Note to Bolivia

Settling in is what we’ve spent the last month doing. Setting up a little life here to enjoy for the next six months or so. It all feels pretty normal now, normal in the way that people see working life as. There are no daily quests into new terrains just a simple life and routine in a new setting. 

After travelling for a while and being so far from home it is definitely the little things that have become luxurious. Like linen. Like routine. Like friends. Like cleaning. 

Learning the wonders of hand washing...so good for your arms

We bought sheets and towels and I am still enjoying the lavishness of owning such items. I know when they are clean and when they aren’t. I know where they came from and what they are made of. And I also know that no travel towel can ever dry you in the way a real one can. 

Our room: linen, mattress and all

I’ve settled into learning again and as a fulltime student I go to Spanish classes every morning and bit by bit I’m getting better. In times of despair I moan about being from a monolingual country and how enhanced my life would have been had Maori really been an official language of New Zealand and taught at school. And then in times of triumph I fantasise about how easy it will be to pick up Italian from my Italian cousins and to learn Maori when I’m back home. 

Settling in has also meant making new friends from the volunteering community here, including two Germans who we are lucky enough to be living with; and more recently the edition of our really good friend from home, Hester, who has joined us in our Cruce Taquina for a few months. 

View from the Cristo with Hester

Now that we’ve settled I like this place even more. I learn something new about it everyday and look forward to what more it holds.