Hi everybody!

Hope you are all doing well. We are finally getting some much needed down time here in Cochabamba. We have been staying with some friends here for the past few days - Marcela, Jim, their 2 year old son Daniel, and Bubbles the rabbit. It has been great staying in a home again, as we haven't had that since Santiago. They have been incredibly kind to us and it is so hard to leave! (We were planning to leave yesterday, but now we are staying until tomorrow). Daniel is very sweet - he calls Maya "Mayita" and Braden "Bedo". He also likes to rummage through our things (he was wearing Maya's purse the other night) and throw anything he can get his hands on at Braden.

Marcela was kind enough to take a taxi down to the bus station with Daniel to pick us up when we arrived at 6:30 on Saturday morning. When we got to their apartment (which is beautiful by the way), Jim was cooking breakfast for us! Already a great start to the day. After breakfast, Marcela and Jim left to take Daniel to a local parade, while we stayed at the apartment to get cleaned up and rested. Was it ever nice to take a shower with no sandals on! And we had real coffee too. Right from the beginning we knew we weren't going to be able to leave when we had planned.

After the parade, Jim took us for a walk down the Prado (like a main avenue), and then we headed to the Conche - the local market. This market is unlike anything we have ever seen before. It extends for many city blocks, and there you can buy anything from televisions to cat food. Most of the items sold here are very inexpensive, although we are not entirely sure where they all come from. There is a lot of second hand clothing, which we are told is imported from Brazil, as well as fake designer label clothing which is made here. There is apparently a lot of controversy at the moment, as the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, wants to ban the sale of this imported clothing to encourage consumption of Bolivian goods. However, if he succeeds, many locals will be put out of work. After wandering around the market for a few hours (we only saw a fraction of it), we caught the bus back to the apartment to have pizza with Marcela.

The next morning, after another wonderful breakfast compliments of Jim, we decided to head to the market on our own. We caught the bus outside of the apartment (1 Boliviano each, which is about 15 cents), and made our way to the Conche. On the bus, several locals told us to be careful of our belongings in the market. One elderly lady told us to keep our hands on our bags and no money in our pockets. She said that for outsiders ("extranjeros"), the market is very dangerous as their are many theives. For locals, however, there is no danger as the theives know they have no money. She laughed as she said this, but it was hard not to feel a twinge of guilt (the average salary in Cochabamba is 330 Bolivianos a day - 41 dollars).

Once in the market, the immensity of it got the best of us and we spent the first hour and a half trying to figure out where we had been the day before. When we finally got our bearings, we set out to try to find some shoes for Braden. We soon learned that shopping in this market is not an easy task. Vendors display their wares on tables and hanging from the walls, but with no apparent order. Shoes are simply stacked one of top of another on the table. There is only one size in each style, and chances are it won't be a size 10 (most Bolivians look like they wear a size 6 shoe!). The second hand goods are piled together with the new ones, so you often have to examine things carefully to figure out if it has been used or not. After searching for a little while and coming up with nothing, we decided to give up on the shoes - it was just too difficult! Also, many of the shoes, if they were new, were of very poor quality because they were fakes. We left the market with no purchases and headed off to meet Jim for lunch. While we were waiting for Jim on one of the main streets, we noticed a woman on the sidewalk with a big blue bag, and the bag seemed to be moving! On closer inspection, we realized that there were dogs inside the bag! When we looked around, we saw 3 or 4 large wicker baskets, as well as a small plastic box - all full of dogs! We couldn't believe it. They all belonged to one woman, who was trying to sell them. However, she had them jam packed into these small boxes and bags, and they were whining like crazy to get out (it was a very very hot day also). Braden got out his knife and prepared to cut a hole in the bag so the dogs could breathe, but we decided we should not interfere in this woman's business, so instead we bought a bottle of water and asked her if we could give it to the dogs. She obliged, and by this time Jim had arrived, so we went for lunch.

After lunch (Indian food - what a treat!) we decided to head up to the Cristo de la Concordia, the largest statue of Christ in the world (somewhere between 33 and 40 meters high). It is located on top of a small mountain, near the center of Cochabamba. From the top, you can look down on the city for an amazing view. The statue of Christ is nothing special - not especially well carved, and it seems it was built purely for the purpose of being the biggest Christ in the world (many Cochabaminos think the money would have been better spent on social services). It is hollow inside and you can climb up a series of stairs, but you can only get to the arms of the Jesus and the lookouts from the statue are just small holes, so it is a better view from outside on the mountain. There is a staircase down the side of the mountain (some 2000 stairs), so we walked down and caught a taxi to the local stadium to watch the afternoon soccer game.

The teams were not especially talented, but they were equally matched so it made for an exciting game. We had to laugh, though, at the amount of times players fell down, apparently in agony, clutching their limbs and being carried off on a stretcher, only to get up 2 minutes later and run back into the game. That evening we had dinner at the apartment (Marcela had left it for us) and went to bed early.

Today, Monday, has been a relaxing day. We spent the morning checking email and catching up on some things. We met Marcela at 11:30, and went to meet her brother, Oscar. Oscar is somewhat of a celebrity. He is known for being the voice of the people of Bolivia in the Water War of 2000. For a man who accomplished so much and undertook such a huge role, he is very shy and soft spoken by nature. Unfortunately, he is still a very busy man, so we didn't have the chance to speak with him much. He also speaks very little English. For more information, google the Cochabamba Water Wars and Oscar Oliveria.

After meeting Oscar we went for lunch with Marcela and her friend Boris to a vegetarian buffet restaurant nearby - a decision Boris was not too happy about. When Marcela asked him if there was anything missing from the buffet he replied "Yes. Meat." Back to the apartment after lunch to write this blog and do some more relaxing. Tomorrow we will head to La Paz, and then on to Copacabana after a day or two.

Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you all lots.

xoxoxo

Maya and Braden