Day 2: Sunday, April 6th, 2008 (Southern Cross – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young)

I’ve only ridden first class once that I can remember, and it was because of an airline error, so I can’t really say if it is better or worse than coach. Some people swear by it for international flights, and they may be onto something. It was tough for me to sleep (and normally it’s not a problem). Maybe I was just revved up in anticipation. We were supposed to land at 5:30 in the morning.

5:51am* - Are there different languages of sign language? Is there Spanish sign language? If so, I find this interesting.

We are about 30 minutes from landing and about an hour late after our delayed departure. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but I’m full of energy to arrive and see Ranz.

* I was in the same time zone as Eastern Time zone in the US during my whole trip. Also, there are different languages of sign language, including Spanish.

During the flight, the flight attendants passed out our entry forms. They spoke in both English and Spanish. I felt like one of the only people who didn’t know Spanish. The form was pretty easy to fill out, except that they wanted an address where you could be reached while in Bolivia. I left it blank and was going to ask how to put NOT APPLICABLE when I get to whoever was going to take the form, but it ended up not being an issue.

Weeks before I left, I had to file for an entry visa to get in to the country. As of Jan 1, 2008, they started charging Americans $100 for the visa, partly to get money, but also partly because the US charges them, which they don’t like.

I waited in line with everyone else, gave the guy my form, trying to speak as little Spanish as possible so as not to “give myself away.” I got my visa stamped and my entry form dated and signed and I went to find my bag.

I had originally hoped to just take a backpack for the whole trip. I had brought a package for a friend of Ranz’s, though, and it had pushed me over the edge and I had to take a second duffle bag, which I had checked. It made it (I really was expecting some lost luggage issues), and I was on my way. I had to wait in another line, show my form to a guy in a military uniform, then walk through a metal detector (not really sure what this was all about), and then I was off to where non-ticket-holders had to wait.

As soon as I approached the doorway I saw Ranz jumping up and down waving his hands in the crowd of people. It was too funny. While I was excited to see him, my first order of business was finding a restroom. Ranz directed me to el bano and handed me a roll of toilet paper. This was my first experience with Bolivian bathrooms, but more on those later.

I was in Bolivia.

7:46am – I’m in my (and Ranz’s) room at the hostel in La Paz. We took a taxi from the airport. We saw a couple guys peeing on the side of the road on the way.*

Observations: There are quite a few stay dogs roaming the street, a few of them wearing shirts. The city has lots of brick buildings that are red (Miss Lippy's car is green). So far I am not feeling the effects of the high altitude. I feel a little light-headed, but I could just be tired.

*People pee (and other bodily functions) any old place. Because it is not contained, it runs into the water system, the same system which people use for drinking, cleaning, etc.

Ranz is a sanitation engineer. His job is to provide clean water for people and isolate their waste. He does this through drilling wells and building outhouses. In addition, he educates people as to why these actions are necessary.

After settling in to our room (Ranz had stayed there the night before), we went out into the city to find some breakfast. It was pretty busy for a Sunday morning.

11:55am – We ate breakfast at a cool little café. We had papaya and other assorted fruit in a fruit salad, espresso, a croissant, and a chocolate muffin. Ranz looked through his Bolivia book and we talked through our plans for the trip.

We walked around and saw the capital square and some army men standing around with big guns.

The buildings here (at least the ones I’ve been in) do not have heat. Not sure if they have air conditioning.

You do not flush toilet paper down the toilets. It goes in a little TP waste basket. This makes the bathrooms a little stinky.

Some places do not provide toilet paper, so it’s good to carry your own. Other places charge you to use the bathroom, and when you pay they give you a little bit of toilet paper. A few bathrooms are co-ed with 2 guy stalls and 2 girl stalls. A lot of people don’t care about finding a bathroom and just go anywhere, like on the side of the street (this was less common in La Paz than some of the more rural places we visited).

We spent most of the afternoon walking around the city. We sat at this park area for a while and talked and played the movie game (I was way out of practice and Ranz was killing me). The sun started to feel hot and I ended up taking off my shirt. This was when I got burnt. Pretty much the rest of the trip I put on sun block every day.

It was neat to walk around and just see how people spent their Sunday. There were tons of people out, especially at this playground/park we walked to for a bathroom.

The city is at about 12,000 feet above sea level and is pretty hilly, so you are not only out of breath from the altitude, your legs can get tired from walking up and down hills.

5:46pm – It has been a long day of walking through a hilly city. Some more observations: Public displays of affection are quite common and acceptable, especially on street corners and in doorways. There are only Burger Kings, no Mcdonalds. There is a black market of electronic goods on the city streets.

We walked to a park and chilled after eating fried chicken for lunch. Coca Cola products are also pretty big here. We then walked in search of a bathroom (though it is generally acceptable to just go wherever you want) and eventually found a kiddie playground park with a bathroom.

On our way back we stopped at a ritzy tea garden / house and had some coca tea. It’s supposed to ease altitude sickness (taking deep breaths seems to work for me so far).

We also went to an internet café. We’re back at the hostel and it’s now siesta time.

There is a lot of coca plant in Bolivia. It is the plant that is used to make the drug cocaine. This is one reason the US is not a huge fan of Bolivia. The coca leaf itself acts like caffeine. People chew it or drink tea to give them an energy boost.

After talking a little bit, we each slept for a while. When we woke up we headed out to a place called Mongo’s for some dinner of some tasty burgers. After the restaurant as we were walking down the street to find a taxi, Ranz pointed out the Southern Cross constellation. It can only be seen in the southern hemisphere. We grabbed a taxi back and hit the sack.