Bolivia Day 1 and 2

After a very long 24 hour journey from London, I finally arrived in La Paz, Bolivia. Everyone that has traveled here has warned me of the effects of the altitude (13,000 feet above sea level), so I was very conscious of this. In fact, I put in a little extra training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the month prior to prepare me specifically for this. Apparently, you are meant to feel the lack of oxygen the second you walk off the plane. I felt ok though, a little short of breath but that was it. As I was waiting in immigration I saw two women receiving oxygen from a mask. And then I met Fabio, my cinematographer, who said that he too had felt ok the first couple days, but was now feeling the effects: rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, soreness throughout the body, dehydration. And sure enough the next day it kicked in. Even the most mundane of activities leaves you short of breath. Also, I always feel thirsty. And I have some swelling in the legs. I am told it wears off after a couple days so fingers crossed.

All symptoms aside, we still managed a productive day. In the morning we went to San Francisco, the town centre, to shoot some shots of the city. La Paz is full of energy. Buses swirl through the streets with passengers leaning out of the doors screaming out the destinations, women stand under large umbrellas offering exotic fruits and home-made juices, drivers beep and honk and cut in front of each other, then curse each other. There is constant motion. And surrounding this place are mountains all around. They are pretty breathtaking. This city is made for the camera.

After a couple hours filming we headed back to our host family to rest and then returned later in the afternoon to meet the lustrabotas for the first time with Monique of Creative Corners, who has been a tremendous help in lining everything up for us over here. We met eight of them, ranging from nine to 25 in age. They were a great group, tremendous sense of humour despite the sadness they live with. And boy what sadness. Many of them are self-harmers and showed us horrific scars across their arms and faces. They are all homeless and lived on the street. They claim that 'la calle es mi familia'. Due to the extreme poverty they live in many are forced to rob and steal. They tried to pick our pockets while we interviewed them which made for a comical scene if not slightly unsettling scene.

I found it particularly difficult, as a father, to speak to Ines, who lives on the street with her husband and three children. Her son, only two, was eating grains of rice out of a little cardboard container. His hands were stained, as was his face. It makes me laugh a little at myself and my wife at how precious we are at times with our son; the boy has yet to taste non-organic meat in his life! But I know this is all relative.

After our brief interviews with the lustrabotas we met Victor, an ex-lustrabota who is now in university and trying to start a business as a tour guide. Nobody would know those streets better than he would. He was incredibly eloquent and articulate, and spoke very movingly about his past, about the shame attached to this profession, about the secrecy. In essence he had to live a double life because he did not want anyone to know what he did for a living. Many of his friends are now dead either from alcohol, drugs, or violence. He is one of the lucky few that was able to make it out. We plan to meet with him again on Monday in the centre of La Paz where he will give us a guided tour of the streets he once worked. Tomorrow we will return to San Francisco and meet the lustrabotas again.