This Seems Like a Good Place to Start - Another semi-epic journey

After a while, we just get restless.  Then we plan, then we buy tickets, and then we leave ...

It's another Round The World trip, and we're already a week into it.   Fiona and I love to travel - there is so much to see and do.  Is it too much of a cliche to say "It's a big wide world out there"?

This adventure has a bit of a twist, we are going around the world in the Southern Hemisphere.  This is a challenge because 80% of the world's land mass is in the Northern Hemisphere.  And 
88% of the world's population is north of the equator.  

But we have plotted a course and we are on our way ...  and oh yeah, another thing, this time of year it's summer down south!

First Stop - Mexico 

Okay, I know Mexico is not south of the equator, but it's where our close friends Jeff and Angela live with their three kids.  We were invited on our way down south to spend a few days with them in Puerto Vallarta, and so that's where our trip began.

And if you want to get out of the Oregon winter, Mexico is a good place to start.  And we weren't disappointed.  Lots of warm sunshine and sandy beaches.  

Must be the season for dramatic beach photos, there were others too!

 

This is a place you can enjoy the food, the music, the weather, the ocean, and of course good friendship.   The flowers and plant life and also outstanding.  It was a wonderful time.   

 

 

And Now - we are in Bolivia! 

The itinerary calls for a direct route down into South America, a place we know well - except for the country of Bolivia.  There was a time on another trip (click here: earlier no-go on Bolivia) when we could not get into the country, and it took another heroic effort, but this time we made it.

Why are we so dead set on getting to this country?  Well, easy answer, because it's there!  We have hit almost everywhere else in South and Central America and this is one spot on the map that we (up to this point) have missed. 

We flew from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City and had to spend the night in an airport hotel to catch the early morning flight the next day to Lima, Peru.  Then after a layover, on to La Paz, Bolivia.  

The only problem with that?  It arrives at 1:30 in the morning.  After the usual immigration and customs we walked out with our bags ... looking for the taxi ... that we were told would be waiting for us.  But ... no taxi.  

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Permit me to interrupt myself here and point out a dramatic fact about La Paz Bolivia.  It's the highest capital in the world and, before the jokes start, we're talking altitude - it's over 12,000 feet high!   That's quite a bit higher than the peak of Oregon's Mount Hood!   

And boy did we feel it.  The moment we walked off the plane we felt light headed.  It was very unpleasant and it got worse; we couldn't focus, and every step left us gasping for air!  I was surprised how much it affected us.  There was no adjustment, just boom, you're 2.3 miles up! 

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So back to the story, we had to negotiate with another taxi guy who would take US dollars, and by the time we made it to the hotel it was 3:00 in the morning.  We were dazed and confused.  The altitude thing just hammered us.  And even this morning when we woke up (too early) we had bad headaches and we very disoriented.  Not fun.

The good news:  after breakfast we took a bunch of extra strength Tylenol, Aleve, Ibuprofen, and whatever else we could get our hands on, and went back to sleep.  We totally crashed.  

It helped a lot, and we were able to make it through the day.   But it's a fact of life that you need to adjust to high altitude, and you don't function at your best until you get used to it.  

What a way to start a long adventure!

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As usual, there are lots of sights and sounds that ignite your imagination, especially if they're weird.  Below are a couple examples:

This is the typical garb that the older Bolivian ladies wear.  This particular one happened to be sitting in a cardboard box with a puzzling sign.  

And this has to be one of the more unusual statues I've ever seen.  I couldn't figure out what they are celebrating ...