First Trip to Bolivia

As a product of a Spanish father and a Bolivian mother, I was raised with old-world values of “your family is the center of your universe”. 

So, with family in mind, my two uncles, who were both born and raised in Bolivia, wanted to take me there to meet my extended family and see the sites.

We booked a flight from San Francisco to La Paz, Bolivia, via Miami.  We flew direct to Miami which only took about 6 hours and we landed and were escorted to the waiting area where we sat for 8 hours until our flight to La Paz was ready to board. Good news was that, given my uncles, who were executives at large American companies and had millions of flight miles, the agent upgraded the three of us to first class.

Arial View of Cochabamba

It should be noted that my uncles are self-made men, having been born in Bolivia, they moved to San Francisco, learned English, went to college, graduated at the top of their classes and started their careers at the bottom and worked their way to the top to become CEOs of Del Monte and Memorex.

As we boarded, the stewardess escorted us to our first-class seats and we proceeded to give her our drink orders. 90 minutes later we were rolling down the runway taking off and headed for La Paz.

El Alto (the Tall One) airport is the highest in the world, at 13,325 ft and it has one of the longest runways in the world as well.

Everything went as planned and we landed gently onto the runway and taxied over to the gate. 

My uncles tried to warn me to take it very easy, but I jumped up and started to retrieve our luggage from the overhead bins. Then the stewardess opened the airplane door, it was as if all the air in the aircraft was sucked out and my lungs were gasping for air. 

At over 13 thousand feet, there is so much less air than at sea level (Miami) and I had to sit down so as not to overwhelm myself.  I gasped for a while, and my uncles laughed fully aware of what to expect!

They told me that once we got through customs that they were going to get me some coca leaves to chew on.  Apparently, coca leaves have been used by the indigenous people of high-altitude South America for centuries to help with intense headaches and altitude sickness.  To my surprise, it worked very well and 45 minutes later I was back to normal.

We made our way to the domestic terminal and waited for our flight to Cochabamba, the city of mother’s side of the family’s birth.  After a 1 hour lay over and a 45-minute flight, we landed in Cochabamba.

As we taxied up to the gate, my uncles pointed out the window and told me that the crowd that had gathered in the waiting area was my extended family.  It took 15 minutes for introductions to be made and hugs and kisses to be shared amongst everyone.  It had been 5 years since my uncles had been there and were greatly missed. For me, it was the first time.

Along with all the extended family members, we all made our way to the home of one of my newly introduced 2nd uncles and a huge feast had been prepared for us to eat. The conversation continued and all of us got caught up.  Nieces and nephews were introduced and we all got to know each other.

Family is good, family is everything!