This past month, while in Peru, I haven’t really felt inspired to write. It was a little disheartening and dampened my spirits about future months on the race. I can’t really pick out one specific reason for this lack of motivation to do something I absolutely love to do. But, I’m guessing it was a mixture of being complacent, losing my grandfather, missing my old city life and friends, feeling useless in a place that desperately needed my help and…the weather…believe it or not, that does make a difference in your mood.
Now, I am happy to report that my inspiration is back. I have been so busy writing in my three journals that I haven’t actually thought of a blog to post. I do have so much to write about though, so, I figured I would start with a synopsis of Cochabumba, Bolivia…yes, our town is called Cochabumba J
As we turned down (what I would call) a cobblestone road, I couldn’t help thinking “this is not our house, this can’t be our house, how is this our house?” Tucked away in front of the mountains was a beautiful white house, topped with a beige roof. It was also complete with a campfire and two sets of wicker chairs. The best part…there were two hammocks set up on the front porch just waiting for someone to lay in them. The inside was even better. There were so many rooms, I still do not even know exactly how many there are. But I do know, there is one full kitchen, separate from every other room in the house, a dining room, a spareTV room, about 10 bathrooms and A DOG NAMED OSCAR. That’s right, a pet dog, not a stray dog.
Even though the dog and the hammocks and the kitchen make me smile every day, I think the absolute best asset to our new home in Cochacumba is our scenery behind the house. I’m not sure what mountain range it is, but there are two snow capped mountains and several other mountains that outline the vicinity of our new home. The sky is bigger than ever here and the trees make the landscape look like it has green chicken pox. It’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen…at least it is in South America.
I feel like this post would not be complete without talking about something that is now part of our everyday lives….the TRUFI.
The everyday mode of transportation here is a vehicle that resembles one of those large white vans, called T.R.U.F.I…it’s an acronym for something but I forget what it is at the moment. Some TRUFI’s have leather seats and large open windows so the smell of body odor (from all places of the body) and baby poop is masked. Other TRUFI’s are smaller, with less space for windows and do not mask these horrible smells. So, it makes for an interesting commute every day, trying to pick out the decent smelling TRUFI.
Overall, I can honestly say this is my favorite country out of the three I have been to on this trip.
