A day in the life

So life, what's it like in a new country. Well here's a taste of my daily routine.

I get up fairly early, eat breakfast and then head off to work. Work is Monday to Friday so that hasn't changed. I can get to work by mini bus (an interesting method of travel which I have yet to figure out on my own) or walk. I prefer to walk. The roads don't change.



The office is in a different district of town about 20 minutes from where I am living. After walking up and down the hills of La Paz, dodging min busses, cars and motorcycles I finally get to the office. There, its pretty much like working in a small office. The office is in a converted house so it can get a bit cozy sometimes but it's good.

At about noon its time for lunch. Everyone heads home for lunch so its back to dodging cars. Once I'm back at the house the family usually eats together. The family is the centre of Bolivian life so everyone poors out into the streets in the middle of the day to get home; and then back to work after the midday meal. Once we've eaten the main meal of the day it's back to the office and back to work. Work ends in the early evening and then its home or sometimes to a gym.

While walking up and down the hills of La Paz with minimal oxygen is somewhat of a workout, I've learned I'm a bit of a masacist so I joined a local gym with one of the people at the office. Spinning is big here but I prefer running (not safe on the streets), so I use the treadmill.

Once I've thouroughly exhausted myself its back home to crash and then start all over again. The weekends are for catching up on sleep, cleaning and wondering the markets. Its a very busy schedule and very different from the one I usually keep in Canada. Its almost a month since I arrived and I'm still trying to get my head around how different a two cities can be. People, eat, sleep, work, shop, play, travel but they do it so differently.