When writing this blog, I was in La Paz, Bolivia before we bused to Uyuni, Bolivia. I was sitting on the outside steps of our hostel with some of my favorite people, listening to guitars and a Ukelele being played. We were overlooking the beautiful city built into the mountains. Perfect blogging opportunity.
THE WORLD RACE HAS BEGUN!
-We are already learning what it means to have no expectations.
-We are learning to go with the flow, because there are so many things we have no control over.
F Squad left Atlanta at 5:30pm on Thursday, July 3rd. We officially began our travel day to Uyuni, Bolivia at around noon on Thursday, though. Flights went so smoothy. We landed in El Alto at 5am and it took roughly two hours to get through customs. If you ever fly into El Alto, altitude sickness is actually a real thing. Drink water, way more than you think. As in, if you have gone to the bathroom 6 times before noon, drink more water. Headaches, tingly fingers, cramps, colds, puking. It happens.
For month one, my team (Fearless Laughter) is with another team (Team Rak Chazak) and I am so excited about that! Our Squad leaders, Wes and Kelsey are with us for the first week as well. So we all piled in taxis and headed down the mountain into La Paz to get a hostel for the day before our bus ride that night. We slept for a lot of the afternoon and due to unforeseen circumstances ended up spending the night in La Paz, and are traveling to Uyuni at 7pm tonight.
The drive into La Paz yesterday was STUNNING. Seriously, it is built into the mountains and I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful city. Our hostel room has a gorgeous view of the mountain city as well, which was the most beautiful thing at night.
We took our first day here easy, as in, I slept from 8:30am-3pm, grabbed dinner and our entire group was in bed, lights out by 9:45.
Today we are taking it pretty easy as well, the thing we keep saying is “let’s take this slow” because seriously, I have never been so out of breath so quickly.
This morning for breakfast I went back to this little street vendor stand, where this lady made some dang delicious smoothies. I got one with orange, kiwi, banana and orange juice. SO GOOD. Then, when we packed up our backpacks our group decided to find the tram that takes you up the mountains to El Alto. The tram was just built this year and I honestly don’t think I have seen something more breathtaking. The hills and hills of buildings with even higher snow covered mountains in the background. Pictures do it no justice. (Side note: I had pictures but the internet here is so slow I can’t post them. 🙁 )
As we stood on the ridge overlooking La Paz I had to praise the Lord. He doesn’t have to spoil us, but he does. Hallelujah.
As I walked on the ridge I was looking down (because duh, who would want to be looking up and fall off a mountain?!). I stepped around dirty diapers and broken beer bottles on the ridge I just felt like the Lord was quietly reminding me that if I look beyond the dirty, messy, unpleasant circumstances of life, I will see the beauty that is all around me. So I looked up. At the snow covered mountains, at La Paz and the beauty and the colors, at the blue sky and I looked at my teammates, squad mates and leaders.
BEAUTY EVERYWHERE.
Seriously, this place, these people. AH. Beautiful, inside and outside, created by the Lord for a reason and a purpose and so that others can experience the Lord and His beauty through the way we live and act.
The Lord has blessed me with smoothies, mountains and F Squad. It may be kinda chilly, I may feel kinda pukey, but that is just temporary, the Lord’s beauty is forever. Hallelujah.
