Nia Haf Photography

The First Few Days

So I’m just about getting used to being in La Paz, well, to the altitude that is. Despite waking up feeling groggy and a little off balance I do feel like my body is slowly but surely adjusting to the new climate I’ve thrown it into.

Alison, a fellow intern, and I explored the area around the apartment on our first full day. We got on with necessities such as changing money, grocery shopping and having breakfast. These may sound like pretty simple tasks to complete, but were challenges in unknown territory (where the banks are guarded by police carrying what looks like shot guns!) Fortunately for me (and my very poor Spanish) Alison is a third year French and Spanish student at Oxford with what she calls ‘wobbly Spanish’ and I call ‘pretty amazing Spanish’. However, we did sign up for our Spanish lessons today, so I’m hoping that soon my staring blankly at someone as they shout at me in Spanish will be a thing of the past. I have already learned how to ask ‘where is the toilet?’ and ‘how much is this?’ so I’m well on my way!

The afternoon found us feeling a little more adventurous as we hopped in a taxi down to the northern end of the city. We visited the Church, a ton of shops selling lovely hand knitted jumpers, hats and really anything else you could possibly think of and stopped to refuel at a cafe. The refuelling must have been a success, because on the way home we felt even more adventurous and opted to take the minibus back. I’m sure you’re thinking this really doesn’t sound adventurous at all – but consider that we had to firstly find the correct bus (which I think must be art in La Paz with the hundreds of buses going every which way), then step into the perilous road to flag it down, then squeeze into the back seat and find something to hold onto for the corners, then recognise where to get off and let the driver know by shouting down the minibus in Spanish! So, we made it back all in one piece and feeling rather pleased with our days adventure in the city.

Only a brief blog post today, poorly written due to my exhaustion! Theres so many things to write about, so please keep looking for the real posts in between these ramblings! For now, here are a few images taken today: