Archive for February, 2008
Straight out of La Paz
by Brian Boing on Feb.08, 2008, under Uncategorized
Friday, February 8, 2008 Well after months of planning and some slight delays my good friend Juan and I have finally made it to La Paz, Bolivia. We left Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, flew through Miami last night and arrived this morning a little after 6 AM. The good news is that it had been raining here for three weeks straight and the sky’s graciously parted for us as we flew in over lake Titicaca. The view of the sunrise over the lake from the plane was spectacular. On the other the bad news was that one of my checked bags didn’t make it to La Paz with us. Thanks to Juan’s sister Carol who works for a travel agency back in Los Angeles, we were able to locate my bag still stuck in Miami registered under some soccer team??? I would be getting my bag tomorrow, but the local news here just reported that it there was hail the size of bombs that messed up the runway and one plane actually skidded across the runway for 75 meters and broke down. So the airport is closed tomorrow pending repairs. Fortunately, all my camera gear was in my carry on, and my warm clothes, in the luggage that made it through. However, I think I will be needing things like socks, t-shirts, under garments and all my toiletry items! Shopping is in order for tomorrow.
Today was mostly recovery…eat, sleep, eat, sleep….. Man, can Juan’s mother cook!! (So nice to have this hook up.) I think I had four sit down meals today, all awesome Bolivian food… there is no such thing as low-carb diets here! Soup is a mainstay here, and is served with both rice and potatoes combined and is topped off with a salsa the Indians call llahua (sounds like yakwa). We did manage to get out and do a little trekking around the city, but to much hiking at 12,500 feet the first day in isn’t advisable. The airport is at over 13,000 feet and I was lightheaded coming off the plane, Juan was coughing and I swear they had to put one lady on oxygen…. I almost took a photo but, thought that would be too paparazzi of me and decided to restrain myself. I did manage to snap a few photos while leaning out the taxi window coming down from El Alto (the airport)… that was fun. Click here to see the rest of the photos from today.
I am not sure when I will post again, but I will hopefully have more photos in the next batch.
Peace,
Brian
