Another exciting day!  Carl was on his way to school this morning, around 6:30 and oooops - road blocks on every road.  It was not the gov., but truck drivers and bus drivers protesting the price of gas.  You don't dare cross any protest lines here, they may throw rocks or have nails on the road so you ruin your tires.  Not one to be told he can't go somewhere, he drove up the mountain and around who knows where,  came down the mountain into the school compound from the back side.  Good thing he has a 4 wheel drive vehicle!

Anyway, they had to cancel school .  As one of the teachers pointed out, most schools have snow days or bad weather days, but here we have riot days!  

Life in South American is always interesting!

Buenos Aries  reminded us so much of New York or European cities.  Lots of little ethnic communities within the big city.  Very quaint, with lots of good eating places.  Carl found this great little corner deli/grocery store, but as you can see from the picture below we were not the first ones to find it.

I loved the  color and texture of this place.

Like eating in an Italian Grandmother's

kitchen.

My kind of place, let the food do the decorating.

This was the cook, just a small guy!

He was just eating his lunch.  What you can't 

see clearly is that there are 2 large steaks

and a mtn. of sweet potatoes on his plate.

Yes, he eat the whole thing!

Carl and I went to La Cancha Sat. just for 

the fun of it.  Holy Moly, was it packed.  

La Cancha is the largest out door market 

in South America.  Not sure why because

a lot of it is in what I would call rows and 

rows of  storage units, the center of which 

is covered in tarps, and some is in actual 

buildings that have been joined together, 

and some of it is stalls lining the streets.  

It has just grown on it's own and you 

need a GPS to find your way around, 

but most importantly, find your way out.  

You can buy anything there from the latest

computer equipment to a llama fetus.  

Here are just a couple of pic.'s as it was 

really to crowded to take many.

These are stalls of shoe repair men.  There must have 

been 20 in a row.  Very cheap to repair your shoes here,

wish I had brought a bunch with me that I just threw 

away.  They do great work.

These are bags of pasta.  Any kind you

could want is here.

It is 3:00 p.m. and no refrigeration at all.

Selling all cuts of meat.  Look close and you

will see, leg, tongue, and other things

I was not sure what they were.  The lady 

holding the baby is doing the selling.

At all the markets little boys push these wheelbarrows

and you can hire them to carry you goods back to 

your car for you.  Kids of all ages work here and 

they work hard.  They know the value of

work and money.

It's Alive!! My computer is alive again!
Here's the deal. A couple of months ago a virus ate my computer - wiped out windows. My tech. guy at school recommended a shop to take it to. I did. They installed a new Windows, cleaned up the whole computer and charged me $30. (I should have known something was strange)
Anyway, a week ago the thing started acting strange and little signs kept coming up that said something like
"You are running an Illegal Windows - Stop using it or I'll blow up!"

I took it in today and the guy said well of course it is a pirated edition. New ones cost over $200. So, he reinstalled a new "pirated" one, I guess and sent me on my way. Would not take any money.

Hey, what am I supposed to do? I have the original Legal windows in the states, in storage.
I know I should obey the law. Ok Jody send back the Wolverine disc I sent you three months ago - long before it came out in the theaters.

Yes, people, I will be watching the new Harry Potter in my home on a disc. months before it comes out in theaters. What am I supposed to do - not look!

OH, I bet it is OK as long as I send you a copy. Right?

Yesterday was a Bolivian Holiday (Labor Day) so no school. Joeline and I walked around the city for four hours. Of course, about an hour was spent in this little coffee shop - Cafe Paris - great coffee and even better Ban

Yesterday was Labor Day in Bolivia, so no school. Joeline and I left the apt. at about nine and walked for four hours. Course a lot of that time was window shopping and at least 45 minutes was spent in this little "Cafe Paris" we found downtown. Had great coffee's and then we topped it off with a banana split crepe. Very good!

Last night we went to a concert - four old guys from Argentina. We were at a table for 10 with a bunch of the younger teachers. A parent gave us all the tickets.

At 11:30 we left there and went to a nightclub we know of. The owner is also the lead singer of a group that performs there. He is amazingly good, and for some reason likes Joeline and I. He constantly comes to our table and sings to us. The kids with us had never had attention like that and really enjoyed the attention.

At three am we called it a night and came home.

Now it is 9 and we are up and walking down to the market for our weekly Saturday trip. I look for new tapes and Joeline buys fruits and vegetables.

Later

Seems that so many people look at this, I am going to use it for an add. I need a Principal. He/she will have to speak Spanish, since I don't. Someone has to be able to communicate with the parents.
Also need a First Grade teacher, but I need a Principal by June - otherwise I have to do all the work preparing for next school year.
Carl

As you can see, 

Miss Evita (the Argentine Maltese)

 is adjusting to her new home very well.  

Yes that is the dinning room table, 

don't ask!  Guess she was just checking

things out.  Note the innocent look!

I have a carrying case for her and she goes

walking with me and the ladies (or her

Aunties as they call themselves) every Mon.,

Wed. and Fri..  We end up at the coffee 

shop down on the main plaza and no one

bats an eye as she sits with us and has coffee..

She gets more attention than the Red Coat.

Go to older blogs to get that story.

Just a note, the table cloth is from

Paraguay and hand made, isn't it

beautiful!

This is a picture of the Andes off our balcony window.  The peaks are called Tunari, they are ones Carl climbed, (said it was the hardest thing he has ever done).  No oxygen, elevation over 18,000.  Needless to say, Miss Doesn't Do Cliffs has no intention of seeing them from the top.  I was just proud to go out on the balcony to get these pictures.  They got their first dusting of snow today, (we are going into winter) and they brought back memories of my much loved Sierra Nevada's in Calif.

Pictures of the B&B we stayed at in Buenos Aries

The view from our

bedroom window.

Note the full moon!

There was a beautiful

back lite stained glass 

window on the wall,

and some great pieces 

of glass.

This little alcove was 

in the foyer to our 

bedroom.  A little 

sitting area 

underneath  and 

a vanity and chair

on top.

I just wanted you to 

see the beautiful 

woodwork.

This corner  door in  the dinning room opens out onto 

this sec. story courtyard.  You can't tell from the picture,

but the corners of this room are convex, which 

means that the wood in the door is curved  and 

the glass is pieced to accommodate the curve 

of the door.  Again the craftmanship is awesome.

These mosaics were on

the walls of the entry way.  

The colors were beautiful.  

The walls were rose

marble.

This was the 

front door 

to our B&B.  

It is a historical 

building in 

BA.  It has been 

keep amazingly 

orig. and the

craftsmanship 

was unbelievable.

How great are friends!

Without sounding corny, how lucky am I to have so many friends. Right now I am planning a get together with friends I went all through school with. Ten of us are meeting in Oct. for a get together in Nappa. You're talking 40 years. Some of us, our parents were friends and even one, our grandmothers. Awesome! Then there are dear friends from our time in Ariz. and Texas who I wouldn't trade for anything and still stay very close too. The following is a picture taken at a Tea today of some of my newest friends I have met since moving to Bolivia. Even though I have known them for a lot less time, they have become very dear to me and I consider them friends for life. I am a saver, never throw anything away, much to my children's dismay. They tired to help me purge with a huge yard sale when we sold our house and moved here. I still have two storage units full of things in the states. I save and horde my friends as well, and they will never be put in a yard sale.



























I love the diversity of Bolivia. For example in this picture
some of these ladies are from, London, Scotland, Hawaii,
Germany, Canada,Oklahoma, Texas, California, several
Cochabamba but have lived in various areas of the states.
One even knew my home town of Dinuba, another knew
San Angelo, and one had been to Pinetop, Az.

Small world!

I don't know if you have heard of the Reoleta Cemetery, I had not. When friends here in Bolivia heard we were going to Buenos Aries, without fail one of the first places we were told to visit was the Recoleta Cemetery. My first thought was cemeteries are usually very beautiful, but not at the top of my visit list. But we did visit mainly because Eva Peron's burial site was there. Oh my gosh, am I glad we did! First of all, it is a small city. The crypts are small houses and so very beautiful. The grounds are maintained, landscaped and well visited. Many of the crypts have fresh flowers, Eva's always has many fresh flowers. However, there are crypts that for whatever reason have had no care for many, many years as you will see in the following pictures. Needless to say these freaked both of us out! The crypts almost all have glass doors or windows in the doors so you can view the coffins inside. Carl walks up to one of the doors after we had just passed the pictures below and looked in. Now very little scares him, but I swear he squealed like a girl. He saw his reflection looking back at him. Truly it was spooky, which I am embarrassed to say, but open crypts with coffins so old you can see bones weird me out. On the other hand, for the most part the cemetery is very beautiful and a study in history and architecture. An interesting side note, there are cats everywhere. Some friendly, some not. They seemed fairly healthy and well feed. There are water spouts everywhere and they are left dripping so the cats always have plenty of water. I don't know if they are feed or left to their own devices. I saw no kittens and the cats seemed very mature, old even. Just an interesting note, I did not see any all black cats, thank heaven!

Black marble, purewhite granite, stained glass windows,brass,

and silver all very expensive and all used in these crypts.

This one, the side wall was broken out and you literally

could reach in and pull the casket out. It was dated in the

1800's. We really saw no vandalism, graffiti.

Just age deterioration.

These crypts, when you went in the front door, were little

rooms with or without caskets, then they had a stairway

going down into an underground room that was lined

with caskets.

This literally was a house, very beautiful

and must have cost a fortune.

Note that these were all small children's caskets. There

were even very small chests that had to be for pets. I

don't think they cremated back then.

This covered many city block and is located right in

the city.

The art was so beautiful!

All a must see if you are ever in

Buenos Aries.

This is the grave of Eva Peron.

I hadn't realized she was only 33 when she died.  She accomplished a lot for such a short amount of time.  

This is the famous Pink House of Argentina, like our White House.  The balcony is the famous balcony Eva Peron made so many appearances from.  By the way, Madonna's movie is not a favorite in Argentina!

Images of the movie "The Birds" flashed thru my mind!

Then we made friends!

Tango Time!

This was one of our tango teachers. Very talented dancer and very patient with us!

Our other teacher was 74 and he was the best leader I have ever danced with. When
you danced with him you did not have to know the tango, just follow him and you
were good. The tango (the real tango) is nothing like what we know in the states. I
like both, but the Argentina tango has more heart and less flash! Problem is they all
told us it takes a life time to learn. We are getting a late start!

These three pictures are of our city guide taking us on a tour of the city. First stop was the subway. Some of the cars are the original ones from 1923 when the subway started. Quick, cheap transportation, but very crowded. Lot of shopping underground as you go through the "alleys" to get to the trains.

These three pictures are at a Book Store. What a place to shop for books and to read. Joeline wanted the Eva book, but it was out of stock. I did find a Tango tape my secretary wanted.

The picture to the left is my beautiful date for the evening. We are at our B&B, ready to go see a Tango Show.

Top is from our table to part 

of the stage.

Bottom picture is at our table.

It was a wonderful show. 

Very active, very entertaining, great dancing. Food was fantastic. Of course with a date that looks like this, it was hard to concentrate on the food or show.

This outdoor artisan

market wound around

this park for miles.

Beautiful items for

sale. The park was

lined with wonderful

restaurants with out-

door seating. We had

a wonderful lunch and

while I took Evita for

a walk Carl went to pay

the bill. This is were

the ideal day went

astray!

Do I look a little lost, perhaps looking for someone?

Somehow I went left and Carl went right as we left the restaurant. Now we are in a huge park full of vendors and literally thousands of people. This was the first day, I had just picked up Evita, and to say the least had no idea where I was, except to say I did know I was in Buenos Aries.

For you to really understand my situation, I should explain how Carl and I travel. He does the planning, researches what we are going to do, puts together the agenda, makes all reservations, everything. I don't want to know anything except when we are leaving, how long we will be gone. Maybe an idea of the weather, but I usually take enough clothes to cover any situation, so that is really not even a need to know. It is a perfect arrangement for us, he likes to take charge and I like to be taken care of. I don't carry the tickets and usually don't even carry any money, when we shop, I pick it out and he pays. Works for me!

So on this particular day when Carl and I get separated, understanding our travel arrangement, you are not surprised when I tell you I had no idea where I was except to say I knew I was in Buenos Aries. I did not know the name of our Bed & Breakfast, least of all the address. I did not know the name, phone number or address of one single person in the city or the country for that matter. Of course I had no money! I did have my new puppy and a small bag of dog food in my purse so I knew we would both eat for a while. Now, for the first 30 min.s I was not too concerned, I figured if I stay in one place he would eventually find me, that is of course assuming he was looking for me. Thus the rest of the story! I wait another good 30 min.s, during which time I will admit I was scoping out some street corners that looked workable, when the only blond haired, blue eyed person in the whole park comes into view, wearing a sheepish look on his face. Now I though he would be mad at me for getting lost and using up time throwing us off our agendas time line, but NO he was surprisingly sweet, wanting to know if I was OK. Well, bells went off and as I wormed out of him how we got separated I find out he has been in a tourist office visiting with a very good looking Argentine beauty (they don't win Miss Universe for nothing) who was selling him all kinds of tickets to different shows. I did enjoy the shows he had bough tickets for, I did enjoy him trying to make up to me the stress he had caused me even more - hee hee

              The story begins here!

My visa is somewhere in

this Bolivian filing system.

One of many offices

I spent days in.

I have been in Bolivia since Jan. 5, and as much as I like it here, there are just a few little things that tend to wear on you.   At times the lack of urgency/efficiency can be charming!  However when I have already purchased tickets to Buenos Aries, where I will  purchase my Maltese puppy that I have been searching several months for, the charming factor drops drastically!   I had spent almost a day a week at Interpol, Policia, Inmigracion,  gave samples of blood, was  finger printer to the extent that my finger tips are tinted gray, and was escorted to every official office in the city by our facilitator who we have paid approximately $1,000 for my visa. Now without said visa I can leave but not get back into the country.  It is Fri. and we leave Sat. morning at 9:00 a.m.  True to Bolivian form I do not get my visa, however I did get a yellow post-it in my passport with a letter saying everything was OK.  That verbal, "trust me-it is all OK" was all I left the country with, that and the hope I could get back into Bolivia!  Now I have heard that line before, so needless to say, I had my doubts!  But off we flew to Buenos Aries and so begins many new stories!!!!!! 

We just got back from our five days in Buenos Aires. What a city! Want to shop? That is the place. Very European. Great food, great weather, great theatrical productions, tango dance clubs everywhere, fantastic architecture. Traffic? another matter. just like here, crazy!

We had a wonderful time. Course, that is not necessarily much of a recommendation as we have a great time wherever we go.

Joeline says that next June I have to get a job there. We'll see, I am torn between not working at all and working in Italy or somewhere out of South America. I like the not working at all idea, but that requires money and there we would have a problem. So, I guess that is really not an option.

Anyway, Joeline will be posting pictures, etc of this trip. I highly recommend BA.

Come to the Waters

The Brewery is a great Sunday after church lunch restaurant.  Good

food and great view of whole valley.  They say the beer is very good,

I don't like beer so I really can't say.  I do know they sell a lot!!!

This is Tecquina Brewery.  We are on 

the 9th floor  and as you see 

the brewery is up from our window.

They have a view of the whole

valley!

They have 

walkways

like this

all over

the property.

Very secluded

and romantic.

.

Some interesting architecture.

Great place

for a Sunday 

lunch.

Thought this 

was an 

interesting

shot.