They called him while a song was on and asked for something to dance to. He played a band from the city of Concepción, which is known for its string instruments, and we danced next to the kitchen table.
In community of Santa Rita, my host mom took us to pull out yuca. Yuca is a root vegetable that is really common to the Amazon region of Bolivia. In my three days in Santa Rita, we used yuca flour for cuñapes, we fried it, and we boiled and mashed it with bananas and charque, a type of super crispy beef. We went into the forest and reached an area with banana trees, papaya trees, and some yuca trees. We knocked down some bananas and papayas and then pulled out papaya trees, because yuca is at the root. The trees will later be replanted!
Because I was traveling, I did most of my reading beforehand. But I read a lot about the history of the Amazon region and the people who live there before going.
In Santa Rita, every night we played soccer in the basketball court of the town.
Santa Rita was very different from the big city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which people say is kind of like Miami.
