Hiiiiiiiiiii,

So I arrived safely, after my hungover and emotional loooong flight from home (i think it was 37hours in total and 4 flights, yuk). So sad to be leaving everyone behind again after so much fun :-(

But La Paz is very cool with some amazing sights and an incredibly beautiful snow capped mountain! The first day i got here i was warned not to go into the city centre due to the estimated 100,000 protesting against the US embassy, an interesting start to a city named after our lady of PEACE! As was the first outing - to see cholitas wrestling! I hate wrestling anyway but i thought watching cholitas (indigenous Andean women) fighting would be quite fun... I went with my boss, her husband and 2 kids (Belle 5, David, 8). First we had an hour and a half of men wrestling during which time they were invariably thrown into / onto the crowd, causing total havoc (and pain!) around the ring. I thought they were supposed to stay inside that, or at least kind of slide their way down the ropes and get back up again. It was really very scary, especially with young kids. David loved it though and got completely involved throwing oranges and chicken bones at "Mr Evil" and the other crappy characters fighting! Then the cholitas finally came on and it was just horrific! They looked so beautiful (though hugely overweight!) in their sparkling shawls and colourful skirts and then all of a sudden they just went crazy hurling themselves around the ring, crashing into the crowds and causing similar scare and danger as the men had previously done. So was glad when that ended, and is not something i would ever go to again, or recommend to anyone else! As for taking the kids, it could be considered child abuse!

Life has been much calmer since that first week! I went to the Aymaran New Year festivities last weekend which was beautiful. A huge ceremony to watch sunrise (you can imagine how excited i was by a festival actually dependent ON the sunrise)! And it doesnt stop at that… Evo was there, woohoooo! I would be lying if i said i saw him specifically but i did see his helichopper take off and i did wave at him (and im sure he waved back) as he did a circuit and flew away... It was the coldest i have ever been in my life. 5am at 4000m above sea level is not a nice time to be awake however much thermal underwear you are wearing! After a tour by some nutty aymara guy we went for lunch where tried llama for the first time! Shock horror it was actually quite nice, and I would definitely eat it again. Eeew!

Ive also started my "job" with Christian Aid which is so far so good. The office is freeeeezing, but we are painting a wall a warm colour soon so surely that will heat up the whole building... ahem. We work with some really interesting partners here, focussed mainly on rural development and indigenous rights. We are also launching into climate change in a big way! More boring job stuff another time though..!

Bueno, i am really missing everyone and being in Ecuador and actually at home, and can't wait to be back in both! Tho it may be a while til the latter! Lots of love Han xxxxx