After thousands of kilometers on dirt road during our last holidays, we have talked about joining an off road club. So when we got an invitation from ORC (Off Road Club) Bolivia, we had to go. Tour was great! Visited four churches on the Altiplano, and in between we had a nice drive through the beautiful landscape. The drive was easy but a good start for us, now we know 4x4 tours are not too crazy for us ;-) It’s a great way to meet new people. So get put there and use your cars to what they are built for. [View Full Entry]

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Hanneke my collegue of archive her daughter was finishing highschool in La Paz. She is on the American school doing exam means a prom party. We living abroad do not have our family her so the collegues are being the second family. Hanneke and her husband invited a part of the embassy to celebrate Saski's end of highschool. The idear was having a diner together in one of the best hotels of La Paz and after that dancing untill twelve and then the oldies were supposed to leave because the friends of the graduates were coming to take over the party. [View Full Entry]

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Thursday Margot had a day off (Hemelvaart, Kristi Himmelfart) so why not take a weekend camping. Michael is leaving Monday for Europe so this will be our last weekend together for the coming month. We drove of on Friday and the plan was Chulumani. A couple of thousand meters lower and hopefully with sun and probably with a couple of mosquitoes. Margot had a place in mind were she had been 12 years ago, hoping it was still existing. After loads of sand and dust we arrived after 4 hours. It was still there and we found even a luxurious campsite. [View Full Entry]

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Friday afternoon we had a trip to El Alto (de hoogte). El Alto is for us were the airport is. For us the connection with El Alto is " driving through" because if you want to see something of Bolivia you have to go through El Alto. This normally takes 1 hour. El Alto connects to La Paz but La Paz en El Alto are two different cities. Actually El Alto is the biggest city of Bolivia. It lies on the altiplano and is the place were a lot of migrants settle. It is very buzzling from morning to evening. During [View Full Entry]

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Finally we could go on holiday. The last vacation was actually with Xmas so that was only 3 months ago but it felt like 3 years. We packed the car with camping gear (Margot likes that) and of we went for 5 weeks Argentine. 5 weeks sounds very long but do not forget Argentine is huge (80x the Netherlands). The plan was to go via Potosi en Tupuzi and then cross the border. The roads in that part of Bolivia we expected to be dirt roads so let the adventure start. The first day we drove to Potosi more or less [View Full Entry]

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Bolivia is close to Brasil so now you think we have the same Carnaval. Bolivia has also big parades but in their own way. See for yourself. We sorted out a bit of pictures. Saturday the 23th of february we went veryyyyyyyyy early with a bus to Oruro (a city 3 hours from La Paz). We decided not to go with our own car because parking would be crazy they told us. We bought ourselves a package with a travel agency. And we were promised to have a spot were we could see everything. It was a full day program from [View Full Entry]

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August 8th we decided to make a BBQ for some friends and collegues. We are still suprised about the prices in Bolivia. We went to the market to buy some meat and we had to pay 7 euro for 8 steaks and half a kilo of filet. Amazing. [View Full Entry]

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Saturay it was the big day of Paola (a collegue of Margot). We had to be in the church at 9.45 nto see the wedding ceremony. In the afternoon there was a big party. For us it was not 100% clear when it was because there was no time on the invitation. So after checking with some Bolivians it was decided we would go to the party around 16.00. That they there was also a big event in La Paz so the whole city was closed and it was hard to find a taxi. But finally after seeing the whole city [View Full Entry]

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Very early Sunday morning we had to be in front of a travel agency. They said 7.00 precisely, we wait for nobody. We thought that meant you had to be in time and not 30 minutes later which is normal here in Bolivia. Ok we believed it but it became 7.15, 7.30, 7.45, 8.00, 8.15 and finally at 8.30 we left. We were with a colleague who is here already for 3 years and she kept on saying " after 3 years I am still so stupid to believe it if they say 7.00 sharp". A bit annoyed we started our [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes Margot has to go to Santa Cruz for work. This time we were lucky enough to be able to combine it with a weekend so we got a bit of sunshine and some great huge steaks. Besides relaxing at the Hotel pool we went to have a look at the Biocentro Guembe that is a combination of a butterfly park, campsite, picknick area and swimming pools. [View Full Entry]

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