1st Meeting with the Team

Today was our first team meeting! Mark, one of our teammates, opened his office to us and we spent our time getting an overview of our trip from George (team leader) and sharing a bit about our backgrounds. Vitoria, Mark and I missed our fourth member, Anel (who is at a conference this week), but really enjoyed meeting Ashley, one of the alternates.

There is much to do before we leave, including a yellow fever immunization, a new visa requirement ($135 to Bolivia - ouch!), traveler's insurance and a medical "ok" from our doctor. We also found out that our time in country will start April 11th but it may take us up to 2 days to get there. Back in the early 90's, when I lived in Argentina, I remember it was a hop-skip to Miami and then a direct flight to Buenos Aires. Apparently getting there in two flights, much less one airline, is almost impossible in our price range. We're keeping our fingers crossed for the shortest travel time possible. Either way, I'm able to fall asleep even before the plane starts take-off, so I know I won't mind!

We'll be visiting 6 cities:
~13,000 feet -- Potosí (highest city in the world!)
~11,000 feet -- La Paz
~ 9,000 feet -- Sucre
~ 8,000 feet -- Cochabamba
~ 6,000 feet -- Tarija
~ 1,300 feet -- Santa Cruz

With any luck, our team will be able to meet twice more before January, and then once a week after that. We have two presentations to prepare (that we'll give in Spanish), a team "look" (avoiding the word "uniform," for now), language skills to brush up on, lots to learn about Bolivia's culture, geography, economy, politics, etc.... and plenty to look forward to!