Tarata

Yesturday we took a trip to a neighboring down of Tarata. Yes I brought my camera. No I did not bring the memory card. I'll have to steal some pictures from Kristen. I wonder if they technically count as my pictures since it's technically my camera :-).

Anyway, we took a taxi to the south of the city to catch a bus that took us straight to the city. The architecture was colonial and very photogenic. We were told that it was a very tourist-y town but it looked more like a ghost town. There was nobody around and the two resturants (in the whole city) were closed. We were able to take a private tour of a Franciscan convent that was almost three hundred years old. They were doing renovations but it was still very picturesque. The pastor was quite standoffish and actually slammed the door that we had left open while we were talking. He was not the one that was giving the tour. That was pretty much the only thing we got to see. Except a horrific sight of a dog that had just been hit by a car and was bleeding from it's nose and ears but wasn't dead yet.

The trip to Tarata, on the whole, was a good thing. It was good to get out of the city and explore and use different modes of transportation. It was still a little bit disappointing because it was so empty. Another interesting difference between Tarata and Cochabamba was the livestock. We saw chickens roaming the streets, a dockey and cows tied up to posts on the side of the street. It felt like we were straight out of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The most important part of yesturday though was the SUPER BOWL. One of my classmates has cable at his host house so a group of us got together to watch it on ESPN en espanol. What an exciting game. I'm glad that I got to watch it in real time, no commercials though. One hilarious part was that during each commercial break there was a minute tutorial on the rules of football.

I'll try to get some pictures soon. None were taking of the dying dog, hopefully none of you are disappointed.