This past week has been relatively quiet for me and this has allowed me to nicely settle into life in Bolivia. I joined a gym, began Spanish lessons and did a whole heck of a lot of walking. Well, I shouldn´t say that I did that much walking, but at this altitude it really hits you quickly. By the time I walk from work to the gym, which is a 10-minute walk uphill, I feel as though I’ve already had my workout and I’m ready to call it a day. Right now my goal is to break a sweat. Because the air is so thin at this altitude, your heart and lungs are required to work overtime and I find myself out of breath and ready to pass out before my body even starts to perspire.
On Friday I celebrated my 28th birthday and I would like to thank everyone for all the very nice birthday wishes that I received from back home. At the end of the work day, my colleagues and I sat in my office and ate the single-biggest pizza I´ve ever laid eyes on. No joke, this thing was massive!!!
When I returned home from work, my 9-year old sister, Jimena, gave me two cards and two little presents. She must have been trying to compensate for the fact that I was thousands of kilometers away from my family and friends on my birthday.
On Saturday, my Bolivian family and I went to the soccer stadium in La Paz. Although the semi-professional players did not produce the most awe-inspiring performance, the experience was still quite entertaining. While I wouldn´t call it unnecessary or excessive, there was definitely a plethora of firecrackers at the game (It´s just too bad I can´t say the same about the number of people in attendance). We just sat there in the stands together, watching the game and eating an ice cream. If it sounds very wholesome, it’s because it was. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring myself to finish the ice cream. I don´t want to knock Bolivian ice cream or anything, but I probably would not recommend the cinnamon flavour to anyone.
The political situation here appears to have calmed down since last week, with the two sides agreeing to sit down and try to reach an agreement. Last week a governor in the region where the 30 deaths occurred was arrested for allegedly ordering an ambush that killed 16 peasants. Today, thousands of government supporters were expected to arrive in Santa Cruz armed with slings, clubs, pistols, shotguns and dynamite after a 10 day march to the city (Santa Cruz is the city where anti-government protestors took over government-owned business a couple of weeks ago). So, although I said that it appears for now that things have calmed down, deep divisions still exist and I don’t think it would take much to spark further confrontations between pro- and anti-government supporters.
"Long Live High Altitude Sports" from inside the La Paz soccer stadium
***Interesting Fact: In May, 2007, Fifa banned international soccer matches from being played at altitudes over 2,500 meters above sea level. This means that, in addition to many other Andean cities, international games cannot be played in the capital cities of Bolivia, Ecuador or Columbia (La Paz – 3,600m, Quito – 2,800m, Bogota – 2640m). Fifa claims that the ban was put into place due to health concerns for players unaccustomed to the thin air. Bolivians view Fifa´s decision as discriminatory because they cannot play where they were born.***
[A picture of my office building]
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