Dy 199: Miami

I had a rally early start to the day as I made my way to catch my American Airlines flight from Sucre, Bolivia to San Diego, USA. It's weird to think that in 7 hours I will be on US soil; it's been 199 days!! All the normalities and comforts of home have been forgotten and I will almost have to re-learn a lot of things. Being gone for that long, I have also missed out on a lot of things, new trends and what not. People would ask me questions like, "Did you watch the NBA finals?! How could you miss them?" Yea sorry, I was trying not to get myself killed in a volcano. "Did you party for St. Patrick's Day/Valentine's Day/ Cinco de Mayo??!" You mean all American made up holidays? No, they are no celebrating Cinco de Mayo on the middle of nowhere China.

So many things are going to be odd for me: clean public bathrooms (compared to what I have been using), Internet almost everywhere, driving a car (that will be scary), and speaking English all the time. 

So, am I ready to come back to the States. I'd say the answer is a biased yes. If I was in Bolivia and still had a couple months worth of travel, I wouldn't even be thinking of the US, I'd be dreaming of the jungles of Peru or Colombia. However, the US is on my mind, who lives in California? how long can I spend in each place? what should I see along the way... I was always anxious to the to the next country, and now that country is home, so I'm ready to get back. Now how soon before I'm ready to leave the States again? Well that's a whole nother question...

The plane ride was rather boring. Now that I'm back on a US airliners, there's no real food, no TVs in the back of my headset, crappy seats, and a staff that complains at every request. I went from watching new movie releases to some crummy NBC programs; I wonder how much NBC paid AA to be the sole provider of entertainment on their flights??

As we fly over Miami, I knew I was in the States. Highways stretch across the vast landscape, uniform suburban neighborhoods, schools with amply athletic fields (real football and baseball!), and nice houses at every turn. I exited the plane and gave a not so serious thank you to the staff, the first time I have exited a plane and not said thank you in a foreign language; that felt good. I made my way to immigrations and for once, headed over to the local's line. Quickly made my way through the line, then, "sir, you passport has been flagged. Just wait here and someone will be right over to clear this up." I couldn't help but laugh a little because I felt that something like this would happen. I was escorted to some holding room with a couple other foreigners and waited, and waited, and waited. After about a hour, my questioning began. This young guy, probably around my age, started to ask me everything, where have you been, how long in each country, how much money did you spend... Before answering the question about money, I asked him what was going on. He said that a black man with the name William Bailey was wanted by immigrations, since I have the same name, I have to go through these questions. About 30 minutes later they started questioning me about the Middle East. This is what I feel like they were really questioning me for. "Why did you go there? How long were you there? Give me a day to day description of what you did in Egypt. Did you make friends with Islamic locals? Where you scared? Why were you not scared? What religion are you? So you are a practicing Christian? Why are you Christian but don't practice? Did you participate in the protests in Cairo? Why were you not scared? Ok sit down." This went on for about a hour. By this time, I had already missed my flight to San Diego. 

AA put me on standby for the 5am flight tomorrow morning and recommended a hotel. Since I was stuck with TSA not AA I had to pay for my nights sleep. The US sure does know how to welcome its citizens back home after a long trip.

I didn't really do much with the rest of the day (it's around 7pm now). I got settled into my hostel, grabbed some food from the gas station, pulled out some US bills from the ATM (it was weird seeing that for the first time in 8 months) and grabbed some dinner at a Cuban restaurant. 

Even though I'm in the US, I feel like I'm still in South America. Everyone speaks Spanish. The TSA would ask me a question and then consult each other in Spanish, my waitress spoke very little English, and the staff at the hotel also spoke Spanish. 

I enjoyed a long hot shower and a comfy be to sleep in.  

South America Wrap Up

Well South America was rather hard to navigate since I know very little Spanish. A good amount of the backpackers are either from South America or Spain; I also met a good amount of US Spanish teachers who were taking some form of a sabbatical in South America. So for someone who's knowledge of Spanish stems only from three semesters in high school, I was a little out of my element. Of course there were tourists who were like me or couldn't even speak Spanish, we would tend to stick together, combining all of our terrible Spanish in an attempt to get by.

I'll be honest, (aside from hunting) I would have liked to just go ahead to Bolivia. I spent my time in Argentina and Chile mainly in transit/resting; aside from Mendoza, I didn't really do much. However, I not losing sleep over it, I enjoyed my time in SA and was happy to see the places that I saw.

Bolivia Wrap Up

Alright, so I have finally completed my amazing trip in Bolivia. Even though it may not seem like it, main because backpacking in Western Bolivian is pretty cold and miserable, but I really liked Bolivia. The main reason why I liked Bolivia was because it was everything that I expected South America to be: old, traditional, poor, and run by an unfavorable form of government.

A lot of people would say that they think Bolivians are rude, I didn't really see too much of it; other than the ordinary rudeness that you come across day-to-day.

I started my venture in Bolivia in the south and made my way north. Bolivia is basically split right down the middle; to the west is the high elevated Andes Mountains, to the east is the blistering hot Amazon. I spent all of my time in the west; while yes it was a bit miserable, it was worth it. The landscapes are unlike anything you can even imagine; you will want to take a picture at every turn.

Speaking of turns, Bolivian bus drivers are crazy. All of the long bus rides (at least in the west) are during the night, and bus drivers are notorious for drinking and driving at night. There are signs everywhere that say something like don't drink and drive, showing pictures of crashed busses. There are also crosses and burial sites all along the highways where vehicles have crashed. The main reason for all the crashes, aside from the drunk driving, is that Bolivians are madmen behind the wheel. Its almost like the harder it is to pass a person, the better. We would be coming across to a sharp bend to the left and now its time to pass... I don't understand it..

La Paz was my favorite city in Bolivia, there was so much fun stuff to do. I really took a liking to downhill biking; however, I was always deadly sore afterwards, it so much fun. I will say that I can't do it on a daily basis, mainly because I could hardly move afterwards. It took several days for me to recover from the circuit.

One of my favorite things about Bolivia is all of the large women wearing the traditional attire; I really liked seeing that the Bolivians are still rooted in their ancient culture.

One odd thing that I found pretty funny in Bolivia is the advertising. In a lot of the commercials and poster advertisements there are females that are barely dressed. For example, there was a commercial for a furniture store and walking all through the furniture store, laying on the couch, chairs and tables, was a girl wearing a thong bikini. I don't really understand it, nor do I mind it!

While there are a lot of beautiful things in Bolivia, there are some rather not so beautiful things. The country is rather dirty with trash lining the streets and there are tons of wild dogs roaming the streets, sleeping in garbage and sleeping in trash piles for warmth; its a pretty sad sight.

All-in-all, Bolivia was great

Day 198: Santa Cruz

This morning, I woke up early again and got packed up before my flight to Santa Cruz. So, Bolivia has two very diverse geographies. On the left side, is the high cold Andes, on the right is the hot humid Amazon; in the middle is Santa Cruz.

Once I got backed up, I headed to the airport to catch my flight. My plane was a small puddle jumper with about 5 other people one it. Pretty freaky. The flight out was amazing! The city and the snow capped mountains surrounded us. However, the coming into Santa Cruz was not as beautiful. We were flopping around like a fish out of water, I was certain we were all going to die. We approached the runway and didn't slow down one bit, still tossing and turning. We landed on the runway, still at cruising speed, at an angle as if we were drifting down the runway. This past two minutes was the most scary experience I have had while traveling around the world. No lie.

Wow, it is really hot here. I showed up wearing two long sleeve shirts and a jacket; definitely need to de-layer!

I got to my hostel, relaxed off the near death experience and explored the area. There isn't much to see in Santa Cruz, it is just used as a jumping off point to either side of the country or into or out of the country. For some reason, Bolivia's largest international airport is in Santa Cruz, not the capital, or the most popular tourist destination.. Santa Cruz. Like a lot in this country, I don't understand it.

Santa Cruz loves their chicken, I was unable to find anything but chicken restaurants. I had a very sketchy chicken sandwich. After doing some exploring and grabbing some "lunch," I headed back to the hostel. I didn't really do much today aside from write my blog which I am over a week behind in. Sorry about that. 

I have an early flight out of here tomorrow morning to Miami, then to San Diego. I have allotted myself one month to make my way from San Diego, California to Seattle, Washington. I have never been further west than Las Vegas, Nevada (if that even counts), so I am very excited to see the other side of my country

Day 197: La Paz

So, I got up really early and got to Gravity Assisted's warehouse at 6am because this is what the lady at their office told me to do. Marcus was a little confused as to why I was over an hour early! Wow, I was pissed, I could have definitely gotten some MUCH need sleep eye, instead, I am just walking around in their warehouse for an hour. Eventually, we pick up the other guy that is going on the trip, an Australian who was actually on my Death Road tour; what are the odds?? We stopped off and grabbed some breakfast then headed off to begin our circuit for Size Matters.

We started off at 16,710ft above sea level and we were going to end in about 4-5 hours at 3,000ft above sea level. So yeah, quite a drop in a short amount of time. We started off at an old ski slope that has been abandoned because the glacier has melted away twenty years earlier than predicted. I was so excited to get started, my heart was racing!

This was a much more advanced course than Death Road; Marcus was always stopping and teaching how to approach the obstacles ahead. At one section, I couldn't even see where the ground was in front of me because the hill was so steep. While some parts were a bit scary, I never had a problem.

We eventually dropped from ice capped mountains to green filled valleys. It was so amazing! At one point the mountains almost surrounding us and the clouds were covering just the top of the mountains, so it was almost like we had a roof over us. This one view was arguably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!

We stopped for lunch at the the local soccer field and had lunch. Since today is Bolivia's National Day, there was a big celebration going on and all the locals were out having fun. It was such a great midway stop for our trip.

After lunch was over, my arms became extremely sore. The downhill bumpy ride, became worse and worse on my body. luckily, before I knew it, the circuit was over. Man, It felt so gratifying to have completed that circuit! Once we got done with out celebratory beer and got piled into the van, Marcus told us he had a surprise waiting for us; we are riding into La Paz. Wow, I can't wait!

http://youtu.be/dV3mN3SO6N4

We got set up right on the outskirts of La Paz and headed in, using the speed bumps as a chance to grab some good air! I could not think of a better way to end our circuit and I definitely couldn't think of any other way to end my trip in Bolivia, or for that matter, outside of the US. Once we got into town, we loaded up the bikes and made our way back to the Gravity Assisted warehouse to exchange photos and stories.

Later that night, I headed back to my hostel. To explain how exhausted and sore I was, I slept in the bed with all my clean clothes, too lazy to push them into my locker.

Day 196: La Paz

So, I headed back to the Gravity Assisted office to book another trip. My previous guide, Marcus, kept talking kept ranting about a circuit named Size Matters. He says it is hands down the best circuit hes done in Bolivia, so I have to try it. I got the trip booked for tomorrow morning, and I couldn't be more excited.

Well today is my last free day in La Paz, and my Third to last day out of the United States. Yup, I am headed back to the States in three days. So, I spent the rest of the day exploring the town and buying a few touristy things.

Later that afternoon, I made my way back to hostel and relaxed. If this circuit is going to be as physically demanding as the last, I am going to need my rest.

Day 195: La Paz

The first thing I did today was head to Gravity Assisted's office to book another bike trip. Unfortunately, since it is Sunday, they were closed.

I didn't really get much accomplished today. I explored the town and hung out at my hostel. That afternoon, I signed up to go see Cholitas Wrestling, which is like an underground wrestling show for both tourists and locals.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, I thought it would just be a lot of tourists, but there were actually way more locals than tourists. The event was pretty comical! The wrestlers did a pretty good job of putting on a show, however, you could definitely tell is was fake. In all of the matches, the ref picked a side, so someone was always out matched. The locals got really into the matches, throwing food scraps, yelling, flicking off the wrestlers, and even throwing their drinks. They are more crazy than the actors (wrestlers).

After the event, we all headed back to the hostel. I headed back up to the bar and enjoyed the Sunday BBQ they were cooking. HAHA, not really the BBQ that I would consider BBQ; just a slab of meet, cooked on a grill. That is one thing that I have learned outside of my southern bubble; A BBQ often refers to food cooked over a grill. "Hey, I got some hamburger patties.. Let's have a BBQ." No... Let's grill out. BBQ is a specific type of food. They don't sell BBQ sauce so you can pour it all over your hamburgers and hotdogs.

Regardless, the food was good and so was the company.