Eyewitness: A blondie in Bolivia

October 7th, 2011 by Ben Nolan

We've arrived!

So - brief introduction. For the next 2 weeks I will be travelling around Bolivia and Peru with two colleagues. We are visiting the projects that Toybox, a charity that works with street children who I work for, supports. We're also hoping to meet lots of international development experts and get some great video footage to show to supporters when we're back. I'll be reporting back some of our experiences as well as some stories of the children that we'll be meeting.

The travelling trio are:
Andrew Gray - International Director at Toybox. Andrew speaks fluent Spanish, has lived in Central America for the last 3 years and is very much in charge.
David Lowbridge - Chairman Elect of Toybox, former Managing Director of the Fairtrade Foundation and generally a pretty big deal.
Me (Ben Nolan) - I do fundraising.

So now you know us, here's what we've been up to:

Touching down into La Paz at 6am local time after 23 hours transit was a relief. All we had to do was fill in some forms and we were through. Unfortunately a combination of my pen exploding in my hand due to the altitude (La Paz is the highest international airport in the world) and Andrew's money saving decision to buy biros that didn't work meant it all got a tiny bit stressful. Eventually, however we were through, to find... It was snowing!

As we drove down into La Paz, the one image that comes to mind is of a huge dusty bowl with a city in the middle of it. The traffic was mental, it was freezing cold, and there's a huge contrast between some magnificent colonial building, and dilapidated houses falling apart at the seams.

Here follows three gems (too strong a word??) from today.

Firstly - today is general strike day! This seems to mean that there are lots of people milling about by our hostel, and every now and again lots of police trot by. They have cordoned off the square (see my photo taken from a pathetically far away distance). There's lots of fire crackers going off though and people seem to be enjoying the day off in the now glorious sunshine.

Secondly - it is really high up here. There's very little oxygen, and breathing - something I've always prided myself on being pretty good at - is a bit of a struggle. Talking, eating, walking - thinking about any of the above, all result in very conspicuous panting. Then, added to that is constant light headedness. Sort of like having had 2 or 3 beers on an empty stomach. It's quite bizarre, and definitely not pleasant.

Finally - we have to travel by bus to Cochabamba. This is a 5-9 hour journey depending on who you talk to and we were thinking about taking the overnight bus. However, after speaking to some of Andrew's mates from Unicef we decided this may not be the timesaver we were after. Apparently, Bolivian bus drivers like to keep themselves awake at night with a combination of coca leaves (the stuff that eventually becomes cocaine) and a few beers. If anything does go wrong you can expect an ambulance within 5 hours. Although being driven for between 5 and 9 hours by someone potentially both high and drunk would be a new experience for all of us, we have decided to catch the bus tomorrow morning.

I'll let you know how we get on - please do comment and let us know your thoughts, plus any questions you may have.

Thanks for your prayers,
Ben

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