Darth Vader is a big scary guy

I often sing my kids to sleep. And being the great rock star that I am, I usually take requests. Owen's two most requested songs are Star Wars and Spiderman. I went on YouTube and learned the Spiderman theme song from the early cartoon, so no problem there. Star Wars was a bit trickier. I tried just humming the music, but no, he wants words. So I made up words as I went along to the Imperial March, making sure to add lots of stuff about droids, Darth Vader, and light sabers. It made him happy. But I wasn't really happy, cuz my words were stupid. So heres the words I painstakingly wrote, to the tune of the imperial march, uh. . . much less stupid. The first two lines I borrowed from someone else, You know who you are. I don't.

Darth vader is a big scary guy

He flies around in a ship in the sky

And he talks with a deap voice

He breathes with a loud noise

Don’t mess with him unless you want to die

Darth Vader was Anikin Skywalker

Who was conceived by miticlorean power.

You know at first he was a good guy

He trained as a Jedi

Raced pods, saved lives and went very far.

So though Ani was as strong as they get

The council said he couldn’t be a master yet

He was confused, and so Palpatine

Took Ani under his wing

Manipulating him ever since they met.

We all know Senator Palpatine is the one

Who can shoot lightning from his fingers like a gun

Palpatine is the sith Lord,

Who becomes the evil emperor

And kills people off just for fun

There are a few other verses. But I think you get the idea of my pure genius.

This is the one Owen wrote:

Dark Vader is a guy. . .walker.

Yeah, I know. His is better than mine.

And...

Ok so heres the thing about the death road tour. It's this teeny tiny little dirt road with a wall of mountain on one side and a cliff on the other. Back when cars regularly used the road there were a lot of accidents. Not just crashes, cars falling down the mountain. The road has barely enough room for one car in most parts, and passing other cars is insanely scary. Many times one of the cars has to back up aways in order to get to a place wide enough for passing. The locals still drive it at an insane pace, though. They don't seem to notice the danger. Or they just don't care because they're in a hurry. There used to be drag racing on the road too, which might account for some of the death toll. Crazy.

Luckily they have a new road on the other side of the valley that goes to the Yungas now, and though it isn't much wider, at least its paved. There do seem to be fewer deaths now, so thats good. So now the original road is used mostly for bike tours. There are very few cars, not counting the mini tour buses that follow the bikers. People come from all over to do the death road tour. It is about six hours one way, mostly steep downhill, only about a forth of it level or uphill. Its mostly rainforesty jungle so its incredibly beautiful but it gets very hot. Luckily there are lots of areas where you ride right through the mini waterfalls.

There were three other dudes in our tour group, two from Spain and one from Germany. All three were pretty clearly extreme sport, adrenalin junkies. Really nice guys, though slightly intimidating to ride with. The German Dude went at a breakneck speed the entire time and popped his tire twice doing it. One of the other guys was about the same speed as Charlie and I (that is to say slow) and the other guy just slightly faster than us. The guide kept us mostly together by stopping every fifteen or twenty minutes for picture taking, snacks or water. He took pictures and video as he biked along side us. Now that's a job I could never do. At the end of the tour we stopped at a hotel to shower, swim if we wished, and eat at a buffet.

The only thing I really could have done without was the bumpiness of the road. The view was breathtaking, but I couldn't really see it because I was too busy navigating the bumpiness of the road as to avoid getting my brains jiggled right out of my head. It was so bumpy it made my hands cramp up and my bum bruise. Is mountain biking always like that? The heat was slightly annoying too, especially at the end when we were actually building up our own heat as well from the exertion. But its always incredibly rewarding to complete something like that. I'm still sore even though its been more than a week since then. But its a good sore.

Anyway, bla bla bla, the pictures were probably enough. And as soon as we get the video and pictures from the guide we will post them too.

Faralee is a "death road survivor"

On friday we went on a bike tour to South Yungas which is located north of La Paz. The tour businesses call this road the death road. We started at "la cumbre" ( about 15,300 feet) and bike down 4 hours to Yolosa (3,900 feet). Here are some pics of our adventure:

Having some breakfast...



the road had many waterfalls


Some takes of La Paz city on our way back

A day in Mallasa

I have been slacking with the picture posting. Well here are pictures of our day in Mallasa. there is a place in Mallasa where you can use your ATV, Bike, horses, etc. and where you could rent some too...here goes

Naked time

Owen spends a lot of time changing his clothes. Well, to be more accurate, he spends a lot of time taking off his clothes and then crying to me about the fact he isn't big enough to put new clothes by himself. I try to let him try it himself, mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I believe in that sort of thing. The only problem is its still a little too cold to walk around in your underwear around here (a favorite past-time for both of us) even though Owen in his underwear is especially adorable. See what I mean? So I spend a lot of time saying things like, "No more taking off your pants! We have changed our clothes enough for today." and "The Spiderman pants are jammies, Owen." (yes, he'll wear Spiderman clothes all the time if I don't hide them) and "Those are pants not a shirt, thats why you can't get your head through."

It all gets very tiring, if it was summer, I would probably be one of those moms who lets thier kids run around naked all the time, rather than dress them five or six times a day. As it is, I do tend to cut corners, and he usually walks around in underwear, socks and jackets all day. Don't tell my in-laws.

Ha. Just as I said that, Charlie's mom Maria rang on the bell. I better go find some clothes to put on Owen pretty fast, or the next time Owen gets sick, I'm gonna hear a lot of "Well, Owen wouldn't get sick so often if you just put some pants on him." How can I stop him from taking them off, that's my question.

Bolivian Dancing

We went to a stake activity which was a presentation by the young women and women of all the Bolivian folk dances. Each ward did a dance from different parts of the country. It was really fun to see all the incredibly elaborate costumes, and to watch my sister and brother in law dancing. Very cool. In Utah, rarely if ever would you see 12 to 18 year old boys dance in front of anyone, let alone a whole stake. Especially in some of those costumes they were wearing. For some reason, the men's costumes are usually more elaborate than the women's. Huge head dresses, and barrel-like skirts over their pants.

I wished once more that I would have had my camera. My inlaws had a video camera, so maybe later I'll post some video of my favorite dances from that. But heres some generic pictures to tide you over. All that folk dancing made me miss my mommy, since it was from her that I inherited my love for it. You would have loved it mommy, I wish you could have been there.

This dance is the one that Michelle and Jason did. Cute, and very islandy. I know, not a word.

This one is one of my favorite dances. Very fun, at least the mens part. Lots of hunching and shuffling around.

Fun experience. They do a lot of these dances actually, so I'll probably get another chance to take some real pictures.