Breckenridge Snow Sculpture Festival

Today The Boy and I had an awesome day at the Breckenridge Snow Sculpture Festival.  I had wanted to go last year but we missed out.  Jo and I both had a day off and he remembered how badly I had wanted to go see the snow sculptures last year, so he suggested we go this year.  It was incredibely thoughtful that he remembered and of course I said yes.

Breckenridge is about a three hour drive, so we left midmorningish in order to have most of the day in the mountains.

When we got there, we parked in the shuttle parking lot and got shuttled to the actual event.  But first, Jo changed into his snow boots.  I took a picture of him changing because I thought it would be interesting.  I'm not taking a picture of his rear or anything.  Really.  I'm not.

Our shuttle bus driver kept telling us that Breckenridge had experienced some unusually warm temperatures recently, and as a result the snow sculptures had started to melt.  I actually believed him and was so bummed out that we wouldn't be seeing the sculptures in all their glory.

Thankfully, it turns out that he was just joking around.  I can be so gullible. (And, no, I will not look up at the ceiling to see the word "gullible" written across it.)

Turns out that the sculptures were in awesome condition and ready to be admired.  Actually, they had just been completed at 10:00 that morning.  Judging would be taking place throughout the day, and the awards ceremony would be the following day.

Check out these amazing pieces of art:



Artsy fartsy.



This sculpture was Jo's favorite.  It was called "Marco Polo."  One kid was popping his head out of the water and screaming, and the little guy that Jo's looking at is hiding behind him.

Marco!  Polo!

This was my favorite sculpture.  It was called "Spirits of the Aurora Borealis," and it was lovely.  It ended up with second place.

This is Father Nature.  The detail is incredible.

We were both having a howlin' good time!!!   This was part of a sculpture that honored Jack London.

Some of the sculptures had their miniaturized models displayed.  The end result ended looking just like this model.  It is amazing what the sculptors can do with a block of snow.

Neither of us were quite sure what to think about this sculpture, which consisted of an ugly fat child holding a sausage.  Really. Ummmmmm.....

Jo liked Team Mexico's sculpture a lot.  He has good taste; it ended up taking first priZ.

When we first saw this sculpture, we both thought it was a rabbit.  Thus, the bunny ears.  Turns out that it's actually a gigantic kangaroo sitting on a couch. (???)

Here's the inspiration for the above sculpture.

Jo never listens to me.  I distinctly told him not to look into Medusa's eyes, but he went ahead and did it anyway.  Sure enough, he froze solid.  Luckily, a kiss on the cheek turned out to be all that he needed to thaw out.

I really liked this one a lot.  I've always been fascinated with Medusa, and this made me want to be her more than ever for Halloween.

This was what all the sculptures had started out as: a solid block of hard-packed snow.



 After checking out the main attractions, we wound our way over to the main street, so we could find something to eat.  Along the way, we found some pretty badass ice sculptures, which we couldn't resist playing around with.

We decided to take turns playing the "help me I'm frozen in this block of ice" game.  It was great fun.

We even  convinced a really nice guy to oblige us and take the coolest CCP we've had in awhile:

We walked along Main Street for awhile, trying to decide on a place to eat.  The thing about Breckenridge is that everything is so darn expensive.  Jo and I are both college students, and neither of us have a ton of money to spend on an overpriced restaurant.  So we took our time and waited to find something that would fit our budget and still be tasty.  Along the way, we saw dogs, bears and horses.  Observe:

This sweet Saint Bernard was waiting patiently for his owner outside a little cafe.  We couldn't resist going over to say hi.  He was the sweetest, most gentle giant, and I loved him.

Some friendly bears we met along the way.

And some snoozing carriage horses, waiting to take a paying customer for a spin around Breck.

Jo and I decided to give a little place called Rasta Pasta a try.  The price was right, and pasta sounded good to both of us.  The place was Jamaican themed, with plenty of red, green and yellow, and with Bob Marly playing on the loud speakers.  It seemed to be pretty busy.

The pasta turned out to be quite...interesting.  I ordered a dish with a spicy red sauce, which I didn't like the taste of.  Jo went out on a limb-way out- and ordered a pasta dish that had grapes, pineapples, and bananas in it.  If we hadn't been so darned hungry it probably would have been downright foul.  As it was, it was just slightly nasty, so we went ahead and ate it.  Let's just say that we won't be going back to good ol' Rasta Pasta again anytime soon.  Especially since our waitress refused to believe that we weren't trying to scam her out of a piece of garlic bread.

After Rasta Pasta, we made our way back to wait in the mile long line for the shuttle.  We went home.  We had had a good day, and would absolutely come back next year.  But that's not the note I want to end on.  The note I want to end on is...

DOGS!

Here's a parade of some of the cute pooches we took pics of throughout the day.  Enjoy!

Day 25 La Paz

What to say?  Our last day.  We were sad, but I won't dwell on that.  We woke up early and had one last insanely fast taxi ride to the airport, only to find our flight was delayed by four hours.  We hung around the airport, made a sweet kid's day by spending a buck on some gum he was selling, and nibbled on the free crackers and chocolate the airline had provided to us as an apology for the delay.

When we did finally board the plane, it was only to fly about an hour away to Santa Cruz, where we needed to get off and wait for a bit while the plane was searched for drugs.  We didn't mind too much, but there was this one guy in front of us who got raging mad at the inconvenience.  He started yelling at anyone who would listen about how ridiculous it was, and how stupid the flight attendants (who, clearly, had made the decision) were.  Jo and I couldn't help but laugh, but the guy was a real jerk and we probably wouldn't have been laughing as much if we had been on the wrong end of his rantings.

Other than "Que Ridiculo!" the flight back was pretty uneventful.  I think Jo and I were in that post-awesome-trip daze that made the mood somewhat subdued.  We did see this guy, the closest thing to a living Duane Hanson I think I've ever seen.  He was walking around muttering about the idiotic layout of the airport in Miami.

See the resemblence?

On that note, the Bolivia blogs will end. So sad.  But Jo and I fully plan on doing lots more traveling in the future, so I do suppose we'll have something to look forward to.

Day 24 Rurre

Our last day in Rurre.  Sigh.

We had debated whether or not we were going to fly or drive from Rurre to La Paz.  But seeing as the plane ride would take less than an hour while the bus ride would take 18 hours, we both voted to shell out the extra dough and fly.  Plus, we thought it would be pretty neat-o to try flying in a small 18-seat airplane.  We had purchased our tickets before going off to traipse in Madidi, so we got up early to pack our stuff and get to the airport.  We were meeting Jesus at 8:00 because he wanted to give Jo a necklace and we wanted to give him a tip.  After that the plan was to catch a motorcycle taxi to the small Rurre Airport, which was only twenty minutes or so outside of the city.

Well, it turns out that we got to the airport only to find out that our flight had been cancelled, and had been rescheduled for six hours later.  We were both kinda ticked off, since we had a ton of stuff that we had been planning to get done in La Paz.  Then again, it was probably our fault for not confirming the flight, like we had been told to do.

We ended up leaving our packs at the airport and catching a ride back with a man who grumbled the whole way back to Rurre about what a crappy airline Amazonas was, and how we should have gone with the military airline instead.  Lesson learned.

We ended up going back to our dear little hostel and reading and generally loafing around.  Then it was back to the airport for us.

This time the plane was on time.  As I've mentioned, it was a tiny little thing, with only eighteen seats.  We were both excited to see what if felt like flying on such a small plane.

Turns out the answer to "How does it feel to fly on a small 18 seat plane?" is "Awful."

Motion sickness is magnified tenfold, and both Jo and I were lucky to come away without vomiting all over each other.  Next time, I'll take the sixteen hour bus, thank you very much.

We ended up sharing a taxi from the airport to downtown La Paz with our new friend Holly.  She was so sweet.  We saw her off at the San Francisco Plaza.  She had months left on her adventure, and we were leaving the next day.  I won't lie: I was jealous.

We arrived back at the Alipazes shortly after, but we were in and out because we had shopping to do!  It was our last day in La Paz, and Jo wanted to make sure to get some things to bring back to the states.

But first, some food.  We stopped at a cafe and I ordered an iced soy mocha.  The girl at the counter seemed a little confused by what I was ordering, but she said that it could be done.  When my order arrived, Jo and I couldn't help but laugh because what they had done was brought me a cold latte with a hunk of chocolate sticking out of it, completely unmelted.  We weren't trying to be difficult, but we sent it back and explained that it wasn't what we had ordered.  They assured us they could fix it, and soon brought out another cold latte...this time with the chocolate bar on the side.  We just sighed and shook our heads, and took a picture to remember my ridiculous "mocha."  What can you do?

Next, we headed up town to hit the markets.  Jo knew exactly where to go to get the best spices.  I tried to absorb as many colors, smells and memories as possible on this, our last day.

At one point Jo and I separated so I could continue shopping while he went back downtown.  I successfully navigated the trufis, a feat I was very proud of.

As it got dark, there was one more order of business to attend to.  Jo had been craving a Bolivian dish called anticuchos, which is essentially skewered cow heart.  The are cooked over an open flame and often served with potatoes. Sounds nasty, but Jo assured me it was delicious.  When he saw an anticucho stand being set up, he hung around like a hungry street dog until they were ready.  I didn't get to try because they are most definitely not vegetarian, but judging by the moans of pleasure, Jo really enjoyed them.

That night, the Alipazes had planned a goodbye dinner for Jo.  A lot of the family came over and bade us farewell.  I thought it was sweet that they made such a big fuss, and enjoyed talking and laughing with everyone.

And then, after a long day, it was time to rest our weary heads and prepare ourselves for having to leave.