Arrival

HOLA!  19 hours after leaving Portland (erm… also I stayed up all night packing the night before) I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia!   The only moment of sheer panic occurred when I was getting my tourist Visa.   One of the $20 bills had – no joke – a 2-3 mm tear on one side and the man said it was not possible to process.   I explained (as best I could in Spanish) that I had no other bills, that I could give Bolivianos (the Bolivian currency), or pay with a check or card but luckily there was a long crowd of impatient sleep deprived people behind me so the man only gave me an exasperated look, stamped my passport and let me go.  Yay!  Immigration and customs followed, but were not bad at all.  I easily found the driver from CFHI who picked me and took me to my host mom’s apartment. 

My host mom is awesome.  Even though I mostly try to speak Spanish with her, I can’t say what a relief it is to know that she’s actually fluent in English as well.  She used to teach at the Bolivian language school so she’s patient when I get stuck and need help.  I didn’t realize it until the end of my first day, but it occurred to me that I’d been saying “Pas de probleme” multiple times which actually is French…  I keep mixing the languages.

We had a small breakfast of panitas (small breads), juice, and coca tea (made from Bolivian coca leaves, which although can be processed to make cocaine, when boiled as an herbal infusion it makes a nice tea to help with altitude sickness).  She boils all the water so I don’t get sick.  She even puts a bottle in the bathroom so I can brush my teeth with it.  As a gift, I gave her an album of my family and some pictures from gymnastics, as well as a photo book of Oregon. 

My host mom is also quite the chef.  For lunch, she made a sliced avocado appetizer with tomato chunks and fresh cheese; steamed vegetables, potatoes (Bolivia has over 200 kinds of potatoes), and sausage with cheese.

The apartment is on the 15^th floor and so I’ve got a nice view of downtown La Paz – see photo. 

It’s chilly at night  because there’s no central heating but I’ve got warm blankets so hopefully I’ll be ok. 

So far, nothing too bad in the way of altitude sickness (Bolivia one of the highest cities in the world, at 13,000 feet).  After taking a shower I noticed I was breathing pretty fast but otherwise I was fine.  Also I’ve been taking acetazolamide so we’ll see how the next couple days pan out.