Our Bolivian Journey (and
other non-Bolivian Journey stories)
By David and Sean Coton
We
wrote this
together so that there would be no duplication.
We put it together in pieces so we would not forget.
We travelled to Bolivia, Mom’s
birthplace, on June 23, 2012. The trip was long and difficult because there
are no direct flights into Cochabamba anymore so we had to travel to Lima, Peru
stay there for five hours, then took a different plane to La Paz and stayed
there for another three hours and finally a third plane in to Cochabamba. The
trip lasted over twelve long hours and we
were simply exhausted by the trip itself.
And we thought for a moment that we had to do it all over again on the
way back.
This was David’s third trip
to Bolivia and Sean’s second.
The entire family was so happy to see us.
We went down with all our uncles and our aunt because it was grandfather
Edgar’s anniversary and there was going to be a gathering of the family from as
many places as possible. We visited many
members of the family the first week and had many encounters with relatives we
had not seen for a while. It is much
different for Mom since it is her immediate family and it is always very
rewarding for her to visit.
There were multiple short trips
planned and we enjoyed each
of them. We went to Viloma, to Totora, Tarata, Sipe Sipe, Ururo, Tunari, Cliza
and Punata. But the most important trip was to the Salar de Uyuni on from June
29 to July 6th. We left
early
on the 29th and the trip
took
nine hours by car. It was a spectacular
place where it appeared as if we had landed on another planet as can be seen by
some of the pictures we are attaching.
This is what Wikipedia says about
the Salar (I need to make
sure I give reference otherwise dad will have a heart attack over something
called plagiarism:
Salar de Uyuni (or Salar
de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582
square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the
crest of the Andes, and is at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995
ft) above mean sea level.[1] The Salar was formed as a result of transformations
between several
prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an
extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter
over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and
covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It
contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves,[2]
which is in the process of being extracted. The large area, clear skies and the
exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an ideal object for
calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites.[3][4][5][6][7] The Salar serves as the major transport route
across the Bolivian Altiplano and is a
major breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos. Salar de
Uyuni is also a climatological transitional zone, for towering tropical cumulus
congestus and cumulus incus clouds that form in the eastern part of the salt
flat during the summer cannot permeate beyond its drier western edges, near the
Chilean border and the Atacama Desert
We spent a week there with guided tours and a tour car that was just for
us. We encountered the sweetest young
llama that would follow us almost everywhere.
Everything, and we mean everything is made of salt, including the hotel
walls, the tables, and all else. It is
very, very cold and the pictures we have posted here show the story. We posted
large number of pictures also on
Facebook upon our return and you can go there and see how much fun we had.
When we went back to Cochabamba we had the anniversary for grandpa and
between the family gatherings and Masses and cemetery visit, it took most of
two days.
David then had his first two “Quince” birthday dances of his life and
was
a hit with all the girls.
Café with Abbey Road picture with
Mom
We returned with our Aunt on xxx because Mom had to stay another week to
close some business things she had to take care of. Dad was very happy to see
us since it had
been xxxx weeks since we had left. We
did great things back home when we returned waiting for Mom.
THIS PART HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BOLIVIA BUT WE WROTE IT TOGETHER
AND DID NOT KNOW WHERE TO PUT IT. DAD WILL FIGURE IT OUT SOONER OR LATER.
December, 2012
David danced his third Quinces and was in Vanessa, our cousin’s, dancing
court as one of the pairs in the dancing group.
It was a time consuming effort because there were many rehearsals and
things that had to be done for the party but it was a lot of fun once it was
on. David danced well and we were proud
of him with his tuxedo and all.
January – March 2013
March 4th: Sean’s
Confirmation was on this day. It was a Monday night and we had Archbishop
Wenski as the celebrant and were very proud of that. Equally proud I was to
have been a product of
dad’s class and Confirmation program. I was the top student of his class, not
because I am his son but because I had all the right answers every class. I was
the smallest and youngest in the group since dad gave me a program test that
moved me one year up to have Confirmation a year before and finish the program
ahead of schedule. A week later we had a
luncheon in the same place as David did the year before. Both of us completed
our program and now no
one will accompany dad on Sunday mornings as his “prized” students are both
done!
March 24: We went on the Snowbird Bike Ride down in Homestead in an
incredibly windy day. Mom and David
participated officially and Dad and Sean simply did a few miles of the ride and
then rode around the Homestead parks waiting for David and Mom. It was extremely
windy but a lot of fun. One of the parks had a lot of up and won
hilly trail and it was fun to travel on them
March 25 – Our uncle Jorge (Coco) broke his ankle paying soccer. It was a very bad fracture that required
surgery and plates to put it back together.
It will be weeks before he can walk right again.
Feb 17: We had not been to Shark Valley for a year and we chose one of
the worst days to do so. It was very,
very cold and very, very windy. It was
really unusually cold but not unusually windy.
We had a large group that included our friend Rocio and her
daughter. Dad took Rocio on the tandem
as it was her first time and we did have a lot of fun but were totally
exhausted after the day was over.
April – June, 2013
April 1 : both of us had severe stomach virus and it was not an April
fools joke.
May 29, 2013 David’s Promotion ceremony took place
at Coral
Park Senior High School, the school where he will go next year. It was a very
formal event and we were very
proud of the accomplishment. A day later, in the same place, Sean’s Promotion
ceremony took place. He will be going to
WR Thomas so it may not be possible that they will be at the same school again
until college. Until college. Imagine
that.
June: Alex and Dustin visited and spent one day with us – This
is their last before they move to Virginia so their visits will be less
frequent now given the distance.
June 2 : Father Dennison’s last Mass was today. We will truly miss him as a priest and as a
person. We will also miss his 40-45
minute masses which were the best, to the pint and precise and he made it fun.
June 20 – Heat repeats as champions. Pots and pans everywhere!
Friday, June 21 was the Summer
Solstice with a full moon on
Saturday the 22nd and Super Moon on Sunday the 23rd.
We were lucky enough that our friends
Alberto and Marisa had
just left and the beach apartment was ours. We went Saturday evening and
stayed at the beach shore with binoculars, drinks and wine (this for mom and
dad, of course) and just looked at the moon and the sea and nature to about
2:00 in the morning. How about that!
Then we spent the day going from beach
to pool and finally
back home, Mass, and more moon examination from our yard. Dad grilled and
we had just a wonderful evening with only the light of the moon.
More
later but back to our individual pages!
