Valle de la Luna

For my first trip outside of the city center a few weekends ago, I traveled by minibus with my coworker Jamie to a place called Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), in a small town called Mallasa. It was definitely interesting to drive only about 25 minutes out of La Paz, watching the clusters of buildings fade away while heading towards mountainous terrain that sits just beyond it, and finally ending up standing on a completely different type of terrain.

Valle de la Luna sits between the views of mountains in the distance, a curious stretch of land with tall, jagged, beige peaks rising up from the ground like stalagmites. And with an entrance fee of 15 bolivianos (about 2 USD), I wasn't complaining.

According to the highly reputable source Wikipedia, these formations have been created through the erosion of a mountain. Although it looks like solid rock, I quickly learned that it was nothing more than clay and definitely not stable - it's easy to break off pieces with your hand.

So, being me, I wasn't satisfied with just walking on the safe, designated path - I had to do a little climbing!

That's my "focused, determined, and slightly scared for my life" face

Of course I put myself in a situation where at one point I had to go back down a slippery slope I had climbed up, which proved a lot harder on the way down. Pebbles under my old shoes made it difficult to control my descent, and the 2 options waiting for me at the bottom? Either a large, dark hole with no visible bottom, or a nice, prickly cactus. I tried to inch my way down as slowly as possible and luckily avoided both of those unpleasant demises.

The pit I almost fell into (not pictured: cactus directly towards the left of it)

The whole time I joked that I would get back to the smooth path and only then fall flat on my face. But as life goes, I escaped Valle de la Luna unscathed, only to eat it on a slippery patch of sidewalk in La Paz in front of my coworkers a few days later. Yep, sounds about right.

Overall, Valle de la Luna was a nice first excursion outside of La Paz, and it was just one of the many examples of the diverse landscapes and climates within or not far outside of this city.

Emi Me Encanta el Español (see what I did there?!)

I love speaking a non-native language. As I’ve repeatedly told my friends, family, and any poor acquaintance who will listen, I will forever be bitter about the fact that I technically could’ve been trilingual (since my parents are both American immigrants, from the Ukraine and Poland respectively). I’ve forgotten much of the limited Russian I knew when I was younger, and I was never taught Polish to begin with.

As I got older and learned the value of bilingualism, I adopted the Spanish language with open arms – from first learning it throughout high school and college, and now actively trying to maintain it by studying/working in Spanish-speaking countries (Guatemala, Spain, and now Bolivia). I’ll admit, my experience here is not 100% immersive, since Colosa is an American-based company and therefore my work is in English, my supervisor speaks English to me (he’s the only other native English speaker in the office), and many of my Bolivian colleagues speak English on a daily basis.

 

A quote I liked on the side of a building - "To dream is to wake up in another reality"

Nevertheless, I’ve made a few Bolivian friends with whom I speak Spanish, I exclusively speak Spanish with my homestay family, and city life requires me to speak Spanish with a variety of people – from restaurant and grocery store employees to street fair and kiosk vendors (known as “gremiales”). So, everyday I try to learn new vocab words, identify grammatical errors in my speech, and make any other minor changes that accumulate over time to make my Spanish better.
 
P.S., to get the play on words in the title, you should know that with the verb encantar (to love), it is grammatically correct to say “a mi me encanta” when you’re saying “I love” something. Does making puns (admittedly, pretty crappy ones) in Spanish qualify me for fluency?! Doubtful, but at least it’s something, right?

Hasta mañana,

Emi

Los Conductores Locos

One thing that took some getting used to here is the crazy driving. Now let’s be clear – I’m from New York, where you can find some of the worst, craziest drivers in the US. Where jaywalking is an art form, taxis cut you off left and right, and everyone seems to be trying to get to their destination before an apocalypse hits.

However, to me La Paz seems like NYC on steroids (fine, maybe that’s a bit exaggerated, but that’s how it felt at first!). Take the same crazy driving – people cutting you off, leaving centimeters between your car and theirs, double parking in highly inconvenient locations, etc., and now: 

1. Make traffic rules practically nonexistent/ignored

2. Add in poorer infrastructure (like lack of traffic lights and non-intuitive street formations)

3. Completely get rid of that ‘pedestrians have the right of way’ nonsense

4. Make honking not only acceptable (at all hours of the day, of course), but also a vital part of navigating the city streets and letting pedestrians and drivers know that you disagree with anything/everything they do

8:15am traffic at Plaza Isabela Católica. Whose idea was it to make two sets of 4 (or 5?) lanes merge?!

No room to park on a narrow two-way street? No problem, just park on the sidewalk!

Welcome to La Paz! (and probably many other cities in Latin America) Now that I’ve been here for 2 weeks, I’ve definitely gotten a lot more comfortable with this concept, but it was certainly one of the first things that struck me about this city.

Ciao (yes, they say that here),

Emi

La Comida con Colegas en Colosa

I love food. My friends know this and make fun of me for it (ahem Sony, Suze, Michelle, etc.). Honestly, anyone who doesn’t share this passion may as well be an alien to me. Different types of food can be nourishing, entertaining, unpredictable, and above all, delicious.

More specifically, I love trying new dishes, encountering new flavors and styles of cooking, and stumbling upon an unfamiliar food that will ultimately become a new favorite.

My coworkers have been very helpful in introducing me to typical Bolivian foods. As a mid-morning snack last Thursday, they ordered Salteñas, which look a lot like empanadas, consisting of a similar yellow dough crust surrounding a delicious mix of meat, potatoes, veggies and spices. They told me that once you can eat a salteña without spilling any of the juices inside, you are a true paceña. My response? Challenge. Accepted. Holding it vertically and taking small bites, I accomplished the task on the first try. 

It may not look like much on the outside, but trust me, it's good!

Salteña de pollo - chicken, vegetables, spices, and deliciousness

The next day we had Tucumanas, which are like Salteñas but a bit larger and with more spices. Again, delicious, and again, I passed the test with flying colors.

So, here is a very warm shout-out to Alex, Jamie, Andrew, Charlie, and René for introducing me to delicious Bolivian cuisine and helping me familiarize myself with all things Bolivian. I’m excited to see what’s next on the menu!

Adios chicos,

Emi

Estoy Establecida!

I’ve officially been in La Paz for a little over a week and so far I’m loving it! Everyone here has been so friendly and helpful, from my homestay family to my coworkers. They’ve taken me out to lunch, shown me around the city, pointed out the good restaurants and stores, and have generally made me feel very welcome.

The apartment I’m staying at is really nice! It’s in a relatively new apartment building called Torre de las Américas. I’m on the 21^st floor and the view is gorgeous. From the living room you can see the whole landscape – the snowy Illimani mountain in the distance, to its right is a peak in the mountains called la Muela del Diablo (the Devil’s tooth), and the rest of the mountainous terrain in the background, with the many multicolored, clustered buildings in the foreground. Having lived in an apartment on the 4^th floor for all my life, I’m fascinated by this view and often catch myself staring at it for minutes at a time.

It doesn't look real! The view from the living room, with the snowy Illimani towards the left corner and the Muela del Diablo above the chair on the right, right next to the middle window pane

View from my room on a particularly beautiful morning (7:30am)!

As for my work, the first week went pretty well. Had some meetings here and there, learned about the software products that Colosa sells called ProcessMaker and ProcessMapper, and completed a 10-hour training course on how to use ProcessMaker. I won’t say that it was the most entertaining thing I’ve done, but it was definitely useful in getting to know the product in-depth.

I can’t wait to travel and share more exciting updates!

Hasta luego,

Emi (my Spanish nickname)

El Principio

As some of you may know, I will be in La Paz, Bolivia for 7 weeks (May 19th-July 6th) completing a summer marketing internship at a software company called Colosa Inc. After my first experience in Latin America, an 8-week summer civic engagement program in Guatemala through Duke University called DukeEngage, I came to deeply appreciate everything about Spanish culture - the language, food, music, friendly people, etc.

I knew I wanted to return after graduating from Duke, since this is my last opportunity to travel before starting a full-time marketing job in July. So, when I received an email about this internship from the Duke study abroad email listserv, I jumped on the opportunity, and here I am! Getting here certainly wasn’t easy – I didn’t know that US citizens must buy a visa upon arrival to Bolivia, and must bring a passport-sized photo with them for it (along with $135), so I wasn’t allowed to board the plane in Miami and had to stay overnight until the next flight out the next day. Woops! Then after getting here, I was told that one of my suitcases was sent to Santa Cruz, Bolivia instead of La Paz. Get it together, people! So let’s hope my suitcase turns up, I improve my rusty Spanish, and my internship gets off to a good start!

I’ll try my best to keep these posts short and to post every now and then (even though there’s no wifi in the apartment), so bear with me. And in case you’re wondering, the title of this blog is “Emilia in Bolivia – Finding Peace in La Paz”.

Buenas noches,

Emilia