La Paz, Bolivia

Last week, my sister in law, Greta met us in La Paz. La Paz is a lovely city that sits in a "bowl" surrounded by mountains. Some of the city is built on steep hills, which makes you wonder what happens if a natural disaster happens. I love La Paz for its topography, the markets (which we spent 4 days at), and traditional culture.  We spent our first few nights at "Loki Hostel", which was nice, but after 3 days there, we wanted a more "mellow" hostel, and one with a kitchen. We enjoyed our stay at "Adventure Brew Hostel" (mainly because we had our own room, which was nice after staying in a 14 bed dorm at the previous hostel).

We spent a day at the ruins in Tiwanaku , which we weren't too impressed by. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the day out of the city, and riding in a microbus with locals. However, it has been a bit hard to to talk to the locals. I'm not sure if it is because it is a poorer country and the people have "pena" or perhaps they just don't like Americans. There is also a great possibilty they just don't understand my ghetto spanish. Despite the locals timid behavior towards us, Bolivia has been my favorite country so far.  And it is also cheap as chips! 

The witch market

the crossing guards dressed as zebras

practicing a way to earn my money in Bolivia
(at the instrument museum)

the view from Mirador Killi Killi

Don't look down.

One of my favorite South American experiences thus far has been biking down "the world's most dangerous road", which is from La Paz to Coroico. We went through the most expensive company, Gravity Assistance Mountain Biking, which vale la pena, because we didn't die. The road had many beautiful views, in which, I didn't get to enjoy too much. As hard as it was to do, the main focus for me was to pay attention to my biking, and not at the beautiful scenery or the iridescent  blue butterflies flying by. (There was a death due to a boy watching one fly past him as he was biking). 300-400 people die each year on this road. The last death was just last week (we saw the remains of the shattered car about 300 meters down.) They have just recently built a safer road to replace this road, but it is still used by many bikers and tourists who want to enjoy the experience on this beautiful, yet dangerous road.

We are currently at Lake Titikaka, which is on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is the largest lake in South America and the highest lake in the world.

Lake Titikaka

10 reasons to hire me

In this economy, businesses want to hire the most qualified, creative, intelligent, passionate candidate they can for a new position. We at the National Peace Corps Association think that people who have served in the Peace Corps – in a developing country with countless chances to develop cross-cultural skills and resourcefulness – make some of the best colleagues around. Here’s a short (slightly cheeky) list of why we think you should hire a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV).

1. We enjoy problem-solving. Need to put together a desk from IKEA, hang paintings, fix the copier, figure out that weird spreadsheet thing? There’s nothing a little duct tape won’t fix.
2. We can talk to anyone and are comfortable anywhere. Whether it’s the village chief, a market woman, a ministry official, or a cranky vendor … we have experience interacting with all kinds of people, in all kinds of settings. And often in a foreign language. Whether your business operates in Niger, Nicaragua, or Niagara Falls, we quickly get the lay of the land and get things done.
3. Save money on the staff retreat. No need to put us up in a fancy hotel on the Vegas strip. We’ll pass on the $16 muffins. Thanks to our modest Peace Corps living allowances, we’ve learned our way around a budget – and will respect yours.
4. Our contributions to the office potluck. Peanut stew, pupusas, Pad Thai, vodka … Congratulations!  Your office gathering just got more interesting.
5. We know our way around flipcharts. In fact, “brainstorming” and “creativity” are our middle names. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers know how to think outside of the box.
6. Overcoming uncertainty is second nature. If there’s one thing that unites Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, it’s this: We got on the plane. Despite the naysayers, we left all that was safe and familiar and departed for an unknown country for 27 months. That takes passion. That takes chutzpah. Teaching a class of unruly teens? Handling clients who keep changing their minds? Piece of cake.
7. We’re goal-oriented. If we can’t figure out how to get it done or who can get it done, we’ll find the kid who will.
8. Patience comes with the territory. After sitting through two years of day-long, under-the-tree meetings, drinking endless cups of tea to see our projects through, even the longest department meetings won’t faze us.
9. We’re pretty healthy. Because we’ve toughed our way through malaria, giardia, boils, schistosomiasis, scary fevers, and weird rashes in places we can’t discuss, we won’t call in sick for a “cold.”
10. We can take casual Friday to a whole new level. We have a certain … confidence

Bolivia - ridin' high

crossing the border into Bolivia

My first 4 days in Bolivia were in a jeep driving on dirt roads around the mountain side of Bolivia as part of the "Salt Flat" tour.  The first 3 days we saw volcanoes, geysers, lakes, flamingos, llamas, and the beautiful countryside of Bolivia.  We were all anticipating our arrival to Salar de Uyuni on our 4th day.  After three 8 hour days in a jeep shared by 6 people, we arrived !

flamingos

Laguana Colorada - my favorite part of the salt flat tour

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,500 square meters. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves.  (taken from Wikipedia)

We drove around in a jeep for 4 days with 2 guys from Sweden (Anders & Jonas), the tour guide (Ruben), and the cook (Maribel). We had her pounding back 40s by the end of the trip.  We enjoyed the delicious beer made of Quinoa beer.  I think it is safe to say, we had the fun car (thanks to the crazy guys from Sweden).

We drove through many ghost mining towns, where they used to mine gold, silver, & tin.

I'm glad we did the tour from Tupiza, because we got to save the best for last (Salar de Uyuni on our last day). Some of the lakes we visited on the way were my favorite part of the trip.  At the laguana verde we actually got to see the lake change color from blue to green (because of the wind & all the copper in it).

Laguana Colorada (aka the Red lake).  The color was red because of the pigmentation of some algae. This was probably my favorite part about the tour. It was so incredible seeing this lake full of red water and surrounded by llamas and flamingos.

salt hotel

Another highlite would be the clear desert skies at night. I have never seen a sky so clear. Stars that looked so close that I could just pull them from the sky. I also really enjoyed soaking in the hot springs. We were almost 15,000 feet high, so you can only imagine how cold it was. Eating cocoa leaves helped with that.

The last night we stayed in a hostel made of salt (the tables, chairs, bed, floor, walls... everything!)  The 4th and last day of the tour we woke up at 4:30am to make sure we got on the salt flat to see the sunrise (the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen), the sky behind the sun was this purplish blue color. We had fun taking perspectives pictures with our group. Unfortunately, it was a lot harder then you would think. We got a few good ones, but we could have spent hours being creative and doing fun pictures.  After 4 days of living in a jeep without a shower, and a 12 hour bumpy night bus to La Paz, I'm ready to be back into civilization for a little bit.

My sister in law, Greta, comes tomorrow!

having fun and being creative taking perspective pictures

a town we visited along the way during our Salt Flat tour

Anders & Jonas on the top of the island overlooking the salt

the fun car, claro!

sunrise over the salt flats

salt angel @ the Salt Hotel

Off the beaten path

a view from the "Garganta del Diablo" hike

Off the beaten track. The road less taken. The photos on this blog will help explain why I love to go down the road less taken. After researching a bit about the Quebrada de Humahuaca area in Northern Argentina, I came across a place called Iruya online (a unique idigneous town of 4,000 people nestled in mountains.) This is a place you probably won't find in any travel guides, but I believe to be the hidden gem of the Quebrada de Humahuaca region. 

driving into Iruya

A very interesting thing about this town were the indigenous people. They wear beautiful clothing, but one thing that appeared a bit odd to me were their shoes. Most of them had brand new white converse shoes.  Bright colored clothing, hand woven baskets, babies in a sling and brand new converse shoes.

 My favorite part about the trip there was the ride in. After a 4 hour (90 mile) drive on a dirt road, patiently waiting for a place we know nothing about, we finally arrived at our destination. While, still an hour away from Iruya, the destination for me was the drive into this small town of Iruya. I have been on some beautiful drives throughout the beautiful mountain ranges in America, but nothing comes close to the road to Iruya.  For an hour, I had my head out the bus window just admiring the deep valley below. I didn't care about the abundance of dust from the dirt road, or the weird looks I got from the others on the bus. I just couldn't believe my eyes, as we drove down this windy road through the mountains, valleys, and canyons, that surrounded it. Mountains of shapes and colors I have never seen before.  On the road we passed donkeys, llamas, sheep, cows, and horses. 

Pucara - the ruins & cactus field

The day before that we stayed in Tilcara.  We stayed in a very "homely hostel", called La Albahaca.  Despite the fact, that all the workers were chain smokers, we had a pleasant stay, and they made us feel at home.  The one guy taught me a traditional Argentinian folk dance.  There we met Santo Gonzalo, a nice, but a bit crazy guy from Buenos Aires. He took on the role as guide for us on various hikes.  We walked to the "Garganta del diablo", which we apparently did wrong (according the guy at the hostel), but nonetheless it was still a beautiful hike to a waterfall and a canyon. After that we went to Pucara (the ruins) & the cactus field.

Today is our last day in Argentina. We are staying in Humahuaca, the most populated area of this region with about 60,000 people.  Tomorrow - Bolivia!!

** NOTE: Please check out the rest of my photos on my facebook. Wi-fi is hard to come by in these parts, and when it is accessible, the connection is slow.  It is much faster to upload pictures to Facebook.

Northward Bound

From exploring the northern Patagonia region with snow-capped, jagged peaked mountains, to one of the most vibrant exciting cities, to the Northern desert,  I've been pleased with what I've seen here in Argentina. However, there are some things I haven't quite gotten used to.  To begin with (especially in Buenos Aires) their schedule for things are not too compatible with my body's schedule. The people in B.A. eat dinner at 10pm (this didn't work too well, the night we treated ourselves to the most delicious steak dinner, and the place didn't even open until 8pm).  They stay up until 8 in the morning and eat lunch at 3 in the afternoon.  It was impossible to get in this routine, and I hated being the girl making the noise in the hostel at 11am to get into my stuff.  But really,  I actually didn't care, THEY needed to get in a normal routine. Get up! haha/jajaja. I met my Peace Corps friend Lilah.  We seem to be on the same level with certain things when it comes to traveling and what we want to get out of our traveling experience.  I'm glad we had the same mind set for certain things like... We would rather not spend all our money on going out, and staying up until 8am. We'd rather get up at 8am so we have daylight to see all the great architecture and sights Buenos Aires has to offer.  We saw the colorful buildings in La Boca, the beautiful green parks in Palermo, the famous cemetery in Recoleta (where Evita is buried), and artists' fairs. We really just enjoyed walking around the city admiring the architecture.

Another thing that we found a bit odd was that no one has change (not even for a $20... err, actually sometimes not even for a dollar)  Lilah, instead of getting her dollar change, a sales-lady gave her 50 cents with 2 pieces of wrapped candy.

After B.A., we took a 22 hour bus ride to northern Argentina and stayed the night in San Salvador de Jujuy (a word I just couldn' t get in Spanish). Anyway, from the moment we got there we didn't really enjoy it. It appeared a little dangerous,  and somewhat like a warzone. A guy at the terminal told us the robbers will cut our backpacks and steal them (not true).  Another guy told us "Careful" (in English), after giving us directions for the grocery store. After finding the grocery store, we soon realized he wasn't speaking English, nor telling us to be careful... the grocery store is actually called Carre Four. We got a good laugh.

After roaming aroud this city searching for our hostel, Yok Wahi, looking ridiculous with our giant backpacks on the back and front of our bodies, we finally found it ... except we didn't.  It was mismarked and our travel book had the wrong address.  We back tracked about a block and finally arrived at Hostel and Bar Yok Wahi.  However, after trying to find the hostel & wandering around looking for the grocery store, we weren't impressed with the town and were ready to move up into the mountains early the next day.  

Today we visited the famous cemetery in the neighborhood of Recoleta.  This cemetery holds the graves of famous Argentines, such as Eva Peron (Evita- former First Lady and political leader of Argentina). I was impressed by its Greek columns and elaborate marble.  Not to mention, the sizes of the tombstones.  Below are some pictures: