Cable Car to Jesus

Yesterday was the Roman Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi in Bolivia. All schools were closed and it was a day to eat nothing but fruit. The streets were filled with more fruit than usual, which normally is alot! Here in the Cochabamba valley food is abundant, and the stalls are filled to the brim with all sorts of tasty veggies and fruits.

There was a 9 a.m. Mass in the square on Corpus Christi but Alia and I missed it due to the day befores holiday that kept us out till 3 a.m. It was Teachers Day and there was cake and flowers for all the teachers and kids on Weds. Later that night Ana Maria, the director of the Kindergarten took Alia and myself and two other teachers out for pizza. Then we went out to a Bolivian Karaoke bar. It seems bad singing is universal and even if I didn´t understand all the lyrics in Spanish, the out of tune voices I was able to hear very clearly. Still it was great fun to sit on red velvet couches in the pulsating red and blue lights while we were serenaded by Cochabambans, drinking a Margaritia that was completely Tequila that I then had to wash away the taste with with a Cerveza.

Note: Do not order Margaritas in Bolivia unless you want pure Tequila. Bolivians make a great pizza but the Margaritas are really about 3 shots of Tequila with a little lime thrown in as an after thought.

We stayed out till 3 a.m. waiting for Ana Maria to sing Yesterday by the Beatles in English but she never got called. It was Manyana and Yesterday was long gone so we hopped in a cab and went home.



Being out till 3 a.m. had us missing the 9 a.m. Mass. By the time we hit the streets it was 11 a.m. and so we wandered for coffee which it turns out is very hard to find in Bolivia. When we finally found a place they had such good stuff on their menu we gave up the fruit eating idea and had Yaki Soba instead. In penance, we took a cable car to Jesus. Up up and away we went to be forgiven and held in the arms of Jesus.



The Big Jesus - Cochabamba, Bolivia - Can you see me in the lower right hand corner?