SALAR DE UYUNI

I have just been on a three day 4X4 tour of the salt flats and desert in southern Bolivia. It was so very beautiful and impressive I want to share lots of photos so will do a separate blog entry for each day. It has probably been the most physically impressive part of this trip for me. Better than Machu Picchu, Patagonia and Iguazu Falls.
I arrived in the small desert town of Uyuni at 06:15 on a bitter, bitter cold morning following an overnight bus from La Paz. Upon arrival I enjoyed some bone-thawing sweet coffee and fried dough with balaclava-wearing, but very funny locals from the only kiosk open at such an ungodly hour. Then I went searching for the cheapest tour I could find leaving that morning. The blistering cold and overnight bus fatigue made the search a quick one and I quickly signed up with an agency and paid just over seventy dollars for the all inclusive three day trip before utilizing their sofa to rest up before the bumpy journey ahead.Luckily I struck lucky with the tour. I’ve heard many bad reports about bad drivers, guides, food, etc, but I was transferred to another group tour as there weren’t enough people with the agency I booked (normal practice), which was more expensive (but I didn’t have to pay any more).Our driver; Gregario and cook; Dora, were a lovely married couple and took really great care of us. My group of six gringos was made up of a cool German couple and three half mad girls from the States an New Zealand and of course myself. And also being half mad, or at least one third, myself, we all got along just great and the craic was ninety right from the start. Our first day was spent driving around the salt flats. A truly unreal sight to take it, more like a hallucination or mirage than anything (as you can see from the photos). We stopped briefly at a very small processing plant to learn about how they process and sell the salt. It isn’t a particularly difficult process, but with salt being so cheap and transport costs too high to export anywhere, there’s isn’t a lot of money in it for the locals.
Enroute we stopped and Dora took to the salt ground with a chisel and made a hole that looked just like something you would do ice-fishing in through. Here we could see that the salt layer was just twenty or thirty centimeters thick and then gave way to salty water which is also filled with minerals and produces amazing natural crystals.After taking some photos we stopped for lunch on Incahuasi. Which looked like an island in the sea of salt, but is actually the top of an old volcano. Here cacti grow like movie set in an old western and we enjoyed a hearty lunch of alapca meat, spuds (that means potatoes for you non-Irish) and salad.Then we cruised over the snowy/slushy-looking salt for another couple of hours or two, Gregario showing his seventeen years driving experience, and making our Land Cruiser seem as comfortable as a BMW.On our first evening we stayed at a salt hotel. There is one big famous hotel built on the actual salt lake which is illegal, environmentally damaging, but very popular nonetheless. Thankfully we didn’t stay here, but in a small, bungalo-style hotel in a small village (more like a hamlet) just off the salt lakes. The entire structure was made of ice blocks. From the walls, to tables and chairs, bedframes and the floor was of big chunky salt grains. Don’t get me wrong, this was not a beautiful, finely sculpted building like the ice hotels of Scandanavia, but rather a coarsely put together habitation using the cheapest local material available. But a great, candle-lit (for light, not romance) evening in a special place.

THE LIVING REED

I just read The Living Reed by Pearl S. Buck. It´s an amazing book about four generations of a Korean family and their lives during the Japanese invasion. I had never heard of the book or author before, but I guess it was famous back in the day and she won a noble prize for writing. It really has me intrigues about Korea. Maybe I will go there next.

HOW COLD IS IT IN BOLIVIA?

On the overnight bus last night I wore my wooly socks, long johns and track pants under my jeans, a thermal T-shirt and two thermal tops under my hoodie, a neck warmer, gloves and a hat with my hood. Then I got into my sleeping bag and zipped it all the way up. And I was STILL cold! I am never traveling again without whisky.

RANSOM KEYBOARD

I've seen a lot of these in Bolivia.

THE JUNGLE

Following my three day pampas tour I took a days rest in the town of Rurrenabaque then headed into the jungle for two days on another tour. This time it was in Madidi National Park and was only myself and a Bolivian family of four.
The whole experience was much more intense and 'real' than the touristy pampas tour. Following a three hour boat trip into the Amazon Rain forest we hiked twenty minutes to our basic camp. A few huts for sleeping, an eating hut, bare-chested machete-wielding guides and the jungle noises were the only things to greet us upon arrival.In the two days we did three hikes, all of which were very interesting and also exhausting because of the heat and humidity. One hike was during the night and as the Bolivians forgot their flashlights it was only me and our guide of seventeen years, so that was cool.
On our first hike we seen parrots, toucans, black eagles, termite mounds and trees over three hundred years old. Our guide showed us plants that smell and taste of garlic and can be used as insect repellent. He fed us living termites that tasted like mint and led us quietly though the jungle to watch wild pigs drinking at the river. Using a branch he lured a tarantula as big as my hand out of its hold and had it play with the wiggling stick as a kitten would with a ball of string.In the night, the two of us walked in silence for an hour through the scrub, me secretly praying not to see any wildcats, and found wild chickens sleeping, marsupials climbing and bats flying. Then some baby tarantulas and other bizarre-looking spiders.
And on our final day the whole group went for a long morning walk before the heat picked up and our guide taught us about the poison and the medicinal plants of the forest. He showed us gum trees used to make car tyres, trees that cure malaria, rheumatism and tuberculosis. He pointed out scrubs no higher than my waist and told us they were fifteen years old, but competition is so fierce for sunlight in the rain forest they just have to bide their time, wait for a bigger tree to fall or a space to occur and then race to the top of the canopy.We were also shown leaves which you can rub on insect bites for relief (essential) and others that provide natural anesthetics and antibiotics. He told us of friends who had deep machete wounds, but never had to travel to a doctor because all the medicine they needed was right there in the jungle. And he also told us his father had written a six hundred page book of all the useful properties of the plants and insects of the jungle with photos and information on how to find and prepare each medicine. The book just sits in their home for their own use.

Photos (from top): Cabaña, my home for the two days; Crazy spiders; Our guide stands next to a three hundred year old tree; A butterfly bigger than my hand; Heading up the river and into the jungle.

ALLIGATOR FOOD

On the pampas tour we saw literally hundreds of alligators and black caimens. Our guide told us we could swim in the water no problem because only those bigger than four metres would consider attacking humans and they´ve only seen five that size in the last year "so don´t worry". Usually I would be scared to swim in a river like this, but felt reassured by our guides confidence (although the others didn´t) and regularly got in for long refreshing dips.He also reassured me before diving in that the piranhas will only attack me if I'm bleeding, which I wasn´t, so there was really "no need to worry".But I must admit it was quite frightening when you could see alligators on the banks when you swam. And even more scary to turn around again and see they were gone.

PAMPAS TOUR - NORTHERN BOLIVIA

Last week I boarded a tiny plane and flew north to the Bolivian rainforest to see the Amazon Basin for the first time. It was a truly unique experience in so many ways. Right from the minute I boarded the tiny plane in which I had to crouch to walk to my seat. Then we just about scraped over the huge snow-capped jagged mountains on our way north before finally landing on a tiny grassy strip in the jungle.I spent one night in the frontier town of Rurrenabaque (population 13,000) and arranged my tour for the next day. The following morning I set off in a Toyota Land Cruiser (the undisputed king of 4X4s all over the world) with six other travelers from Europe. After three hours of bumpy, dusty road we stopped for lunch. Then we boarded a thin, but long wood boat for a three-hour trip up the river and into the pampas. This is when the fun really began. Amazingly we seen pink dolphins (also called Amazon River Dolphin or Boto) right away, followed by literally dozens and dozens of alligators, black caimans, turtles, little crazy yellow monkeys, wild birds of all descriptions and jumping piranhas. Immediately we were immersed in some serious nature and wildlife as we just took it all in from the luxury of our comfortable boat seats.Arriving at our camp of huts and hammocks beautifully set along the river we rushed to relax in the hammocks. Following beers at sunset we had a scrumptious dinner followed by some wine. And when it darkened us seven and our guide boarded our faithful longboat and cruised silently down the river under a huge moon and sky full of stars. We seen bats and the ominous reflection of alligator eyes from our flashlights, but mostly it was very tranquilo and a wonderful sensation to be silently floating down a river under moonlight in the Amazon Basin.The next morning we were up early to search for pythons and anacondas in the marsh. Thankfully our group didn’t find one, more so since we heard both guides the previous day that had found snakes got bit. Serves them right for picking them up if you ask me. Our guide was also bit by a small alligator when he caught it to show us. Personally I think he deserved it, since we as a group at the beginning had asked him not to bother any of the animals at all. But I guess there are always some tourists who need that special photo for the folks back home.After the reptile hunt we headed back to river to cool off and possibly swim with the pink dolphins (if they were interested in us). I swam for over an hour in the alligator and piranha infest water and a couple of dolphins did come close, but I didn’t feel like they were overly interested in us and my fantasies of standing on the back of one and using it as a surfboard didn’t come true.
In the evening it was more great food and boozing as we chilled in the hammocks talking like seasoned crocodile dundees.Our third and final day demanded a five-thirty a.m. rise to listen to the animals at dawn and see sunrise. It wasn’t mentioned on the itinerary but we also fed the mosquitoes while waiting for sun up. Then to finish the tour we all went piranha fishing. I was unlucky and caught none, but our group caught four, which were later fried up with lunch. And I had the pleasure of watching the two Swedish vegetarians in our group, with relish; beat to death any poor piranhas which I happened to bite on the meat we were offering them.Then we cruised out of the pampas by boat and caught our faithful 4X4 back to Rurrenabaque. And all this for a mere seventy dollars American.

BOLIVIA

I've only been in Bolivia for about a week now, but already it has become my favourite country in South America. Later this afternoon I will fly north to the jungle where I will explore both the jungle and pampas for a few days. And following that I will take a three day tour of the famous Salar de Uyuni salt lakes in the south. I am very excited about it all and will hopefully get some good photos for the blog.

DEATH ROAD

Today I cycled Death Road. El Camino de la Muerte has been labeled the most dangerous road in the world for over thirteen years now. With an estimated 200-300 deaths each year, it of course, has become a tourist attraction.Prior to coming to La Paz I had decided not to go anywhere near this place. I had heard horror stories of other backpackers with busted faces, broken bones and other unsavoury injuries, not to mention the three tourists reportedly killed in the last three weeks as they attempted this route on mountain bikes. Add to this the fact that I'm obviously not too sensible when in comes to biking (see previous entry: Still Stupid) and I think there is sufficient cause to chicken out of this one death trap.But as fate would have it, I couldn't get a flight to the jungle until this Friday which left me with one free day and no plans. So I found the cheapest travel agency I could, checked out the bikes and booked my potentially last ever activity.It turned out to be a really amazing day. There were only four of us in my group, three Israelis and myself. The Israelis were all pretty hardcore, two were semi-pro bikers and one a bike guide back in Israel, so we wasted no time bombing down the sixty-nine kilometer stretch of cliff-clinging dirt road. Most of the road lacks guardrails, is only one lane wide and has vertical drops of up to 2000 feet. Add to this the mud, fog and potential of landslides from above and we had an exhilarating day. Breakfast, snacks, lunch and relaxing poolside siesta afterwards were all included for for the shocking price of thirty-four dollars. Our young guide Johnny was also really cool, but I often felt he was more concerned about popping jumps for the camera and doing wheelies though the puddles than about keeping us alive.And since this was such a dangerous outing, for once in my life I took it seriously and prepared properly. I did NOT go out drinking until five in the morning (because it was NOT my friend Tim's last night in South America. I did NOT guzzle the strongest local beer I could find until I couldn't see straight. I did NOT sleep in and have to be woken forty minutes late by some girl from the travel agency who had magically found my room and bed. And of course I did NOT do the first part of the road steaming drunk and the last part terribly hungover. Because of course I am too sensible to behave in such a way.

EARLY ALZHEIMER'S

In the first four days of my trip I have lost my computer power cable, my toilet bag with all toiletries and my camera. It's not a good start and I fear I'll be losing even more things as the weeks pass. But despite all this, it feels great to be on the road again and I have a good feeling about Bolivia.

ISLA DEL SOL, COPACABANA

I'm now in Bolivia.

ASUNGATE (HIKING AND CAMPING IN THE ANDES)

MY FAVOURITE CLASS

In my time at the Excel Language Center I taught seven different classes. They were all a lot of fun and enjoyable to teach for the most part. But my favourite class was Accelerado II, which I taught last month. Every evening it felt more like I was going to hang out with friends than teach a class. And despite the class being beginner level, all of the eight students had quite a high level of spoken English allowing us to talk about some very interesting topics and even tell jokes.Our last class together was on Wednesday and they took me out for dinner afterwards. We had a delicious meal and wine in a typical Peruvian chicken restaurant. I felt really luck and flattered that they all came since each of them are working as well as studying and some of them even have families to take care of. And to make the night even more remarkable; before we ate each of the students gave a short speech in English telling me I was a good teacher and a special boy and really sweet things like that. Then we went to a nice bar for some beer and live blues. It was really great and I feel very lucky to have taught and known such nice people.