Day 76 - The Drive to School

The Drive to School

Every morning I set three alarms.  The first goes off at 5:30. Most mornings I stay in bed, read my devotional and check FaceBook.  You guys go to bed after me so often have posted things after I was already asleep.  The 6:00 alarm is to tell me, get up and get ready.  I have a last alarm at 6:45 to tell me to be ready for my taxi pickup.

William, my taxi driver, is usually here by 6:45.  I originally asked for someone to pick me up by 7:00, but he is early 4 days out of 5.  Often the alarm and the call from the guard that William is here are happening at the same time.

Bad picture of William

Because the streets around my house are one-way, we go around the block, past the Fidalga grocery and Plaza Blacut to get on Avenida Irala.  At first I thought he was crazy going that way, but at 6:45 in the morning the traffic is not so bad.

Bus Station on Irala

At the end of Irala is the bus station, where all buses call home.  So you can imagine how crowded that can be.  It is also where the Ramada Market starts.  That market is always crowded, but just waking up at 7:00.  The street through the Ramada is called Grigota, but its name changes to Doble Via La Guardia (I guess you could translate that as the highway to La Guardia).  In the 80s it was called the Highway to Cochabamba. 

Ramada Market

You pass the Second Ring where you are not allowed to make left turns.  That makes for some interesting methods of getting somewhere.  Since I am going straight on my morning journey to school, I don’t have to worry about any left turns.  Actually it is my taxi driver who has to worry about it, but you get my meaning.

The Second Ring

After the Second is the Third, and the Fourth, and the Fifth, and the Sixth.  At first glance it looks like one continuous stretch of stores, restaurants, garages, and small factories.  But if you look beyond the street, you see there are neighborhoods a block beyond, and schools, and churches, and parks.  It is a city very much alive.

Third Ring

Giant Hipermaxi at the Fourth Ring

Fifth Ring

Sixth Ring

After the Sixth Ring, there are a series of speed bumps.  I haven’t quite figured them out, except that there is a busy market and a school here.  There is also a pedestrian bridge, but people cross the street and ignore the bridge.  Just past the gas station, where I turn right to go to church, is a retorno, a turn-around.  After a left on the retorno, we go back two blocks, past the cemetery, that is not as well-kept as it was in the 80s.

Busy Sixth Ring Market

Pedestrian Bridge

Gas Station

The Turn-around

The Cemetery

We take a right and travel two more blocks to get to the Learning Center.  It was a dirt path in the 80s.  Now it is a real road, with a real neighborhood surrounding it.

And then I face these guys!!!