Turistas

A brief update.  Still no pictures,this time just because the mere attempt to upload anything may bring down the entire internet for this city of 1,000,000 plus who probably need it for more important reasons.

Wendy and the girls arrived on Sunday morning and I got some great bear-hugs in the airport before being prompty dragged to Cinnabon.  We made it safely to Cochabamba on the 11:00am flight and met up with our friends, the Wolheters.  We relaxed at their place for the rest of the afternoon as the girls recovered from aout 36 hours of continuous travel.  We took a walk that eveningto a playground that was akin to a small Crossfit gym for kids in the middle of this hilly city.  My kids would run around for about 2 minutes, then lay down to recover from the altitude (somewhere around 7,000 feet), before picking themselves up to play some more.  They slept well that night.

Monday we travelled to Parqueo Pairumani, a mountain gorge with waterfalls and a fast moving (and very cold) stream that the kids played in for hours - we almost didn´t make the climb because Emma had wilted like a leaf of steamed spinach, but we took turns carrying her up the mountain on our shoulders, and the cool water quickly restored her to her normal, playful self.  Pictures are posted in my Facebook album "Pairumani."  

Tuesday we went to visit the giant Jesus statue overlooking the city.  It was apparently the tallest in the world (even taller than the well-known one in Rio), but rumor has it that Poland has built a bigger Jesus, much to the chagrin of the locals.  We took the yellow gondolas up the hill (Emma prefered this to the 1440 steps).  Jesus has a great view of the city.  You can even go up inside Jesus, but apparently only on weekends.  Later, the girls went out for a mani-pedi with the moms and I stayed home and babysat the boys (meaning I read, slept, blogged, sorted through my photos, browsed facebook, and ate some cookies).  The adults went out for traditional Bolivian fare on Tuesday night while the kids stayed back and watched Frozen... again.

Wednesday we packed the Land-Cruiser for our trip up the Andes and accross the Altiplano to LaPaz.  I played luggage-tetris on the roof before wrapping everything into a blue tarp burrito.  We then made a long, curvy, crowded drive topping out at 14,700 feet (Pike´s Peak in CO is 14,115 feet).  We took some of the most scenic potty breaks ever.  Emma and Tessa both resumed wilted-spinach posture, this time draped all over their longsuffering mother, who took it all like a champ.  No one vomited - thanks to God (who worked via a cocktail of dramamine, acetazolamide, benadryl, ibuprofen, caffeine, and Jame´s expert driving).  The second half of the drive was accross the arid Altiplano -  broad expanses of flat pastureland with flocks of sheep, cows, and llamas attended to by traditionally dressed Aymara women.  Towards the end, the snow-peaked tips of the mountains around LaPaz, including Illimani (21,122 feet).  We got a view of the city from the plane above (El Alto) before descending to LaPaz (12,000 feet) where we carried the luggage up four stories to our apartment for the week (that was a workout!).

OK, it´s Thursday now - time to take the fam up to Lake Titicaca (and no, I will never get the kids to stop laughing every time we say it).  Hasta luego!