Still loving Bolivia!

Salar de Uyuni tour.  Stunning.  I don´t think it was possible to take a bad picture.  It is the worlds largest salt flat at 12106 sp km.  We slept at 4200 meters, you know, the same kind of altitude you wake up out of breath...same ole same ole.  This place puts out 20k tons of salt, and has both museums and hotels completly made out of salt. The water was slightly warm, only 5 inches at its deepest and left a layer of sparkle on your skin afterwards :)

 Potosi.
This was one of the riches and largest cities of the world around 1670; bigger than Paris or London.  Silver mines have been used since 1544 and rumor has it that the amount of silver that has been extracted is enough to build a silver bridge to Spain.  This wealth lead to over 8 million deaths between 1545 to 1825 under Spanish colonial rule with 12 hour shifts and no saftey concerns.
We had about 1.5 hours down there with lots of gasses, small spaces and sparkling dirt everywhere. It was a weird tour.  Glad I did it but don´t know if I liked it or not. Ever seen the documentary The Devil´s Miner? 

I am totally dominating this rock!!!  More of the Salar tour.  It was 3 days and we also went to see some GIANT geysers that smelled like egg (sulfer?) and then ended the trip in a hot-springs pool.  It was super hot and felt amazing with snow-capped mountains in the background.  Wasn´t bubbling but there were pads that did have water coming out, like a low energy hot-tub :)  Very nice.

Carnival is a next in Oruro.

Toro Toro, you are the gem of my world!

So many stories.  The bus ride to Toro Toro was horrendous.  I wasn´t sure if any of it was worth it when:  I didn´t have enough room to cross my arms but I did have an old woman sitting on my lap, pig pen and his family crammed to my left, a oddly sticky woman and her kid sitting in the aisle next to me, chickens above me, clamped shut window, a 6 hour layover and someone who smelled like pee and sausage.  And then I got to Toro Toro.  AMAZING!!!!! There is a dinosaur statue (think Universal Studio type) that is their main plaza.  I couldn´t stop smiling. I saw:

It is so calming to see light after shuffling around in the dark for an hour!  My guide is the light on the bottom.  Umajalanta Cave

I´ve found the Great Valley!  How cool are dino footprints????  I love it! There were so many :)

I am shimming on my belly through this crack for about 20 feet.  Anyone seen the movie Decent? That´s all I could think.

This waterfall litterally took my breath away.  It was perfect.  So refreshing.  So rewarding!

Now, of course it can´t all be peaches and cream...  The first day I went for a hike seeing 7 different sites and ended up walking/hiking for 8 hours.  It was my dream and I loved it! Walking in a beautiful landscape my guide led me to a totally unexpected canyon.  It was like a mini grand canyon.  Stunning. We hiked down (where the waterfalls were) and then on the way back we decided to take an alternate route rather than the 930 steps back up. Sweet.  I like adventure, right?  The guide asked if I was scared of heights and if I minded getting a little wet because we would be walking along the river. 

For those of you who remember me talking about how hard the 3 Sisters Waterfalls hike was, that was childsplay! First I thought wow, I am impressed that he thinks I am capable of hiking like this, and second, I am impressed I can do it! This was full body hiking. All apendages needed. Scaling walls, jumping, and lots of balance.

Then came that jump.

My guide is flying across everything in his path and even this jump looked hard.  But, obviously, he made it.  Standing from a small part of one boulder, I needed to jump off another smooth and steep boulder to make it to the third more flat boulder where I could stand.  The second one had nothing to hold on to and was at such an incline it was impossible not to jump.  Quicksand type mud was below, not an option.  So, knowing I had little traction in my shoes, I decided to go for it.  Can´t wait too long or I would have never done it.  Live only once, right? :)  Can anyone guess what happened?  :)   My arms were spread out; one holding on to the side of the rock I was jumping from and the other ready to grasp at the last rock. I lept thinking the hardest part was just to jump, and this is such a bad ass hike!  Well, my shoe didn´t put up much of a fight and I slid right off that boulder. The first thing to hit was my face against the boulder.

Well, didn´t really see that coming. First thing is first, holy crap, is my jaw broken? No.  Do I have all my teeth? Yes. Ouch.  I am sinking further and further into the mud. My poor guide is hysterical.  He helps me up and is worring about the bloody welt developing on my knee and keeps asking if I am ok. ¨Me cara, es me cara.¨  He looks up and gasps.  Then pushes on my cheek.  Liquid leaks out (not blood) and it continues to for the next 20 min.  Glad he did that cause it helped with swelling. I convinced him that it was ok to continue and with a few tears dried, on we went! The rest was amazing.  The next day was a cave where all I could think of is ´they really let tourist do this?´ Slidding in the dark, holes, boulders, ropes, ladders, tiny cracks to climb through (with difficulty!).  It was AWESOME! The bus ride back was SO much better and because of the rain we had 4 road blocks.  A few was from landslides and we needed to break the rock apart to clear the road,  Others were washed out road so we needed to put rocks in the water so  the bus could pass.  I helped :)  Got muddy, in my only clean pants!  Now off to Santa Cruz! Hope you all are doing well and haven´t been punched in the face with rock! :)  Ahh, good times :)  It is funny, really, just think about it.

Do you see a path here? Neither do I. Scale the sides!  None of the rocks in the middle are close enough to jump.  Welcome to the hike

 My view from Corico hostel.  I didn´t want to leave!

 La Paz.  Goodbye beautiful city!!!

 In la pampas tour.  Had boots that reached just below my knee and water than reached to where my shorts are folded up. Looking for anacondas :)  Didn´t see any but did eat some very minty termites.  By the way, for those who doubted dolphin evilness, doubt no more.  There were pink (very pink) river dolphins we swam with and they bite.  A girl got some pretty good scratches on her toe and was bleeding.  Good thing there aren´t too many piranha!

The rest of these pictures won´t show up for me.  Hopefully they will when sent!!

Good god....this is what it feels like to cook from the inside out!

Well, things have been interesting!  Corico was beautiful.  Great, wonderful, green, amazing views right from my little dark room.  As soon as I walked outside my room I was starring into a canoyn with birds and butterflies galore!  I took some hikes (well to the store was one) and kept a low profile.  Really enjoyed the town.  I decided to come over to Rurrenabaque for a papmas (jungle type) tour.  Haven´t booked it yet but I may just be suckered into doing one from my hostel out of pure lazyness. The ride here was, well, something.  Aside from the screaming babies or the 6 kids with what seemed to be 47 hands grasping at everything right behind me, it was an awe inspiring trip.  Bus was about 3 hours late so I got a good layer of sweat from waiting then added grime from the dust cloud surrounding our bus for the first hour!  BUT after everything settled down it was breathtaking.  Crazy 100ft drops inches from our tires ending at a beautiful sometimes blue, sometimes green river.  Mountains climbing another 100 feet up on the other side of the bank filled with every color or green in vines and trees.  Giant or colorful birds (not both :) A storm was raging and although there was some rain I think we avoided most of it.  What was mesmorizing about it was the lightning.  It continued all night. Complete darkness until a bolt spread like fingers across the sky.  Only then you could see the difference between the mountain tops, sky, and cloud formations.  It was hard not to try and sleep with one eye open.  We got stoped at a few police check points, at which point I was fondled by one of the cops posing to look for marijuana.  Good times.  Actually no, f u buddy, f u.  I know one day a condor will poo in your eye, maybe both, while walking near a cliff. And that makes me happy.
So, now I am here, in ´Rurre¨and sweating like a pig.  Unconditionally!  The hostal I am staying at is right along the river, has hammocks both in the room and underneath the hanging :)  I can see myself with a book, beer, hammock, dog and maybe one of these chickens running around very soon.  Well, before I turn into a puddle of sweat!  The people who run it are very sweet and enderring.  Not sure how long I can afford to stay here, I have about 3 months worth of things I want to do in Bolivia and it is alread the 18th!  Very glad Bolivia is such a small country :)
Hope you are all doing well and miss you!!!!
No pics this time, sorry, forgot the connection.  Close your eyes and imagine beauty. There! You´re here!

Huayna Potosi, you are the devil

 Llama anyone??  Really gets your appetite going.  Right? Who´s with me?

 Huayna Potosi from base camp.  Glacier looks beautiful....from a distance.

 This is the best pic I got from my guide.  The last fall I could muster and told him I was done, time to go back down!

 There is a trail in there somewhere!

I´m in the back with the full face helmet!  Yay for Luigi (the guide) playing favorites!!

Yes, the devil.  Biking was amazing.  I  rode hard, was first for the majority, even got a flat that I am taking as a badge of awesomeness!   Needless to say, I was feeling good and confident from the ride. Then the mountain came.  The taxi ride was beautiful.  I was full of excitement and awe of the mountain in front of me.  There was quite a bit more snow than I thought but that just made it ever more beautiful!  It turned out just to be the guide and myself climbing up to base camp so on we went.  No porter so carried all the equipment needed for the few days.  Climbing up, I started to get a little nervous.  I was not doing so hot.  I never asked for altitude but we were somewhere around the 5000 meter mark.  It took me a very long time to reach base camp.  My guide, Mario, was already at the top once I made it and I took my bag off and layed on a rock.  I wouldn´t have minded being there till next week.  My stomach hurt, tired more than I can explain, and a little more worried than before.  At the camp there was a great group of people (7) that had already made it to the top and in their sleeping bags resting.  I followed and collapsed upstairs.  We all made jokes about how much harder it was than we thought to climb the initial bit. We were a little worried about the next day but laughed through it. 

Dinner was at 5pm, then bed.  We were to start climbing at 11:30pm that night.  We had until 7am to make it to the top or we would need to turn back due to the ice melting.  I ended up being paired with the fastest of the group.  Why that happened I have no idea.  He was very nice about my worries that I was so slow and said as long as we make it to the top.  Didn´t make me feel better.  That night was the craziest storm I have ever heard.  First snow, lots of it.  Then wind, lots and lots of scary wind.  Then the two together.  I was developing a nasty headache. I however, did get some sleep while many got none.  Morning comes and we suit up.  I was feeling worse than earlier in the day but I wanted to try, at least.  Coming outside the moonlight was incredible. Star constellations I have no idea what they were J In the distance there was a spectacular lighting show being put on.  Huge bolts in the sky making the horizon glow most of the time.  Amazing.  We got everything on and started.

I didn´t make it long J  And, snow is not so pretty when you need to blaze your own trail and if you take a wrong step you will sink to your waist.  Not pretty at all. Walk 5 steps, stop, breath.....breath more.  Try again, fall. Get stuck in the snow. Swear. I went as far as I could before deciding that I was not having fun.  The guy I was grouped (tied to for safety) with and I both convinced the guide to either let him or I go solo so he could actually make it to the top.  I wanted to continue but knew I was not going to make it all the way and didn´t want to ruin his trip cause of my inability.  Thankfully, he let the other guy off the rope.  I continued for a bit more and called it at around 5400 meters (out of 6088).  Later, on the way down I fell off the side of our homemade snow path and slid for a bit.  The guide caught me on the rope and I learned how to use my ice pick quickly, hacking at the snow! I was eternally greatful that the guide decided to stay with me rather than the other guy! I was tired, felt sick, and hated the snow at that point. Made it down in one piece.  After getting sick outside I went back to my bed and passed out.  Later I heard another come in.  And another. And another.  At least they had made it further than me but not quite all the way.  I am bummed that I didn´t make it but don´t think I regret turning around when I did.  The slower I went the colder it got.  It was amazingly beautiful though.  Don´t have too many pics, mainly cause I was concentrating on living :) I heard that it was a great view from the top, something the others were very proud of and something none of them ever wanted to do again :)  Not sure how much more hiking in the boonies I want to do, make day-trips.  Well, until I forget how miserable I was and want to actually get to the top!  Good times :)  Just another story :)

Bolivia

Cracking thunder is a daily sound.  Dried, shrunken, baby alpaca is a normal item for sale. La Paz is highter than Huraz but I can breathe here. I bought some coca leaves from the ¨Witches Market¨and it made my mouth numb. They are still used in Coca Cola. Straight from Bolivia. The market reminded me of the depths of Thailand. Fresh fruit, flowers, herbs, and potatoes every color you can think of.  Covered by umbrellas and watchful eyes on all foreigners (far and few between).  The would be great pictures if it wern´t frowned upon. Even when asked, most said no. 
Juice stands with strawberries, papaya, banana, oranges, and carrots and a blender ready for an order for 4 Bolivianos, less than 50 cents. Tonight I am going to go see Cholitias fighting.  Think of Luche Libre with the traditional Andean women fighing in a ring WWF style.  Tomorrow is a bike ride down ¨the world´s most dangerious road.¨  No worries, I don´t go that crazy when ridding a bicycle :) After that is Huayna Potosi  trek.  Including ice picks, clamp-ons, altitude pills, sachel of coca leaves and 6088meters to conquer!


My camera won´t connect so I´m stealing this picture to all stun and capture you all with Huayna Potosi!

¡Bolivia Bound!

1st pic/video...Bugs.  They are fun and fighting to the death.  Poor spider...

2nd is of Lake Titicaca..pretty.  Didn{t make it to many tourist events. Don{t mind that at all :)

3rd is hairless, ugly, ugly dogs.  They have a higher body temp so they are sometimes used for body warmth or medicinally (well, like helping with arthritice)

Tomorrow is Bolivia!!!!  Can{t explain how excited I am!!