I decided to visit my uncle and cousins for Christmas, in Bolivia.
I have never had a warm Christmas, so this was going to be different. I arrived (from New York) in snow boots carrying my ski jacket and my ski boots as hand luggage, people on the plane found this quite amusing, as obviously I would have no need for them in Bolivia!
It was their summer, and their rainy season, so the 1st few days were torrential (warm) rain, like nothing I had ever seen before. But luckily for me, this meant that it was slightly cooler than the nearly 40 degrees celsius it had been the week before my arrival.
One of our first tasks was to decorate the Christmas tree!
Bolivians don’t traditionally celebrate Christmas on Christmas day, but have massive parties and let of loads of fireworks in the streets on Christmas Eve. But we had our traditional Christmas Dinner of Turkey with all the trimmings.
Our family Christmas Present was a trip to the mountains. So, after 4 days in the very humid city we headed to Samaipata.
We spent some time in the town and had some lunch. It was very weird for me to see Christmas Decorations in such a hot and sunny climate, there would never be snow there, yet they still associate snowmen with Christmas!
On our last day we hiked up to the top of the mountain that we were staying on. It was Beautiful!
After being in Vermont the much warmer weather was a little bit of a shock to the system! But not so much as the language barrier. As an Brit, I am used to being able to get by wherever I go as across Europe, most people speak bits of English, but in Bolivia, no one speaks English.
It was definitely the most memorable Christmas that I have had!