La Paz, Bolivia + Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
While gatherings of seemingly every type have been cancelled worldwide, you know what hasn’t been cancelled? US! We have content for you aplenty:
You can read about our “past travels” on our blog…
You can check out our #10KSaturday slice-of-life interviews with people we know and love…and think you will too!
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Oh and check out Alison’s parody music video she made…in her house. Performers gotta perform, even while quarantined.
If you are looking for a way to give during this time, we ask you to consider our #thankyoufive initiative. It started with a couple of our Baes, Laurie Brown Kindred and Whitney Keeter, brainstorming with us and deciding to support healthcare workers by raising funds and delivering “coffee breaks” to hospitals in New York City. You can give a healthcare worker a coffee break for just $5, or $130 buys coffee and snacks for a whole shift change!
Here’s how you can help #thankyoufive:
Send $5 (or more) to @laurie-kindred on Venmo or $lulupicart on Square Cash App, with #thankyoufive in the subject line!
In other news: we were going to be speaking at the Outlier Podcast Festival in Ohio in May. Because of, well, you know, the festival is now going to be a 3-day Virtual Summit taking place May 13th-15, 2020. For just $49, you can learn about podcasting from experts around the world, all while in your pajamas. And you can see us perform a live show on Friday May 13th, 8pm CDT. You can find us on the schedule and register here.
Alison is currently obsessed with the 7 minute workout app. Because while, like many of you, she has so much more time on her hands, a quick workout is just so much more doable. Lulu is obsessed with the zoom office she's created for herself. Trying to be as professional looking as possible on-screen, while having a designated workspace that is really working for her.
Alison is wishing she had a privacy fence in her backyard. It's possible she's wished for this before, but now that she is stuck at home, having a little more privacy to hang out outside without being in her neighbors space would be nice. Lulu is really feeling her home office, as she wants a green screen and a ring light. Perhaps this attach-to-your-desk chair-green-screen would work.
La Paz is the world’s highest capital city. No, not like that, it has an elevation of 11,942 feet! It is also located just 42 mi southeast of well-known - and always funny to say - Lake Titicaca. Lulu is staying at Hotel Presidente in their nicest suite, which for two nights comes to around $500. So totally doable! A separate living space, luxurious bedding, and a spacious bathroom make the Executive Suite a great choice for business travelers, or for those who just like a little more room. The hotel has a pool, fitness center, spa, and two on-site restaurants, plus is conveniently located in city center. Once she’s settled in, Lulu goes in search of salteñas, a savory Bolivian empanada with meat in a sweet, slightly spicy sauce with olives, raisins and potatoes. She finds a range of options (including vegetarian salteñas) as well as coffees and agua frescas at Pacena la Salteña. The insides are a bit soupy, and it’s considered a badge of honor if you can eat it without spilling any of the filling, Lulu feels confident she can master this epicurean challenge.
At the same building as the hotel, Lulu discovered Urban Rush. While rock climbing is a big thing in Bolivia, this is the city girl version, where you rapell down the side of a building. They even have costumes you can wear - think Spiderman, Catwoman, Santa Claus - but never one to miss a creative opportunity, Lulu is going to pop back into her suite to change into the “costume” she brought with her. See if you can guess what she is dressing up as while she dons the following items:
Comme des Garçons PLAY women’s logo black and white striped long sleeve tee - $119
Black Mask from Etsy seller FrolicandFolly - $20
Oversized neck tie customized for red color by Mooseburger- $29.95
Black and yellow cape from SuperCapesandTutus.com - $8
Christy’s of London Bowler Hat - $290.63
Aquazzura leather trimmed sued sneakers from Net-A-Porter - $525
Here’s one more hint, in case you aren’t sure what she is dressing up as. She is hiring someone to rappel above her dressed in this $350 Hamburger costume from Ace Mascot. She is dressing up as the Hamburglar.
Metaphorically chasing after food sure can make you hungry. Lulu heads over to Gustu for their tasting menu with beverage pairing. Everything they serve is beautiful and full of Bolivian flavor! Plus, Lulu loves supporting a female chef…and Gustu’s was named the top female chef in Latin America!
Lulu stumbled upon some rave reviews of an Incan spa on goworldtravel.com. She immediately heads to the Inca Utama Hotel and Spa, which is not your traditional hotel spa. Llamas drinking from fountains, a medicine man performing blessings, and an on-site astronomer, this locale outside of La Paz by Lake Titicaca is worth the trip. A massage with some coca creme is exactly what Lulu is looking for next in her day…and in real life.
Tea time is taken very seriously in Bolivia, and Lulu is ever so happy to indulge her sweet tooth with some tea and pastries at Los Qñapes.
Now for some entertainment, Lulu heads to the Coliseo to witness Cholita Wrestling, a phenomenon she discovered while perusing AtlasObscura.com. Reclaiming the term “Cholita”, a derogatory name for lower class women of mixed indigenous heritage, these wrestlers wear traditional clothing while fighting in a ring. Similar to the luchadores you may be familiar with from watching Nacho Libre in the 2000’s or likened to the female wrestling seen in Glow with some South American flavor mixed in, this is a cultural must-see and theatrical dynamite. The items that the Cholitas wear in addition to the traditional pleated skirt and plethora of petticoats, include a bowler hat and a flat shoe similar to a ballet flat. Always one to dress for an event, Lulu wears her bowler hat she used in her earlier costume, and these Miss J’Adior Technical Canvas Ballet Pump flats. She’s dressing to support, not emulate, to be clear.
Lulu goes for dinner at Chalet Flor de Leche, which is a restaurant attached to a cheese shop, that offers a cheese tasting dinner. Lulu is there for that with some wine thrown in. She follows up her cheese with drinks at La Costilla de Adan, which translates to Adam’s Rib. They offer cocktail and pie pairings, which sounds like a dream.
At this point in her day, she’d barely spent over 7K, and that’s with $3800 being spent on leather pants. So she decides that the rest of her money will go to buying this “Lake Titicaca motorboat champion” t-shirt for people who support the #thankyoufive initiative, which ps, we’d love if you would even though Lulu is buying this shirt for you in an imaginary day, so you won’t actually get it.
Alison is feeling the wanderlust lately (aren’t we all) and this sales pitch of a description really resonated with her escape-the-madness needs…"Reach out and touch Mt. Leconte by day and the stars at night, all from the massive decks of this extraordinary cabin." She has booked the Grandview Lodge on Airbnb…it’s like a mountain cabin on steroids in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It has 12 bedrooms with 10 king beds, 10 futons, 3 sets of queen size bunk beds and 2 queen size sleeper-sofas. There are 11.5 bathrooms, so everyone has plenty of primping space, which is much needed if you've ever vacationed with 12+ people, trust. There is a pool, a hot tub, and a movie room with theater style seats! Quarantining in this space with her family would not be so bad!
Alison rents a Jeep Wrangler through Rocky Top Adventure Rentals to get around the hills of Tennessee. Cue the banjo-fueled, country twang Rocky Top song being stuck in your head for at least a hot minute. Her first stop is breakfast at Pancake Pantry. This adorable specialty eatery was opened by a couple in 1960 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and now people line up outside every day to try their southern staples. Of note is the 24 types of pancakes, of which Alison orders….all of them. At around $9 a pop, she’s dropping $259 on flapjacks.
Now that she has eaten everything, she heads to Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.She buys a season pass for $189, taking in the theme park and water park, shopping, and a dinner show involving country western costumes, horses, and rings of fire. If you had any doubts you were in the South, this is really bringing it home…down home. While she does appear every so often at the park…Dolly Parton has been quoted as saying she won't ride Dollywood rides because it'll mess up her wig. If that doesn’t make you love her more…
Next up is a visit to the Titanic Museum! A $95 Family Pass provides access for two adults and up to four children. The museum has a replica of the grand staircase, hundreds of artifacts and several interactive exhibits, like a flooded stairway simulator, and a place you can dip your hands into the water that is as cold as the Atlantic that tragic night. Each museum visitor receives a pass at the start of the tour that has the name of your alter ego, an actual passenger that was on board. At the exit you scan your pass to see if you “lived or died”. Fascinating, educational, and a little bit morbid…Alison is IN!
For dinner she books a Private Caboose Party! You can ride the historic Great Smoky Mountains Railroad aboard your very own restored Caboose. Can host up to 15 people in the heated train car, and whether you choose to take in the fresh air standing on the open airvestibule at the end, or hover by the smattering of cheese and crackers they provide, you are sure to have a good time! You are allowed to bring your own food with you, just no alcohol permitted. Alison gets take away food from Blackberry Farm, asking for an assortment from their Tasting Menu with wine pairing. Think roasted sunchoke salad, grilled broccolini, local short ribs, roasted butternut squash with crème fraîche, pecan blondies and chocolate soufflé.
If you are shocked that Alison would choose an activity that prohibited alcohol, you are not alone. She did some stealth googling on the matter and discovered a BuzzFeed article titled “Sneaky Ways to Drink Booze Outside in Public”. There she discovered the Freedom Flask. For $20 you get what looks like a fanny pack that you wear underneath your clothing. You fill up the pouch with whatever booze you fancy, and there is a spigot to relieve the contents into your glassware of choice.
Now to end her day with the reason she chose the Great Smoky Mountains in the first place…she wants to see the fireflies! During the peak firefly period, the park organizes a shuttle service from Sugarlands Visitor Center to the Elkmont viewing area, one of the best places in the world to view fireflies…according to a quick Google search Alison did when inspired by a fictional firefly festival in a kid’s tv show. Still way under budget, she buys this Canon 5D MKIII camera and accessories bundle, hoping to capture the perfect shot of the lightning bug filled sky.
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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