Las Estrellas!

Today I once again woke up to my trusty alarm clock Agosto. Or maybe it was Jack barking outside. I couldn’t tell. Breakfast was leftover pancakes from last night with tea and papaya juice. I went to work on organizing the workshop, and luckily Conrad showed up to help. With two pairs of hands we got lots of tables and things moved around to more sensible places. I can’t remember if I mentioned this already or not but Proleña has been moved from an office to Juanca’s house so the workshop downstairs was a bit of a mess when I arrived. It’s starting to look better.

Lunch: Mónica made us aji de fideo, which is a traditional Bolivian dish of pasta with a spicy sauce (made less spicy than usual because she takes care of her wimpy new adopted son who has a low tolerance for spicy food), meat, peas, and potatoes. It’s like Bolivian stew with pasta, the tube shaped kind.

After lunch we walked through the park near the house and Mónica showed Conrad and I the Valley of the Moon. I think it’s like the canyons I have already posted pictures of, except you can walk through this one. We could only see it in the distance, but it’s in Mallasilla so it’s not far away. We let Jack outside and you should only hold his leash at your own risk. He’s pretty strong. 

When Juanca got home he took me with him to see some more of the city as he drove Conrad home. At night the mountains look like huge black shadows dotted with lights from all the houses built on them. From Conrad’s house we could see a huge part of the mountain with no lights. Juanca told me that 400 houses fell down the side of the mountain in a huge landslide. On the drive back we continued the conversation about the project I will work on while I’m down here. The plan is to design a water filtration system that can be used by the indigenous people in the Amazon region of Bolivia to clean their water and make it safe to drink. I can’t think of anything I’d rather be working on.

Tonight was the first clear night we have had, and being the huge dork I am and this being a totally new sky to me, I grabbed my constellation book and star walk app on my iPod. However, there is a problem. You need to be able to find one constellation first before star walk will work.


Update: I did manage to find Crux and Centaurus later. I know I'm so cool you can't stand it.