Well two weeks of winter vacation have flown by, and I am OH SO THANKFUL for the time! One of my sisters came out for that time, and it was so good. I won't go into details about all the things we did, just a quick overview, hopefully I will go more into detail in following posts.
June 29th - Danae arrives
June 30, July 1 - two more days of school, just games (soccer and volleyball), no classes.
I wanted her to experience my regular life here, so she came to school, went to Bible Study, purchased cheese, ate supper at Ali's in Pailon, went shopping in the market, went for walks to the back bush of Villa Nueva, went to Plaut Dietsch church, etc.
July 4 - fly to La Paz, explore downtown and familiarize ourselves with places we need later on. At 4500m, and in the mountains, this day was exhausting.We enjoyed coca candies and coca tea to ward off nausea, headaches and being tired (none of this was illegal, nor pure happiness-inducing, I promise) and spent the night at a fairly nice hotel.
July 5 - we bike the North Yungas Road.. also known as Death Road, starting in La Cumbre and ending in Yolosa. There will definitely be a detailed post for that day. It was a great time, and as soon as we got to the bottom Danae said "I'm definitely do that again!" We stayed at an Animal Refuge that night (at the bottom of Death Road, in the rainforest), in a treehouse!
July 6 - we head to a nearby town, Coroico, to do some waterfall rappelling and apparently some strenuous hiking - also a really really good day. We then took a taxi-van back to La Paz.. via the new Yungas Road, much safer than the old one but still has it's fair share of guard rails and switchbacks of course. We got to our hostel in the evening and just ate supper and relaxed.
July 7 - spent the day seeing the city from the teleferico (cable car - local public transportation), buying souvenirs, reading books, and watching a Germany France soccer game in our hostel pub. Lots of Germans and French to create a.. competitive atmosphere!
July 8 - we fly back to Santa Cruz, and we went home to Villa Nueva for one night.
July 9 - early in the morning (5am) we head to Santa Cruz to catch a taxi to Samaipata, where we visit some old Amazonian and Incan ruins, and do 2 days of hiking and backpacking. The night of the 10th was spent at a very calm and relaxing bed and breakfast
July 11 - 13 - head home to Villa Nueva (sounds simple, but from Samaipata to Villa Nueva is about 4 hours and takes 4 taxis). Rest! Visit some local colonies. Had plans to go to San Jose and see Hacienda Verde, a settlement recently started by my mission, but the vehicle we had planned to go with ended up being in the shop, so it didn't work out.
July 14 - 17 - go to Santa Cruz and stay in a somewhat nice hotel. We were hoping to do lots of swimming and reading by the pool... the weather had been hot this whole time (in the Santa Cruz area, not in La Paz) but as soon as we got to the hotel the weather got chilly:( But we walked around Santa Cruz, did some shopping, I ordered two guitars for the school (thanks to my church's support!!), and did more relaxing!
July 17 - off to the airport for a cinnamon bun from Cinnabon (YUM), a quick hug and no crying whatsoever, and Danae is gone! And I take another 3 taxis to get home.
We have tons of stories, lots of new experiences, so you can ask anytime! I will go more in depth and show some photos, another day. Beyond the adventures, I really enjoyed spending time with my sister, we could have happily stayed in Villa Nueva and still enjoyed the company. Only my other sister was missing (haha erica). I am extremely thankful that we had this opportunity! Thanks for your prayers through all of this! Maybe they kept us on the road - that's mostly a joke, don't worry.
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