Dia Uno

Greetings from La Paz! I made it here in one piece – after sitting in planes and airports for a full 24 hours last year to go to Uganda, this trip was a piece of cake. I arrived at the airport in El Alto/La Paz at about 6:40 this morning. I know I mentioned that La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, but maybe what’s more impressive is that El Alto is the highest commercial airport in the world. And flying in over the Andes is pretty damn impressive. I don't have any impressive pictures yet. In the meantime, this is one of the views from my room.

So here are some of my initial observations:

• I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see evidence of student socialist groups. They have been in every Latin American country I have visited. They graffiti up the walls with things like “Long live the revolution” and “Free university tuition for all” and other related thoughts. I guess it makes me nostalgic for the days when I was young and idealistic and naïve about the way the world works.
• I get a slightly disturbing warm fuzzy feeling from the smell of diesel car fumes. Again, I associate the smell with my travels in developing countries, which I’m sure is why I feel warm and fuzzy when I smell the absence of emissions standards. Here, I could also blame it on the fact that I’m already challenged in getting enough oxygen to my brain, so maybe there are a few variables at work.
• Being in a car or trying to cross a street here are both extremely frightening experiences. They can be in other countries too, but here, the traffic lights and lines to denote lanes on the road are definitely viewed as suggestions rather than rules. I haven’t seen it quite this extreme in other countries.
• I’m slightly disappointed with my first high altitude experience. I really thought I would have some hard core survival stories, but so far I haven’t had much of a problem. Just tired and a little out of breath, but if you saw how hilly this city is, you’d be out of breath regardless of how high the altitude was.

Beyond that, I’m (finally!) excited about being here! I’m settled in to Vicky’s apartment and I have a fabulous view from the 13th floor. We’ve already talked about a variety of non-work plans. There’s a cool looking Jazz bar right next to the office that we are going to try to go to sometime while I’m here, the receptionist is going to take me out dancing with her friends, I get to go to the field in early December (Tarija is one of the areas where we are working. See the southern part of the handy little map I posted), and Vicky and I are going to go to Lake Titicaca the weekend after that. And so far, from what I’ve seen of La Paz, it’s a really cool city. I can’t wait to do some exploring.

I’ll write again at the end of the week. I don’t think there will be much other than lots of meetings for the next two days. And I know that no one wants to hear about that!