Bolivia-Found

I, Adie, arrived in Cochabamba almost exactly two weeks ago, after more than 30 hours of travel. This included a 4 hour drive with my parents and all my luggage (including bike box) to the, then three flights. My first stopover was in Madrid, where much of my 5hr layover was eaten up by switching airlines and terminals -- with my bike box-- and then an absurd checkin/bag drop process with Boliviana de Aviacion (Boa). From there an approximately 12hr flight to Santa Cruz, Bolivia's biggest lowland city, then a 45 minute flight to Cochabamba.

With my British passport I had no problems at immigration, but after waiting and waiting, my bike box failed to turn up at the luggage carousel. It turns out Boa has a policy that they don't garuntee that overweight bags will make it on the same plane as their owners, a fate that befell my bike box not because it was overweight but because it was oversize. At this point I was told to come back when the next flight from Santa Cruz arrived, 2 hours later. So I waited in the airport, trying not to fall asleep, worried that the luggage items I had with me might be stolen. Unfortunately, the bike didn't show up on this flight either, so I was told to wait another 3 hours for the next flight. The box finally arrived, but not without fanfare. Or at least there were lots of fans, about 30 grungily-dressed teenagers awaiting the arrival of the Argentinian heavy metal group Rata Blanca on the same plane as my bike box.

I then took a taxi into town, where Lucy had arranged for me to stay with her host family in her absence (she was at an end-of-program retreat at a hotel some way outside of Cochabamba). I spent the afternoon chatting with her family, assembling my bike, and napping. It felt very strange to be in Lucy's house without her! 

The reason I chose to arrive before the official end of Lucy's program was to be in Cochabamba for el día peatonal, or pedestrian day, when the streets are closed to cars, and bikers and walkers rule the city. After a surreal early morning reunion, Lucy and I spent the day biking around Cochabamba with Oscar and Lenka and others. It was a perfect introduction to the city, encompassing many of the city's neighborhoods, including some that were new to Lucy.

The week that followed turned out to be a very busy one. We moved out of Lucy's house to the apartment of a friend who was out of town (and realized it was the first time we had ever had a house to ourselves -- before then the best we had managed was a tent to ourselves!) The greatest chunk of our time, however, was Not spend playing house, but in building a cargo bike. Lucy had gotten to know a guy named Freddy, who runs an organization called the Pedal Project. Over the last couple of years he has been building "bici-maquinas," pedal powered machines to do things like make soap and ice cream. With him, we built a prototype two-wheeled cargo bike. He reckons it's the first one in the country! The plan was to exhibit it at an eco-fair last weekend, but Freddy felt that, although rideable, it wasn't in an advanced enough state to display. This was unfortunate because we put quite a lot of time into it to get it done, but never mind! 

The evening after the fair, Lucy and I headed to Peru, but that's for next time!