After being in my apartment for more than 3 weeks now, finally some of the life essentials have been connected…… natural gas to my stove, taps on the wall for my washing machine, and internet!! In addition, my water boiler provides hot water for my shower now all the time. The first 3 weeks the hot water shut off after 2 minutes, so I was taking environmental friendly quick showers ;-) At times a bit uncomfortable, if you have not rinsed off yet all the shampoo or soap, and you have finish your shower with cold water, and knowing that the apartment has no central heating (apartment is approx. 10 °C in the mornings (and the winter is just starting). Houses in Bolivia (read Latin America), do not have central heating like in Europe (western world). One option is to have electric heater or a gas heater. I first bought an electric heater for the office, after getting a slight cold 2 weeks ago. My apartment and the office are cold without it, since it cools down here late afternoon fast, and at night, it is between 0-6 °C. I took my heater to the office last week and bought a gas heater for my apartment this week.
The apartment building is still under construction and everything is far from finished. But things go step by step here, and I am starting to get used to it.
For all of you who like to see the exact location of my apartment, type in the following coordinates in Google Earth:
Latitude 21°32'7.07"S
Longitude 64°43'27.57"W
At work things go at the same speed as mentioned before…. SLOW.
The plant building is still under construction, the floor has not been finished yet, and the same goes for the water well, water storage tanks and electricity. However, the first machines arrived at the plant 3 weeks ago. After been given a small demonstration, I had several remarks, the most important one, is that the juice extractors don’t have the capacity as specified. Roughly 40% less, which is not acceptable at all. With that capacity, not even the fixed costs can be recovered. Besides the capacity, there are some technical issues too.
As events go, the job has become more challenging and interesting, as my colleague Lourdes and I now have to do everything…. Literally everything, from cost calculations, product development, contacting suppliers, dealing with the government for permits, etc., to distribution of the finished product to stores and marketing. For designing a label, I called in the help of my brother Sander (architect in Amsterdam), who is always creative, and luckily likes this kind of small and different “projects”.
Ofcourse, also the obvious, setting up the production line, setting up the laboratory, training personnel, installing a quality control and assurance system, do test runs, and produce a quality product.
An additional task has become trying to find extra funding for the whole project, as the budget is running very tight. While being in La Paz, I had a meeting with Kurt from the DED (Deutsche Entwicklungsdienst), a German state funded office that promotes and funds development work and projects in Bolivia. Since my awareness of the budget situation I contacted Kurt, but unfortunately DED is not able to help out financially.
Talking about financially, due to the sudden plunge of the euro, I have not bought an used car yet, as all cars here are paid in dollars (by the way, the dollar-boliviano rate is fixed, so if the dollar goes up, the boliviano goes up equivalently. As such I am facing a 15% inflation at the moment!!!).
This euro crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time for me, as in these first 2-3 months have to do all my big spending for the whole 2 years (car, completely furnish the apartment).
On a more positive note, three weeks ago, on Sunday morning early, I went on a little trip with Sur Bike, together with Aline and another Dutch person. We drove up north, up in the mountains, to a few lakes where you can normally see many flamingos.
We drove up in the fog, on mostly unpaved gravel roads, with great views and some roads of which some “nice” drops!! (see photos)
It being winter here, it was pretty cold up there, and there were unfortunately hardly any flamingos. But that all couldn’t spoil the beautiful view of the lakes, the mountains, and yes, sand dunes!! Who could have imagined sand dunes up at an attitude of ca. 3.000 meters! Some people say it the place up there looks a bit like Tibet….. The little church, made of adobe, was very nice too.
Overall, it was a nice trip, my first real trip outside of Tarija (besides La Paz).
click on the photos to enlarge them
Some spectators on the way up.....
The road to "nowhere"
....or the road to heaven, cause behold, in the middle of this decelent place, there was a little adobe church....
(adobe: is a natrual building material made from sand, clay, manure and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks and/or straw), which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick)
And what a view!!!
Some say the landscape resembles parts of Tibet...
The van from "Sur Bike"
My Belgian friend Aline and I
From the same bike store/travel agent (Sur Bike), I bought a used mountain bike, so I can move around the center of the city much quicker. Although, my fast Dutch driving style is a bit dangerous here, as people just get off busses and out of cars without looking. So I better slow down a bit, otherwise I am sure to have a little accident. Well, slowing down is the name of the game here any way
Since I have internet as per this week, I will from now on update my blog frequently, as well as write and answer emails.
Some people have tried to call me on my Bolivian cell phone, and told me that I did not answer the phone. I have never got any message of having missed phone calls or anyone calling from Europe. I will take this issue up with my cell phone provider (TIGO).
UPDATE: as I am just recovering from a 2 day period of food poisoning (2 days in bed!!), I am posting this a bit late. After being in India for about 1 year in total, it never caught me as bad as it did, this weekend. So I am also behind in answering mails, please bear with me.
Below I added 2 more photos of the city. Much more will follow soon! (so be patience with me Lotta ;-))
The view from the (unfinished) terras roof of my apartment building
The sport stadium
