Voluntary work and fiestas in Cochabamba

After visiting a fern forest in Amboro national park and a pre-inca religious site El Fuerte near Samaipata, and meeting up again with Isabel and Johan (the Dutch/Belgian couple I've mentioned earlier), Andres and I went to Santa Cruz. The city itself didn't have much to offer for tourists, only expensive restaurants and a few nice buildings around the central square. After the small, relaxing village of Samaipata, the big, rich and busy Santa Cruz didn't appeal to us, so the following morning we took a bus to Cochabamba. On the way we saw some rudimentary dwellings and women doing laundry at rivers.

Now we are visiting a Finnish girl called Kati, whom I know from Tampere Couchsurfing group. She's been doing voluntary work here in Cochabamba for a few months. I visited the office of her employer, Cedesol (http://www.cedesol.org), an association making solar kitchens and also went twice with her to an orphanage to play with children aged 1-8 years. This weekend there's a music festival 'Fiesta de la Musica' in the city and we've gone to some free concerts. So now I, a girl from the land of heavy metal music, have seen a latino band playing heavy metal. Tonight we'll travel to a nearby mountain to participate in celebrations of Aymara (=an indigenous group) New Year.

A lot of travellers experience stomach problems in Bolivia. According to Kati's empiric studies 50 percent of foreigners get amoebas; she's had them once. Luckily I haven't had anything serious so far.

A woman with short hair is a rear sight in South America. Some girls at the orphanage were asking me why I've cut my hair and if I'm a woman and have breasts and vagina. My travel mate Andres is also saying all the time that I don't have hair.