The Arrival

Well, to start off with, all flights left and arrived on time.  We are all very familiar with the American departure area of the Toronto airport after having to spend 8 hours there before our flight to Miami.  I would guess we walked a groove into the floor from one end to the other to avoid going stir crazy.  First shout out goes to Superintendant Paul Thorne for meeting us in the airport for lunch to break the monotony.  The first anger management moment goes to the burger restaurant we had lunch at where we paid close to $70 dollars for 3 burgers, 2 grilled cheese and 5 glasses of water.

The Miami flight went well and we were very pleased to find out that they have installed a rail system to move between the arrival terminal and the departure terminal so we did not have the 1 mile sprint that we had last time in 2010.  We even had time to grab a bagel before boarding this time.  Note to American Airlines: your chicken dish with orzo salad was an affront to my palette.  I would ground you if I didn't have to fly back on your plane on the way home.  Soggy chicken skin is not a good texture.

We all got altitude sickness last time we went so this time we took some medication that is supposed to eliminate that problem when the doors open on the plane in La Paz.  Worked like a charm for me.  Unfortunately it didn't for anybody else, so I was I. Charge of passing around the air sick bags and the oxygen tank that we were provided with for our 1 hour stop on the tarmac before continuing to Santa Cruz.  Jordan went down the hardest and is just starting to look like herself again now. Her vomiting didn't really stop until after we cleared customs.  Btw, once you get your forms stamped, you press a button and either you walk on through, or they tear all your stuff apart.  We have 10 military duffle bags and 3 carry on items and as luck would have it we waltzed right by with a smile to the waiting face of Ken and Andres.

We dropped our bags off at our apartment, which is not as nice as the one we had last time, grabbed some chicken empanadas and saltenias for lunch, went over to the boys home, and then grabbed groceries for a week.  Now it's unpacking time and early to bed since we barely slept in the last 48 hours. Tomorrow morning, we are headed to the market to pickup rubber made like containers to put hampers together and to hit the fruit market to stock up on mangosteens, mangos, custard apples etc.then to El Jordan to setup for a recital, cooking tacos and quesadillas.  The entrance fee is a bag of candy which is how some of the candy for Christmas on the streets is collected.

I have no pictures to upload at the moment because I'm operating on my tablet and the internet is a bit spotty at the moment.   That's it for today folks.