Friends sometimes ask how I come up with my vacation ideas. It's magic! Nah.
Sometimes I'm inspired by one of the many press releases I get as a travel writer. I sense an immediate, "whoa, that's cool," reaction and I find a way to go. That's how I ended up in Barco de Avila, Spain, "teaching" English to Spaniards. See previous post.
Sometimes I read a travel story in the paper and that's all it takes. After reading a blurb in The Washington Post about inline skating I just had to do it. See previous post.
Here's my latest daydream. See previous post on travel daydreaming... (okay, enough with the "previous posts.")
I have a friend Daniel, from Bolivia. We met here in Washington when I advertised for a "language partner" on craigslist two years ago. I help him with his English and he helps me with my español. (Estoy mejorando.) We've become good friends.
One year he came to my family's Thanksgiving. It was
nice for him to experience his first American Thanksgiving. And wonderful for us to have such a special guest. Everyone who could speak a few words of Spanish tried them out on him. He was most patient and gracious.
Several
times, he's invited me to go to Bolivia the next time he goes home to
visit his family in Oruru. The first time he said it, I had to explain my
response of "I'm so there. I've already booked my ticket!" (No, not
really, I said when I saw his astonished face. It's just an expression.)
Daniel hasn't gone home yet. So I still haven't been to Bolivia. But I continue to daydream about it. And lately, I've been thinking it might be an imposition to stay with his family for too long. It got me to thinking...
I went online to look into Spanish lessons in
Bolivia. Something I could do on my own, before or after a visit with his family. I knew that Daniel had gone to the university in Cochabamba
(where residents are known as "Cochabambinos." Isn't that great?) I
thought it would be nicer to study Spanish in a university town than in
the middle of La Paz, the capital.
I went online and put a few key words into Google and came up with a language program called "Languages in Action." They give Spanish lessons in 13 countries, including Bolivia.
They offer a variety of accommodations ranging from living with a host family to sharing student housing to staying at a bed and breakfast. That's as far as I've gotten on my research.
Maybe this thing about visiting Daniel's family won't work out. But it wouldn't surprise me if I ended in Cochabamba anyway, to practice Spanish for a week and live with a family. I already love the idea.
Trip ideas and plans start with the basics. What do you love to do? Where have you always wanted to go? What have you always wanted to see/do? What did you recently read about in the paper that appealed to you? If you can't find a friend to go, would you do it anyway? (Say yes!) After that, you find a way to make it happen.
Photo: Ellen Perlman.
1.The closest I've gotten to Bolivia this month was talking with Vincent Fernandez Flores, a farmer who is part of El Ceibo, a Bolivian Cacao Cooperative. He's seen here holding a cacao seed pod. He was in Washington February 9 and 10, at the National Museum of the American Indian, for a cultural exhibit called, "The Power of Chocolate." Flores is Aymara, a native ethnic group in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America.
2.Some Spanish-language products made from the cooperative's cacao.
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