Pura Vida, Mañana Mañana and other useful phrases...

Homecoming

So this is it.

Glen and I are leaving South America tomorrow and finishing our amazing eight month odyssey.

Wow. What a journey it has been. For us, the first four months in Costa Rica have been about discovering ourselves and our capabilities, and learning about living and interacting in a group. Also, it has been a challenging experience as we learned how to speak a new language for the first time, and use it every day with local people.

The last four months in South America have been all about adventure and experiences. Whereas the first four was about exploring ourselves, the last four was about exploring what exciting wonders and amazing sights the world had to offer. Each experience that we have had, we all thought `This is fantastic, I love this, I will cherish and remember this forever!` until the next experience comes up and the memory of the last fades away in the childlike wonderment and awe of being in the moment of the present.

It does make me a little sad to think that we are now going to return to our normal lives and the memories of this trip will begin to fade. After all, it is our memories that will keep our adventures alive in our minds and remind us to continue living our lives day to day with the same enthusiasm as we have had reserved for travel. I only hope that when we get back to our lives, we will apply the lessons we have learnt in our daily lives so that I can feel that our travels have indeed enriched and changed our lives. It would be such a waste if we fall back into the same patterns of domesticity as we did before we left - I would hate that the only souvenirs we have from the past 8 months would be thousands of photos and a whopping huge credit card bill.

Just a brief update from what we have done since Puno (which was two weeks ago - sorry for being so slack!).

We went from Puno to Cusco - the Incan capital of Peru. Glen and I fell in love with the city straight away. It was cobblestones, and Incan architecture, and green plazas, and street vendors, and fancy bars and restaurants, and old churches and monasteries, and 500 year old walls, and history on every street corner all thrown into this fascinating melting pot of a city. I regret not taking too many photos of this city - I think I needed a bit of a break from shutterbugging and just wanted to enjoy the city. Most of the time, Glen and I would have a big breakfast at a nearby cafe, and spend the whole day walking around the streets exploring and soaking up the atmosphere.

We spent a free day in Cusco before leaving to begin the Inca Trail. This was yet another amazing experience for us. The Inca Trail is a four day trek through the lowlands of the Andes to Macchu Picchu, a preserved ruin of a city built five hundred years ago, but was never lived in. Because of the city`s inaccessability, the Spanish were never able to find and pillage it for Spain, thus leaving it virtually untouched until being discovered within the last century. The Inca Trail was breathtaking. It was definitely the best trek I have ever been on. We walked on average 4-5 hours a day. Day one was fairly easy, walking through small towns and valleys, passing few Incan ruins along the way. I found the trek very doable and suitable for anyone with a moderate fitness level. We had walking sticks, and were thoroughly spoilt by having thirty porters accompany our group on this trip. The porters were carrying our bags, tents and cooking equipment and did everything from setting our tent up for us before we got there, to providing us with three course meals at breakfast, lunch, dinner and even a snack or two in between.

The second day was my favourite day. It was actually also the hardest day as we panted our way through Dead Womans Pass, an ascent going up 4200m. The views were stunning. I was distracted so many times looking back at the valley falling beneath me. Sometimes the landscape would be obscured by the cloud and fog, and then as if by magic, would clear away like a giant curtain to reveal rivers running through the mountains like blue ribbons, and llamas in the fields.

The third day was long but manageable. Throughout the whole trip, we would stop and explore ruins on the way, and our guide Julio would stop and tell us stories about the places that we see.

All in all, it was a great and rewarding trek - with the prize of seeing Macchu Picchu at the end. This was certainly the ruin to end all ruins.

Anyway, since returning to Cusco, we spent two more free days exploring the city, and then travelled the rest of the way to Lima, stopping to camp for the night at a beach resort, and then the sand dunes of Huacachina for a wild desert party. My head still has not really stopped throbbing after the latter!

Today, Glen and I spent our last day in South America wandering around Lima, doing some last minute shopping and reminiscing about our last eight months. As sad as I am to leave, I am definitely happy and ready to come home.

I remember reading a book called Zen and Travel once. It was very much one of those wanky table top books but there was a quote in it that stood out for me.

¨Coming home is just the beginning to another adventure.¨

See you soon!

Love you all,

Sandra

More on Bolivia

First sightseeing stop in Bolivia was Potosi.

A little bit of background history, in the early 1700s a llama farmer sat down on a large hill for lunch. After putting out his campfire, he noticed a streak of silver in the ground. This hill became known as Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), and would go on to fund Spain's conquests over the next two centuries with its abundant lodes of silver and other precious minerals. The town Potosi boomed with this find, and within 25 years, its size rivaled London and Milan back in the 1700s. Sadly, once the silver ran out, growth of the town stopped and fortunately, the presence of tin was enough to keep the mines afloat for awhile. After the market was overflooded with tin exports, Potosi was unable to keep their boom going and have been stagnated ever since. Right now, the mines in Cerro Rico are still open for other ores but the conditions in these mines are absolutely shocking. There are now 15000 miners working there, most of them there for 15 hour days and work only using basic tools and dynamite. The average lifespan of a miner is 33 years, and most of them are expected to die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 years of them starting in the mines. There are also children as young as 12 years old who start work on the mines, following their family's footsteps. It is really sad, and we were able to take a tour of the mines to see the dark and dank environment that we live in. It was hard to breathe as we were at a high altitude, and there was dust everywhere. Before starting the tour, we went to the miners markets to buy presents for the workers. You can buy coca leaves, alcohol, crackers, and believe it or not, dynamite and fuses! The coca leaves are for the miners to chew on, which staves off hunger and fatigue while they are working. As there are no bathrooms in the mines or anything, the workers only eat once in the morning, and then when they get home late at night. Hence the need for the coca leaves! The alcohol is 96 per cent proof, and commonly drunk on a Friday night (Friday drinks are universal, yay!!) completely undiluted. The miners are very superstitious and believe that if they drink their alcohol pure, they will find their minerals pure. Of course, it doesn't help if they are completely pickled on a Friday night and prone to falling off the steep hill, but I am not about to question the tough coca-chewing, pure alcohol-swilling miners.

After Potosi, we headed to Uyuni which was a definite highlight for this tour. This town is close to Salar de Uyuni, ie the Salt Flats. This was an unbelievable landscape of white salt as far as the eye can see, framed with a clear blue sky. Because of vastness of the flats, you can take some fantastic pictures playing with perspectives to get some amazing results. One of my favourite photos we took was with a toy dinosaur that we borrowed from our hotel. By placing it close to the lens, and with us further away frozen in a run-in-horror pose, it looked like a scene just out of Jurassic Park.

Following our two nights in Uyuni, we drove back to Potosi to stay the night before going onwards to La Paz in the morning.

La Paz was very interesting. The city is built at the bottom of a valley, so the view as we were driving down was spectacular. I am noticing one annoying thing when it comes to our new digital camera. As amazing as the landscapes that we have seen, it is really difficult to translate the grandness and the scale of things onto the camera. Obviously it has much to do with the zooming limitations on our happy-snap digital, but it is frustrating when a landscape that can literally take your breath away turns out to look like a bunch of houses clumped together on the viewing screen.

The highlight in La Paz was definitely biking down Death Road. It is not called Death Road for no reason!! We started on the top of a mountain at 4700m, and ended up at 1100m. Luckily, the tour guides we went with was extremely professional with a big emphasis on safety. We were padded from head to toe, with elbow and shin guards, a riding jacket, bike helmet and sexy fluoro vest. We split into groups from fastest to slowest, with a guide for every 7 people available. Now, if I had time to turn my head away from the rider in front of me, while using every ounce of concentration I had to will myself to stay upright on the road, I am sure that the scenery would have been spectacular. On the one or two peeks that I had, it certainly was. We literally sailed through clouds on the first part down, with our hands frozen into claws by the thin chilly mountain air. The second part was by far the scariest and most thrilling. We rode down gravel paths no more than 3 metres wide at some parts, with a steep bloodcurdling drop below on the left. It was absolutely beautiful though. We rode through rivers and waterfalls, all the while passing through dense cloudforest. The path wound through the mountains, and you can see on the opposite mountains - thin threads of silver winding through dense pathways of rich green which was water running off the peaks to the rivers below. It was stunning, and I was so proud of myself and Glen for making it down in one piece!

Before I end this blog on Bolivia, I feel that I need to mention one more good thing about this country. Things are so CHEAP!! For example:

Medium size bottle of Coca Cola - $0.60

Two steak dinners and five cocktails at a nice restaurant - $25.00

Llama steak - $4.00

Bottle of wine - $8.00

Hand knitted beanie - $2.50

Alpaca wool scarf - $2.00

Strawberry daiquiri - $2.20

50km bus ride on a luxury coach - $1.00

1kg of laundry to wash and dry - $1.00

Dried llama foetus at the Witches Markets - $5 (bargain!)

Two long plaits of real human hair (yes, we did buy this!) - $4.50

I can go on and on but I think you guys get the jist!

Currently we are in Puno, which is near Lake Titicaca where we will be visiting for an overnight excursion tomorrow. I am getting really excited for our Inca Trail excursion which will be in less than a week!!

Take care all, and we will see you in less than three weeks!

Love

Sandra

Bolivia - Country of Strange Beauty

We are in Potosi in Bolivia at the moment. Short blog today but we will try to fill in the gaps later if we can.

Salta was a beautiful city, of around 1 million people. The buildings and architecture was colonial with plazas, parks, and preserved hotels in the city centre. Glen and I have frankly had enough of camping, so we checked out of the campground that was 12km out of the city, and booked into a hotel suite overlooking the central plaza for three nights. It was one of the best decisions we have made. It rained most of the time at the campsite, so everyone was soggy and miserable, while we were dry, happy, and in a wonderful location in town. Our hotel room was fantastic. It wasn`t a new brandspanking suite, in fact, it is likely that most of the furniture in the room was there when it opened, but it was certainly unique. The best part was that it had a balcony that opened up where you can stand and see a spectacular cathedral on your left and look down at the cobblestoned streets on your right. So Evita. In fact, Glen had to restrain me a few times from bursting out from the room on the balcony belting `Dont cry for me, Argentiiiiiiinaaaaaaaa!!`

Another thing definitely worth mentioning when it comes to Argentina. Steak and red wine. The best and the cheapest in the world. The first night we went out with the group, we ordered fillet steaks. I was sensible and got the medium size, while Glen went all out and had the grande. They were MASSIVE. I had two steaks both the same size and length as my hands, while Glen`s steak was almost 25cms long  and 15cms wide. It was bigger than his face. They were tender and oh so juicy, it was incredible. Mine cost US$10, while Glen`s was a whole whopping US$13. The bottle of red accompanying was about US$8. Needless to say, we continued our red meat diet well over the next three days!

After Salta we had a full day driving into Tupiza for a good nights sleep before heading into Potosi. Thank God our camping phase is over, and it will be hotels from here on. As we drove over the border from Argentina to Bolivia, it was absolutely astounding the difference between the two countries. As we drove further away from the border, it was as if the rain and the flat land suddenly disappeared to make way for a spectacular mountainous and dry landscape. Bolivia has been intriguing and strangely beautiful to me.

This is a country where approximately 90 per cent of its roads are unpaved, making for a bumpy and scarily eventful ride. We have wound up, down and around vast mountains, with steep cliff drops no less than 1 metre away. We have travelled through `tunnels` in mountains, which was literally holes carved into the granite faces. We have passed countless adobe mudbrick houses with dirt-caked children racing after our truck waving, corn fields, and herds of llamas grazing on the side of the road. I have not had much of a chance to read, as I keep leaning out of my window to take photos. It is hard to describe as I believe you really do need to come to this country to believe what I am seeing.

Another thing that has hit me hard here is the absolute poverty everywhere. It is heartwrenching. It is not like any other country I have seen. Yes, I have seen beggars in other countries before, but I have never seen such poverty and helplessness here. Children walk around with  old faces and outstretched palms, while old women plead for money to buy food. I feel so guilty walking around on the streets dressed warmly in my travelling clothes, with money in my pocket and food in my stomach, and these people have so little. I am being a bleeding heart, but I feel so helpless that I can cry.

Anyway, I have to stop here because we are late for dinner. Tomorrow we will be in La Paz which I am looking forward to. So far, we have gone to Potosi to visit the silver mines (Glen got to play with dynamite!!). That is a blog in itself. And yesterday we were in Uyuni for the salt flats which is another amazing experience.

Sorry about stopping here, I will try to write more later!

Take care,

Sandra