jenniferpiccin

As many of you know I was planning a trip to Iquique from Oruro to celebrate the new year. What began as a 4 day trip by myself, became a week long trip surrounded by great friends. My co-worker and I left Oruro on the 27th on a 10 hour bus direct to Iquique. Since we became so used to buying snacks once on the bus, we made the naive mistake of not bringing any with us. BAD IDEA! Nothing to buy on the bus, at the border or anywhere along the 10 hour trip. Furthermore, we were delayed 3 hours at the border and arrived in Iquique at 1am. Needless to say not much open. Luckily, we checked into our hostel (note: after calling and e-mailing a number of times, only my reservation made via ... read more

A friend who I met here told me the best way to describe Bolivia is that everything that is simple at home becomes impossible, and everything impossible at home becomes simple. Eg. morning latte very difficult to find a decent one, but weekend soaking in hot springs cheap and easy. Something I've found challenging since living in downtown Toronto is that restaurants have very limited opening hours, and if they aren't open they all but disappear behind corrugated metal gates and thus can be difficult to locate! But...when you do finally find them they rock! I had lunch for 10 Bs. (~1.50 CAD) at a vegetarian resto: cream of eggplant soup, veggie salad, lentil stew with potato taters, fresh apple/papaya juice and fruit salad and yogurt for dessert :D Then after a little work in my ... read more

Hi all! So just a little note to say that my trip here was exceedingly uneventful! All is well minus a slight headache from the altitude and a burn on my thumb from boiling hot coffee in Miami (Note to Pizza Hut Express: just because it says caution hot on the cup doesn´t mean you should set the machine to over 100 deg. C). Getting through customs was a breeze, isn´t it great to be Canadian? My driver was awesome, he was a useful source of quick entry info and understood my spanish ;) My hotel is a cute inn with complimentary breakfast buffet and free internet in the lobby, booya! So far so good...can´t wait to see the office and meet my co-workers tomorrow. More news soon! Jenn... read more