April adventures

Having missed the entire month of April, I hardly know where to begin. Rather than recount our mishap with Fernando's visa and my 2 week solo visit to Beantown (which I managed to nonetheless enjoy) I'll pick up upon my return to La Paz last week. Due to a three hour delay of my flight to Miami, I missed my connection and stayed 24 hours longer in the States than intended, arriving Monday morning barely in time to head to work. Informed that sorochi is not a figment of Fernando's imagination, I took the morning of the 28th off to recover a bit and then it was back to reality. We've had a tumultuous few weeks in Bolivia, with a major referendum in Santa Cruz on May 4th (my birthday) which resulted in an 86% vote for more autonomy, to be followed by several more referendums both in the 3 other provinces seeking greater autonomy from Morales' government, and in 90 days one that actually asks the people to vote on whether Morales or the prefectures stay!! His strategy of proposing that as a legal alternative to the vote that took place backfired majorly and may result in a less favorable mass response than he hopes, but regardless we're all relieved that all has remained calm and we were able to move freely across the city last weekend despite more dire predictions.

Fernando and I spent Saturday shopping for a long overdue coffee maker and toaster oven, discovered The Nanny on DVD, and had a romantic dinner out after which we failed to find a dance club open to suit our schedule (places here start up around 1 am, and I'm afraid I've just turned too old to appreciate that timeframe.) On Sunday we lunched with his parents and sister at the tennis club, which was holding a championship it was fun to watch, and then had a tea party with his uncle's family back at the house, complete with homemade cake which could win a beauty contest and the song "happy birthday" in two languages with accompanying musical instruments. It was great to receive many cards, calls, emails and other communications from abroad, and to finally install fast enough internet to support skype among other favorite means of staying in touch!

I will do my best to post more regularly from May on, but now must head to the next birthday party with my local friends (who said I didn't have any! They're coming out of the woodwork!) Besos y abrazos from the Andes...