Just A Stone's Throw Away...

That title might be sarcastic.
This is about our 4 day experience to get to the town of Villa Serrano.

Elmer Javier Lemus. He's with me here for the first month. There he is gazing upon the Bolivian landscapes below.

The first flight to the stop-over in Lima, Peru was around 7 hours. Then it takes another couple hours to get to La Paz, Bolivia.

Flying over the legendary Lake Titicaca! This is how you know you're close. 

The airport is in a completely different city altogether, called "El Alto" ... It is high up on the the altiplano, the flat highlands, and you have to descend into the city of La Paz, which is tucked away in a "bowl" shape area in the mountains. Here we are... we're shot after a long day, and short of breath! The altitude of the city is at around 13,000 feet when you get off the plane, and the city is lower at around 10,000 feet and up. At first, you get dizzy just walking and your head is pounding. Eventually you get acclimated... but I couldn't wait to get to our final destination, Villa Serrano, which is a much lower altitude.

Descending into La Paz is beautiful though. You realize the city is surrounded by a few huge, snow-covered mountains. This one is called Huayna Potosi which is almost 20,000 feet at the peak!

We couldn't get a plane from La Paz to the next city called Sucre until two days later... So we stayed with this awesome family for the weekend. 

A view outside. 

Taking advantage of the two days to check out the big city in the mountains. 

Getting to Villa Serrano was going to take some time. Finally, we were able to catch a nice one hour flight to the next closest city, called, Sucre. A much better option than take an overnight, buscama, or bed-bus, which takes 13 hours!

Arrival to Sucre... stayed a night with a very loving family... The Amonzabels.. we had a little jam sesh that night with the guitar, violin, and a Bolivian instrument called the Charango. Kind of like their version of the mandolin.

After Sucre, we caught a bus from Sucre, to reach our final destination... Villa Serrano! It is a 5 hour bus ride through the mountains to reach to little town. 

So from arrival to La Paz Thursday night and arrival to Villa Serrano on Monday night... it took a total of 4 days! Quite a bit of traveling/time to make it here.  Villa Serrano... oh sure, it's just a stone's throw away.