Cookin by the Book

Another week in Veracruz has come and gone without too much fanfare. It was a quiet week at the school with only 3 students, and I decided to take advantage of the vast library to study on my own. And with a lightning fast internet connection I was able to catch up on all the highlights of a very enjoyable football Sunday.

I did continue my culinary education and learned how to make a number of delectable treats. Empanadas are a typical Mexican snack eaten in the morning or afternoon, but unlike in Bolivia you can find them just about any time of day. You probably have encountered some version of the empanada sometime in your comestible adventures, but here is how to make one Mexican style. For those unfortunate souls who have voluntarily regressed along the evolutionary spectrum, this version does not have meat.

First step, acquire the ingredients. We only need two for empanadas de queso: dough and cheese, and both can be found at the local tortillera.

 

The dough is actually produced offsite by farmers who receive some government subsidies to keep prices low. That is great for us at the school, but unfortunately the recipe is not widely known anymore and is aledgedly difficult to reproduce. I will have to count on a member of the Mexican population north of the border to have retained this national secret... I hear there might be a few in California.

Take a look at the menu and order your two ingredients, Maza and Queso Fresco. For reference, $1 is 13 pesos.

Once you have ordered, the dough is weighed, bagged, and you can be on your way.

 

Now you have your ingredients, its time to make the tortillas. Take a handfull of dough, ball it into a circle, and lightly slap it onto the middle of your circular plastic cut-out. Slowly spin the plastic circle with one hand while applying pressure to the outside of the dough with the heel of your other hand and watch your tortilla grow! This sorry excuse for a tortilla took me about 45 seconds to spin and required some emergency resuscitation from the master chef; it took her about 10 seconds to crush hers. But this is how we learn, and the good news is that even the ugly ones taste good.

Once you have your tortilla, time to add the cheese. The cheese comes in a large block but is very easy to string, a job that I most dutifully carried out.

Now its time to fold. Here's where the plastic comes in handy again, all you have to do is take hold of one side and match it together. Apply a little pressure, remove the plastic, and your empanada is ready for the frying pan (apologies for the blurry picture on this one).

 

 

Scoop that bad boy up with a spatula and place it into a frying pan generously filled with oil. Cook until things look crispy (about a minute) and try not to burn yourself as you take your delectable snack out of the pan. ¡Provecho!

 

 

 

A Few Observations

8 hours of school and afternoons spent lounging around is even less interesting to write about than living in Sucre. But here are a few thoughts on Veracruz:

This is essentially the US with slightly more dilapidated infrastructure. Walmart, Carls Jr, 4g networks, and the Hunger Games can be found throughout the city. There are absolutely no foreign tourists... other than the students at the school I have seen 2 English-speakers. I had read that this was not a touristy place and the people who did come were mostly Mexican tourists, but for a beach city with 500,000+ people it is a pleasant surprise that English is all but absent.

 I never stopped believing in you big guy

The food is awesome. It took me 7 days before I finally ate a non-Mexican dish and it is looking like another 7 days before I need break. Part of that is Mexican food has always been my favorite, but there are just so many different meats and salsas that I could eat tacos every meal for a month and it would be a slightly different taste. Mix in empanadas, quesadillas, picadas, chile rellenos, and mole and I am set for life.

 Fresh tacos al pastor!

Finally, there are no police here... just the millitary. I haven't done my own reading, but from what the teachers have told me there were some issues with drugs here a few years ago. So the government replaced the municipal force with the millitary and now there are no problems. You will often see pickup trucks full of soliders equipped with machine guns patroling the boulevard flashing their lights, but I have yet to see them actually do anything. And they are very polite, I usually say hi when I walk by a group and get a friendly response. From what I have experienced so far this is an incredibly safe city and I have no problem with their presence.

 ¡Hola!

Bienvenidos A Veracruz

After a week hiatus for a quick turkey recharge in the US I'm back on the wagon. My next destination is Veracruz, a coastal city in southeast Mexico.

I'll be studying Spanish at the aptly named Language Immersion Institute. Run by an American couple, the school takes a slightly different approach to teaching, emphasizing conversation and activities rather than the traditional lecture format. I found the school by googling Spanish immersion and Mexican cooking: Mexican food has always been my favorite, so I figured I might as well learn how to cook as part of my year of self enrichment.

Everything happens at the school: classes, room, and board. The median age for students here is 49 and as expected I am the youngest one here, but many of the staff are my age and with an early morning wakeup it is probably for the best that there is less of a temptation to stay out past my parents' bedtime.

And here you really are immersed in Spanish. My day began at 7:30 for breakfast with the students/teachers followed by an hour of cooking: today we prepared two different kinds of salsa and a flan.

Next was an hour of conversation and reading one-on-one, followed by an hour walk around the city with my professora. Everyone reconvenes for lunch, and formal classes finally end with another 2 hours of conversation in the afternoon for essentially 8 hours of straight Spanish. After that there is a teacher assigned to hang out on the couch until 9pm for anyone that wants to continue to practice, and there are evening excusions a few nights each week.

I honestly cannot think of a better set-up for Spanish immersion. Everyone has their own room and bathroom with AC, there is high speed wifi throughout the school (same speed as home), you get to eat delicious home-cooked Mexican food, and you are forced to speak Spanish for a minimum of 8 hours each day. But aside from the physical comforts, it is the emphasis on conversation that really wins me over. At this point in my Spanish development I've learned the fundamental aspects of grammar, it is now all about speaking. I also appreciate that the school is half a block from the ocean.

 

A Weekend of Firsts

The past few weekends I experienced a few things that I had never gotten to do before.
First up, an app launch party. After growing up in Silicon Valley and working for Silicon Valley Bank for 3 years, it seems only fitting that my first launch party was in Bolivia. The app is called Stanstone and was developed here in Sucre.

It seems to be a sort of Facebook/Tripadvisor hybrid for backpackers, where you can post reviews, give real-time updates of places, write a travel journal, and some other features. Most importantly you got a free beer for downloading it. There was nothing particularly unique about the party, a DJ, some dancing, and a bunch of posters advertising the app, but nevertheless it was fun to go to technology focused event in Sucre.

The next Friday night a group of us went to Sucre's first ever electronic music festival, Lunatica Desciende.

This was a first for both Sucre and me, and from everything I have heard about other elecontrica events I think it is safe to assume that "festival" was a more than generous title. But regardless of what they called it we still had a great time. The price of admission included transportation to and from the event with the last bus leaving at 11pm from the Plaza. Of course everyone wanted to take the last bus so we ended up squeezing 80 people in a 40-person vehicle, but everyone was in good spirits and it was only 30 minutes to the venue. Electronica music has yet to take Bolivia by storm and the crowd was unsurprisingly gringo at a ratio of about 10:1.

When we arrived we were greeted by about 20 policeman surrounding the entrance blocking our path. For the next 20 minutes each person was searched with a thoroughness that would make American ambulance chasers drool for invasion of privacy suits. I resisted the urge to tip the officer for his services and we made it through the gates without further excitement. Unfortunately that was not the end of the police, and within 5 minutes of walking inside the music stopped and every single square centimeter of the place was searched by la policia. This took another 45 minutes and the crowd became increasingly restless, but finally everything was deemed all clear and we didn't have any more problems the rest of the night. The venue was essentially a grass field with a small patio off to one side where you could buy food and drinks. While the audience was mostly travelers all of the artists were Bolivian, and of course there was plenty of fluorescent paint. I'm sure this wasn't in the same universe as Tomorrowland, but it was still a fun night of electronic music and dancing.

The last of the firsts is something I'd rather not repeat anytime soon. The next night my group of friends decided to go back to the festival for the second night while I elected to stay in town and hang out with my Bolivian friends. We made our way to Mitos and stayed until it closed around 3:30, slightly past the legal close-time but nothing out of the ordinary. This time was a bit different. As we left the club we were greeted by another battalion of police officers. We mill about outside the entrance deciding what to do next, when all of a sudden it becomes incredibly painful to breathe and I start coughing uncontrollably. I had been battling a cold for the past few weeks so I didn't think too much of it initially, but then I noticed everyone around me was also coughing and knew something more was amiss. Apparently the crowd was not disbursing quickly enough for Mr. Policeman since they fired tear gas, which was just the motivation we needed to run away.

I had hoped that my first experience with tear gas would have been for something a little more world-changing than exiting a Bolivan nightclub, and after that less than pleasant burning sensation in my lungs I am not anxious to experience that again anytime soon. Even worse, I discovered the next day that those same police officers had come directly from the festival after shutting it down early. Someone had been caught with marijuana and that was all they needed to end the fun. One might argue that the police should be called to shut down an electronic festival that did NOT have marijuanna, but I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Random Sucre Info - Nightlife

It's tough to take pictures of the nightlife but I'll try to provide an idea of how it works.
The weekend starts on Thursday night but you can find something to do on every night if you are interested. Many bars host a happy hour from 9-10 where you can get 2x1 drinks, and a few select bars extend that an additional hour to 11.

Best mojitos in town

One of my favorite aspects of Bolivian nightlife is Cacho, a Yahtzee-like dice drinking game that you can play in many of the local bars. Every Tuesday night Cafe Amsterdam hosts a Cacho tournament that draws a fun mix of Bolivians and Foreigners. Unfortunately, despite my impeccable attendance record I continue to finish at the bottom of the rankings.


Discotecas start to fill up around 1:00am. There are a variety of discotecas that with a substantial range of amenities... here are the extremes: The most expensive club in Sucre, Mooy, provides a posh roof-top experience with an amazing view of the city, a marble bar where you can buy 40b ($~6) red-bull vodkas (obviously this is very cheap compared to the US, but this is the Sucre equivalent to NYC prices), extensively made up clientele that dance in restrictive groups, incredibly clean bathrooms, and plays modern Latino salsa/dance music.

Mooy by daylight

The Louvre, or Sucre?      

Nanos, on the other hand, boasts a wonderful basement entrance, casually attired clientele that are very friendly, reeks of an atrocious odor, does not have a marble bar but beers are 15bs ($~2), has a bathroom with one very wet floor that I discovered was caused by the quizzical concept of a urinal that wasn't actually connected to anything, and plays modern Latino salsa/dance music.

You were warned... 

I prefer the middle ground, Mitos. Attire is still casual, there is a fun blend of locals/gringos, everyone wants to dance and have a good time but you can stick with your own group if you so chose, the building is clean but not egregiously so, and the music is modern Latino salsa/dance music AND some western hip-hop and electronic music.

By Sucre law all clubs are supposed to close at 3am. That seems to be arbitrarily followed but I cannot figure out the pattern... most do end up closing at 3 but some will stay open until 5 or later. The ones that do stay open are completely random, so you never really know what is going to happen when the clock strikes 3.

Regardless of where you decide to spend the night it is going to be a fun time. People are incredibly friendly and love to dance, and even at Mooy I met new friends. Multiple times I have showed up to places as the only non-Bolivian and never felt like an intruder or an unwanted guest.

One final thing worth mentioning is the current anthem of Sucre. Every place has an anthem, a song that when played causes everyone to cheer, dance with more excitement, etc. I first discovered this phenomenon while studying in Salamanca, where Ozone's Dragosta Din Te raged throughout the clubs (later that year it would catch on in the US, more commonly known as the Numa Numa song). And anthem's aren't specific to international destinations... as I was leaving the states Avicii's Wake Me Up seemed poised to grab the banner. Sucre's anthem is Marc Anthony's Vivir Mi Vida. When this comes on it's time to find someone to dance with.

Random Sucre Info - Transportation

Aside from the weekend trip to Cochabamba I have spent my entire time in Sucre. I personally prefer to stay in one place for a longer time, you actually get to know the city, can develop a real group of friends, and constantly being on the move is exhausting. Unfortunately describing everyday life isn't the most interesting thing to convey in a blog post. So I'll try to post every few days some of the random items that make up everyday life. Some are boring, some interesting, and some are just really weird.

Currency: Boliviano - $1USD = 7bs (not really transportation but worth knowing)

$1.43 Big Ones

Getting around Sucre is quite easy: you can walk everywhere in under 30 minutes. Crossing streets is pretty much a free-for-all. There are cross-walks for busy intersections but you can go whenever you want as long as there is space. And there are even half-way points in the cross-walks where you can take a break if you get tired!

Sometimes you just need a breather

But if you are feeling lazy or want to experience the motorized variety of transportation you have a few options. Taxis cost 4bs to get anywhere in the city during the day, 5bs at night. This is a per person charge and you certainly are not limited to only fitting 4 in a cab if you are rolling with a big crew. The plaza is pretty much safe regardless of the time of night, but since I live towards the outskirts of the city anytime past 11pm I take a cab home.

8 people?  No problem

There are also a number of these micro-buses that are constantly moving on fixed routes. 1.5bs a person will get you aboard.

These are actually an awesome bargain

There are stoplights on "big" roads, but there are no stop signs anywhere. Instead, cars will just honk or flash their lights when crossing an intersection to let others know they are coming.
The stoplights go green, yellow, red... but then will go red, yellow, green. The yellow lights only last about .5 seconds so there isn't usually any confusion and cars waiting at a red light usually start going when it shifts to yellow. Still, it is certainly interesting seeing the double yellow.

Watch Out!

Finally, without a doubt the most bizarre thing I've seen in Sucre are the Zebras. During peak rush hours around the plaza a brigade of zebra crossing guards will direct traffic. I'm not entirely sure why they exist, the lights, crosswalks, and all other street infrastructure seems to work fine, but the zebras are there to make your life better.

Don't fuck with the zebras

Villa Tunari and Cochabamba - A Weekend Excursion Part 2

Well it took a bit longer than I expected to get people's pictures but I finally got them last night. Here's what we did the second day...

We awoke to pouring rain, which was bad news for today's big activity of visiting a jungle-animal rescue shelter. Our guide told us the park would not open when it was raining and we decided to wait an extra hour at the hotel to see if the weather would improve. For me, that ended up being the best thing that could have happened. The rain continued to fall and after an hour and a half we were told that we'd be visiting a museum about the coca plant instead, which did not elicit too many smiles from the group.

Just as we were getting into the van to leave our guide tells us that the president is staying in the cabin next to us. My first reaction was to wonder which president she was talking about... I assumed she meant of some nature society. My second reaction was that she was just trying to make a joke to boost the morale of the group. But then we walk over and sure enough there is President Evo Morales himself standing on the porch. What the fuck is the president of Bolivia doing at what would generously be described as a 2 star accommodation? No idea, but I wasn't about to complain about meeting my first head of state.

Whatup E (in the middle, white shirt)

He shook everyone's hand, asked where people were from, and posed for a picture with us. He seemed particularly happy that one of our group was Austrian (Austria and Bolivia share similar socialist policies and Austria's head-of-state and Evo are friends), and since there were 7 of us it wasn't incredibly obvious that I just smiled and didn't say I was from the US. I don't think there would have been a legitimate problem if I had admitted I was American, but considering his less than rosy sentiments towards the Red, White, and Blue I didn't see any reason to test that hypothesis.

What I found most interesting was the utter lack of security in the area. I can only imagine what it takes for Obama to stay at a hotel... of course the president of Bolivia isn't the president of the US, but I only saw two security guards that were either unarmed or carrying concealed pistols. Unless the monkeys in the trees had just finished sniper school the president of a sovereign nation was rolling with significantly less security than the mayor of San Francisco.

After our encounter with the president missing the animal park didn't sting too badly. Instead, we visited a coca museum, located in the headquarters of a drug-enforcement police complex. Coca is the plant from which cocaine is derived and is a major crop for Bolivia and Peru. Just the plant itself is harmless: it is an incredibly mild stimulant that causes slight mouth-numbing sensation when chewed, and is often used in tea to help people adjust to altitude. I'm not really sure what I was expecting when I heard we were going to a coca museum, but it certainly wasn't what we visited.

Hi kids, follow me to the museum!

Unfortunately cameras were not allowed inside so I don't have any photo evidence, but the "museum" was a small warehouse filled with various pictures and tools explaining how to make cocaine. Our tour guide was a surprisingly attractive female drug officer dressed in military camouflage who politely pointed out the various methods/paraphernalia that drug dealers had tried to use to smuggle their product out of the country. Hollowed out televisions, bicycles, and children's toys littered one side of the building; another side had 20 jugs of acid that a patrol had recovered on a recent raid. Now I'm sure it would take about 2 seconds to google how to make cocaine, but it does seem a little counterintuitive to have an exhibition devoted to explaining exactly what you are trying to stop.

We ended up trying to go to the animal park but it was indeed closed. We even tried using photo evidence that the president was on our side but the guards would not open the gates. We still saw a few monkeys though, so it wasn't a complete bust.

It was worth missing you to see Mr. Prez

We made our way back to Cochabamba, stopping a few times along the way for scenery pictures...

Sometimes pictures make me nervous

... and some fresh air by a lake.

 Who doesn't like a nice lake?

We also sampled some of the local beverages.

Our guide was very helpful

We arrived back at Cochabamba in the evening and decided to treat ourselves to a fancy Italian dinner. The white tablecloth, candlelit atmosphere was a pleasant contrast to the jungle, and drinks afterwards capped off a great second day.

Cheers! 

Villa Tunari and Cochabamba - A Weekend Excursion Part 1

After thoroughly enjoying the nightlife in Sucre my first weekend, I decided it was time to explore some other sights that Bolivia had to offer. A group of students from my school had already planned on visiting Cochabamba and the nearby jungle of Villa Tunari for a 3-day weekend so I attached myself to the group. Unfortunately my camera decided it was allergic to batteries and promptly drained itself after the first day, but since there were 7 of us I should have enough material to cannibalize for Part 2. Also I am having technical difficulties uploading videos, so for now just pretend that they exist.

There are two ways to get to Cochabamba from Sucre: a 30 minutes by plane or 10 hours by bus. Clearly on paper that would be a no-brainer, but the plane has two issues: it is 4x more expensive, and it isn't guaranteed to take off because the Sucre airport shuts down every time there is a storm. Even with the significant price differential I had been leaning towards the plane to avoid 10 hours of misery, but it poured all of Thursday and I didn't want to risk getting left behind.

There are three types of busses in Bolivia: Full-Cama, Semi-Cama, and Regular. Full-Cama has seats that recline all the way back to form essentially a bed, semi-cama reclines part of the way, and regular seats laugh at you when you think about reclining. To Cochabamba our only choices were semi or regular, and for 10 hours we splurged on the semi. Our itinerary was to leave at 8pm Friday night from Sucre and arrive in Cochabamba around 5am or so, where we would be picked up by our guide and driver around 8am and then drive the 4 hours to the jungle.

The bus station in Sucre is comparable to bus stations all over the world - a ticket area, a few shops, and some benches to sit down. But after spotting this gentleman I knew it would be a great trip:

Green Bay Packers... the world's favorite team

We boarded this bus at 8 and were quickly off. Cochamaba isn't actually that far away from Sucre, about 300km, but the road is a series of twists and turns with the occasional stretch of less than ideal pavement. With no ventilation and a seat in the back the first hour wasn't the cheeriest of stretches, but I blended a delicious cocktail of motion sickness and sleeping pills and arrived in Cochabamba in no time!

Sleeping pills can make anything tolerable

We got around 4:45am and grabbed a few empty benches for a few more hours of rest. That proved to be impossible as we were serenaded with constant shouts advertising other prospective bus destinations. No worries, our guide showed up a few hours early and after a quick breakfast we hop into our van towards the jungle. 4 hours later we pull off onto a dirt road and drive half a mile through some dense vegetation before arriving at our jungle lodge. We had been given 3 choices on the hotel and went with the budget option, but I thought the accommodation was more than adequate.

Who needs hot water when you are in the jungle?

Lunch was at a clean restaurant with a variety of meat and rice plates and one page of exotic jungle dishes. I was legitimately hungry so stuck with the safer chicken option, but one of the other guys went with the armadillo. One bite was enough for me. Also, despite being next to the jungle in one of the more remote countries in the world, we still got to enjoy the Barcelona-Madrid soccer game.

You can't stop the power of the Classico

After lunch we drove to the jungle for an afternoon of hiking. To get to the jungle trails we first had to cross a river, which was one of the coolest parts of the afternoon. Our guide ferried us across the river in two groups:

He wouldn't let me drive

After disembarking we set off on a 2 two hour jungle hike. Here's the thing about the jungle... you really don't see that much. Most of the animals are nocturnal and the ones that aren't are active in the morning and at night. If you go on an afternoon hike you almost never see anything except trees and bugs, with the occasional bird or monkey if you are lucky. That can be a little bit of a let-down-- I certainly expected to see a plethora of wildlife the first time I went to the jungle-- so what I do each time I go is try to look for something I have never seen before. The tram experience filled that quota, so everything after that was just a bonus.

One other item about the jungle... it is one of the least comfortable places on earth (at least for me). It is hot, humid, you are probably getting rained on, and there are a fuck-ton of mosquitoes. On the flip side, the sounds of the jungle are incomparable to anything else you will hear. There is just so much life and energy that you can viscerally feel it every second you are there.

Anyways, we hiked for about 45 minutes and stopped at a cave. This part of the jungle was famous for the Guacharos, a nocturnal bird that sounded absolutely terrifying. With the exception of the birds and another cave of bats we didn't see to much. For me, two hours hiking is just the right amount of time before I started to get irritated. This was the perfect hike to enjoy the jungle.

One more hour and there would have been no smiles

After we returned to the lodge we went for a quick swim in a nearby swimming hole. All of my hard work avoiding mosquito bites evaporated in about 5 seconds, but the refreshing bliss made it almost worth it. The rest of the day passed without too many other events until our return from dinner. We discovered that our triple had added a 4th guest:

Not exactly who I wanted to share the double bed with

It is a little hard to see how big this guy really was from the picture but if you wrap one of your hands around your fist you will have an idea. At last, some wildlife in the jungle!

Technology In Sucre

Bolivia is not a wealthy country, and in the more rural areas (about 50% of the population lives there according to the most recent census) you won't find the basic amenities of electricity and running water. This is not the case in Sucre.

Sucre is essentially a modern city. Aside from the 24/7 electricity and hot water, cable tv, high speed internet, and other toys that you are accustomed to can easily be obtained. Most houses have televisions, although personal computers are still a rarity. Instead, there are dozens of Internet cafes sprinkled throughout the city.

Frequently filled with Bolivian gamers

For 2bs an hour (a little less than 30 cents) you get access to dsl speed internet on computers that are from the mid 2000s. You won't be able to stream that episode of Pretty Little Liars you missed but it is plenty fast for email, facebook, and general browsing. And for those with WiFi capable devices there are a number of cafes with free, reliable WiFi.

Even WiFi in the park!

Everyone has cell phones. There are two types - standard monthly contracts like in the US or pre-paid credits that you can recharge at one of a hundred different small shops around the city. I have this amazing gem of a device, which is perfect for calls or texts and needs to be recharged once every 3 weeks:

This one is a winner

The cell phone was by far my largest purchase while in Sucre at $30 which included a 10b credit. Texts are 25b centavos (a little more than 3 cents each) and calls to other cell phones are 20b centavos/min; based on my current usage I'm looking at $4/month to keep my phone active. One interesting aspect of buying a cell phone is that they require you to present a passport/ID to activate the service. There might be the argument that this prevents drug-dealers from conducting clandestine communication, but I don't think I want to test who they are watching by sending a sketchy text message condemning the honorable President Morales.

You can feel the excitement as she activates my phone

If you are looking to see the latest American movies the movie theater is here to accommodate your needs. This one legitimately surprised me... the movie posters I had seen on other Latin American trips featured movies that were a few months old in the states, but not the case here.

 Don´t Jump!

The supermarket prohibits pictures so you will have to take my word on this one, but a quick walk around revealed everything you would expect in a Safeway or Shaws.

As a whole you can live an exceptionally modern existence in Sucre. There is only one thing that would make living here a deal-breaker: you are stuck watching the play-by-play on Sundays.