Back to Turkey and feeling blessed

While waiting with two backpacks in Istanbul otogar (main bus station) alone, as Adley was running between different bus companies to check bus tickets time and price towards the Black Sea coast,  I was suddenly approached by two teenage girls walking passed after their friends. They gave me a friendly smile and suddenly hugged me with kisses on both of my cheeks, one by one, and walked away!!! It was sweet but left me rather confused. 

After an overnight bus ride from Istanbul towards Bartin, an early connecting bus took us to Amasra, we walked a little bit around the small seaside town and managed a rather long lift to Sinop, where we stayed for a night. 

In Sinop, we found a pansion in a convenience location. Price was fair but we still tried to bargain. The owner stood firm on the rate but offered us home cuisine and Turkish tea all the time.  We tried freshly made Barack, fig jam, paprika dip, tomato nut dip and got so many cooking tips. Her kitchen cum reception cum living room is always fragranced with food.

We are at the right time of Bayram in Turkey, and witnessed the animal butchering ceremony in Sinop the next day. Sheep and cows are contributed by the wealthy ones. Butchers then killed and cut in public with the raw meat given out to poor people. It's a rather unusual event to watch, though not for the faint hearted and probably vegetarians. There was a lot of blood, some struggle but not much heart breaking cries. We heard that usually after Bayram, there will always be a day of rain. Seems that God has his way to clean the land.

Later at night, we watched news about runaway cows and injured helpers during the ceremony all around Turkey.  Our friend laughed that this always happened every year. Such great escape is almost an entertainment.

Getting lucky with hitchhiking on the first day, we confirmed our impression of how easy it is to hitchhike in Turkey. Hence, we insisted to try our luck again.

Two lift with not too long waiting took us 110km from Sinop to Samsun.

When we were hitchhiking today, from Sinop to Gerze, something bizarre happened. Two girls stopped their car in front of us, but instead of taking us a lift, she passed me a mobile phone. It was her curious friend in Trabzon, saying hi to me and probably trying her English. 

We waited a little while more and met a beautiful couple Dilek and Adem, who only got married two months ago and having a little excursion from Sinop directly to Samsun. We exchanged emails and we were invited to their place if we were in Sinop again! They handed us to our CS host in Samsun and left. 

The unlimited hospitality we received here made us feel so blessed and well taken care of!

So we are absolutely fine.

Our first day in La Paz enjoying the Gran Poder parade

Slept for a few hours, we woke up at 9am, made some breakfast and enjoyed a chat with Daltry, our host in La Paz.


He was kind and gentle, with an intense interest in people and pay much attention when talking with everyone. We enjoyed chatting with him. As a translator, Daltry also speaks excellent English. In fact, we are told there was not many translator in La Paz (and in Bolivia as well) and he was one of the few.


We took a walk at noon for the market and the annual Gran Poder, a big street parade, supposingly praising Jesus for his mighty power but turns out a 65 groups parade, showing off how rich people are by their expensive costume and getting drunk until 3am. Daltry was not interested in the event and he stayed home for rest and work.


When the minimum wage in Bolivia is B$1000 per month, those fancy costume at Gran Poder cost at least US$500 and took long time to handmade.


We walked along Avenue Camacho and Avenida 16 de Julio for the parade, which was just one block away from where we stayed.

The road was blocked and there are chairs around the street. Groups danced and played instruments while walking down the slope. Hawkers were selling caps, food, beer all along the area and we managed to squeeze in the performance zone to walk along with the performers for a while, until we were stopped by the police.

It was a one-day-only performance, and performers danced with fancy costume, with music and drumming, people also grasped the chance to get drunk. It was rather ironic with its background of the parade celebrating the mighty power of Jesus. The costumes were fancy but the parade, frankly, was nothing compared to Sombodromo's in Rio.


We watched a while and tried to go to nearby market but they were all closed. We returned at 4pm and Adley managed to make some fried rice out of the kitchen resources. 

We head out at 6pm and Daltry showed us Mirador Killi Killi, a place that we are able to see views of the town,but need to walk slowly, first because the crowd ion Avenida 16 de Julio were still there, people were drinking and music were loud in the street, secondly, due to the altitude, it's 3800m above the sea surface here.

The Greetings

In Argentina
Maria kisses on Julio's left cheek when they say hi and goodbye. While Adley kisses on Julio's left cheek when they say hi and goodbye.


In Brazil
Maria kisses on both cheeks of Pedro and Julia, while Adley kisses Julia on both cheeks, but should not kiss Pedro. Unless they are father and son or lovers. They might shake hands instead.


In Paraguay
Maria kisses on Eduardo's left cheek when they say hi and goodbye. While Adley does the same.


In Uruguay
Maria kisses on Felipe's left cheek when they say hi and goodbye. While Adley does the same.