Day 1

After all those years of waking up to get to work on time and turning myself into a morning person, I realise that it's not over yet. In order to get to the village in Ushpa Ushpa at 0830, we have to leave an hour earlier which means I need to wake up sometime between 0600 and 0630.

Wow! So here we go! All raring to go- woken up, breakfast is had, and Sebastian and I are waiting for Trufi 101. After a relatively long wait we get into one and a 10-15 minute ride later we make a stop at the crossing of Avenida Heroinas y Ayacucho. There we wait for the Trufi 123 and make our 30 minute journey up to Ushpa. 

Oh btw, a Trufi is an 8 seater taxi/car which is public transportation in Cochabamba run by private operators. How it works is that there are different routes that Trufi drivers can apply for with a syndicate and then ply that route every day. So each journey on a Trufi costs 1.8Bs (roughly 0.25 USD cents), basically on a daily basis one spends USD1 for the entire travel. If we do get late/there's a strike or there are no available trufi's and we take a taxi, it's still only 8-10Bs for a journey within the city limits (approx USD1.4).

Once we reach Proyecto at Ushpa, Sebastian introduces me to everyone including Mabel, Eliza, some other volunteers and shows me around the day care, and the school uphill. He then gets to his class and let's me explore on my own. 

Eliza (the local head of Proyecto), helps answer all my questions, sets me up with a Spanish teacher who will come to my homestay twice a week for 2 hours each and helps me figure out what I'd like to do at PH. The day is easy enough and I get introduced to the staff I will work with starting tomorrow and they seem super friendly. Its noon and basketball game time between volunteers and the staff, its fun. 

A bunch of us hang out later and then head into the city towards Plaza Colon on the 123 Trufi and have some lunch after which we all head off in our respective directions. There I get to bump into other volunteers who were not on site today.

Buenos Noches!

Peru en route Bolivia

After a 3+ hour stopover in Lima, I arrived in La Paz. The airport is unique for the main reason that it is located in the city of El Alto which is at a 4060 m altitude. 

All passengers are clearly advised to walk slowly and be very careful when they step out of the air plane as the oxygen is quite low and can cause altitude sickness or disorientation. I was also told that this has one of the longest runways in the world because of the wind speed at this altitude and planes need more ground to cover to reach the required cruising speed. 

Luckily after 7 hours at a tiny little airport and thankfully free access to WiFi I got onto a 35 minute local BoA flight to Cochabamba- the place that was to be my home for the next 90 days.

Almost 25 hours after leaving New York, here I am at my final destination Cochabamba. Simple enough to exit and standing right at the entrance to greet me were Phoebe and Aishling. 

Really nice girls from Ireland who have been here a couple of months and will continue for a few more. They kindly help with my luggage, get us into a taxi and take me to their apartment where I also meet Tom- another volunteer from Ireland and get told that my flatmate Sebastian (from France) would arrive shortly to pick me up and take me home.

Sebastian arrives, seems really nice. About 22 years of age, friendly and super nice considering he had to translate every single thing for me given our host mother speaks no English. After some introductions to the family and unpacking finally I was in bed. The next day was to be interesting- my first day at Ushpa Ushpa- where the project is located. Had to sleep well to rise early and leave by 0800.