Principio Parte:
As my first month came to an end, I decided to visit the city of Cochabamba. Well I was convinced to go to Cochabamba late one night sitting in a Karaoke bar. It was a four day weekend and I didn't need to back in the office until Wednesday. It is an 8 hour bus ride, one way. The buses leave either early in the morning to get in late at night, or vice versa. I left saturday night and eight hours later I found myself with 5,000 other groggy people at the Terminal (Coch. bus station) at 5:30a.m. Now, the quickest easiest, safest way to travel in Coch. is to simply hail a taxi, but if you've ever gotten in a taxi at 5:30a.m. unable to speak the language fluently, it can feel a little sketchy. Screw that, I was not going to be sketched out. I had friends, gringo friends, also in Coch. at the time, and they said that if I was sketched out by the bus station, by Coch. that I was to call them anytime. Screw that...I wasn't going to call them until breakfast. After quickly memorizing the addresses of some Lonely Planet recommended hostals I hailed a taxi and sped off into the blustery morning. If there is one thing to be said about Coch. is that it is a freakin' city. Huge, five hundred thousand plus people. But, my driver being the cool guy that he was quickly took me to the Central district and dropped me off at a highly recommended hostal. Tip#1 check to see if the hostal has room before you let the taxi speed off and leave you in the rain. But hey, I'm from the Pac NW, being slightly miserable in the rain is how we live, in fact I probably would have been ten times more stressed out had it been sunny out. Rain can be so comforting sometimes. So, I got my bearings via the miniscule map in Lonely planet and trekked off in a different direction. Twenty minutes later I found myself dry and curled up in a bed at the Hostal de Buenos Aires. If traveling alone, it would be cheaper to find another place because the room rate was 50 b's...and it didn't have any lockers to lock my things in, so sharing it with a stranger would have been out of the question. Clean...okay...close, definitely. Two hours later I woke to my buddy Juanpi inquiring about breakfast. It is at this juncture, Cochabamba becomes my favorite city in Bolivia. Coffee...I had real, brewed, non instant coffee for the first time in a month. I continued to drink coffee way past my limit for the remainder of the weekend. There are more or less three things to do in Cochabamba: eat, drink, shop. I ate, filet mignon for 8 dollars, enormous breakfasts for 3 dollars, cappuccinos for 75 cents and most importantly, cerveza for 1.25 a liter...yes, a liter. The gringo side of coch. also offers a giant statue of Jesus Christ (3 cm larger than the Christo in Rio de Janeiro, and until last week the tallest in the world, oh Poland...)that you can climb inside. So although I already felt the loving embrace that is capitalism and good service, I also stood in the arms of Jesus Christ. The open air market in Coch. is enormous...it makes pike place look like a corner grocery store. Everything from fresh and rotten vegetables, chickens, pork to artesian indigenous blankets, cell phones, and I even saw an xbox 360. one could literally get lost in the market, which I have done, four times. You enter in the vegetable section hoping to come out near the sunglasses, but some how I always find shoes. I probably have more ownership over Coch. than I probably should because on tuesday, my last day, it was the Bolivian Dia de los Muertos. Before you get all excited for pictures of giant skeletons and floral parades, this federal holiday is simply for families to have time to go and pay respect to there ancestors at the cemetery. For this reason, on Tuesday, Cochabamba was empty. I walked and walked and walked, and often times found myself the only one on a city block that would normally be bumper to bumper with Micros, taxis, motorcycles, street venders and dancing monkeys. A little erie, not going to lie. I spent all day in the only cafe that was open. I purchased a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, in spanish, and simply spent the day relaxing, reading and drinking coffee...Seemingly not the most exciting way to end a visit to the best city in Bolivia, but that's why there is a part deux...
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