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Xela and the end!

So here I am, over 9 months on from the beginning and under one month from the end. All the t-shirts I started my journey with either contain holes or are stained, my mp3 player ceases to function as the headphone jack broke off in the socket, my glasses now have only one temple to keep them on and I have been through 5 hats and 5 pairs of sunglasses. By the time I come home I will have traveled countless thousands of miles and gone through 12 countries. It feels like time has sped by and yet I can look back and be amazed by how much I have done and how many incredible experiences I have had.

As you can see my blog has a gaping hole of 5 months but I just haven't had the time to keep it going. If there was one thing I should have brought with me it is a Notebook PC.

Since I last updated this blog I have traveled through Chile with the highlight being the 5 day 'W' Trek alongside glaciers and harsh, beautiful terrain in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine , Buenos Aires and the waterfalls of Iguazu Falls (an undoubted natural wonder of the world) where I traveled with Simon for two weeks, a month of checking out very cool Brazil and spending 8 days of it with my parents in Rio and Salvador, a great 3 weeks in Colombia traveling with Gris from Bogota to the heat, humidity and beauty of the Carribean coast, a flight to Panama City and Central America, making some great friends and chilling with surfers on the Panamanian Pacific Coast, celebrating my birthday in style on the beautiful tropical island of Isla Colon in Bocas del Torro (still Panama), high adrenaline zip lining across 1km lines above a jungle canopy in Monteverde (Costa Rica), Ometepe the island of two volcanoes in Nicaragua, a day of Mayan ruins in Copan (Honduras) and finally reaching my current destination of Xela (actually named Quetzaltenango), Guatemala. Phew!

It is because of Xela that I had to write what is my final blog entry. I came here in a real need of a rest and a new challenge. It had been over 5 months since I had spent more than a week in any location (the last was a month in Cochabamba, learning Spanish and living with a family) and the constant travel from place to place had really got to me. I came to Latin America looking not just to be a tourist but to really experience different cultures, what it's like to live here and have a positive impact through volunteering. I had not done any volunteering since my first destination of Huaraz, Peru where I had a great time helping to teach English schools. The problem with Latin America is that there is just too much to see!

So how did I come to Xela? I found out there were lots of volunteer opportunities in Guatemala and a chance conversation in Panama with someone who had been volunteering in Xela led me here. I was suprised by just how many opportunities there are to volunteer. Someone told me the other day that there are over 10,000 non profit organisations operating in Guatemala alone! After a little searching a place called El Nahual Community Center stood out to me (click HERE to view the website). A couple of phone calls to Bryan (a Brit, and the coordinator at El Nahual) whilst I was in Nicaragua and a date was decided, a host family arranged and I was making my way towards Guatemala and Xela.

Xela times

As soon as I arrived Xela felt like a breath of fresh air but also like I had a done a full circle in my travels. Xela is a hark back to the beginning of my travels and Huaraz. Like Huaraz Xela is at a high altitude (2,300m compared to Huarez's 3000m), the white moutain peak views are replaced by hilly green hills and volcanoes and it's buildings and the countless small tiendas (shops) on each street are also very reminiscent. It may be similar to my beginnings but I know I am a different person to the one that first started.

Volunteering

El Nahual is a really fun place to be studying and volunteering. I have been taking Spanish lessons four days of the week and four hours a day, teaching English at external schools Tuesday to Thursday, taking a free salsa lesson on Thursdays and much more. Every Friday there is a community lunch that the Spanish teachers and students make together. It is always themed and the first time it was cheese! I made a dish called Chilaquiles which are cheese folded inside corn tortillas dipped in whipped egg and then fried. Add a spicy tomato source and it's rico (delicious)!

The cheese meal

There are three external schools I have been teaching at. I teach in the mornings for 2 one hour lessons on Tuesday - Thursday and have two one hour classes on Thursday afternoon. Unlike Huaraz where I was assisting teaching, I am THE teacher (sometimes alongside another volunteer)! It's actually quite fun teaching classes and not too unnerving to enter the environment. The hard thing is coming up with ideas to teach. I cannot go into a class without a good idea of what I am going to teach beforehand. The ages of the classes vary from 8-15 years and there can be as many as 35 students in one class. The schools are all very basic and the teachers give a mix of support. Some will stay in the class room with you and tell kids to calm down, whilst others will leave you to the ensuing mayhem. I gave a couple of my classes a test on my final day with them and found out just how little they had taken in. I realised that a long time is needed on just one subject in order to make sure that they have learnt words and can spell them properly. It is tricky though, when not all the kids bring in notebooks and others just don't pay attention.

Grade 4 in La Cuchilla

I really enjoyed working in an organisation as small as El Nahual as it gave me the chance to have a real impact. The teaching side of the organisation has been a little run down due to the fact that there has not been a specific teaching coordinator for a while. I saw that there were plenty of ways we could improve the coordination of volunteers and teaching we give. I chaired a meeting with the other volunteers and we thought up a series of things we could do. I spent a lot of time organising the vast amount of past work volunteers had created in to usable folders. Along with a curriculum and activity sheets Lindsey (another volunteer) had created I was able to put together a package of things that would enable a new volunteer coming in to the organisation to see where each class was at with its progress and continue on. In some ways I have found the organising and coordinating aspects of my time more interesting than the teaching. In the future I think I would like to spend 6 months volunteering on one project as it is very difficult to make a significant difference in such a small time as one month.

Food

Food is pretty basic in Guatemala. The base food is corn tortillas, there isn't a street that doesn't contain a shop that makes and sells them. Frijoles, a purple bean that is turned in to a paste has to come next. This is closely followed by platanos, a form of banana which is generally fried and served with the said frijoles and tortillas. Eggs are pretty popular too. I am generally served these things either for breakfast or dinner most days of the week. Lunch is the main meal of the day and this is always different and contains meat.

Guatemala

In Xela the people are very friendly and I feel comlpetely safe. However, Guatemala has some serious problems. Corruption is widespread and journalists face being attacked for reporting on the issue. I read in Entremundos (a volunteer run newspaper for volunteers) that 98% of crimes committed in Guatemala go unpunished! Effectively there is no justice system. There are actually more private security guards than police in the country. They are all armed and every bank and large shop has them. Being next to Mexico isn't a help as problems exist in border areas with narco traffickers and drugs gangs (Click HERE for more info). Funnily enough the most popular TV novela (soap opera) is called La Reina Del Sur and is based on the life of a female Mexican drug lord!

Compared to most, my family live very well. Families are very large in Guatemala and members tend to stick together in order to support each other. In my house about 12 family members all live together. The house is huge so there isn't a problem with space. I have my own bedroom, which, is bigger than almost any you will find in the UK. The mum (and Gran) of the family runs the show and stays at home to look after the kids and prepare meals for everyone while the rest of the family are at work. To help there is a maid who also prepares the meals and does other housework. I don't know how much they pay her but I think a lot of Guatemalans especially in more rural areas live off just $2 a day. There is some extreme poverty in the country and it is no suprise that people from Guatemala and other Central Armerican countries seek illegal work in the United States. I watched a film about people trying to get illegaly to the United States and they have to endure a terrible journey especially in Mexico. Immigrants will be beaten and robbed by police, attacked by gangs and maimed trying to jump on to goods trains. Central American history is as fascinating it is tragic. Guatemala has a terrible legacy of poverty left by dictatorships and civil war, a lot of which have been caused by US interventionism. I really want to read a lot more about it when I return home.

Still it is not all gloom, the people I meet are upbeat and hardworking. The whole country are fanatical about football and the fact that Guatemala recently qualified for the Fifa U20 World Cup (the first time Guatemala have qualified for any world football tournament) was BIG news. Despite losing 5-1, 5-0 to Nigeria and someone else they did beat Croatia 1-0 and progress in the tournament! I went to watch the local team Xelaju play and it was a lot of fun. The game did turn sour towards the end and fans started throwing anything they could find at the opposition! They drew 2-2.

Weekend manoeuvres 

Mystic image - Lake Chicabal

There is a lot to see in the area around Xela and I have been taking advantage of my weekends to enjoy it. On my first full weekend I went to visit Laguna Chicabal a sacred Myan lake that is situated in a volcano crater. Myan's still make up a large percentage of the population of Guatemala and are the indigenous descendents of the ancient civilisation. There are an innumerable number of different groups of Myans and most have seperate languages to each other. The way they dress is also very different with elaborately woven bright coloured dresses for the woman. Apparently they are very expensive and I would assume hand made. The Myan traditions make up a large part of Guatemalan culture and its heritage. Their religion is Cristian but like in Peru with the Incas it is a mix of Christian and Myan beliefs. Lake Chicabal is about an altitude of 3000m and is a good hike to get to. Mist hangs over the lake and occasionally drifts away leaving views across the mysterious lake. Ceremonies still take place there and crosses of various styles are dotted around the lake. It is a completely silent place and along with the mist it really does have a mystic feel.

On top of the skies - Volcan Tajamulco 


The weekend after I went to climb Volcan Tajumulco, which, is the highest point in Central America. I went with Quetzaltrekkers, an organisation run by volunteers and whose profits go towards funding a school for street kids. A group of 23 of us set of at 5am on Saturday to climb the 1000 meters to the base camp, where we would camp for the night. I had not done any trekking for a while and not to the altitude we were at for a very long time. The volcano was steep but we all made it to base camp in around 3 hours or so. The walk up the volcano was very beautiful. It is not active any more and it is covered in ferns and a lush carpet of grass and wild flowers. The volcano was covered in mist and pretty cold. We settled down for the night and tried to get some sleep before the 3.30am wake up and hike up the final 200m to the summit. Wrapped up and with sleeping bags in our backpacks we hiked in the dark up the winding slope. Below us, between the trails of clouds you could make out the lights of a city and above was a star studded sky. Once at the top and after a few photos we huddled up in our sleeping bags ready for sunrise. The sight did not dissapoint, rays of sun shot through the cloud cover opening up a vast landscape with views of distant volcanoes. It was a very beautiful and the walk down was just as pretty. 

The wild carpet

On my final weekend all of the volunteers from El Nahual and the coordinator Bryan took a weekend trip to Antigua, the colonial jewel of Guatemala. As people say, this is not the real Guatemala. Streets are clean and well maintained and the centre is pure colonial achitecture. Shop sign are limited to flat signs in the exterior in order to keep fit with the rest of the buildings. Understandably it is a tourist hub but it also fills up on weekends with wealthier Guatemalans making the one hour trip from the capital Guate. Antigua is one of the prettiest colonial towns I have seen in all of my travels and Saturday night was danced away to Latin and electronic beats. 

Chicken bus experience

My blog would not be complete without mentioning the ubiquitous chicken bus. Those yellow American school buses from the Simpsons don't finish their lives in the United States, they get exported to Central America. There they are transformed in to multi coloured machines and become the workhorses of travel. The buses then generally follow the 'use until collapse' route of Bolivia. They are very cheap to use but there are never enough of them and thus follows the 'rack 'em n stack 'em' chicken experience. It is normal to squeeze 3 people on to two seats and have the isle jammed with standing passengers. You wouldn't believe how many people you can actually fit in one. The drivers are just as suicidal (if not more so) as any other Latin American road user, and, given the state of Guatemalan roads (sometimes vehicles have to move into on-coming traffic lanes) it can make for a nerve racking experience. The other unfortunate thing is the fumes that belch out of the side of the bus from the exhaust. A person peacefully walking along a pavement in Xela can easily find themselves consumed in a black cloud of smoke from a passing bus.

Back of a stacked chicken bus, Terminal Minerva

And finally...

All of this inevitably leads me to the end of my travels. I now have two weeks left to see the rest of Guatemala and some of Mexico before arriving in Mexico City for the flight home on August 27th. I have some amazing sites still to see including the incredible Mayan ruins of Tikal and Chichenitza. I do feel I could stay on in Xela and continue my Spanish studies but I am also looking forward to home. I will miss the rhythms of a Latin American dance floor, the sites and feels of such hugely diverse landscapes and climates, the thrill of adventure, and meeting people from so many different backgrounds and countries. On the other hand I cannot wait to see all of you again, enjoy some home comforts and get back to good old England. I also want to continue learning Spanish when I return.

It's impossible to sum up how all the experiences I have had have changed me but I can say that I have had the most incredible and unique 10 months of my life. This may sound cheesy but I feel I will come back home a better, more knowledgable, more relaxed and confident version of me. If I could offer anyone some advice it would be to travel. Travel, travel, travel, and do it as soon as you can. Never will you have as much freedom to do what ever you want, be able to see just how many incredible things the world has to offer, meet so many interesting people and become as aware of yourself. I know my trip is not what everyone would choose to do or could do but there are so many cheap and easy ways to see the world. I would recommend volunteering as one of the best ways of traveling and experiencing another culture as well as making a difference.

Well that's it, I hope you have enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I have enjoyed writing them. I really look forward to seeing you all again soon. Farewell from Latin America.


Chris

The Argentina Round Up

Coming from both Peru and Bolivia, Argentina was a complete change in landscape. Roads lacked pot holes, pavements weren't so smashed up, buildings looked in good repair, products in shops actually had prices on them, breaking down large notes became a lot easier, the water was drinkable from the tap, this was a far more developed European style country!

Salta

I came to Salta from San Pedro and had not planned on staying that long, but that changed to 4 days. I got off my bus and found my way to the hostel, I knew where it was but had planned on getting a taxi to it. However I had no Pesos (Arg currency) yet and I couldn't use the cash point I found. I could have paid in US$ dollars if I had any (dollars are very useful to have in South America). So that just left me a walk through an unfamiliar city at 9pm at night. I got to my hostel in the end without any problems. It was a nice small hostel with only ~ 10 people staying. I made friends instantly and was going to taste Saltas nightlife that same evening. Salta has one street which is lined with all the pubs, bars and clubs. I went out with four others and had a fun night of live rock music at the first place we visited and later a club with the ubiquitous South American Reggaeton beats playing all night long. Saturday daytime was a chilled affair and I got to have a look around Salta. Salta is a city of ~1 million people and boasts a very grand large plaza at its centre with a cathedral, modern arts gallery, theatre and numerous restaurants surrounding it. I visited the modern arts gallery with a German girl at my hostel called Daramina. In the night it was time to go out again but this time with most of the residents and staff at the hostel.

Hostel friends

After a game of Ring of Fire (yes its internationally known, just with different names) we headed out to a really cool club and partied the night away to electro music in its large white main room. Once again the next day was pretty chilled affair of not a lot, although, I did walk up to the top of Salta's largest hill to see the city from its viewpoint. I wanted to go to the city of Cordoba next but knew it had a 270 pesos (~£50) price tag attached to it. There was a possible way out though as I was told it was doable by hitch hiking! Darimina also wanted to get there and was very enthusiastic about the hitchiking part so we decided to give it a go on Tuesday.

Before leaving Salta I decided to try out some horse riding at a local Cabalgato (ranch). Alot of Argentina's heart is cowby country with large herds of cattle (I'm sure you know about Argentinian beef) and so it was a great place to try it out. I went for a half day and arrived for lunch ,which, was a lot of wine and a feast of meat, salad and lots more. Then came the horseriding. It was my first time on a horse but it wasn't too difficult as the horses were very well trained. There was one problem I found, I was allergic to horses! My nose started streaming and later my eyes got very swolen and red. The path was pleasant and we were taken over rivers and alongside fields of crops . Near the end we had a chance to canter with the horses. I never realised how bumpy a ride it would be and how hard you have to try to stop yourself being jolted off. It was a fun experience but not one I would plan on repeating.

Yeeha!

The 870km hitchhike

It was 10am on Tuesday when Daramina and I set off on our trip and we first took a taxi ride to the roundabout where the traffic head to Cordoba (870 km away). With us we had a sign that read 'Cordoba' and our bags. We were very happy when in under 30 minutes we had our first hitch. The driver of the truck was travelling to Buenos Aires with his 30 tonne load of sugar but he could take us half way towards Cordoba. We got on and thus our journey really began. The driver was very friendly and we weren't the first hitchikers he had picked up. In total it would take us 16 hours to reach our destination but with a total cost of 100 pesos compared to 270 it was a good saving and adventure. Once getting halfway we waved goodbye to our driver whom really seem sad to leave Daramina! We needed a but of bus travel to get us to the next road that led to Cordoba. The traffic was a lot less on this stretch of road and it took a lot longer (over an hour) to find our next transport. Another lorry took us 150km closer to Cordoba leaving us 250 km to go. By this time it was past midnight and Daramina and I were in a small town by a petrol station trying to flag down cars. Eventually past 1am Daramina found a car that could take us the rest of the way to Cordoba. It was a happy moment as we both tought we may be needing a place to stay for the night. The car sped towards Cordoba but it wasn't until 4am that we made it to a hostel in a town close to the main city and sleep.

Daramina and lorry driver no.1

So thoughts on hitchhiking, well it works out here but if you want to do it first find a female gringo to go with you. I am pretty sure Daramina was the reason we got all three of our lifts. It's an unprecitable mode of travel but if I had the time to do it I think I would give it a go again.

Cordoba

The town was found a hostel in turned out to be a the pretty town of Alta Gracia and a good place to be as it housed 'La Casa del Che', a house Che Guevara grew up in which has been converted in to a museum ab out him. It features a lot about what he did when he was young and how he was as a child. Their are artefacts about him such as Cuban bank notes with his face on, his motorcycle adventures, letters between Castro and himself and later adventures and his ultimate death. In 2006 it was visited by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez and pictures of their visit are in one of the rooms.

Me n Che

Cordoba itself is Argentina's second city and is very big, but, who would I find there but Waytt and Ben from Huaraz and Cochabamba times. I met up with them briefly and visited a museum dedicated to the missing people of the Dirty War. The Dirty War was between 1976-83 when a military dictatorship took control of the country. They clamped down on free speach and an estimated 30,000 people went missing as a result. By conincidence I was in Cordoba on the day of anniversary of their take over of power. There was a march through the city in rememberence of the missing, trials are still happening to bring to justice the people that were involved. The day before I had decided that there was not too much to see so I booked a bus ticket to Mendoza that evening.

Mendoza

Mendoza is a very pretty, open planned city situated in wine making country, and the weather was great the whole time I was there. In the main plaza I met four girls from England and spent my first afternoon with them. We bought some of the tastiest ice cream I have ever had (I bought a 1/4 kilo tub) before heading to a big park in the centre. It was a really lovely park to walk around in the sunshine and chilled there for a couple of hours near the lake. I met up with them again in the evening to head out for some partying. We went to the closing night of this big club but my night was cut short as I had too much to drink and headed home around 3am or something. The day after was spent doing very little but I planned a day trip for the next day to see Aconcagua, South America's highest mountain at 6,970m.

Aconcagua

I left on a 4 hour bus trip at 7am. You can't get close to the mountain unless you pay a lot for the park entry and camp, so the bus drops you at a visitors centre where you can walk to a few viewpoints to see the mountains south face. It was a very impressive site to see and I walked all the way up to the first campsite before returning just in time to catch the bus back to Mendoza. The day after I had the funnest thing in Mendoza to look forward to...

Bicycle wine tasting

The bicycle wine tasting tour is a short bus ride away to the town of Maipu, an area filled with vines and bodegas. The Mendoza region is best known for its red Malbec wines, a grape that originated in France but has better conditions for its production in Argentina. Alongside this they also produce very good Merlot's and Cabernet Sauvignons. I rented a bike from Mr Hugo Bikes and waited so that I could join up with some more people. Mr Hugo was very nice and there was free wine given out even before the day had begun! I met a couple of Frnech guys, who, it turned out were living and working in London and we set off on our bikes armed maps and a thirst for some good wine. The first stop was a wine museum which also produced its own wine. We got a nice half glass for free before heading to a small producer of olives, liquors, vinegar and chocolate. We were first shown around their small estate before tasting their wears. I had the sweetest tasting balsamic vinegar I had ever had and many other things before moving on. We decided to ride to the bottom of the wine tasting trail and work our way back up again. For each bodega we visited we had to pay a small price for a tour of the facilities and the tasting of their wines. Each of the bodegas we visited had small production, high quality vineyards which produced a maximum of 400,000 bottles of each wine.

Riding on in search of wine

By the time we had finished the third bodega having tasted two to three wines in each we were in need of a meal. The fourth bodega we went to also did lunch so we ate there after the tour. We just had time to get to a fifth bodega after this before returning the bikes. Maybe it was due to all the wine I had already had but I thought the Tempus Alba bodega had the best wine of all of them and we drank them sat on a sun deck overlooking the fields of vines. After that it was time to ride back to Mr Hugos but the party was not over as anyone who rented a bike can stay there drinking as much wine as they like. It was a very fund day and I mede it back to Mendoza around 8pm, the next day I would be leaving for Santiago, Chile.

End of a perfect day

Salar de Uyuni - The Salt Flats Trip

This to date is the most visually stunning trip I have been on. A 3 day 4x4 ride across to the Salt Flats in Bolivia, the surreal desert landscape and in to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Although an amazing trip, the journey doesn't come without its horror stories of drunk drivers tearing their way across the desert with you onboard or 4x4 breakdowns in the middle of no where. Luckily we found a good company called Latitudes and didn't experience either of these. Gris (a Bolivian girl I met while in Cochabamba) came along with me and we met in Uyuni on the day before the trip. We borded the 4x4 and were joined by four Germans along with our driver and cook.

Day 1

The first day consisted of the visit to the Salt Flats and a train graveyard in the desert. The Salt Flats are just a the name suggests, a large, flat area of land as far as the eye can see covered in pure white salt. The salt is still hand mined by miners and sold in Bolivia. At this time of year the Salt Flats are covered by a layer of water, which, creates a mirror reflection of the sky. It was almost a visual overload and incredibly beautiful. The 4x4 surfed its way over the glistening white plains and it was hard to tell when the land ended and the sky began. Our driver dropped us off in the middle of the flats and we had 50 minutes of play time. Everyone uses the aspect trick of the land to take funny photos and we were just the same...


In the palm of her hand!

Our driver picked us up and we headed to the Salt Hotel, a building completely built out of salt in the middle of the flats for lunch. After that novelty we got back in the 4x4 and headed to the train graveyard for some more snapshots. There were several old and rusted steam trains which you could clamber on to and play around and we did that for 15 minutes. After that we were heading across the terrain to the lodge that we would be staying in. We were in a 4x4 a lot of the time but that was the adventure. The land we were driving across was so incredible that you would be looking out of the windows in awe most of the time. Our driver would then stop at various areas so we could have a little time to explore and take some photos. We stopped a couple more times on the way to our lodge and after a good meal, bedded down for the night.


Salt view

Day 2

We were up early to set off for another day of sightseeing. We made our way across dirt tracks viewing distant white peaked mountains and volcanoes set against blue skies. Around 9am we stopped off for about an hour at a lake which stretched out below some mountains. It was very pretty as you can see below...


Clear reflections

For lunch we stopped off at this cool rock formation planted in the middle of nothing really, and chilled out there for an hour or so. The 4x4 had mp3 connection so our stop was accompanied by the sounds of Air - Moon Safari.


On the rocks

Later on we stopped off in an area that was nothing but dessert landscape. In the middle of this a single strangely shaped rock stuck out from a patch of sand. It resembled something out of a Salvador Dali painting and being there really made me feel like I was in some other world. I think that´s why the whole trip has had such an impression on me.


Dali

The next stop was to the Red Lagoon named for the reason you will see below. Enjoying the lake with us were 1000s of Flamingos...


Red lagoon


Flamingo´s

This was as far as we got on Day Two and we had lots of time to relax before we started very early the next day.

Day 3

It may had been 4.30am that we were prized from our beds in readiness for the final day of travel. The reason we got up so early was that we could see the natural geysers flaring up before dawn. Also Gris and I were going to San Pedro de Atacama afterwards but the Germans had an 8 hour 4x4 journey back to Uyuni before the day was over. We arrived at the Geysers and you could here the steam as it shot out of the ground. It was really cold at this time of day so I only made a quick dash to them before getting back in to the 4x4 and tried to get some more sleep. It started to get lighter and around 6am we could see the faint orange of dawn on the horizon.


Geyser

The best part of the day was to come as around 6.30am we arrived at a large lake and steaming in front of us was a natural hot spring. We slowly changed in to swim wear and stepped out of the cold and in to the blissfully hot water. It was really lovely and as we lazed about we got to watch the sun rise up on a cloudless morning. We were in and around the hot springs for about an hour before getting back in the 4x4 to see a couple more landscape views and lakes. Then around 9am it was time for Gris and I to say farewell to the Germans and head to Chile.


Hot spring at dawn


All together, and the cook

We spent a couple of days together in San Pedro, which, is really a place similar to Uyuni, a stopping off point to excursions in to the dessert. On the second day in the afternoon we went on the half day trip to Laguna Cejar. The lake is so salty that you can just float in it, so that is what we did. Coming back out your clothes come completely stiff. Luckily we were taken to another pool which is not as salty and I dived right in. Again it was a really pretty salty earthed open landscape, and we were able to stay there to watch the sun set on what had been an amazing trip. The day after I left for Salta, Argentina to start another adventure and Gris headed home to Cochabamba.


A setting sun landscape

Sucre & Potosi - Dinosaurs, Mines and Dynamite!

After leaving Cochabamba my journey took me on a couple of whistlestop tours of Sucre & Potosi before heading to Uyuni.

Sucre

I only stayed a day hear but it was a fun time. I left Cochabamba expecting a 10 hour trip, however, that turned in to 16 hours. A crash on the road and a problem with the bus turned it in to one of the slowest trips I have ever been on. Some of the buses in Bolivia are terrible, it's a mentalitiy of getting everything you can out of something until it falls apart. Then you might think about doing something about it.

I got to Sucre around mid day and spent the afternoon looking around and visiting a couple of museums. Sucre is the judicial capital of Bolivia while La Paz is the home of the government. Bolivian independance from Spain was achieved in 1809 in Sucre. The city is very tranquil and quite picturesque with white washed buildings and nice plazas in a setting surrounded by hills and mountains. In the evening I had a good meal and a few drinks with some people I had met in the hostel I was staying in.

In the morning I went with Jack (an Aussie I met the day before) to a viewing point that looks across the city. It was a lovely blue sunny day and we had a great view of the city and landscape. At the view point there is a cafe set in some gardens and we stayed there to have some brunch. I had toasted bread with olive oil, olives, cheese and a glass of passionfruit, banana, apple and lemon. The plentyfulness and cheapness of fruit in Bolivia is one of its plus points. Laying back above the city with great food and drink I had one of those 'I love that I am here' moments.

Brunch in the sun

After the meal I headed to the nearby Cretacious Park to see some 56 million year old dinosaur footprints. In the park you can see the tracks of eight different species of dinosaur. Unfortunately it has become unsafe to get close to them so you have to view them from a vantage point 300m away. The tracks are on the side of a 80 degree vertical cliff in a cement quarry. This comes from the time when the tectonic plates moved, forcing the land upwards and creating the mountain ranges of the Andes.

Dino prints

After the dino park there wasn't a lot left to do so I decided to push on to Potosi that night.

Potosi

In Winchester 150 pence can buy you a 15 minute bus journey in to town. In Bolivia it can buy you a 3 hour bus journey from Sucre to Potosi. The highest city in the world at 4,070m asl and formerly one of the richest cities in the world (although the glory has long faded) it is a place worth seeing. Potosi become rich around the 1550s when silver was found in its mountains. The city funded the Spanish economy for a long time (and some of Englands courtesy of Sir Frances Drake) and the Cerro Rico mountain is still mined to this day. Silver stopped being mined in the 20th century when its price fell and instead tin was mined. Now little is left of either and the minerals are mined by chemically extracting them from the rocks that contain them. I was in Potosi to take a tour of the mine and see it for myself.

The crew (I'm in the middle)

Our guide was an ex miner who had worked for three years in the mines. He spoke great English and was a really funny guy. Our first stop was to get suited and booted in our mining gear and hard hats. Then it was a trip to the Miners Market. As a gift to the miners you are encouraged to buy them some provisions for the mine. For 30 Bs (2 pounds) we purchased them some dynamite and some bottles of juice (we could have bought them pure alcohol for their Friday celebrations but thought better of it)! Next it was off to the mine. A small entrance led in to even smaller passage ways and then crawling spaces on hands and knees. In the mine our guide told us the shocking truth and tales of the mine...

What to buy...explosives, 96% alcohol for the Friday party, water or juice?

The miners will work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week to earn themselves 2,500 Bs (250 pounds). To help with 8 hours in the mine with no food each miner will consume 3 bags of coca leaves a day. They work as a cooperative and get to take home about 86% in wages of what they extract. After working for around 10 years in the mine a lot of the miners will contract Silicosis (lung cancer) and may only live for another 5-10 years. It is the dust in the mine that causes this and the miners do not wear proper masks due to the cost of the filters and the unpracticality of wearing them. Now electric winches haul up the extracted rock but when our guide worked there he could be carrying up to 45kg of rock up tiny passages to the carts. Around 12,000 people still work in the mines and an estimated 1000 of these are children from the age of 10-18. This is illegal but this is Bolivia and there's just no controls. A child working from the age of 10 could have a life expectancy of just 25-30 years due to the Silicosis. The provision of few other jobs in Potosi and the need to support the family are the main reasons they work.

Working down mine

The miners believe in the underworld and that the mines are the domain of the devils. In order to have good luck they give offerings of dead llama foetus' to effiges of the devil in the mine.

A few people have become rich from the mines. One of the last was a man in 1985 who apparently did a deal with the devil by not just giving llama foetus' but also atleast one human foetus as a more powerful offering! He then struck it rich when he hit one of the main tin veins in the mountain and overnight his fortunes changed. He invested in 10 buses for the miners (a first in Potosi) and for a couple of years life was good. However he had forgotten about the devil and his pact. Three of his buses has accidents leading to the death of workers and he lost everything due to the welfare payments he had to make! Apparently he now makes a living charging people a lot of money to tell their fortunes from reading Coca leaves!

We went further in to the mine but stopped when we came across miners excavating the passage ahead. Apparently there had been a cave in which happened over Carnival. The miners were having to clear the block so that actual mining could begin again on Monday. We turned around to leave but before exiting it was time to visit one of the devil idols ,which, had also been decorated for carnival!


Me n Mr Devil

Eventually no one will be able to mine there any longer due to the threat of collapse of the mountain. The increase in rainfall and the unstableness of its tunnel ridden inside is the cause but no one knows if it they have another 10 or 50 years to go.

Once outside again one of our guides starting turning a stick of dynamite in to a usable explosive. I was handed this thing before realising that the four minute fuse was already burning down! The guide then ran off with it and stuck it in the ground so we could watch the explosion. The sound and blast was pretty cool. This place was insane.

Explosive preparations...

The Cochabamba Times

Cochabamba is the city is stayed in for a month to learn Spanish. This blog is not just about my time in Cochabamba but also about my experiences and thoughts on Bolivia overall. It's a crazy country!

I arrived in Cochabamba looking forward to catching up with Wyatt, Johnny & Ben for a few days before heading to Sucre to take some Spanish lessons. However, my time hear turned out to be longer than first planned. I had two really fun nights out in Cochabamba with the guys and some of the locals they had made friends with, and it was one of these chance encounters that led to me staying. I met Sol while out out partying on Saturday and bumped in to her again whilst contemplating what to do on the Monday. I had had a lot of fun in Cochabamba and met a lot of nice people so I was pretty open to staying when she asked why I was going to go. We went to Capresso (a cool coffee shop part owned by Danny who I became good friends with) with the idea of finding out about Spanish schools in the city. Sol called up her friend Luis to see if he could help with any ideas of Spanish schools. In actual fact I would end up staying with him and his family. After spending the day searching we found a Spanish school which seemed to be just what I needed. Thus the matter was settled, I would be staying in Cochabamba a little longer. I needed a place to stay next and Luis offered me to stay with his family which was perfect as I wanted to find a family to stay with.


View from near my house

I found myself really settle in to life in Cochabamba. On the weekdays I had Spanish classes from 3-6pm with Profesora Carolina. The Spanish lessons were challenging but fun. I have found myself struggling and still am with the numerous ways of conjugating a verd but the lessons really helped my Spanish and my ability to talk to the locals. In the evenings I was usualy up to something with Wyatt, Sol & co. One evening I went to a bar for a photo exhibition which one of Sol's friends was showing pictures at. It was really cool and the final photographer to show the video compilation of his photos was a Canadian called Robert Postma. The photos were incredible and he has had photos published in journals such as National Geographic. This is the link to his website so you can check them out for yourself http://www.distanthorizons.ca/.


Conjugate those verbs


Friends

Wyatt, Jonny & Ben were all volunteering with a great volunteer organisation called Sustainable Bolivia. Along with the volunteer programs they organised lots of events from Salsa classes, the trip to Carnival in Oruro and nights out. It was on an 80s themed birthday celebration they organised for the Director that I met a Bolivian girl named Gris. She would later come with me on the Salar de Uyuni trip and to San Pedro de Atacama (another blog required).


Party times, Gris on my left, Sol on my right

On the weekends the Friday / Saturday were party time. Cochabamba has a lot of bars and discoteca's to enjoy. A club called La Pimienta (Green Pepper) was one of the favourites. Sunday is generally dedicated to family. On the first Sunday I went with my family to a big reunion on a piece of land they own outside of the city. Everyone brought something to eat and drink and we were treated to a great lunch of barbecued fish with lots of potato and salad. There was another foreigner staying with my family called Julie and both of us were instantly made to feel like one of there own. It was a really great experience and a privelege to live with a them.


Family fun

I was lucky to be in Bolivia around the build up to Carnival. Carnival is one of the higlights of the year and is a big excuse for celebration. In the weeks before Carnival there are two days for celebration for men and women, La dia Comadres & La dia Compadres. For what I experienced these were both excuses for men and women to get wasted for a night. For La dia Compadres I went to Wyatt and Johnny's house for the evening. Franz (who owns the house and looks after the 7 or so volunteers staying there) was having a barbecue and there was 5kg of beef ready to be put on to it! It was a great meal accompanied by lots of beer and a game of Cacho ( a dice game that I will definately be bringing back to the UK). Both days are meant for the individual sex but they get celebrated by both anyway. On the dia Comadres the guys wait until late in the evening when the girls are suitably wasted and then head out on to the streets on the hunt. Wyatt, Johnny and I headed out with Luis (one of Wyatt's Bolivian co-workers). The streets were filled with cars and people (mainly guys) and the entertainment consited of alcohol and dancing next to one of the cars which filled the streets and blared out music.

Strikes

My time in Cochabamba was never uneventful and I witnessed a few strikes whilst I was there. Increases in the cost of goods like general food stuffs, sugar and petrol prompted the Transportistas (the unions of all local transport) to strike several times. They wanted to raise the price of a bus rides but the public wouldn't let them. We woke up one morning to find the roads in to the centre clogged with every single bus in the city. The city was in complete shut down until they started moving out in the late afternoon!


The day Cochabamba stood still

On the subject of transport, driving in Bolivia is crazy. A lot seems to revolve around the zero adherance to rules. When driving, people routinely skip red lights and hardly anyone has an actual drivers license. Drink driving also appears to be a pretty common thing.

Money

Bolivia really is a poor country and the poverty line can be very close for a lot of families. That is why the cost of a bus ticket going up from 50 cents (5p) to 1 Bolivan (10p) can have such a huge impact. A person working in a restaurant could earn as little a 700 Bs a month ($100). This is also the reason why practically everyone who is young doe not bother to work until after they leave university (it is free) and can get a better paid job.

Family

Bolivia also suffers from widespread corruption in the government, police etc. leading to zero belief in the justice system. Due to the fact that Bolivians cannot rely on the state for support the family is the most important institution in Bolivia. One of the really admirable things about Bolivian society is that families stick together and look after each other. Children will generally stay at home for university and a lot later in life. The families are also a lot bigger in Bolivia and it can be normal to have three or four siblings and countless cousins. The Navia family who I lived with work really hard to ear their living. They own two pharmacies and Yvonne (the wife) and Denisse (the daughter), who, is 20 years old run them. It is a 12 hour a day job with only Sundays off. Denisse also just started back at university and cannot keep running the shop by herself in the future. They also have to look after Yvonne's mother during the day and she stays with Denisse at the pharmacy during the day. Luis, 24 years old, has just got a really good job with Petrogas where he had his work placement at university. He is the only person to get this job from a public university in Cochabamba as the course you usually need is only available in private universities.


My family, from the left Luis, Abuelita, Denisse, Julie, Yvonne

Death Road

La Cumbre to Coroico, a 64km, 3000m downhill cycle along 'The Worlds Most Dangerous Road'. Sounds good huh? Well it was.
I signed up to go with Pro Downhill Cycling who looked like they had pretty good gear. The road starts a few hours from La Paz in a stuning backdrop of snow covered mountains. I was doing the trip in the rainy season but we were very lucky with the weather as it was a mixture of sunshine and cloud all day. Padded up, suited and booted, we were ready to go. I had not ridden a bike for three years but it didn´t seem too bad getting back on. The first 15km or so is a nice steady downhill ride on tarmac. Then comes the real road...


The road up

Gravel tracked with sharp turns leading to 100m plus shear drops and sometimes only 3m wide this is the WMDR. It is so named as between 200-300 people died each year on it before they closed it to traffic and opened a safer route through the mountains. It is a ridiculous road, at some points when the traffic met the vehicle going down (this includes huge lorries) would need to revers up the road to a point where the vehicle below could get by. There are two or three turns which are the dealy ones and there is no such thing as barriers here.


The WMDR

On the gravel track the full suspension on the bikes did their magic. Free of traffic you are able to go as fast as you dare. One of the reasons to do this adrenaline filled ride is the scenery, and it really takes your breath away. The road traverses the side of a moutain which looks out over more moutains covered in lush green cloud forrest. On parts of the road water cascades down the side of the cliff above and across the road. You cannot help but be in awe as you fly down its winding trail.


Cruising down


Sweet pic

Although 99% of the road is downhill it was still tiring and we were happy when we reached our end destination, a lodge with pool situated in one of the coca regions of Bolivia. Overalls were thrown off as we dived into the pool and enjoyed a couple of hours of relaxation in the sun before returning to La Paz. It was a very fun day.


All over

Amazon!

Pampas...............

Pampas - the rivers and flooded grasslands

The one thing I knew I wanted to do from La Paz was travel to a town called Rurrenebaque and visit the jungle. I met couple of guys (Paul & Mark) in the hostel who were planning on doing the same thing and I decided to join them on the trip. We decided on 3 days in the pampas (a tour of the areas along and around the river) and 2 in the yungas (jungle). The trip to Rurrenabaque involves either a 40 minute flight by plane or a hellish 20 hour bus ride along dirt roads, we decided on the plane. Rurrenabaque is a small town next to a Rio Beni that is a tributory to the Amazon. This was our base of operations and from where we would head into Madidi National Park. We were heading in to the Amazon during the wet season which meant the rivers were increasing in height and very fast flowing. Apparently the height of the rivers can climb by 7m from dry to wet seasons.

After an overnight stay in Rurrenabaque we were ready to head in to the pampas. There were meant to be two other people joining us on the trip but due to the fact the bus had not arrived on time it was just going to be the three of us with a guide! We were picked up by a 4x4 which took us on a 3 hour trip along a straight road which cut through the jungle and led to another river. We met our guide and boarded a long, thin motor boat to begin the journey to our lodgings. The boat trip was really amazing. The river had swelled and we were travelling next to submerged bushes and trees. The river is also the place to see wildlife and we saw plenty of it. Turtles, caman, aligators, taipers, monkey´s and lots of types of birds were all along the way. The weather was great and we could just sit back in the boat and take everything in. Camen are the biggest predators in the waters and can kill an Aligator. Seven years ago one stupid tourist took a swim in the river at night and got eaten by one.
The less pleasant thing about the pampas is the amount of mosquitos that swamp you as soon as you stop moving. They don´t like bright coloured clothing so I was fine with yellow and white long sleeved shirts but they have a thing about dark colours so my trousers were very attractive. They didn´t appear to be able to get through the material but I found out I wasn´t so lucky when I spent some time in a netted hammock.


Monkeys on board!


Camen

We were welcomed to the lodge with the site of a Camen hanging around in the water outside of it. It appeared to stay there every day in wait for the scraps of food which are thrown out after a meal. Our lodge consisted of several huts on struts with a newtwork of walkways connecting them. Lucky this meant there was no way of waking up to find a Caman in your bed. Another one hung around the marshy area at the back of the camp. Our guide went up to it and threw it a piece of meat which it promptly wolfed down. He then went up to it and touched it on the head! We were all able to do this as well but I decided to keep a little more distance!


Paul and the resident Camen

In the evening of the first day we ventured out in boat to hunt for Aligator and Caymen eyes. We motored along the river searching for the shining red eyes in the night. We had a perfectly clear night and the stars were out. Our guide turned the motor off and we drifted along the river staring up in to the night sky with the sounds of the pampas surrounding us, it was pretty magical.


Night eyes

On the second day we were taken to hunt for Anacondas in the marshy area further along the river. No one had seen one for a long time and they had probably left with the advancing of the river. Normally you are also able to fish for piranhas but they only live in shallow waters and these no longer existed where we were. After a fruitless but interesting search we returning to the boats when in the path in front of me I saw a long grey snake. As I shouted 'hey guys I found something' the snake turned around and struck out at me, fangs out! I danced backwards, arms in the air, shouting expletives as it lunged four times. The thing then disappeared in to the undergrowth and the guides started poking around for it. We heard it rattling and it was then we realised that it was a Rattlesnake!

After lunch we went back out on the river to go swimming with dolphins. We stopped the boat near an inlet in the river and we saw the tops of a couple of dolphins heads in the water ahead. Apparently it is safe to get in the water when dolphins are around as it means there are no aligators or caman. I jumped in the brown water in pursuit of the dolphins but sadly they kept there distance and were always a little ahead. We got back in to the boat and waited around. The dolphins came closer and we were treated to the site of a young pink dolphin relaxing in the water.


The river & dolphin head

In the evening we took the boat to a place further upstream where there was a small shop and a football pitch. We stayed there and had some beers as we watched the sun set across the beautiful pampas.


A pampas sunset

On the third day we didn´t do a lot as it was raining in the morning. Later on we were excitedly called by the guides to the dining hut. They pointed in to a tree and when we looked up we could see a Toucan between the branches. This is apparently pretty rare so it was a great end to the trip. After a boat trip and 4x4 drive we were back in Rurrenebaque and ready for the next adventure....


Jungle..................

Jungle - the dense and impeneterable tropical rainforest

From Rurrenebaque we took a boat upstream up the large and fast flowing Rio Beni. After fighting the current for 3 or 4 hours we made it to our lodgings in a clearing surrounded by jungle. After some lunch we ventured out for out first trip in to the jungle. Luckily there are not as many moskitos in the jungle as there are in the pampas but it is very humid and sweaty. You do not really see any animals or birds but you can hear them all around, and, when you look up you can only see a canopy of trees. We did see some crazy sized ants though! Our guide was really knowledgable and he showed us all the different types to trees and the special qualities and uses for each of them. He was the real deal, he grew up in the jungle, is able to drink the water from the river and armed with a bandana and machete he could easily live there. Sometimes he would stop and listen and he picked out the sound of wild pigs. We were on the hunt for them and could hear there noises close by. When we got close they made a huge racket and charged off in to the undergrowth.


Jungle boat

In the evening we had the chance to go on a night trek in to the jungle, this was really cool! Armed with head lamps we headed out in to the pitch black in search of insects. Through the undergrowth we could make out the occasional small flash of an eye in the light of a lamp. We found frogs, giant crickets, spiders including a tarantula, a mouse and lots of other wierd things!


Coca cheeks! Left Matt & left of me our guide


Tarantula

On the second day we went for a much longer trek in to the rainforest. We macheted are way down long abandoned paths, over fallen trees and giant leaves. We picked up the noise of the pigs once more and were on the hunt. Although we couldn´t see them all there must have been hundreds of them, and when we suprised they tore there way through the vegetation. Our journey took us over streams which we needed to cross using fallen down tree trunks. We came across one stream that didn´t have any so we just macheted a tree down! It was a lot of fun.


Me, Matt & Paul next to a GIANT tree

It was an incredible experience but after five days of sweat, humidity, tiredness, moskitos and wearing the same clothes we were more than ready to head back to civilisation.