Hello, Mr. President!

Hello dear readers! I've been back in Copacabana for a little over a week now and its been great to settle back in to "normal", everyday, Bolivian life, as well as have a few adventures!



The coolest thing that has happened since I last wrote (besides of course my scintillating work in the lab was the chance to hear and see Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, speak! They are in the process of building a small airport here near Copacabana to increase internal tourism (they are big on promoting tourism between the major centers in Bolivia here since they are not too crazy about Europeans or Americans) and Evo came to initiate the land and give a short speech about continued improvements in the area. It was really neat because there weren't that many people there (probably about 1000) and we were able to get pretty close to the stage! After the ceremonies, (which involved lots of flower necklaces for Evo, the VP Garcia, Cocorico the Governor of La Paz, and other officials as well as an interlude of dancing and traditional music) we were actually able to meet the VP, who was left somewhat to the wolves (the masses aka us) while Evo was hustled off back to his helicopter. Which he flies himself by the way. How are you gonna upstage that, Obama??

We went to La Paz this Sunday to watch the Entrada 16 de Julio. This is a huge dance/parade/event that I participated in last year, in the group Chacaltaya which is one of 54. Chacaltaya is the biggest, with over 2000 dancers, and I had fun watching what I been a part of last year. Monday is the second day of the event, parading/dancing followed by lots of drinking, and the students and I were invited to join. It was way less stressful than last year and a lot of fun to be recognized and remembered by other women who danced last year too-- although they were all asking why I hadn't danced this year! Maybe next year I can afford it again...


We have another big festival coming up this weekend-- Kollasuyu, the small town on the peninsula that we dance for and at which we always have an enjoyable, if cold, time. Besides that, a daytrip to Tiwanaku, and the Fair of Copacabana in the first week of August, I just have a lot of lab work left to do! Its good there's not too much left going on since I only have 3 more weeks!