Gracias por Su Ayuda

La Paz, Bolivia -- Day 7

Hola. It's Kylie. I'm going to be writing today. Our day didn't start so well. Everyone was grumpy, and I didn't slept very well, so our morning was just a lot of "grumpus" (sigh). When we got to Spanish class (which I really enjoy), Dex and I greeted Bruce at the door with a "como estas?" and a "Bien, gracias."

After studying clothes in espanol, we started a game called Takenoko. It was a really fun game, and there were two characters -- a panda and a bamboo farmer. You got three cards and tried to complete what they said. At the thirty minute lunch break, I had a saltena (a pastry filled with egg, gravy and normaly some type of meat (in espanol, meat is "carne") and a plastic bag full of lemon juice.

Takenoko game

The Spanish school is in a courtyard and we seemed to be the only four people taking lessons right now. When class ended, we asked Bruce and Franz to come with us for lunch at a Cuban restaurant to thank them for all they had done for us. It was a very nice way to say goodbye.

Once we got back to the hotel, there wasn't much to do since we no longer had a room. Dad went outside to look for a pair of shoes, Dex worked on a website called Glogster, and Mom checked her email.

Shoes at the street market

New jacket for Dex

When it was dark, we walked a long ways through town with our backpacks to a busy street where our overnight bus was waiting. This was the fanciest bus I've every seen. The seats were huge and reclined way back, there was a TV, we got a small meal, and there was cool blue lights inside.

Off to the bus station

Our fancy overnight bus

Dad's note: blogs may not be very timely for a while.  We're looking forward to our time in Peru, Ecuador and then the US.  Hope to see some of you on the bike ride across the states and then back in the California at the beginning of August.

Pico Verde and Gustu

La Paz, Bolivia -- March 27-30 -- Day 3-6

Today we finished our fourth day of classes here in La Paz. We had learned about the Pico Verde language school on-line, so on Monday morning, we walked over only to find the big wooden doors locked. Since our last email exchange had been more than a week ago, we wondered whether we'd actually be able to start. Fortunately, after lunch, we found the doors open.

We chatted with the woman in the office and quickly agreed on one teacher for Dex and Kylie and another for Meg and me, three hours a day for five days. To our delight, she made a few phone calls and managed to get a couple teachers on board. Even better, we could start that afternoon at 3:00. We just needed notebooks and the cash -- $7 per person per hour (not too bad for semi private lessons).

For the first day, the woman who ran the office taught Dex and Kylie since their regular instructor, Bruce, wouldn't be available until Tuesday. All in all, we have really enjoyed the classes. Bruce has been excellent with the kids coming up with different games for them to play. Dex even said tonight that he’d really like to spend three or four weeks here so he’d really be able to say a few things. Franz, Meg's and my excellent instructor, did his best to take us through the most critical parts of speech. Often we would start to talk about some topic or activity and before we knew it forty minutes had gone by. Of course, trying to piece together sentences was largely what we had come for.

Kylie and Dex with Bruce

Our instructor, Franz

Besides classes and a little bit of homework, we were able to finalize the rest of our time in South America during the week. Similar to Southeast Asia, we are packing a lot in a short period of time. After class on Friday, we have a three-day Salar de Uyuni tour booked complete with overnight bus on each end. We also settled on an organized Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu two days after the salt flats, which will require a third over night bus to get from La Paz across the border to Cusco, Peru. We had planned initially to do the trek on our own. However, with just barely enough time to fit it in before heading to Ecuador for the Galapagos, it started to look like getting the gear, food and organizing the buses, train and entrance tickets might leave us a day short, so an organized tour it is.

On Wednesday, after class, we decided to see some more of the city so went to the “must see” (according to the Lonely Planet) Museo de Metales Precioces. Hmm, I'm not sure what the writer of the guidebook was thinking, but it was definitely a bit of a disappointment. The supposed highlight was the Sala de Oro with a few small golden figurines of people and llamas and a complete set of royal decorations -- head dress, necklaces, chest plates and a dozen thin metal disks. Unfortunately, there was almost no information on any of the displays -- nothing about dates, places, people, significance etc. The same went for the pottery displays (and, no pictures allowed in the museum).

La Paz street market

Fresh juice

Typical meat and potato "saltena"

Afterward the museum, we decided to ride the two other teleferico lines, the yellow and green lines, just to see more of the city and grab dinner in what was supposed to be the nicer part of town. It took a while just to get to the tram. We asked at a nearby restaurant if they could call a taxi for us since the general rule is that you only ride in official taxis, not ones hailed off the street. The woman from the restaurant ended up leading us to and accompanying us in a collectivo (micro bus) to a different part of town. She then flagged down a taxi, confirmed the fare before letting us hop in. As before, the Teleferico ride was a fabulous way to see the crowded hills and canyons of the city.

Sprawling La Paz

At the end of the line, we searched Google for restaurants and selected the first one within a half mile that was open (we were hungry and many opened later in the evening.) After walking a half mile through a residential neighborhood, we found the restaurant. Hmm, it was definitely a bit fancier than we expected. The hostess, surprised that we didn't have reservations, tactfully ignored our T-shirts and zip-off pants. I started mentally preparing myself for the bill as we were led to a table in the back corner. A few Google searches and we soon learned that by dumb luck, we just happened to wander into what is apparently one of the best restaurants (#14) in all of South America.

Started by Claus Meyer of Denmark, the restaurant has only been around since 2013.  Meyer is apparently well known in culinary circles for co-founding Noma in Copenhagen and being a leading advocate of the New Nordic Cuisine Movement -- the goal is to use only locally grown, traditional food, and encourage environmentally friendly production.  Meyers apparently chose Bolivia for his latest venture specifically due to it's low income, underdeveloped cuisine, and low crime rate.  His goal is to "drive social change through food."  

Suffice it to say, the food and service were excellent.  Bertil, our waiter, had worked at Noma and moved to La Paz when the restaurant was started.  He carefully explained each of our selections, which included raw alpaca, rabbit, trout, and pork. Dessert was still more avant guard.  We were apparently ahead of the normal 9:00 crowd, so before we left, Bertil took us on a tour of the kitchen, the downstairs prep areas, and bakery.  Our simple dinner had turned into a fantastic experience and we left feeling incredibly lucky to have stumbled upon Gustu.  If you're ever in La Paz.... 

The Two Mile High City

La Paz, Bolivia

At 11,917 ft, over two miles high, La Paz is the highest capital in the world. (Lhasa in Tibet, is a bit higher at 12,097, but doesn't technically qualify since it was taken over by China in 1950.) The city is huge and stretches out over the mountain sides in all directions. For some reason, Dex threw up last night, so it was a slow morning, and he and Kylie spent most of it in the hotel room.  

Nearby Iglesia de San Francisco

Micro bus

Our big adventure of the day was taking the elevated cable car system, Mi Teleferico, up to the adjoining and equally large city of El Alto. The cities seem to stretch on forever with red brick buildings sprawling out along the hillsides and canyons. The overhead tram, just completed a couple years ago, offers amazing views as it silently ferries passengers over homes, streets, soccer fields, canyons and roadways. There are currently four different lines, the red and blue up north to El Alto, and the yellow and green down south with six more in the works. After taking the out and back tour in the blue line, Dex, Kylie, and I stopped to explore the huge open air market that filled in the street for a kilometer or more.

El Alto with mountains in the background

The Sunday outdoor market

Perhaps, because of our 13,000+ ft elevation higher up in the city, Meg had a headache so decided to skip the market and instead head back to rest at the hotel. Kylie, Dex and I wandered through the stalls amazed at the variety of goods available -- clothes, toys, electronics, food, even car parts.

Our first day ended on a quiet note as Meg was content to stay indoors and the kids too opted to stay in and read versus finding something to eat. Surprisingly, after returning from a mediocre bowl of soup at a nearby Chinese restaurant, I found Dex and Kylie waiting for me in the lobby. Hunger apparently had gotten the best of them. Dinner number two was at an Italian restaurant. Ah, the sacrifices a dad must make!

By the Skin of Our Teeth

To La Paz, Bolivia -- March 24-25 -- Day 1-2

The last couple days have been consumed with traveling, and we have now left the far south behind. Given the time, effort, and cost to get down to Patagonia, I suppose we could have spent more time enjoying the scenic beauty. Still, what we did see, the Perito Moreno Glacier and Fitz Roy range, was absolutely stunning.

Yesterday, we had only to get from El Chalten to El Calafate. That gave us some time for the kids to finish their blog about the Glacier and write some post card, not mention for all of us to reorganize our bags again. It seems crazy that we can't possibly keep track of all our stuff. When unplugging the spare battery yesterday, we apparently left the adapter in the outlet at the hostel; then Dex informed me he doesn't actually know where his iPod Shuffle is anymore!  Arrgh. It's par for the course, I suppose. Since we are constantly moving, packing, unpacking, and almost never in the same place for more than a day or two, I guess that's the way it goes.

Of course, if we’re not losing things, then we're breaking them. Dex and Kylie had fun the other night using the wooden skateboard ramp in Puerto Natales as a slide. Afterwards, though, Dex realized his pants were a bit breezier than normal with a jagged hole along the seam. Fortunately the glue-on, Thermarest patches seemed to have done the trick, even if it doesn't look that great. My Nepal hiking boots finally gave out with one sole peeling off the front. I suppose for sixty bucks they did the job. As a result of all this, we now have an awful lot of items we didn't leave home with -- our 20 liter day pack, the kids’ small travel bags, our hats, various sunglasses, shoes, pants, shirts, and even a couple sleeping bags. I guess the upshot is, you can usually find what you need... eventually.

Today, we had three planes to catch (the 30th, 31st, and 32nd of the trip!). For the second one, in Buenos Aires, we had to change airports, which wasn't much of a problem since we had five hours between flights. The bigger problem was between the second and third. Here’s Meg’s take:

Early morning in El Chalten

Good bye Patagonia

As you have probably guessed, Dean and I are not detailed planners.  For the most part, our laid back approach has treated us well for the first ten months.  Before leaving the country we're in, we check the countries we are going to regarding visas.  So it was, before we left New Zealand, we checked over Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador, and each time Lonely Planet stated that US Citizens do not need visas.  We just might have forgotten to check Bolivia....

As we were checking in for our flight from Buenos Aires to La Paz, the airline attendant asked about our Bolivian visa.  Umm, what?  Not to worry, though; apparently, we could obtain one upon arrival, much like what we’d done in Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Namibia, etc.  To allay our fears, we checked the Lonely Planet to find this: "At the time of print, visa's may be obtained at the airport, but check with the Bolivian Embassy."  So much for that.  With our bags already checked through to La Paz, but with us stopping first in Santa Cruz (our entry point to Bolivia), we checked the Bolivian Embassy website to find a lengthy list of requirements -- bank statement, proof of Yellow Fever vaccination (Dean's was safely tucked away... in his checked in luggage), outbound ticket info, hotel confirmation or a letter of invitation and, the kicker, US $135 per visa. Upon reading all this, we started seriously reconsidering whether we should even get on the plane and risk being stranded at the first stop in Santa Cruz. However, if we abandoned the flight, the odds of getting our bags back before take off seemed slim.

Blue skies over Buenos Aires

We explained our situation to the Airline attendants of Boliviana de Aviacion (BoA) and Cynthia, a supervisor, went into fast action.  We decided that the money was the biggest hurdle. Luckily, Dean and I still had US dollars from our days in Cambodia (where you could get dollars from ATM's). Between us we had $385, $155 short of our required $540 (Cynthia confirmed the $135 amount).  We were instructed to use the nearest ATM to withdraw US dollars. Unfortunately, US dollars were not an option from this ATM.  OK, back to Cynthia at at which point she suggested getting Argentinian pesos instead and her team would exchange them for us. Yeah, problem solved! Off I went to the ATM for pesos, not dollars, only to see "Unable to give out money at this time" on the screen. Grrr.

Cynthia and her team

With the flight from Buenos Aires now being boarded, I returned empty handed and considerably more nervous.  Another woman, Marite, seeing our concerns, came over to ask us if she could help. She was from La Paz and felt certain things would work out.  Cynthia made some calls and suggested that she could take our ATM card downstairs, past security, and withdraw the required pesos.  After ten tense minutes, she returned with a smile on her face and cash in hand.  We were so impressed and grateful for the service and help Cynthia and her whole team provided us.

Confident it would all work out....

So with one hurdle leaped, we boarded the flight, but we had many more obstacles ahead.  If nothing else, we knew that the lay over time in Santa Cruz, an hour and forty minutes, was not long and wouldn't leave a lot of wiggle room for going through customs.  So it was, we were on a flight into Bolivia, not sure if we had enough money for visa's, certain we didn't have all the paperwork, and fretting that our bags were going to La Paz with or without us.  I was wishing for more than just a Diet Coke during that flight....

Good bye, Buenos Aires

Through all the excitement at the airport, the kids were troopers.  Our day had started at 6 a.m. in El Calafate, Argentina for the first plane ride.  Dex and Kylie made friends with some of the littler children waiting for the flight to Santa Cruz. Once on the plane, they made their own Chutes and Ladder game, complete with a paper dice that Kylie created.  They at least weren't too worried about our next steps.

Let's just say our brief stay in Santa Cruz was a nail biter.  We rushed off the flight and into the immigration line only to be asked almost immediately for our outbound transit information... which we didn't have.  Then we were asked for a printed copy of our hotel reservation -- a screen shot on the phone was insufficient -- and, to make matters worse, the visa fee per person was actually $160 per person, not the $135 we were told in Buenos Aires!  Now we were $100 short.  The agent pointed to some nearby seats and proceeded to process the rest of the passengers -- not good.  As the line dwindled and time ticked on, Dean scrambled to book a bus out of Bolivia. The lovely Bolivian woman, Marite (a.k.a. Guardian Angel #472) who had offered her assistance in Buenos Aires, found us once again. Explaining our situation, she quickly spoke to another agent and arranged for a police escort to an ATM outside the customs area for extra dollars. She assured us it would work out -- it's the Boivian way.

While I got the money, Wilmer by my side,  Dean was able to send our Galapagos itinerary (as proof that we were in fact leaving Bolivia) and our hotel reservations to one of the agent's email address for printing. Wow, it was actually looking like we were going to make it (no bank statement or proof of yellow fever vaccination required).  We still had 45 minutes before departure... then nothing. Apparently, there was a glitch in the computer system part way through the process of printing, stapling, snapping photos and stamping the passports! Yikes. Thirty minutes later, with three minutes to spare, and yet another escort through a hasty customs check, we arrived at our gate just as Marite predicted. She greeted us, a relieved look on her face. We were fortunate she had been in Buenos Aires to drop off her eldest daughter for college.  She gave us suggestions for what to see and do while in La Paz, and I look forward to trying them out.

Marite and Meg

So once again, we made it! The long day concluded with a forty-five minute taxi ride down the narrow, windy, and congested streets of La Paz to our snug little hotel in the center of town.  As they say, getting there is half the fun. Welcome to Bolivia.