Arriving in Cochabamba

I left California December 23rd. If everything would go well, I should arrive in Cochabamba christmas eve at 7:30 pm. LAN was more than an hour late from LAX to Lima, fortunately I had 4 hours for the transit so there was still enough time to get my connecting flight to La Paz. I arrived in La Paz the 24th at 2 pm. La Paz is, literally taken, a breathtaking city. At an elevation of 4000m, El Alto is one of the highest international airports in the world. Just after leaving the plane I already felt the difficulty to breath. Things got worse when I picked up my luggage. Carrying 60 kg at an altitude of 4000m is tough for someone who has spend most of the last 4 years sitting behind a desk. Fortunately the airport is really small, so it was just a short way to the new check-in for my connecting flight to Cochabamba, but nevertheless I felt like I had just finished a marathon. So I decided to follow the number one advice I got from many Bolivians, how to get along with the high altitude: I went to the next bar and ordered my first mate de coca, a herbal tea made from the leaves of the coca plant. I don't know if it was just the placebo effect, but i really had the impression that i felt better afterwards. The flight was almost 2 hours late, so I left La Paz after nightfall. The lights of La Paz by night are really magnificent. The elevation of the city varies from 3000m to more than 4000m, giving the lights a three dimensional perspectiv

The flight to Cochabamba only took 30 min, but these were among the most exciting flight minutes i have had. We were flying through a thunderstorm shaking us strongly with lighting in all directions. I was around 9 pm when I finally arrived in Cochabamba, where I spent christmas eve with Sandra and her family…

Prologue: 2 Weeks in California

To get prepared for Bolivia, I spent 2 weeks with my Bolivian flatmate Ariel and his family who is living in Carlsbad, a small town between San Diego and Los Angeles. I left just in time to escape the big snow storm all over europe…while waiting for my plane in Zurich, i saw that flights to Stuttgart, Paris and Frankfurt were already canceled. The trip went well, without any delays, even the guys at the migration at JFK in New York were very friendly, which was kind of surprising after all the bad stories I have heard.

The weather in California was comfortably warm and sunny, so i took the chance for an extended walk along the Carlsbad beach on my first day…it's hard to believe but this was really the first time i've been on the beach this year. Unfortunately the water was too cold for swimming…

For the next days, we decided to visit some of the various amusement parks around San Diego. First I went with Charlotte, a friend from Switzerland and Albertina, Ariel's mom, to Sea World, whose main attraction is 'Shamu' a killer whale show, named after one of the first orcas ever captured. It was really impressive seeing these 6 ton colossuses jumping through the air as if they were light as feathers. The day after, we visited the 'San Diego Wild Animal Park', a 7 km^2 safari park hosting around 400 different species. 

Afterwards Ariel, Charlotte and me headed north towards San Francisco. We stayed 4 days at the place of Maria, a Chilenian singer, and her boyfriend Vedran. The first two days, while Ariel hat to meet his thesis director in Stanford, Charlotte and me explored downtown San Francisco. When Ariel came back, we made a tour around the bay area. On the way back we took the pacific coast highway, which closely follows the coastline all the way from San Francisco down to Los Angeles.

Unfortunately it started raining heavily that day, so we could only guess how magnificent the view would be at good weather. After a few more days in Carlsbad and a short trip to Mexico, it was time to continue to the actual destination of my journey...