Beer Popsicles and the 33 meter Jesus

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Playing Frogger

In Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city (900,000), we were able to further hone our Frogger Skillz. You know, leaping between the cars and trucks to make it to the other side of the street without getting flattened. Well, we're still three dimensional, so those days at the Atari after school really paid off! Maybe next year, we'll see if Pitfall really taught us how to swing on vines and jump across crocodiles. Anyway...

Cochabamba is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" for it's year-round temperate climate. The flight in from La Paz was short and spectacular. The city is said to be one of the most liberal in Bolivia. Cochabambinos (as the inhabitants are called) are famous for their protests, especially the "Cochabamba Water Wars", a series of protests that took place in 2000 to fight over the privatization of the municipal water supply. The locals won that one.

The first day we wandered around the city. We checked out South America's largest open air market, La Cancha, and nearly got lost among the thousands of stalls selling everything from giant bags of confetti to shoes to parakeets.

The Tallest Jesus

You may think that the famous Jesus statue in Rio de Janiero is the world's tallest, but you'd be wrong. It's in Cochabamba, people and it's a good 3 meters taller! It is actually 33 meters (109 feet) and is called Cristo de la Concordia. You can either ride the cable car to the statue or walk the 2000 stairs. In the heat, we chose the cable car. Apparently on Sundays, you can actually climb up inside the statue for an even better view of the city. We stayed outside the Jesus and enjoyed the views just the same.

Locals Night in Cochabamba

A family we knew from Homer is living in Cochabamba for a year and we thought it would be fun to drop in on them. It was really fun to see where they were living (a palatial apartment much larger than their house in Homer!) and hear about their experiences. They have two teenage daughters who are going to school there. A pretty cool thing to do as a family, we thought. So, we hooked up with them and even got to stay a night at their fancy apartment. We felt pretty special getting to check out of the hostel world for a night. We also enjoyed going out to dinner with our friends and some of their friends, all Americans living in Bolivia for work.

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Photos

One big Cristo
Cristo de la Concordia, bigger than the one in Rio

KJ in the Teleferico
We weren't thrilled when this stopped two-thirds of the way up and just hung there.

Cochabamba View
..from the top of the hill

Nick's Dream Come True
A SPRINKLES BAR!!! Dave indulging in some ice cream from the Dumbo's restaurant.

Enjoying a Beer Popsicle
enjoying more than it appears. It really tasted like beer, and was pretty tasty.

Inside the fancy Apartment
The apt. was huge!

Comments

[Sian Bishop]

Why have water wars when you have beer popsicles?
I was just reading about the water wars for my 'Business and the Natural Environment' class - I'm so jealous of your first hand knowledge! :) Cheers! Siany xoxoxo