La Casa Rosada (Our Beloved Pink House)

So within the first week we learned some valuable things about our house.

1) There is no central heating. Four space heaters just don't quite cut it. We do have a fireplace...that is if you have the skills to keep a fire going with such little oxygen. Good thing Tim is an Eagle Scout ;). Jackets, sweaters, and thick socks are good things to pack if you come visit. Its not quite as bad now as it was the first week, but it is winter here so the mornings and nights get cold. It is good to brace yourself when you first sit on the toilet seat...its a little shocking. I did go out and buy an extra space heater for our bathroom though and that brings me joy.

2) Even though we live in a nice home, I sometimes get a little reminiscent about camping trips growing up. Why, you ask? The water is the biggest reason. Our tap water isn't so clean. In the beginning I was really paranoid about showering and washing our dishes. (We have a purifier for drinking and cooking so that wasn't a worry.) I was actually using the purified water for washing dishes the first few days, but that was a pain, and people told us as long as you let your dishes get completely dry after washing them you should be okay. Still, I can't help but think of camping trips with my dad washing dishes in the lake or river water, but at least he boiled it. :) When we went camping we always had clean water to use for brushing our teeth...its not much different here we have two liter water bottles in each bathroom for this purpose. A time or two I have forgotten and stuck my toothbrush under the tap. We've spent several nights huddled around our fireplace to stay warm. By the end of the night we have a little bit of that campfire smell I love so dearly.

3) A couple days after getting here I noticed a drip coming from the bidet sprayer mounted on the wall in the kids' bathroom. Lesson learned: Make sure sprayer is pointing away from you when you don't know which way is off and which is on. It was a good laugh after the initial shock of cold water in the face wore off!

First day, First Impressions

We left Baltimore on a Wednesday at about 3:00 PM and arrived in La Paz at 5:00 AM the next morning. It couldn't have gone more smoothly. The kids slept almost the whole time on both legs of the flight. I opted to watch a movie I had already seen and didn't get to bed until around 2:30 so I was a little tired when we landed. We were met at the airport by several people who helped us get through customs quickly and easily. We jumped into a shuttle from the Embassy that even had seat belts. I didn't know what a luxury that was down here at the time. I got a little taste of how they drive down here, but it was quite early so not too many were out. The airport is pretty much at the highest part of the city. This is also the poorest area. So things were looking pretty third world on the drive to our house. It did start to improve by the time we were in our neighborhood though.

We took a tour of our house. It looked pretty much like the pictures we had gotten, but the layout was a little different than I had imagined. We were happy to see we had 4 bedrooms since we couldn't tell by the pictures if there were 3 or 4. So come on down everyone. We've got room. Anyway, its pretty and we were happy with it. It was cold though and we were all beat so we climbed into our warm beds...or couch (for Liv) and slept the morning away.

That afternoon we headed out on a little walk around our neighborhood. The air was thin and we were doing a lot of huffing and puffing...(which has improved a little, but not much.) Right at the end of our block is a colorful playground. We stopped there and played for a bit.

Mostly we just checked out the neighborhood & took in all of the beautiful mountains that surround us.

I was amused by the broken bottles that are cemented into the tops of peoples gates around their houses...its pretty smart really, I'd feel safe.

This picture below is just a block up from our house. I love these mountains right at the end of our street!

Here is pretty much the view from our bedroom window. Its gorgeous! It always makes me happy.

We're here!

So after creating this blog two months ago with the help of a friend, pushing me along, I am finally ready to make a post. We've been in Bolivia for almost a month now...and we finally have internet. Anywho, I thought I'd start from the beginning and catch you all up on whats been going on in the tops of the Andean mountains.