So beautiful it hurts
And of course this picture doesn't do it any justice. But man, that is all I can say about this country... it's so beautiful, it literally hurts. I can't get enough... I can't describe how it grips me, when I see views like this, I just drink it in and try to fix it forever in my mind and just thank God for his incredible creation. More than anything, mountains stir my soul. I am soooooooo blessed!! Why am I so lucky? I can't believe I had the opportunity to be here this summer, it's been so much more than I ever could have imagined. Every day walking around La Paz, I just think, wow, this is so beautiful. I can't bear the thought of leaving right now. Even though I LOVE Colorado and I LOVE home and I am happy to be going back soon (4 days!!), I am SO. IN. LOVE. with this place. And with these PEOPLE. Bolivians are amazing, wonderful, truly special people who have touched my heart and welcomed me in and made me one of their own. We celebrated our independence day on Friday - (well, kind of all week and all weekend, we do love to celebrate) - and prayed for the country at church today, and I can't believe how attached and invested I feel. It's so funny how things work out... remember two years ago how much I thought I disliked Bolivia? It kills me to think about that now, and I'm so glad that I've had the chance to be here and fall in love and learn SOOOOOO much! God knows so much better than us what it is that we need and want.
In order to continue living in denial that I am actually leaving, I am working all week, including Thursday, the day I leave, and am just going from the office to the airport. I don't want to think about it, I start crying every time I think about saying my goodbyes. How is it possible to love a place and people so much after such a short time? I have tons to catch up on, I know, but it seems to always be late. Well, in a way, that's a really good thing, because I am out having too much fun. I love LIVING my life, it's been fantastic here to be able to do that. I WISH I HAD A YEAR TO STAY!!!! Sorry I keep going on about it. I'll quickly update about this weekend.... THE DEATH ROAD!!
So, there's a famous road in Bolivia called "Camino de la Muerte," i.e., The Road of Death. It's like a 65km dirt road from just outside La Paz (way up high, a place called El Cumbre, The Summit, basically) down to Coroico, a city in Los Yungas (just past El Puente, where we had our church retreat last month). It is so named because about 100 people a year used to die on it, back when it was used constantly by traffic (a couple buses a year would fall off the edge - there's a huge precipice the whole way along it), basically because it's one road, for traffic going two ways, and isn't paved, and is really curvy, and people drive too fast. Also, I might be making up the "100 people a year" number, I don't know why I think that's what it was, but I might be lying. Anyway, it was a lot - the most dangerous road in the world, I know, that more people die on per year than any other road in the world. BUT, it's not like that anymore. A few years back, 2007 I think, they built another road between the two towns, so now this road is barely used at all by car/bus/truck traffic, and is mostly just mountain bikers. It's a huge tourist operation - all these different mountain biking outfits offer a day trip down the road, and it is SOOOO worth it! If you ever come to Bolivia, you gotta do it. And I think only 1-2 people die a year now.
Anyway, it was SOOO INCREDIBLE! Nine of us went on Friday (me, Keri, Sylive, Moises, Sara, Claudia, Gaby, Ariel and Gerhard) and I'll definitely post more pictures because it was just stunning. And it only cost $50! The outfit provides the bikes, the transportation to the start, the pants and jackets and gloves and helmets, and a small snack on the way and a big lunch at the end. It's basically just a whole day of mountain biking downhill... I don't know exactly how long we were riding, maybe a 6 hours trip in total but lots of stopping, so more like 3 or 4 hours on the bike? Anyway, it's not scary... okay, some parts are kinda scary, but in general, it's not, it's just beautiful! It's not single track, so it's not technical at all, it's a road, so that was good, because technical mountain biking freaks me out. It was funny, as I was tearing down this road (I usually was first behind the guide), I was thinking about how going down is my least favorite part of biking, and how mountain biking is my least favorite type of biking, because both really kinda freak me out, but here I was, screaming down this road on a mountain bike and having the time of my life. Right then, my brake caught and I couldn't slow down... yikes! I got in control right away (I got really good at aerodynamics this trip), and had to laugh at my cocky self. I will say, the bikes were not the best. Not anywhere close to the best. In fact, they were kind of all junkers. My brake caught a lot (you know, when you squeeze it but it won't move?) but i figured out how to kind of toggle it a little and pull it in at an angle. Also, the gears did not work AT ALL - I mean, they were totally locked in place. Completely broken, or rusted in place, or I don't know, but worthless. They assured us that this didn't matter at all, since the whole thing was downhill, so all that mattered was that we had working brakes. Which, most of us did, most of the time. And there wasn't any uphill, so the gears didn't really matter, although there were some flat stretches where it would have been nice to shift.... my legs would just fly around, spinning as fast as they could, but unable to get any traction.
Anyway, I really need to go to bed!!!! SOOO much more to tell about the death road! I will tell more stories about it when I get a chance... I'm thinking the airplane ride, since I'm pretty booked til then. I also have to tell about the rest of this weekend, and probably a bunch of other stuff, and I sent an IJM update into headquarters last week, so hopefully they will have approved/censured it by now and I can post it. For now, just one small thing....
I have pink eye.
Yeah, it kinda stinks... not the most fun thing ever. BUT I'm pretty much just ignoring it so I can get everything done and enjoy my last few days. At first I thought I just got some dirt or a rock stuck between my contact and my eye, and scratched the cornea, because it was bright red and killing me after the ride, but then I woke up with my whole eye swollen/glued shut yesterday (and today it was BOTH eyes!) - ewwwwwwww ick!!!!! Plus I have a really runny nose and a sore throat and am just not in tip top form. I did go to the pharmacy and get antibiotics and other medicine, so hopefully I'll be better ASAP!!!!!!!
Love love love
jnl