On The Condor Trail: Cochabamba: Christmas time

I arrived in Cochabamba after an horrendous bus ride that ended up in the back of a truck.

The plan in Cochabamba was to mark a break from the travelling and stay calm for a bit in order to enjoy Christmas and get our things together to plan the rest of the trip and what we wanted for the future.

Geo was already in Cochabamba for just more than a week when I arrived. He had found a good way to stay there for almost no money. The plan was to stay in a social care institution and help with a few tasks in exchange of a room and one meal for less than two pounds a day. Of course it came with a few rules: no visitors, the doors closing at 10 p.m. and no alcohol allowed. Perfect place for a real rest :) .

A view of Cochabamba from the laguna close to La Casa del Migrante

The idea for Geo was to prepare the "after trip" as he could see its savings disappearing quickly. And for me it was to look for an option to come back to Europe on a sailing boat and improve my Spanish through a few lessons (Link of the school).

During our time at the "Casa del Migrante" (name of the institution) we met great and simple people that often had nothing. Spent nights chatting about politics with our new friends Guido and Juan-Pablo. It was interesting to be in an environment very different to the habitual backpacking scene. Almost all the people staying there were working in markets selling food or things and didn't have family (which is THE social circle in Bolivia) so they didn't have the money to have a place to themselves. There was people from all different ages, from 18 to 80. For them it was as little as 50 pence per day to stay including one meal. A great institution only relying on private funds and payments from the residents. The place was working with every resident being assigned a task: cleaning, making food, do the dishes. In this way no personal was needed.

Christmas was approaching, Eduardo one of the guys in charge made a "beautiful" Christmas tree out of recycled plastic bottles while listening to some amazing retro techno tunes.

We had a very simple Christmas with the residents. Just a meal a bit better than usual and for desert some Panetone (as weird as it is this Italian Christmas bread is the tradition in Bolivia) and a bit of Cider. We had made some pies but they didn't encounter a big success on the Christmas meal as it is not in the traditions to eat pies for Christmas. The Christmas dinner happened very quickly, nobody really seemed to care or to speak much. It was only once at the dessert that people started to celebrate a bit and get together. Speaking with my Spanish teacher about that I learned the reason. Food in Bolivia is really strictly for nutritional purpose there is no chatting or sharing during the meals, it is only after when you open a beer or make a brew that people start to interact.

Panetone and Cider!

The kids

Anyway after the dinner Geo and I managed to escape and got a special permission to stay a bit later than 10 ;) we went to the local tienda to share a beer and celebrate our little Christmas.

Christmas time under 30 degrees

One of the biggest attraction in Cochabamba is also the giant market called La Vega. It is a lot of fun to spend a few hours and get lost int the maze of shops. It is just like another city in the city and if you have time you can find almost anything.

One shop

Some pics of Cocha:

Cochabamba from el Cristo

El Cristo de la Concordia

The flying:

The good thing about Cochabamba is that it is also one of the best places to fly in Bolivia or one of the most accessible to fly distance. But for the first time in the trip we had some trouble flying because of the weather. For the first time in 5 months spent in the Andes more or less in rainy season we had some proper rain and bad weather. Anyway we managed to find a few days to go flying with the very welcoming paragliding scene.

Cocha from the air

The first flying day we had, we had the chance to be there for a price giving ceremony. So in spite of the good conditions we had some barbecue and beers at the landing site.

Winners!

The real ones :)

The team

We also witnessed a weird tradition which is to beat the new pilots (fort heir first flight) with a stick as an initiation ritual.

The ritual

On the next day the weather looked more promising, so we teamed up with a super nice local pilot named German to try to go cross country.

Getting Ready

Double German

The conditions were really light and the cloud base pretty low. We boated around take off with Geo watching German going for its first turn point at the east of take off. We eventually followed him, but the day wasn't the easiest with strong bubbles and no well formed thermals.