To Santa Cruz

Friday, May 27. Rincon's court was unusually full of many, many moms - bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, fatter, thinner, some very loud, some very shy. But something united them all - their love for their children, who greeted them with bright eyes and unique greeting cards they had made for several days.
Of course, the celebration was longer than expected. Poem after poem, songs, dramas, speeches, big cake, some games for moms. Some of the mothers were local Ayoreos who accompanied each drama or game with lots of laughter.It was interesting that they laughed even at the saddest moments. Panfila explained me later that laughter means also compassion and sorrow for Ayoreos. OK, that explains a lot.
As soon as Panfila could get away from her duties we went to Puerto Suarez by the white car. We finished the bumpy, muddy, curvy and sometimes especially narrow 80 km long road in 3 hours! It's unusually fast. After 3 hour ride and good conversations we reached El Carmen asphalt road. Riding on an asphalt road...mmm. what a pleasure! Something so smooth... seemed like that car itself wanted to go further. When we arrived in Puerto Suarez we went to Brazilian consular office to try to apply for my Brazilian visa I'll need soon. Unfortunately the office closes at 2PM, we were a little late but we met kind employees who looked at my papers and said that everything will be very easy and quickly - I just need to come before 2PM. Few hours in Puerto Suarez and then we went to the train station to catch a train to Santa Cruz. Since we were there early we stood by the gate and talked with the guard. Almost everyone knows Panfila there so it didn't take us long to find a conversation partner. I guess this guard didn't know her so well because he asked if we are mother and daughter when he looked at our papers :D I asked: Do we look alike? He said we do... but I think he soon understood how absurd are his words and he walked away in silence. It's hard to find anything alike in us - Panfila is darker than I with short, black, curly hair and totally different facial features. It's unlikely I was her daughter.
I was pleasantly surprised by the train. When someone told me we'd be going 12 hours by train, I imagined crazy things knowing Bolivia... but to my surprise - we had very big, soft chairs that were comfortable enough for sleeping. They served us dinner - rise with meet sauce. And then movies started. We were so happy because the beginning of the movie was very promising - ballet, nice costumes, music, wonderful leading actress...but later I had to close my eyes occasionally because the movie got more and more awful. If you want to see something really horrible, then the title is The Black Swan. Panfila and I agreed that it's the worst movie we had seen in a long time. After that we saw something better - Desperado with Antonio Banderas! Comparing to the other movie I loved this one so much I was asleep in 30 minutes...In 12 hours we were in Santa Cruz. We entered the train station and there... total Bolivia! Full, full of people. My attention was mostly caught by round ladies who wore many full skirts, very colorful. They had different smaller or bigger hats. Some had knit hats, a little too narrow for their heads so they barely stayed on the top of their heads. Little, brown babies were tied to their backs. Bus drivers were running through the crowds and tried to gather passengers for their busses. They seek them with loud calls. For example, if they go to Cochabamba then the call is this: Cocha-cocha-cocha-bambaaaahhhh!!! Noise, crowds, colors, voices, competition between bus companies...
Panfila's son Joshua and nice Nayeli met us at the station. We met Joshua's girlfriend Hannah later. Nice, lovely people - one Mexican, one half Latvian-half Mexican, one Korean. Plus me - white Latvian and Panfila from Mexico with Brazilian, Bolivian, American elements in personality... colorful company!