May 30: 8,027 steps in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

This morning I woke up on the big comfy bus upon our arrival in Buenos Aires. We rode the overnight bus from Córdoba to Buenos Aires to catch a flight out of Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I got off the bus to get by bag from underneath the bus. I picked up my bag the bottom of it was all wet. Some of the water had soaked through to the inside, leaving my packing cubes (which contain my freshly cleaned clothes) moist. Reva’s bag was also wet. We blame the grumpy bag man who wanted tips from last night. So I carried my wet bag all through the bus terminal because I couldn’t wear it on my back without getting wet. We caught another bus to the airport and I checked my bag. I also had 2 more cups of tea, much more successfully than my previous attempts I might add.

Just before our plane was about to board, I was waiting for pictures for last night’s blog to upload. They called for our group to board 30 minutes before take-off, so I waited until my pictures finished uploading to get on the plane. Kristi, bless her soul, waited with me. So about 5 minutes later the pictures finished uploading and we headed through the gate. We kept walking down the hallway, down some stairs, and then we were outside, to find a bus waiting. I handed my boarding pass to a person dressed in airport looking clothing and they told me to get on the bus, so I did. The bus was empty, except for Kristi. Over the next 5 minutes, more people got on it, but the bus didn’t go anywhere. When it was 10 minutes before take-off, you could say I was in full blown panic mode. This flight I was about to miss was not just taking us from one place to another, it was taking us, and all of my luggage, to a different country. Thank the Lord for Kristi because she calmed me down a bit. When there were 8 minutes left until we were about to get left in Argentina, two more guys got on the bus and we started driving to the airplane. We waited for TWO DANG GUYS. And who’s idea was it to put our gate at the opposite end of the airport as the plane that the bus was taking us to? Luckily we made it to the plane, and we all got on safely. Kristi and I sat next to each other, drank tea and coffee, and watched modern family, almost like we planned to do when we get home!

Once we landed in Bolivia we had to go through a lot of steps to get through the airport. We had to pay a $53 fee and get everything checked twice to get through. It was about an hour long process to get all of us through.

Bolivia is a third world country, and you could tell pretty quickly as we were driving to our hotel. No tall buildings, rundown streets, people out walking in the rain, electric wires running all over the place…and we were in the downtown city portion. Flying in on the airplane we could see shacks for miles that were people’s homes. The downtown wasn’t too much different from other South American cities, just less dense. The town square reminded me of Córdoba. We were warned to be very cautious of pit pocketers here (people who will grab things from your pockets/bags and run with it).

Our hotel room is the nicest place we have stayed in yet. Kristi, Reva, and I are in a room together, and we each have our own bed! The shower is strange because you have to flip a switch to get warm water, and it’s really not even that warm. But our view is cool!

After we got there are got settled we walked around the downtown and went to dinner. I had 2 cups of tea (still feeling under the weather) and mini cheeseburgers. It’s been raining since we got here, but the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow!