I am my daughters blog

I am going ahead and post Alia's email to me as the title was: looooong story--pass it on because i´m too lazy to write it again

Part 1:
hey mom,
Yeah i was trying to call you today I just heard static. We are at the family house now with Marco. Fernando was worrying that I would'nt like it before we got there, so that made me expect some shack, but it´s really nice! They have a beautiful garden with lemon, lime, papaya, and guanabana trees and lots of flowers. Sergio, Marco and Fernando each have their own room with separate entrance and then there´s a little kitchen. We have to handwash our clothes and to take a shower you just take water from a bucket, but it´s really nice. I don´t mind hand washing, that´s what we did in Nicaragua, it´s not hard.
The day before my birthday we were thinking about taking a flight or the bus, it was a difference between $120 to fly and $20 for the bus, and I thought the bus would be fun because then I could see the country. It was fun, I saw a lot of beautiful land, and the road between Santa Cruz and Cochabamba is flat (and they fixed it from when Fernando said) Everything was going fine, we were cruising along and I thought:all the stories about South American buses are wrong. This is just like the Greyhound. But then, after it was dark at about 11:00 (oh yeah the bus left late so it took longer) we stopped and were'nt moving. Then we´d move a little, then the driver would turn the bus off again, and so on, until we got to a point where we just stopped and did'nt move again for about 7 hours. (the whole night) When i looked out the window I saw a line in the front and back of buses, trucks, cars, all stopped. In the morning it was a game of trying to maneuver all of these vehicles going in both directions along a 2 lane road. Behind us there was a truck full of pigs and they were screaming like crazy, and there were chickens, and trucks full of bananas, and kids, and people just in the back of an open bed truck. Fernando said we´re lucky it was'nt raining. When we got to a certain part of the road there were some guys outside with motorcycles, and Fernando yelled to them and then said, ´¨Come on lets go quick!¨´ and we grabbed all the luggage and got on the back of the motorcycles which were able to maneuver in between the traffic easily. Finally we came to a place in the highway where there were taxis and people selling refreshments, but we had to walk a little ways (that´s where I got all muddy) when we got in a taxi the taxi was able to maneuver in between all the trucks and then we were free and clear--no more traffic for the 2 hour drive the rest of the way to Cochabamba. It was just in the middle where there was this massive congestion.
Now me and Fernando joke that if we had stayed on that bus maybe we would be in Cochabamba in 2 more days. It´s horrible that the roads are so small, the road was fine, it was'nt a dangerous road, but there was just too much traffic for 2 lanes. Too many people trying to get business done on this 2 lane road.
I have lots more stuff to say, it´s overwhelming because i have so much to talk about. oh yeah for my birthday we went to see some Bolivian Karaoke. The best part was when this German man sang and he did a nerd dance, and everyone loved it.
Anyway, it´s really fun here, I like Fernando´s other brother Marco. All three of those guys are really smart and into learning. Marco gave me a book about how to use both cortexes of my brain at the same time, or something. He was really into it.
Ok byebye,
I love you,
Alia

Then she wrote a P.S. in another mail entitled:More to the story

I wanted to add something to that story--
When I say we maneuvered through the traffic on the motorcycles, it´s not as bad as it sounds. The traffic was at a complete stop. They are really good about not moving all at once, that´s why were stopped for so long. Because they have to decide between each other who´s gonna pass, their not moving all at once. Also I found everyone to be really helpful in that situation, no one was fighting, I did'nt see a single person yelling or complaining or even crying. everyone just took it in stride, and worked together to figure out how to solve the problem. It made me think about the people that sued the airline in the u.s. for having to be delayed 6 hours. this was like 12 hour delay! and we did'nt even finish the journey in the bus we had paid for!