I know you are looking for pictures of Bolivia, adventures, etc. but I had to put some on of Christmas or I would be banned from the family.

I just realized that on my pictures of my Machu trip I posted pictures leading up to Machu but not the Wonder itself. Here are eight quick pictures of what is truly one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is far more fantastic than any pictures I could possibly take, so I will just post a few. I would be wasting your time trying to adequately describe the place. Sometime in your life time you must go there.

I searched this city for days trying to find a camera cord, to no avail. Finally, I was talking to my Technology teacher, and happened to mention my problem. He thought he might have one that would fit and soooooo we are back in business. Now, I need to go through the hundreds of pictures I took in Machu, we took in San Angelo and Corpus, and that we have taken here in the last three weeks.

I'll start with one of Joeline coming back from the local market on her first Saturday here. You can see the flowers, what you can not see are the bags and bags of fruit and vegetables I am carrying for her. She loves the market.

Other pics are of the sky one evening from one of our apt. balconies. From some of our windows and balconies we get fantastic views of the Andes - there's a lot of snow on the peaks right now, although it is summer here - the other views are overlooking the city of over a million people.

We have a spotting scope and Joeline is having fun "checking things out".

In fact, she is having fun doing everything.

I'll let her tell you about her invitation to, and her going to the Cochabamba's Women's Club Luncheon.

Ok, I'll start looking through pictures.

Carl

Now we have had some benchmark parties in our time. In fact, I would go so far as to say we are known for our parties. Maybe not always in a good way, but people have heard of them. In fact our annual Christmas parties are rated on a scale of 1 - 4 for fires, (4 fires being the best rating). Especially if one of the fires is an actual guest. One of our parties, the Poor White Trash party, even caused a new neighbor to move. We didn't like him anyway, but you get the idea.

SOOOO, of course one of my first objectives once arriving in Cochabama was to have a party. Carl handed the invitations out at school and I was in a whirlwind of activities getting the small gathering (50-100) organized. Much to my irritation at being interrupted, I get a call from Carl telling me to stop, we are about to be arrested. Seems there is a Bolivian law that you cannot have a gathering of people within 48 hours of an election. Seems someone in the gov. planned an election to extend the current President's term. Now I am sure he is a very nice man and wouldn't mind just postponing his election by 1 week. I have already gone to a lot of work and I don't want people disappointed. I am just having a terrible time reading the phone book to find out who to call about their scheduling mistake! The phone book is all in Spanish, can't find the English section!

These pictures are of our going away party at the Concho Christmas Tree Farm. To see more pictures, (they are great) go to Water Family blog. The party had a Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid theme, they even showed up. Of course there was a little game of Texas Hold'm, some western dancing, showed the movie on the side of a barn, and a wonderful warm fire outdoors to roast marshmellows. Just a tad of Corona and wine, by all standards a great Texas send off. Access to the left on this blog.

The Rest of the Story

Let me clarify some of the (shall we call it "color") in Carl's post. Everything was pretty accurate, except he didn't say how wonderful Christmas and New Years really were. Very special family time, and thanks again to all who really went out of their way to join us. Special Thank You to Tomey & Jana, for their home and Jody and Bill for helping to entertain all of us. It reminded me of a special Christmas at our home in the mountains with the wonderful snow and many of the same people and some who are no longer with us. This too was just as special, but we had sand and the ocean this time. Our friends in San Angelo gave us a gun point send off at New Years. Another benchmark party, get Jody and some of my friends on the planning committee and they can put Martha Stewart to hang'n her head in shame! What a send off.
Now moving on to some more clarifying of Carl Color. The real reason I have not posted anything on the blog is because it is Carl's blog and he could not remember his password or user ID. However, in fairness to his tasteless comment about my spending time in the bathroom, I have been there a little more than usual. He has too, but not because of Bolivia! We had dinner the other night at a Chinese restaurrant and it did not settle well. So blame the Chinese not Bolivia!

Pretty much everything here has surprisingly been better than Carl had told me, or what my expectations were. It is cleaner than Mexico, no trash on the streets or parks. Speaking of parks, every other block has a park with a water fountain of some kind. The Prada downtown is a tree lined double street with beautiful trees and flowers and again more fountains.

Now to more truth, the other reason we haven't been posting is as Carl said we lost the camera cord that connects to the computers. Neither of our camera sticks will load into our computers. I am a firm believer in one picture is worth a thousand words, and being basically a lazy person, I plan to wait for the cord, saves me typing. Plus, I believe that most of our readers would rather look at one picture than read a thousand words also. Oh, and don't even say or think it, (just go get another cord). There are no Best Buy, Radio Shack, Office Depot, etc here. However, I did see a Curves (can you believe that). Even in Bolivia I am haunted with getting in shape. Nothing is easy or happens quickly here, which lends to much of Bolivia's charm and aggravation! It is one of the most beautiful places I have been, with air that just feels good when it touches your skin. It is also one of the least tourist affected places I have ever seen. You don't see other tourists or ads to get your tourist dollars. You are truly treated as a guest not a tourist. That could also be due to Carl's position as Director of Colegio Calvert. Everywhere we go we are stopped and greeted, everyone seems to know him. Makes you wonder doesn't it? They hold the school in very high regard here. Extremely nice to be asociated with a school so well thought of.

So lots to tell and show you, and I promise in the near future Carl or I will post more with pictures. As a preview, up-coming features will tell of dinner with a monkey and parrots, baby in a cardboard box with a plastic bag for a toy, and a pet flea market (no pun intended) you would not believe!!!

So "Buenas Tardes" for now. I am going to the bathroom, (fooled you) to take a long hot bath in my jacuzzi tub!

Jo

Hello again. As most of you know, I was in Atlanta in early December to make a presentation at the Latin American Conference on Schools and Colleges.
Joeline flew to meet me there and we had a "ball". But, man was it cold there - and expensive.
It cost me 10B's ($1.45) to ride from my apartment to the airport in Cochabamba. In Atlanta it was $60 to ride the taxi from the airport to our hotel - and it was a shorter ride.
Then, I spent the next three weeks in San Angelo and Corpus, visiting with the kids, grandkids, and relatives who came to see us during Christmas - fantastic time. Nell flew from California, Donald and Juanita drove from Arkansas, Tomey Jean drove from El Paso and Pat from Oklahoma.
If you click on Waters Family - which is on the right of this page - you can see all the pictures. It was really nice of them to show up.

Joeline and I have been back in Cochabamba since Jan. 5. I have been swamped at work getting the new Semester started after being gone for a month. Joeline is, well, I will let her tell her story - if she can get out of the bathroom long enough to type.
There are no pictures because somewhere during the trip I lost the cord that goes from the camera to the computer. Not an easy thing to replace in Bolivia. As soon as I can get one, we will start downloading.

How did the presentation in Atlanta go? Everyone is asking this, so let me give you one answer and you figure it out.

Near the end of the conference, Joeline and I were at the front desk getting something, and the President of the South American Delegation came up to check out. He had heard my presentation and introduced himself to us. His comment was, and I quote: "I have been in SACS (Southern American Colleges and Schools) for many years and I have to say that yours was the most "interesting" presentation I have ever heard."
Now, notice that he did not say "Best", or "Most Professional", etc., but used the adjective "interesting". Maybe it had something to do with the fact that in a room full of Latin and South American Professional Educators who are there for a very serious Conference, I spent 30 of my 45 minute presentation telling a somewhat "exaggerated" bear story.

Later guys

More pictures near the top of Ollantaytambo

This is a trail leading to different locations near the top. The "railing" was recently added because of some tourist deaths. Bad for tourism. I took a video with my camera, I'll try to send it also.

They believe that these blocks were cut from a quarry 6 miles over the mountain to the left of this photo, taken across the river in the background - a tributary of the Amazon, and then hauled up ramps. This ramp and several like it are still visible heading to the river. Remember they had no "wheels" so probably rolled them on logs.

Look at the size of these boulders near the top. Each weigh 150-200 tons. The small rocks between them allow for shifting of the huge stones. These were put together with brass "keys", needed for stability. Only problem is, the Incas did not use keys to hold their blocks together, they didn't need to with their precision.
Soooo, these stones were not placed here by the Incas but some "tribe" who was here BEFORE the Incas. The Incas actually built on an existing site. On the small block lying down, you can see where the key went.

Most of these structures were astronomical observatories as much as anything. Kind of hard to explain, but see the protrusions? On June 21, the beginning of Winter Soltice here, the shadows from one of the protrusions points directly to the other protrusion. Only day of the year it happens. You find this in many places in these structures. They knew what they were doing.

The second picture is a group of kids, walking along, joking, pushing and shoving, like kids. But notice how close they are to the edge and paying no attention to it at all. It is at least a 500 to 1000 foot drop straight down.

First two photos, look at the precision used in placing these blocks together. There is no gap between the stones, none. Then photos near the top.

Now to Ollantaytambo. First two photos are the terraces going up. Next two photos are the trail going up.

Still looking across. Like to live up there Joeline?

Next stop was Ollantaytambo. Tremendous structure. Very high on a mountain, naturally. Huge terraces, helped support the weight of the huge stones which were hauled up there. Supposedly was a very holy place, with "houses" for a lot of priests and guards.
These first photos are looking across the valley to a mountain where the lesser priests lived. How they daily got up and down from there is my question. Some of the photos are using telephoto, others are normal shots, so you can see the height, etc. But all photos in this group are looking across.

We stopped to eat lunch at this very nice "hotel".

I have to tell you this short story in the middle of the pictures. I have been in Bolivia since July 22 (on a 30 day visa). Since that date the school has been in the process of getting my, and all my American teachers, a year work visa. We finally hired a Facilitator - basically he goes around and bribes officials. Anyway I kept telling him I was leaving on Nov. 26 for Machu. Oh, no problemo, is all I got in return.
Finally on Monday, Nov.24 I started to get desperate. I called him in, reminded him that I signed the checks and that he was not getting paid if I did not get my Visa by the 26th.
Toa make a very long story short on the 26th. at 11 am I am sitting in the Immigration Office with him, waiting for someone to give me the Visa (by the way, they also had my passport)
Finally I get the visa and passport with just enough time for me to make it to the airport.
I fly to LaPaz. When I try to get my ticket in LaPaz Customs (Immigration, whoever they are) turns me away. Looked at my Visa, said NO, and shushed me away. The line was a mile long and I was not going to be "shushed" anywhere. I pointed to my visa, he said NO, tried to wait on the next person, and so on.
I would not let the next person come forward and I wasn't leaving. He kept saying -well who knows what he was saying, but NO was in there a lot. I just kept saying YES.
Finally he called in the cops! A policeman, in full gear, flak tacket, shotgun, etc. came up. The ticket man kept making handcuff motions, evidently trying to warn me I was going to be cuffed.
Anyway, everyone was getting some free entertainment.
At this point I began to wonder if going to Machu was quite as important as I had originally planned.
Actually I decided it was.
After a few very tense minutes - with the cop keeping one hand on the shotgun - he finally decided to look at the passport and visa I kept trying to show him.
Ten minutes later he went behind the counter, pasted another paper in my passport and sent me on my way.

Whew