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