Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 2

Monday 2nd January - Monday 3rd January Well it is a good job we bailed on that night bus, because we both needed that toilet until late that evening. Whilst I seemed to settle and sleep, Paul woke up at 3am in pain! Cue another unsettled day and trip back to the hospital the following day. Diagnosed with gastritis to go with his probable salmonella, he was prescribed a different antibiotic and an anti acid. Thankfully our hotel was flexible and helpful, even worried about us, which made things easier to just judge how we were feeling day by day. After some more resting (and much sweating the following night), and another couple of days exploring a little more of La Paz, including Moon Valley, we eventually felt well enough and brave enough to check out ... read more

I spent my last weekend in the northern part of Amboro National Park which is the entrance to the Amazonea. I had two days here so one day we went looking for wildlife and the other day I did a 6 hour trek to Mararacu Waterfalls. I stayed at a small family owned resort on the border of the park. They had lots of animals living on their ranch including peacocks who slept up in the lighted tree which was beautiful to watch. I came back to Santa Cruz in time for the big World Cup game. I was at a bar full of Argentinian fans so it was an exciting environment to watch them win. You could hear parties and fireworks for the rest of the night. While my time here has come to an ... read more

In my morning class I have students that are older and more experienced in business. I have been able to learn a lot from them including some background on the economy of Bolivia. They said, as others have also said to me, that Bolivia doesn't have inflation. One of the men told me you could buy a loaf of bread for approximately the same price 10 years ago as you can today. I wondered about this and decided to do some research. It isn't quite that sample, but when is it ever. In the 1980's citizens did not trust the Bolivian money so the country had a major issue with dollarization: when foreign currency (usually the US dollar) replaces the domestic currency because it is more reliable. When this happens the central banks do not have ... read more

After seeing my morning class has more business knowledge I spent the morning composing a new lesson plan for them that has more complex financial concepts. In the afternoon I took a bus 30 mins south of town to visit Valle de las Animas (Valley of the Souls/Spirits). The city of La Paz is shaped like a bowl. Some believe that the city was once a lake and that shifts in tectonic plates led to slow drainage of the lake. They speculate the water may have settled in the southern half for a longer period and, due to its acidity created this forest of mammoth stalagmites. It got it's name because locals even say that when the wind passing through the rock formations, it carries the voices of spirits. Switching countries for a minute I received ... read more

This week we added an additional class for financial literacy. My new class was more than 50% men. I was glad to be able to include them in the training. We started with budgeting, but as I learned about their businesses I determined they are slightly more advanced than my other class. Instead of doing the same lessons I plan to make a new set of lesson plans to address the topics they requested to learn about. One of the men has a small potato sales business and is trying to determine if the business is making money. Another one imports small tools from Chile and is struggling with pricing his items to account for his expenses to import them. My afternoon class focused on savings. The women shared that savings was never part of their ... read more