Long Travels and Huajchilla

Hi everyone!

We´ve been somewhat off the grid since we arrived, so this is our first opportunity to post on the blog. Thanks for your patience.

We left with Catherine (thanks!) at 4:30 Tuesday morning to drive to the Cedar Rapids Airport.  We went to sleep in our beds in Huajchilla roughly 24 hours later, at around 4 am.  In between, we made stops in Minneapolis, Miami (a nice halfway point, as there was a lot of Spanish all around us), Bogota, and, finally, our arrival in La Paz.  We cleared customs at around 3 am.  After passing by some money-sniffing dogs (they busted Neal for his $20 that he had already declared) we finally made it out the gate.

We were greeted there by the best possible welcoming person, Patricia Quevedo (Elias´s mom).  She hustled us into a van with blankets and te de coca.  Just walking to the parking lot left us out of breath.  We made the sleepy drive to her family´s guest house in Huajchilla, south of La Paz, got ourselves settled, and went to sleep.

Yesterday we woke up late, ate lunch with Patricia, her son Gustavo (Gonzi), and Doña Sonia, her nanny/cook/awesome lady.  We then walked down through some fields to a river.  Gonzi was incredibly cute and charmed the heck out of all of us, especially Annie.  Her heart was won when he kissed her on the on the cheek to say goodbye.

In the evening we grilled out with the crew from lunch and also Elias´s other brother Daniel, and cousin Nicholas.  Lots of food and good multi-lingual company (including a rousing game of 2v2 futbol, and some spoons).  We are now in an internet cafe in the Zona Sur (the trendiest part of La Paz), on our way to meet up with Emma downtown.

More to come, including pictures!

Nos Vemos,

Sam, Annie, Neal