Last night after dinner, I went with Juanca, Monica, and Lucia to a friend's house to watch a movie. Their friends live in the actual downtown city district of La Paz, which was very busy. Driving is nothing like in the U.S. Red lights, stop signs, and the lines painted on the streets are only suggestions, and most drivers disagree with them. We traveled about 600 meters up in elevation, and the difference was noticeable but I got used to it fairly quickly. I met a whole bunch of people and I got to practice my Spanish so much it was tiring. I tried some Bolivian wine and cheese, and after the movie I ate a kind of Bolivian style lasagna, which was very good. The movie was called I.Q. and it starred Meg Ryan and Andy Dufresne from Shawshank Redemption. We watched it in English with Spanish subtitles, even though I told them I was ok with watching it in Spanish porque necesito practicar mi español, which everyone found to be quite funny. Oh and there was also a guy there who played one of the Super Mario theme songs on piano, which I thought was pretty hilarious and awesome.
I'm going to try to include all the new food I'm trying in these posts, sooooo here's breakfast:
Uminto (not sure on the spelling). The Spanish made this during colonial times using the native corn and cheese and raisins from Europe. Think kinda like cornbread but with a little more to it. Very tasty.
Papaya Juice. Made fresh in the blender by Monica. Pretty self explanatory except the papayas are huuuge.
Coffee. I actually kinda liked the coffee, and I usually hate coffee. Juanca is very proud of Bolivian coffee, which puts Starbucks to shame every year in a giant international taste test, after which the best Bolivian coffee is shipped off to Buckingham Palace for the British royal family to enjoy.
After I ate breakfast, I saw some more of Mallasilla as I went with Monica to pick up the newspaper. I then got to see my family for our scheduled Mother's Day skype date, which was very fun and entertaining, especially the part where Agusto (one of the german shepherds) pushed the back door open and ran around the house trying to eat Lupe (the cat).
Lunch consisted of barbecue with three courses of different meat. Chicken then two different cuts of steak. This was served with aji, which is a kind of mayonaise sauce made with peppers which were just not spicy enough that I could handle eating it with my chicken. There was also rice and grilled zucchini, eggplant, pumpkin, and potatoes.
Finally we get to the main event that this post is named after. Wow I can't even shut up when I'm typing. I took up almost a page just getting here.
After lunch we all went to the golf course where I am going to be doing the majority of my summer training for cross country season. It has the distinction of being the highest golf course in the world. To say that it has the most ridiculous back 9 ever would probably be an understatement. Most of the holes have either a giant canyon you have to drive over or a fairway with such steep slopes that a ball hit into the middle of the fairway will roll all the way out of bounds. Here are the pictures I took, most of which don't quite do the views justice.
This is the view from the 9th tee box
The same view, just if you look to the right. The tall pointy peak in the middle is called the Devil's Molar.
To the right of the 10th fairway.
This is the first glimpse I have gotten of Ilimani, the giant snow-capped mountain wayyyy off in the distance.
This is kind of the opposite of the first picture posted yesterday, taken from the tee box of the 12th hole.
The Moon Canyon you have to hit your ball over
Where your ball goes if you overshoot the green....
......and if you undershoot. Can you find the golf ball in the picture?
Just a 650+ yard par 5 that starts off with drive over a giant canyon. (hole 17)
The super crazy expert tee box for 17.
...and finally the coolest driving range ever.
Afterwards, Monica made a dinner of homemade pancakes with Columbian sugar cane syrup. Also delicious.
As far as work goes, today I worked on planning and organizing the workshop downstairs so we can get some projects up and running. Juanca and I also just talked about what I may be doing for my main project.......
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