EWBbolivia

Day 1: 5/19/15

 Bienvenidos a La Paz!

Today we flew out of Raleigh at 6pm and began our journey! We first landed in Miami, and took a second flight into Bolivia.  We got to witness a magnificent sunset on our way!

After our 10 or so grueling hours of travel and making it through customs we entered the beautiful city of La Paz today at 6:00 am!  When we landed we took a taxi through the chaotic streets of the city and got to see some breathtaking views of the mountains.  

Taxi ride to the city

We arrived at our hostel, Hotel Sagarnaga around 8:00am and took some time to relax before we went out to explore La Paz.

Our temporary home, Hotel Sagarnaga

Without many other pressing tasks, we got the opportunity to spend a lot of time exploring the city and adjusting to the harsh altitude change. 

For a good part of the day we walked downtown and looked for potential souvenirs to buy in the many small locally owned shops or from the street vendors around the area, as well as looked for good places to eat. It was really cool to just walk around take everything in.  The way the city is built within the mountains makes for an extremely beautiful environment and some amazing views.

Later that evening we went out for dinner we got a taste of some delicious authentic Bolivian food in a really cool restaurant called Angelo Colonial.  The quiet ambiance of the restaurant in contrast to the loud populated streets made for a nice relaxing dinner.   We all got some variation of llama for dinner and the general consensus was that they were all delicious.  Here's some pictures so you can see just how cool this restaurant was.

After dinner we went back to the hostel and did some preparation for our upcoming trip, mostly making final touchups to the field manual we intend to give to the community in Asanquiri.
We are all very excited to continue to explore Bolivia in the upcoming couple weeks and work on the project!