know, is in Paris, and he could see the flames and sent us videos. I just can’t get over how terrible it is… Did you know that it is almost 900 years old and that the last time it was damaged was the French Revolution? It survived both World Wars! When we went to Paris earlier on this trip, we passed by Notre Dame. However, we didn’t go in. Why? “We’ve seen it before and we can always go next time we come to Paris”. *sigh*, I’m just glad I have been in there before and can remember it. The next day was spent doing homework. Troy made us sandwiches for dinner with mustard, so they were great. I also got to eat pickles! Yum! The second day, we almost ate at a Harry Potter themed restaurant but decided that the food didn’t look good after all. We also discovered some juicy school gossip. One of my favorite teachers got fired for being drunk and high in class. One of my friends’ sisters actually reported him. I’m not going to go into detail because it feels wrong, so I’m just recording this solely for posterity. We also started watching a new TV show, Fauda, and so far I like it. In the morning, we got up early and met with our guide, Denis. He is a friend of our first guide, Sandro. We drove through Death Road, honoring Mother Earth with spilled alcohol in a ritual along the way. Death Road is a road on which many people have died, kind of self-explanatory. It is very curvy and narrow, and it is located right on the edges of cliffs. It is rated one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Still, it was very beautiful and the ride was enjoyable. Diana came with us and spoke Spanish with Asher, and it was nice to have her around. I don’t know why, but I like her a lot. She seems like a nice person.
Because we left early, we had the road to ourselves. However, we ended up having to wait for an hour for a tractor to clear the way through the day before’s landslide. During this time, we were passed by multiple biking groups, including two groups of Israelis. The first group seemed like classic Israeli millennials (loud, arrogant, annoying, playing irritating music filled with cuss words, etc), but the second seemed slightly more approachable. That is why we played our favorite trick. They were like, “If we had been here earlier, we could’ve DIED, blah, blah, etc, etc”. This went on for roughly half an hour when one of them accidentally bumped into Aba and said “sorry” in English. Aba then replied in Hebrew, and oh, the faces! The faces are priceless! Israelis commonly travel after the army and before college, so we have surprised many of them like this on the trip. I love it so much! It’s hilarious!!!! The man who bumped into Aba said, “You’re Israelis?!”. Aba said yes, and I said, “why else do you think I was laughing so hard at you earlier?” He blushed! Aww, I love it.
Anyway, when we finally passed the landslide, we (except for Troy) went ziplining a short way through the cliffs. As I was getting hooked up, the Israelis were still trying to decide whether or not to do it because they were scared. I told them, “I’m 14. If I can do this, you can do it, too.” Wonderful. The zip line was really fun. It was too short, but I was lying down and felt like I was flying. Among the green background, there were beautiful purple plants scattered through the trees.
We ate lunch and Denis told us a bit about the history of Bolivia and its history of war (and its history of losing wars). We passed through some coca farms on the terraced hillsides and then drove back to La Paz. We got there 2.5 hours late and had to cancel our dinner with Sandro. The next day, I woke up early and did homework. I finished a bit before Asher, so Aba and I decided to go shopping/errand-running. Our first stop was a Jewish Center where we bought tickets for the next night’s Passover Seder. That’s right, Passover! No more bread for us! Anyway, everyone there spoke Hebrew but seemed quite religious, wearing yamakas, etc. They even made Aba wear tefillin (look back at Asher’s Bar Mitzvah post) and read from the Torah! Aba also bought Bamba there! After that, we went to the Witch’s Market. We got Asher a shirt for the holidays, a runner for our table at home, and almost bought me a casual backpack but decided it was too large. We stopped at a barber’s and Aba got his hair shaved. Another customer was an 80-year-old man. Before he left, he asked for a porno magazine! I suppose he gets his hair cut every week and replaces them. It was very funny to see, especially because the workers had to take it out of a secret hiding spot. On our way to the mall, we passed a square filled with many folk dancing people. In the square, we bought Asher a chocolate bunny for Easter and a terrified-looking chocolate rabbit for the rest of us. There was a clothing store that we wanted to browse in at the mall and we found two shirts and a jacket that we loved, but when we were about to pay for them the staff told us that the prices were in US dollars! $79 USD per shirt. We did not buy anything, so I can’t imagine what Bolivian does. How does the store make any business? I really enjoy these days out with Aba, so I’m glad we had the chance for one. At 7:30 pm, Sandro picked us up and took us to dinner. There were several live bands, most of them skilled with the pan flute, and a dancing group. This group came on several times and Aba was very popular, a true lady’s man. I danced a few times as well, but what was most shocking is that Asher and Troy danced, too! That NEVER happens! And both in the same night! Incredible!
The next day, Asher and I did homework. While he was in his Spanish lesson, I started working on an opera song called Ave Maria that my voice instructor in Israel, Tamar, assigned me, and a bracelet that I am making for Aba. We watched Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy until Asher returned and then watched Fauda and Desperate Housewives. That night, we went to a Passover Seder! Passover is the celebration of the Jews’ freedom of slavery from Egypt. There were 500 backpacking Israelis congregated in the dining hall, the most I’ve seen since we left Israel, and it was a surprisingly fun experience. The Seder was very slow, but there was a lot of singing out of key and socializing. A funny saying that the host said was that “it was easier to get out of Egypt than to get Matzo into Bolivia”. They wouldn’t let them ship Matzo to the Seder, so they had to smuggle it and make their own.
From the Salt Flats of Uyuni to the Amazon jungle and Pampas of Rurrenabaque to just La Paz, I have fallen in love with Bolivia. It is one of the few countries existing today in which you can feel that it is untouched by the wrongs of the modern world. I mentioned this before, but who knows how long it will stay this way. Aba got us a ten-year Bolivian VISA, but I don’t even know what Bolivia will look like in ten years. Please, don’t change all that much.
Ella
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