I arrived back in CDA at 2:00 on Saturday morning, slept a little, spent the day running errands, went to a friend's birthday party, and left again at 5:00 on Sunday morning. In the meantime, Edison spent the weekend with Justin's parents and Justin spent the weekend at the winter ale festival in Portland.
Four flights and almost an entire day later, I arrived in Bolivia with a coworker and two of our auditors. We freshened up and spent the rest of the day in meetings. We left the hotel at 6:00 the next morning and flew to my company's mine site in this little beauty.
Due to the high altitude (at that point we were sitting at about 12,000 ft), we started our visit with a medical examination. I passed with flying colors and was even cleared to work full time. No thank you. We spent the next few hours touring the mine. My favorite part, by far, was the bocaminas. My company has restored 144 historical mine adits that are 400-500 years old. This one was at 15,000 feet.
We flew back to La Paz that afternoon in the most turbulent flight I have ever been on. Seriously, the altimeter sometimes showed a 100 foot drop, although I'm sure it wasn't really that much. I kissed the ground when we landed and we headed to the office for more meetings and dinner.
We left for the airport again at 7:00 the next morning and spent the entire day flying to Buenos Aires. We checked into the hotel at 9:00 that night and then ate the best steak I have had in my entire life. I would go back to Buenos Aires just for the steak.
Our meetings didn't start until 10:00 the next day. I was determined to see the ocean so I convinced my coworker to go for a walk with me. We were not successful, but did manage to see a little bit of the city.
It started raining so we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Big mistake. Our Argentine colleagues picked us up and started the short trip to the office. My stomach started to churn just as we got stuck in really bad traffic. To make a long story short, I barely made it to the office. I had to let my carful of coworkers in on the situation, so one of them rushed me upstairs and straight to the not-very-private bathroom. When I emerged, the entire office staff was standing in a semi-circle waiting to meet me. Way to make a good first impression, Beth.
Five minutes later, the fire alarms started going off because the building was being evacuated. A container had exploded at the port and there was a toxic cloud enveloping downtown. Coincidentally, the explosion had occurred about half an hour after we had walked by the port. When we told our colleagues this, they got mad at us for walking in that area. Apparently people are frequently mugged and murdered there. Oops.
The man in charge of our office told us not to move and then disappeared. He came back after talking with the police and refusing to evacuate. In the meantime, our servers back in CDA were down and I was unable to get in contact with our auditors to make sure they were safe. It was a very stressful time, but I was happy to get to stay near a bathroom.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for the flooding caused by 7 inches of rain and my coworker becoming ill as well. We blame the bacon at the hotel. We left for the aiport at 5:00 and spent the next two hours in the car. Remember the food poisoning? That was the longest drive of my life. The flight home wasn't all that pleasant, either. I will never forget my 24 hours in Argentina, though.
I arrived back in CDA at 2:00 on Friday afternoon, showered, got dressed, and headed to my company's Christmas party.
Edison is still recovering from me being gone for 10 days. He wants to be with me all the time and completely melts down when I drop him off at day care. He has also been waking up at least twice a night just wanting to snuggle. (I have been indulging him with Justin out of town. Shhh.) With all of the sadness in the news lately, I am taking the time to just hold him when I can.
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