Cochabamba, Bolivia

Hello all!
So after 12 hours of traveling on Sunday we made it to the beautiful city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. I must make some corrections from my last blog- we landed at 14,000 ft, stayed in La Paz at 12,000 ft and now finally made our way down to 9,000 as we spend the week in Cochabamba. Carnaval is still in full force (as I type this I am soaking from the 1.5 block walk to the internet cafe), with today being the culmination in water fighting, but a parade is in store all-day Saturday with music, dancing, etc.
Today we went on a short hike in the hills (more like small mountains) above downtown, and the view was beautiful. I even got a glimpse of the local futbol stadium that we MAY get to go see a game in when the season starts on Feb. 28th!
In general, the last week has been a lot of stop and go, rushing and then relaxing, which has been a great way to get used to the culture and to the altitude! That hike today definitely kicked everyone´s butt no matter how much they had been training for the trip! Most evenings have been spent sitting around the courtyard of our hostel, getting to know each other and talking about the trip in front of us.
We will be moving in to our first homestay tomorrow afternoon. We also start intensive spanish lessons, which will be incredibly helpful! Luckily I know just enough to get by in restaurants, taxis, and internet cafes, but living with host families will be a whole different ball game...
More later! Love and miss you all,
Burns
PS- Hey Inglemoor High School alum, I ran into one of your fellow schoolmates yesterday at lunch, his name was Taylor, was class of 2007, and knew Ehsan. Small world, huh? Excellent.