chilling in samaipata and back to la paz

the view from the top of the hike, overlooking amboro (the amazon side)


view from the top...the andes side (notice how theres less green over here.....almost desert like!)




waterfalls!


Dave with the sweet payphone in Samipata


Dave wielding a machete... watch out


view from the farm...this is the valley it looked over!


hey all!
I wrote an entry not too long ago, but we are going to be headed on yet another long bus journey soon, and I wanted to write again while I have the time! I met up with Dave in Samipata last Saturday and he informed me that he had been working on a farm outside of town that was owned by the owner of Andoriña hostel, a really funky hostel in Samaipata. The farm is still in it´s starting stages, and the owner, Andres, is trying to get it up and running so that he can start a full volunteer program in the fall. Dave was there by himself for a few days, helping around the farm and hanging out with Andres´ only worker, a local guy who is helping to get the farm started as well. Dave wanted to work a few more days at the farm to finish up some projects, so I decided to join him for the weekend. I really loved the farm. It was still definately in its starting stages, and all we really worked on was trimming some trees, cleaning them of moss,lichen, and vines (they are peach trees and would die off if they weren´t cleaned of the stuff) but we had a good time just being outside in the fresh air, with the place to ourselves and a kitchen to cook in. There was no electricity, so we played cards and cooked by candlelight in the evenings (ooo, romantic). It got pretty cold in the evenings and we were staying in a little adobe house, with not the best insulation, so we went to bed around 8:30 every night before it got too cold!
We headed back into town on Monday and decided that we would hike back to Samaipata instead of waiting for a cab and paying. We had brought EVERYTHING with us to the farm, and this was our first time hiking a substancial distance with absolutely everything we have! It was a challenge, to say the least... but it was encouraging to know that if we have to, we can still carry everything. Our bags have grown quite a bit since we arrived and I was beginning to think this feat might not be possible. It took us about 3 hours to get back to town, and we met a local woman along the way who offered to help us carry some of our things, and then spent a half an hour trying to convince us to buy some of her land that she was trying to sell. When she realized that she was wasting her breath, we got to talking about family, and she was awestruck as to why I was 25, had been dating a man for over 2 years, and did not have babies! It is quite a different world down here in that department, Dave and I always laugh at the prospect of having babies at this point in our lives. For starters, putting a baby in my backpack probably wouldn´t make it any easier to carry, hehe. (although sometimes my backpack feels like I´m carrying a 10 year old on my back)
Anyway, we spent the next few days staying at the Andoriña and being treated like a king and a queen by the owners, who were really grateful for our help on the farm. They gave us a really nice room for half price, and free coffees everyday... not to mention they were really enjoyable company to spend our evenings with. The town of Samaipata might just be my favorite place (other than La Paz) in Bolivia thus far. The town sits right outside of Amboro national park, which is part amazon, part andes...the park actually houses one of the only places on earth where these two ecosystems collide. There are tons of funky restaurants, bakerys, beautiful winding roads through the forest, and spectacular views. Our last day in Samaipata, we decided to take advantage of this beautiful place, and try and do a hike to Las Cuevas, some waterfalls about 30 km from town. We had read that you can hike to them from a little town about 5 km from the falls, so we took a taxi to where the trailhead supposedly was. We just ended up getting frustrated, because we couldn´t find the trail, and the only thing that resembled a trail was a dirt road with a giant, blatant private property sign. We decided to walk the highway on foot instead and try to find the trailhead from the other end. The walk was well worth it; the waterfalls were beautiful, and when we did finally find the trailhead, the trail brought us over a huge set of ridges that overlooked Amboro national park. We could even see the progression from Andes to rainforest, the view was that immense! When we finally made it back to the town we started in, the trail dropped us off right on the ¨private property¨ dirt road that we had avoided before. No one came charging after us with machetes for trespassing though, so that was a plus. We caught a minibus back to town and talked for a while with some travelers from Brazil, one of whom played the clarinet and decided to give us a little concert while we waited for some road construction to clear. (in Bolivia, they don´t just shut down half the road and work on the other half, they shut down the WHOLE road and you just wait until they are done...this time it was only 15 minutes, but last time in was 2 hours!)
We headed back to Santa Cruz two days ago, to figure out our game plan for our next destination, Ruennebaque, where we are going to do a rainforest tour! We had originally wanted to do a tour in Amboro national park, (this is why we went down that way in the first place) but last week there was a terrible cold front, complete with freezing rain, that took down a bunch of trees and has totally ruined the trail network. We talked to other travelers who went on tour anyway, but spent the whole time hacking through brush with machetes and looking at destruction. We decided we would head north instead to get our rainforest fix. In Santa Cruz, we found out that we could take a bus through Trinidad, but that sometimes the road was impassable, and it would take upwards of 24 hours! At this point in our trip, we are getting a bit sick of ¨sometimes¨ impassable roads (because this usually means you buy a ticket and then end up sitting in the middle of nowhere for HOURS) so, even though I REALLY REALLY wanted to go through trinidad so that we could see a bit of the eastern side of Bolivia; we decided to save ourselves the headache and go through La Paz. We arrived in La Paz today and will stay a day and head to Ruennebaque on the 2nd!
...also, in other news... we decided to come back to the states a little earlier than planned. Although traveling is wonderful, and we are meeting wonderful people and seeing beautiful places, we are both getting a bit homesick and the money is starting to dwindle. We will be flying home a few weeks early, on the 23rd of August. I could write 3 more pages about how nervous/excited/uneasy I am about this upcoming return to the states, but I´m not going to. We´re going to live up our next 3 weeks to the fullest (we´re staying at a hostel with a kitchen and hot showers right now...woweee!)and STAY PRESENT! On that note, its time for me to get some sleep so I can gear up for tommorow... more exploring of La Paz (I love this city!!!)

much love,
robin:)

Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Samipata....Eastern Bolivia

Pictures of Ginger´s Paradise: There was some really beautiful mosaics and art work...as well as a beautiful forest to hike in!













Toucan! This guy lived at our hostel in Santa Cruz.


pasteries for sale at the celebration. mmmmm


a HUGE celebration we encountered in Santa Cruz, celebrating one of the cities special saints.


Dave with Sergito and Chris. In this picture, Chris has just drawn a picture of Dave, featuring a huge nose and a disproportionate baseball hat. It was hilarious.


cuy!


Dave enjoying one of our favorite treats from Cochabamba: a fruit salad with tons of whipped cream and a cookie on top:)


one of the intricate windy cobblestone streets in Potosi

Alrighty gang, here we go. Since our last time together, quite a few things have happened. We left off with us in Potosi, which was a beautiful city that I would highly recommend to those who love architecture and have some money to spend. I visited the Casa de Moneda, which was absolutely incredible with the amount of silver that was pumped out of the silver mines here and how back when the city was founded, it had more people in it than London and Paris!

After Potosi, we traveled up to Cochabamba to meet up with our friend Yamile to set up a volunteer program teaching English. We met here just outside of the city in Quellacullo and headed off to meet her sister´s (Lorena) family. Yamile told us that the homestay wasn´t going to work out becuase a good friend of there family had died during a military drill. So we stayed with Lorena and Sergio (her husband), who are absolutely amazing and the two kids there, Christopher and Sergito, were amazing to hang out with. We had thought that we would stay for quite some time but unfortunately, the program wasn´t really set up for a prolonged stay so we knew we weren´t going to stay for too long but enjoy our time.

First day= trip to a cuy plantation!!!! (By the way, cuy is guinea pig) So Yamile´s friend owns a cuy plantation, raising the cuy for mascots (pets) as well as for food (read other sections in our blog to understand the wonder and flavor of cuy!). Lil was reminded her of her pet Timmy when she was a kid, and took tons of photos of the little, furry animals running back and forth. We even got to hold some of the ones that were going to be sold off as pets, which was a lot of fun and reminded us of being little kids again. The owners explained that they way they decide between the ones for fun and the ones for food is that there are many species of cuy. The ones with furry ,long hair are sold as pets and the ones with short, white hair are raised for food. I never realized how many different types of cuy there are out there; they even had a couple from California (talk about some expensive pigs!)

That night we had dinner with some of Lorena´s and Sergio´s friends, which was really interesting to have an insider view of military lives. All the people were very kind and some knew some English, especially a Liuetenant Eduardo, who was cracking jokes left and right and invited Lilli and I to see a movie at his house the following evening. Eduardo and his wife also informed us about there feelings toward the current President Evo Morales and where their faith lies. Most of the country, especially close to La Paz, LOVES EVO. He is similar to a God in some areas, with every other wall being painted ¨Evo Si!¨, meaning Evo Yes! But to hear from an army official that some of Evo´s policies aren´t in line with the way the country is running, made me get a better view of life there.

(Lilli is writing now) We went the next day to the pool with Sergio, Lorena, Yamille, and the two boys. It was a really nice country club type place, not somewhere we would usually go as travelers, but it was nice to lay in the sun, relax, and jump on eachother in the pool. The boys also loved it.. watching a two year old and a five year old play tirelessly in the pool can be really entertaining. There was also a suana and a jacuzzi, neither of which I enjoyed since I left the states... it was a treat:) We spent that night with Eduardo and his wife watching a movie and then decided to leave the next day. We were a bit frustrated that we were not teaching english (which is what we came to do) and it also felt a bit weird being americans on a Bolivian army base.

The next few days were kind of a blur, we went to Cochabamba, and then to Santa Cruz, trying to find some information about National Parque Kamff Mercado, which is a remote park in the north of Bolivia, along the Brazilian boarder. After doing some research, it became apparent that it would take us 3 or 4 days to get there, and then another 2 days to just walk to the entrance of the park! We decided against it, but we were having a hard time coming up with an alternative. Also, after 2 weeks in just cities (Potosi, Cocabamba, and then Santa Cruz) we were starting to get a little cranky. We decided to part ways for a week to get our heads on straight again and to take a break from each other. I decided to go to Ginger´s Paradise, an organic farm about about 2 hours from Santa Cruz to do some volunteering and some hiking. The farm was ownded by a couple; she was Bolivian, he was American, and run with the help of their 3 kids. The farm was beautiful, and the food was amazing (they are really into using EVERYTHING they grow... and we would often spend the mornings picking fresh fruits and harvesting herbs and to make marmalade and tea). My favorite mornings were spent harvesting hibiscus flowers that were going to be made into tea! Yum! I had the afternoons off from work, so I spent time down by the river swimming, or going for walks around the property. In the evening (well, one evening) we hung out by the family´s house and played music or board games. I liked the owner of the house quite a lot, but I found out pretty quickly that her husband (the american guy) was kind of a really big jerk and wasn´t really interested in having conversations or playing music really; he was interested in talking AT you and then playing music OVER you. He was a good guitarist, but when I asked him what chords he was playing so that I could play along (he had a violin that he wanted me to try) he insisted that knowing chord ¨names¨ stifles one´s creativity. When I explained that I was classically trained, and this what how I knew music, he said that being classically trained was the reason I wasn´t able to play along with him, my mind had been stunted. Hmm. He also asserted that he could ëasily¨swim the english channel and wanted to know how fast I could run a mile so that he could tell me how much faster he was. In other words, he was an ass. Well, that ended my desire to hang out at the family´s house as night. Instead, I spent the evenings with Amodine, another volunteer from Belgium, who also was not very pleased with the owner. She was much better company! I left yesterday afternoon to get to where I am am today, Samipata, where I will join forces again with Dave tommorow. I am not sure what he has been up to lately, but I´m sure he will write about it soon! Hope all is well back home and you are all enjoying the summer weather!

abrupt departure from sachawasi and the salar de uyuni!

So, last thing you read about our trip down in Bolivia was that I was
involved in the slaughtering of a horse. So probably the rest of our
time on the farm would be dull right? No way! The day after the
sacrifice, a mob of angry residents from the village appeared at the
gate to our farm. Mind you, before this, Lilli and I had been told
that Bruno was having some problems with residents of the town and a
few travelers had even had their stuff stolen one night. We weren´t
too afraid about an incident with our stuff because we had only seen
the good side of Bolivia. So the mob came in and laid down their
reasons for wanting Bruno to be kicked out.

1) he had written an article saying that the whole town was just a
bunch of theives (in reality, he had been quoted in an article about
the village saying that it was said how a few degenerate people in the
village were causing problems for the rest of the town. he used the
word ¨theives¨ to describe the few deliquents)

2) he had cut down some important trees for the village (in reality,
he had already been given a fine and paid it. also, everyone in town
cuts down trees to build their houses)

3) he was having tourists here, which were paying him (in reality, we
were all WWOOF volunteers and didn´t pay him a dime or centavo, if you
prefer)

This was the basic gist of what he had done. So the town comes in,
with this militaristic, young woman leading the charge as well as her
insane, screaming mother, saying that Bruno needs to leave and that
the town is going to decide what is going to happen to the farm.
Also, the town was quoting the new Bolivian constitution, which states
that local indigenous tribes have the right to their own type of
judicial council. Bruno packed up his bag and headed to Apolo
(nearest city which is a 4 hour walk or 1 hour drive) to talk with the
police. Lil and I both checked in with each other to see how we felt.
We were on a walk talking about how if things didn´t change, we would
head out sooner than the month commitment. All good so far.
That night, Bruno returned with news that the police wasn´t going to
do anything until something further occured. Also, Bruno met up with
a local friend/ foe (couldn´t tell about this guy because he seemed
two-faced) to talk about strategy. And we found out our waterline was
cut when we tried to use the taps but got nothing. We had to make a
fireline to the nearby river and fill up a giant barrel to start
boiling water for drinking purposes. I was feeling a bit nervous so I
spoke with our chef/ soulmate, Victor, about the proceedings. He told
me that he even felt suspicious about what might happen next. But the
general mood was good so I went to bed feeling fine.
The next morning, I awoke to a beautiful sunrise. I went to the
kitchen and started brewing coffee for all the volunteers, feeling
good about the day. Then, the mob came back again after breakfast,
screaming to be let in and setting off firecrackers to get more people
to join in their throes of hatred. I decided to just ignore them and
go to the pineapple garden for some weeding. I was using a hoe to get
out the weeds when all of a sudden something hit me in the back of the
head! I checked the back of my head and saw blood spilling out. One of
the locals had thrown a rock at me! I lost it. I ran over to the front
of the wall yelling about what had justhappened. Lil calmed me down
and sat me on a stoop in order to clean my head. I just had so many emotions running through me as Lil helped me out. I couldn´t believe what had
just happened and was shocked more than anything.

Then, like a nightmare, the people broke down the
door and climbed the wall to come in. I got up and started moving
toward our tent so that they wouldn´t ransack our stuff. The people
rushed in the sticks and stones, as well as the militant woman and
screaming old woman. Lil and I both checked in very quick and ran to
get our stuff out of the storage shed. I was still shaken up and
thought that I might have a concussion so I had to sit down for a bit
while Lil and our other friends helped pack my stuff up. Meanwhile,
the mob was screaming for Bruno and had taken down his ladder to his
second floor, abandoning 4 female volunteers up there. After packing
up, we left. It was really hard to walk up toward the kitchen area,
were everyone was gathered, and start heading out. I lost it and
started balling; the others came up and gave me hugs and pats on the
back. Lil and I headed out and stopped off at the control point for
the National Park Madidi (based right in town) so that I could see the
doctor or nurse. They checked me out and put in the two stitches, all
the while saying that my story was wild and sad and that they didn´t
trust the townspeople themselves. Lil and I waited for a taxi to come
to town after the stitches and then hopped in the car with a newfound
friend named Yamile. Yamile, a friend of Bruno, had come out to see
what was happening at the farm, and was assaulted when she tried to
leave the farm. The militant woman scratched Yamile´s face with a
pair of sunglasses. Yamile was pretty broken up but kept strong and
told us that we could stay with her the night. We arrived into the
town, made a police report (which did nothing) and then just went to
bed. Long day done.
Next day, we woke up and spoke at length with Yamile about what to do.
She told us that we were going to meet up with Bruno and go to a
lawyer to document what happened. We met up with him and found out
more about the previous day, how the old woman had chased a girl with
a stick to hit her and also tried to light the house on fire. The mob
had also given Bruno the ultimatum of leaving by Saturday and that the
volunteers needed to be out by the end of the month. We documented
all of this to a lawyer and then Lil and I left Bruno and the two
other volunteers to go back for La Paz. We knew we were not going
back to the farm. I didn´t trust the townsfolk to hold their word and
even if things got better, when would the next rock get thrown? 5
other volunteers joined us on the voyage to La Paz. But, before
leaving, we had talked to Yamile about setting up a volunteer program
with military families in Cochabamba, for Yamile had previously been
married to a military man and knew how hard it was for the families to
learn English without having to pay a fortune.

La Paz was cool and quick. We stayed for a few days to hang out with
the guys and gals from the farm while we made a decision to head to
the Salar de Uyuni, a mystical salt flat located close to the Chilean
border. Two friends decided to join us, Sin from Korea and Erin from
the States.

The four of us took an all-night bus from La Paz down to Uyuni,
arriving Sunday morning near 6 AM. Uyuni was frozen! This place even
makes Bend look warm. With an altitude of 3500 meters and being
located in the desert, once the sun goes down, it gets cold. We ran
to a hostal, checked in and slept for a bit before going out on the
town to look for a tour to take. We had been told about a company
called Expresa from a few of our friends from the farm. We ended up
leaving the next morning around 10:30 AM and got to the salt flats
soon after. It was so eerie to be out walking around on salt flats, which
was going to be turned into salt for use across the world. The flats
are around 4000 square miles and have over 30 islands on them. By
islands, it is meant that rock outcroppings, some containing thousands
of cacti, are scattered across the desert. We reached one of these
islands called Incawasai and were able to take some amazing photos of
the salt flats. Javier, our driver, told us that the flats contained
about 9 meters worth of differing layers of salt as well as tons of
other minerals underneath that. Most importantly, lithium was found
here and there have been talks about mining the lithium for use in
batteries.
After lunch, we headed out into the middle of the desert for some fun
with depth perception. The salt flats make it seem that everything is
on the same plane, when in reality, it isn´t. Check out the photos
for some fun.
Then, we headed to our salt hostel for the night. The entire building
(except for the base) was made from salt. We got to sleep on salt
beds! After dinner, we all turned in for an early night, after a card
game of Gabbo (if you ask me in the States, I´ll show you how to
play).
The next morning had an incredible sunrise, which brought feelings of
desert loneliness to my mind (o Bend!). We had a quick breakfast and
then headed south to a couple of the lagunas located out here. All of
the lagunas we saw had some sort of chemicals or minerals in them,
from sulfur to borax to other things. It was pretty incredible to
think about how many natural resources were located in such a small
area of this country. The most impressive laguna was Laguna Rosada,
which looked red when the wind whipped up all the minerals located in
the lake. As well as a red lake, there were flamingos there! Yep,
flamingos live in Bolivia and love all the algae and minerals located
in the lakes here. There weren´t tons of them but we were able to get
some cool photos.
After a long day, we settled in to another hostal in the desert for
the night. We had purchaes two bottles of wine earlier in the day for
our last night together on the trek and were pretty surprised to see
our chef bring out another for us, on the house. We had a great night
of singing and playing guitar as well as I was able to befriend two
adorable kids that lived out at the hostel. Their smiles brought such
a warmth to our hearts and made Lilli and I want to volunteer with
kids.

Next day was an early one, with us getting up at 5:30. We got to a
location filled with geisers just before sunrise for some fun photos
and geologic goofing off. Lilli is going to hook me up with some
books about the way the world operates (her old geology textbooks)
once we get back. Pachamama, you are so amazing!

After the geisers, we headed off to some thermal baths and breakfast.
Good to wash up in the baths and get some warm water on our cold
bodies. Plus, we were at an altitude of around 5000 meters out there!
To put that in perspective, there are no mountains in the lowere 48
states higher than this elevation.
Then, the long trek back to Uyuni began. We stopped once in the
Deserted City of Italy, a massive rock formation, for lunch. I don´t
know why they named it so but it was fun to climb around a bit and
think about how many routes I would equip if I came back. We got back
to Uyuni around 5 at night, bid farwell to our friends (although we
will meet up with Erin in Cochabamba) and got a room for the night.
We also had an amazing dinner called Fricase, which is kind of like
llama soup with some noodles in it (so good that my mouth is watering
right now!).

The next day, we got up and headed for Potosi, where I am currently
writing from. We will keep you updated with what happens here after
we get to Cocha! Enjoy the blog, stay healthy and be seeing you soon!


PICTURES BELOW!
...in reverse order yet again


gorgeous rock formations


roadside llamas


hot springs and geyser steam


dave with two of the little guys whose parents worked at the hostel...they were hilarious!


wine with our tour group!


laguna colorado... the lake is red because of all the algae and microorganisms in there... and the flamingos are pink because they eat the algae!


our tour chariot...


some of the desert lakes here have pink flamingos! Crazy!


sunrise over the salar de uyuni

pics from the salt flats.... it is such a huge expanse of vast nothingness that you can take pictures without any depth perception! We had a lot of fun coming up with these...





















dave surveying the salar...


dave befriending a cactus


cactus island...can't remember the name of it, but its in the middle of the salar! Strange...


cool statue in the city center


two friendly jungle birds at our hostel in uyuni