Having Visitors

My college roommate, Hendricks, is in La Paz visiting for the month. Now that I'm a working man, it's kind of strange not being the one traveling around, living in hostels. Brian is now established living at Hostel Cactus, going out regularly with Argentine backpacking friends and complaining of the noisy Spaniard travelers who were predictably rowdy after Sunday's World Cup Finals. Today, he's attempting to summit Mt. Huayna Potosi.

Hendricks completely caught me off guard when he mentioned that culture shock was hitting him harder than the altitude sickness was. To me, Bolivia always felt a natural place to live after wandering South America for months. Even though I'm no longer the nomad I so proudly was this past year, I still get to live off his excitement of being in a new city. In addition to having our first guest over to the apartment for a home cooked dinner, I got to bike Death Road again this weekend. The views from the road carved out of the sides of jungle cliffs and from the mountains and rivers that stretch all the way to the Amazon are even more breathtaking when you're more comfortable with the biking and spend more time soaking in the surrounding beauty...not to mention the fun of getting to screw around the entire time with Brian and Vivi. This weekend we also watched a Saya band play at a Reggae bar. Saya is a style of Afro-Bolivian-Brazilian drumming, which provided beats for us to dance the night away with (which for us Gringos was probably more flailing our arms to a rhythm than dancing -- at least this time I wasn't the lone white boy). After we couldn't move our legs any more, we went to a late-night food market and ate grilled cow heart skewers dipped in a delicious peanut hot sauce. With Vivi, life is good, but convincing her to try questionably street food isn't always easy (especially after two weeks ago when we both got uncomfortably sick after trying a plate of shredded beef jerky with corn), so having another adventurous traveler around is a very welcomed addition.

For the next three days while Hendricks climbs the snow covered mountain, I'm going to take advantage of going to sleep early, relaxing watching the sixth season of House, and resting my eyes that I burnt out struggling to see the partial eclipse yesterday. Because when Brian gets back to La Paz, there'll be no resting for me when I go to Peru for my Visa on Thursday night, celebrate La Paz Independence Day Friday, and check out Lake Titicaca and the Island of the Sun on Saturday and Sunday.

Having Visitors