Email Extracts

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APRIL 8, 2009 to ERNA from SANTA CRUZ
I still haven't shaved since Huancayo or cut my hair since Canada [I buckled after a week of Santa Cruz weather, but got it back in Cochabamba!]. I gotta say, this is quite the treat!! I've dreamed about being this scruffy before, but never got to live it until now. And the humidity is definately helping my hair stay curly at a longer length. I don't think I could keep it this long at home.

Oh, and the weather here is much hotter than Lima. Bolivia is land locked, yet it is mucky and hot here cause it's only 400m above sealevel and in the jungle. And, I'm FINALLY reaping the benefits of living in the Andes for 3 months. When playing soccer with the guys [Ken's guys] last night, I could run as long and hard as them. Funny cause I'm not exactly in shape and some of these guys used to play for quality teams. Now I just need some coordination [any at all] with my feet and I'm good to go.

APRIL 8, 2009 to TARA from SANTA CRUZ
Sometimes it's frustrating [learning Spanish] because I learn the same word about 50 times (no exaggeration!). Often I recognize the words, but don't remember their definitions. Other times I understand the words, but not the sentences. Funny story, I was having dinner with a Kati in Lima when her friend joined us. Her friend was speaking talking about me in front of me, but I couldn't decifer exactly what she was saying. She finished by saying "No entiende mierda" (literally "he doesn't understand shit"), which was the only sentence I knew. That was about all I understood, so I said, "No, entiendo mierda". She was a little embarrassed.

APRIL 8, 2009 to TARA from SANTA CRUZ
I'm hanging out with 9 ex-street kids who had/have some problems - almost all are around 20 yrs old, so I hope I can be a good influence. Plus, Ken said he has 9 guys staying with him, so if I sleep on the floor (which I am), then what is one more?

I've only been in Bolivia for a few days, so it's hard to say exactly what the differences are. Plus, Santa Cruz people may be different from other Bolivians [They are!]. One difference is that people in Santa Cruz say "Bueno dia" and "Gracia", not "Buenos dias" and "Gracias" [Woowee, them folk are hard to understand!! Folk in Cochabamba are much easier to understand.]. I suppose they lost their S's a long time ago. And the cars honk less here [On second though, I think I've just gotten used to it]. However, I suspect that further west (closer to Peru and back in the mountains), the culture will be very similar to Peru.

APRIL 11, 2009 to TONY from SANTA CRUZ
I've told a lot of people down here how proud I am for you [for the Inka Jungle Trek]. Today we were at a pool with a giant mariposium (a ridiculously large butterfly and bird enclosure) with a tall look-out tower. One girl tried to climb it but her fear of heights had her drop on all fours and tremble. It really helped solidify how terrifying heights can be for some people. It also reinforced how difficult the trip must have been for you. Good on ya, pops!

As for down here, the other day I went to a slum home, which was the size of your kitchen. I gotta say, it was humbling. We made empanadas with them, which in hindsight, I think was more food than they had in their house. I played some soccer with the guys in the family and lifted weights with the dad! haha, obviously he was stronger! He also shared his story of how he got off the streets and how god has helped him out. He spent over 8 yrs on the streets before finding his own land and building his own house. Tough life. [my facebook pic is from here]

Probably the best part so far has been hanging out with the ex-street kids here. We call each other cachiman, which is their own slang and roughly means slave or servent. I suspect it's a little more rude, but who knows. Either way, they've been incredibly welcoming and patiently chat with me. The other day I had a long conversation about Evo Morales with one of them, which was a part of my choice to come here - to see how people view him.

Anywho, take care of your body, too pops! I've definately been getting my fair share of exercise. You wouldn't believe how much physical labour I've done down here. I've yielded machetti's several times lately. [Don't worry, I wasn't partaking in genocide, but helping out a grade 11 mission group from Saskatoon]

APRIL 13, 2009 to MEGHAN from SANTA CRUZ
I went to church for your birthday, which was awesome because there was lotsa singing and lotsa air conditioning. Santa Cruz is blistering hot! After that, the chaperones from the gr 11 class from Saskatoon had an Easter egg hunt for all of us, the boys and I included. The guys down here have all been extremely good to me - teaching me street slang and messing up my already not-so-good Spanish.

APRIL 29, 2009 to ERNA from SANTA CRUZ
Today was my last day in Santa Cruz. I leave at 6am tomorrow for Cochabamba. And yeah, I saw Che's moselium, execution site, last battle site and the location where his body was shown to the press. To be honest, the conversations I had on the tour were as good as the tour itself. I went with an Irishman and an Israeli and our guide was from Germany. The best conversation we had was in the hostel with the hostel lady who is from Cochabamba. [Woowee, was she passionate about her politics! Good to see.]

MAY 14, 2009 to TARA from COCHABAMBA
Funny enough, there's a bug here in Bolivia around Santa Cruz that'll bite you and half of your face will be paralyzed for a week or so. After that you're fine. Average Bolivian's don't seem to know this though, only doctors [Ken spoke with his doctor about this one]. So there's a wive's tale that if you leave the house just after showering in the evening you'll catch a cold cause of the temperature change. You gotta realize how rediculous that is - Santa Cruz is tropicly hot as hell. Their nights are at coldest 15 degrees and in freak insidences get down to 5, so if that was the case we'd all be permanently paralyzed in Canada!

MAY 20, 2009 to TARA from COCHABAMBA
And yup, things are cool down here. Tonight I'm gonna go to a show on how dada art influenced punk rock. [I understood the punk part cause I was famiar about it, but the dadism portion was a little tougher. I think he was arguing that dadism broke all rules of art, granting freedom to artists. Thus opening the doors for the possibility of punk. Personally, I think that's a far stretch and rather dadism is connected much closer to psychadelic rock (The Beatle's "Number 9") or experimental rock (The Velvet Underground's "Heroin") than punk. I think if there is a connection between visual art and punk it's more likely to be found in an art style like deconstructivism or whatever style is simple, yet strong.]

MAY 24, 2009 to MEGHAN from COCHABAMBA
I went to a pet market today. Outside the soccer stadium is a small market where you can buy fish, iguanas, cats, dogs and crabs. I'm not sure why you'd wanna buy crabs. You can get that free in most public washrooms. Anywho, there were tons of puppies that you'd wanna hug and kiss for hours. My favourate were the wrinkle dogs, hehe, they look so funny! [Notably I beat Flor at foosball with only my left hand - not that I'm bragging.]

After that Flor and I went to an artisan market. Honestly, the coolest stuff they had were plants. I suppose I'm not keen on buying trinkets. Just not my thing. But the plants are freaking cool. Most plants here are dirt cheap and the dirt is even cheaper!! Plus, tons of plants that we can only grow during the summer and inside can be grown outside all year round here. For instance, there are many poinsetta trees here.

Adam once told me that his dream home would be a penthouse and on the patio he'd have tons of pine trees with a fire pit in the middle. That way he could go camping on a highrise downtown. Cool idea, hey? Well, if I lived here I'd definately do that, except I'd have orange, mango, apple and avocado trees.

written by  ryanmyers on May 25, 2009 from Cochabamba, Bolivia
from the travel blog: Ryan's First Sabbatical
tagged SantaCruz, Pets, Ken and ElChe
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