Monday couldn't really fit the bill because I had to prepare for and attend Spanish class, but the day was pretty great! I got to speak to the other volunteers a little bit more, and I'm hopeful that I can rent the apartment that some of them are currently living in and will leave in the next week. I also went to the tourism office to pick up a map and did research on everything I want to see here, so I'm looking forward to it all!
On Tuesday, I finally went to some of the tourist attractions in Cochabamba! It wasn't much because I only had the afternoon, but Cochabamba has the largest Christ statue in the world, so I went to see it! I walked down one of the streets to the park at the edge of town. In it is the teleferico, or cable car system. It costs 10.5 Bs (about $1.50) for a round-trip. You can technically walk up a long set of stairs to get to the statue, but it's not safe as indicated by the "We recommend that you do not take the stairs to avoid being mugged" signs around the teleferico station. Oh.
The streets on the way there - nicer than in the heart of the city!
The cable cars actually work differently than the typical ones - for these, there are 6 total cars, three on the bottom and three on the top. They are very close and when you want to use them, you get in one and have to wait until the others are mostly full before they will take off. Saves energy, I assume.
The cars and the top of the mountain/hill give a really beautiful view of the city! You can see the large lake in the background, and Cochabamba actually has some beauty to it due to the mountains in the background and modern-looking buildings.
Then Jesus and I had another photoshoot!
And I walked to the lake that you can see in the pictures above. I was expecting it to be super beautiful and full of life, but it was kind of average and sad. That was disappointing.
On the way back, I passed by a group of people that were protesting something (they were sitting on their signs so I couldn't get a clue what it was for) by sitting in the middle of the street! The cars they were blocking seemed to just go with the flow and turn around, like it was a common occurrence. Interesting.
Wednesday was fun! It took me almost 1.5 hours to get to Proyecto today (it usually takes less than half that time) because of intense traffic in the Concha market. I can't remember if I've really described it before, but it's this huge outdoor market that lines the streets for blocks and blocks, and is the "full" market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Since it was early, I didn't expect much traffic, but I was dead wrong! Someday I will take pictures of it to post to help with visualization!
Yesterday was some celebration known as "San Juan" - I don't really know what it celebrates, exactly, but it calls for a big party! After lunch, when the babies went to sleep, I went with the other volunteers to the little celebration. The staff were grilling hot dogs, and since it was the last day for two volunteers, we just sat around and talked for a while! It was quite refreshing and I'm glad I'm getting to know everyone a little more as the days go on.
On my way back to the city, I stopped by one of the main churches in Cochabamba. The city doesn't have a main plaza the way most of the cities of Peru do, but the one that this church is next to (Plaza Colon) is the closest thing, making this church one of the main ones. I actually appreciated this one quite a bit because it was simple - the art got the job done without being overly ornate. It was quite nice!
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