Arrival

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This shouldnt really be called arrival, since I have been in Bolivia for a while, 5 days, but it seems like forever. But since this is my first entry, it should be called arrival, because that is where I will begin. The flight was fine to Miami, and the 8 hours in miami airport were fabulous because i ate my fill (and more) of american sugary products. Then of course I couldnt sleep so I wandered around in a daze, spending muchos dollars. The begining of the flight to la paz was great, was surrounded by bolivians and feeling very excited, talking to the documentary film maker who was sitting next to me, and his subject, chris hoy? the gold medalist for cycling who were on their way to la paz to break a world record. However, when the pilot announced, all too calmly, "we appear to have a small problem", my enjoyment went steadily downhill. In retrospect, i am proud to be able to tell my first aeroplane horror story, but at the time, i was sweating profusly! Over the next hour, the pilot used the phrase "this is perfectly normal, do not panic" about 30 times. And conversely, it is not a phrase that induces calm. Anyway, we were leaking hydrolic fluid and therefore had no brakes to land. thats fine. so we had to divert to santa cruz and make a veeeeeery slow landing with alot of shaking and going round in circles for about an hour trying to slow down. but actually it was quite good, because i avoided the skull shattering altitide of la paz, and managed to get a flight from santa cruz to sucre which actually worked out cheaper. So, all good. And i met two very nice people at the airport, one girl from banbury who offered me a place to stay in cochabamba, and one women who worked for save the children, analysed me within 5 minutes, and didnt eat in foreign countries so she gave me her lunch. yippee!
Sucre is beautiful. One reason that I was holding off starting this blog is that I wanted to download my photos, but havent quite discovered how to do this yet, so they will come soon hopefully. But the flight over the andes was just stunning, and then sucre is a white washed colonial town in the midst of mountains. It is both bustling and quiet. I stayed in a wonderful hotel on the first night, in an old manison with a fantasic roof terrace (again, photos will come!) It is both cold and hot here, in the shade and at night it is freezing but in the day in the sun it is so hot you need super sun block. Although not as high as la paz, sucre is still over 2500m, so walking anywhere is an issue for the first few days. but have had no serious altitide symptoms which is good.
On the first night in Sucre I met up with Lisa and Galen, and Tristan, Galens brother (lisa and galen run the one water network, the charity which i am observing and writing about - more on that later). We met at the joy ride cafe, the place to which all gringos and westerners flock. It was great to meet them, and find out slightly more about what they do, and who I will be travelling with for the next while! So, we met, and then the next day went to Puka Puka, a tiny village about an hour from sucre.

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