Cheating Death in Bolivia

I promised that I would post before I left Bolivia, seems like some of my English punctuality is returning! I am currently in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, having spent the past 6 days exploring what the country has to offer. I'll take you through it from the beginning...

I started my journey into Bolivia on a three day tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats, leaving from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The name of the tour is slightly misleading, since the first two days were not on the salt flats, it was just the third when we explored the famous flats. That's not at all a bad thing though, I had a great time on the first two days as well as I'll explain. It was an early start in Chile to get taken to the Bolivian border, this journey involved a 2200m climb within one hour in the bus, the altitude was definitely noticeable. After a short wait on the Bolivian border we were introduced to our guides for the next days and the other passengers we would be sharing the cars with. My guide was a young Bolivian guy called Alberto. Since the 3 day journey would involve a lot of off-roading, we had to use 4x4s for the tour. In my car there was a young French couple, a lone French traveler, and a German guy. The other jeep in our party carried 4 Brazilian tourists.

Day one we passed a load of interesting places. The vastness of the park is incredible. We passed by a series of lagoons, many of which were frozen over. The area was experiencing the most snow they'd had in 40 years!!! This meant that the park had been closed for a while, and we were only the second group to be allowed into the park. We had our lunch stop at some natural thermal baths, which was a welcome relief from the bitter cold. The final stop of the day was the 'Laguna colorada', which is a bright pink lake home to lots of flamingos. The lake gets its colour from the red algae that provides food for the flamingos, it was so strange. Our hostel for the night was literally in the middle of nowhere... Bit of data for you: the temperature overnight was -20C and inside our room was 0C, that is definitely the coldest room I've ever slept in. Thankfully, I was well wrapped up in my sleeping bag and mountain of blankets, so I didn't feel it too much.

Thermal baths were good to get out of the cold

Yes, it really is that colour!

This was night one's freezing hostal. 4400m altitude

Day 2. This day was more about taking in the beautiful scenery rather than stopping to see lots of sights. It's the weirdest feeling driving through what is essentially a desert, but with a knee-deep layer of snow. We were well over 4400m at this point, and people were starting to get headaches from the altitude. The Bolivian cure is to chew coca leaves (yes, the leaves used to make cocaine), it was surprisingly effective and everybody's headaches disappeared pretty quickly. We stopped to see a set of weird rock formations, including one that looked like a tree. We also stopped at a salt flat that was in formation, this means that the layer of salt was only centimetres thick and it didn't appear that white, but was definitely very flat. A railway crosses this flat and is used to transport minerals and salt from Bolivia to Chile. That night we slept in a salt hostel, everything was made out of salt, including the chairs and tables! Apparently they only last 5 years due to the natural erosion. Luckily , ours was only 1 year old.

Our 2 jeep party had to do a lot of off-roading in the snow

Though there were also desert sections

The third day of our trip was a very early start, 5am to be precise. We wanted to get to the salt flats before the sunrise. We drove to an island in the middle of the salt flats, literally an island of rock surrounded by salt as far as the eye could see. After a short climb up the cactus-filled island we sat at the top in silence to take in the magnificent sunrise. It's a pretty powerful moment when all you can see is horizon, it's freezing cold, and you can feel the energy and warmth of the sun as it makes its first appearance of the day. After breakfast in the shadow of the island, we set off to find a quiet spot in the salt flats to take the traditional photos. This salt flat is the largest in the world, 180km by 150km, with a 5-6m deep layer of salt. We found a spot where we were the only part of civilisation in view. 360 degrees of horizon. The salt forms hexagonal indents where the summer rain evaporates. Since the area is so consistently flat, it makes for some fun photos since you can play with the perspective. We then headed to Uyuni, the town on the edge of the salt flats where we saw all the abandoned mining trains in a kind of Train Cemetery. The day finished with a buffet lunch all together, before we said our goodbyes. This was for sure one of the most stunning places I've ever seen.

I hung around with the French couple for a while, catching up on emails and messages after 3 days without outside contact. We waited for our night bus to the Bolvian capital, La Paz. We arrived about 5am and checked in to our hostels. I then met up with them again later to look around some of the sights in the city centre. We went to look around the Witch's Market, which is where they sell all kinds of weird potions, creams, and powders to cure various things. Perhaps the weirdest thing we saw was a basket full of dried llama fetuses, god knows what they're used for... We also looked around the Coca Museum, which was a really interesting look into the medicinal benefits that the Bolivian people have gained from chewing coca leaves, as well as the devastating effects that the hard drug derived from the lead has had worldwide. We learnt all about how cocaine was made, its history (including in Coca-cola), and how governments worldwide are trying to combat its use. Though it was interesting to see that the majority of modern anesthetics are derived from synthetic cocaine, apparently anything ending in -caine owes its existence to coca leaves (e.g. Lidocaine). I also booked my trip for the next day to Death Road, I was really excited.

The infamous Witch's Market

Yesterday, I set off early to meet the bus to go off and cycle down the infamous Death Road. It's a very narrow road with a horrifying drop off one side that goes along the side of a Bolivian valley. After arriving to the start point we got kitted up and had to offer a blessing with alcohol to Pachamama, an Andean godess, who would offer us protection during the ride. The ride was 67km of almost entirely downhill riding. The first part was asphalt, very grippy and it meant that the faster group I was in reached a top speed of 75kmph! The road then got a lot worse, steep and twisty, loose rock and gravel was the theme of the day. The group split into a faster and slower group and we hurtled down the hill as fast as we felt comfortable. I didn't have much mountain biking experience, but two Kiwis that did were happy to show me some techniques and I was soon chasing them down the mountain as high speed. The drop off is up to 300m in some places and the little memorials that line the road are a constant reminder of the countless deaths and injuries that the road has caused. Thankfully, I felt very safe under the guidance of Jubi our guide and apart from a few skids on the loose ground, didn't get anywhere close to crashing. One guy in our group did crash, thankfully into the wall rather than the drop... The strange thing is that the downhill riders must stick to the left, the cliff side... So it's a constant balance between staying close enough to the edge that you can see uphill traffic, and staying far enough away that you don't fall off. We ended the trip with a relaxing couple of hours in a swimming pool, massive lunch, and beers on the journey back. Funilly enough, it was only after we'd completed the road that the guide told us about the many clients that he's had to rescue from the cliffside and the horrific incidents that have happened. To be honest, all these incidents seem to have happened when people get over confident, so there is a simple solution. This was one of the most exhilarating things I've done in South America so far, I'd really recommend it! Photos to come...

I've just got back to my hostel after going to listen to a guy called Crazy Dave. Dave was raised in New York, and having fallen into cocaine addiction was convinced to go to Bolivia and smuggle drugs back in the late 90's. He was caught by the Bolivian authorities and sentenced to 16 years in San Pedro Prison. He got released over two years ago now and makes his living talking about his life inside the prison every day at 1pm. San Pedro Prison is located right in the centre of La Paz and sounds like no prison I've ever heard of before. Crazy Dave told us that inside the prison there was a whole different society. You had to buy your own house in the prison, pay your way for everything, earn respect from the drug lords, the escape attempts etc. This is also all talked about in a book by a Brit put in the same situation called 'Marching Powder'. Dave himself worked for over a year as an English tutor, doing the English homework of the convicts kids (over 150 kids lived in the prison with their convict parents), paid 1g of coke per kid. He quit teaching, saying that 6g plus of coke a day doesn't do much good for your head. He then did 3.5yrs of cocaine production, the purest coke you can get in the world is rumoured to be made inside the prison. It was a really interesting insight into another part of Bolivian society, and Crazy Dave's part rap, part rant, part theatrical style of storytelling made it very entertaining. Although it was slightly sad to see a man in his mins-50's, still addicted to coke, living on the streets and not back in his home country. He assured us he's sending his story to 'Banged up Abroad' to earn the money to fly home. Also, for those interested, he told everybody exactly where to source cocaine in La Paz, the going rate, and how to test its purity...

So where next? My next destination is Cusco, Peru. I have a night bus booked for the 12 hour journey tonight. In Cusco I plan to go up to see Machu Picchu and generally soak in as much Peruvian culture as I can. I guess it'll be a couple of weeks until I post again, but I will try to post before I leave Peru.

Last Night In Chile

I guess I should start from the beginning. Having finished in Concepcion, I headed North 6hrs to Santiago to meet up with Elle, a friend from Cambridge. I spent Thursday and Friday catching up with her, Claudia, and Ellie, all from Cambridge. I also said goodbye to Paulo, a friend from Conce who I kayaked a lot with (you make remember him from my post about skiing on a volcano). To finish up in Santiago I had a last minute opportunity to go and listen to Diamela Eltit talking. I know I've bored most of you with her story already, for the uninitiated... She is an amazing experimental Chilean author who wrote subversive literature during the Chilean military dictatorship. My year abroad project centres around a translation of her work, 'Por la patria', and what problems arise during the act of translating such a subversive work that tries to give voice to the Chilean subaltern. Academic part over. Basically, Diamela has been really helpful in answering all my questions via email and I finally got the chance to meet her in person to thank her. She invited me to her house to dinner, but I couldn't as I had to catch a night bus almost straight away. If only I'd tried to organise a meeting sooner!!! So both disappointed and incredibly happy, I got on board a 6hr night bus to La Serena with Elle and her friend Lucy.

La Serena is a very peaceful town in the North of Chile. The plan was to spend the weekend exploring the town and the valleys around it, before the girls headed back to Santiago and I carried on my journey alone. We had a great time on Saturday going to the Pisco Mistral factory for a tour in Valle del Elqui, pisco being a famous Chilean licour. The tour ended with some free drinks which we drank whilst watching Netflix back at the hostel, not how I expected to spend the evening but I'm not complaining.

The famous Pisco vineyards

An unexpected end to the day, but relaxing nonetheless

Sunday was a bit of a mixed day. We had a look around the Japanese gardens, I know, weird right? Went to see an animal rescue sanctuary, and spent a while on the beach. I then said bye to the girls and buckled up for the next leg of my journey.

No clue where on earth they rescued this giant tortoise...

I headed North to Antofagasta on a 12hr night bus, sounds horrific but it actually wasn't that bad. Turns out there is absolutely nothing to do in Antofagasta, so I booked another 5hr bus to continue North and get to San Pedro de Atacama. I've not got a huge amount of time to cover the 7500km I need to cover to get to Colombia, so sorry Antofagasta but you didn't make the cut! San Pedro is a small settlement very close to the Bolivian border and it is in the world's driest desert. Jesus it's hot here...

San Pedro, sleepy and dusty

I arrived last night in time for a basic dinner and a good night's rest. Today I woke up early to explore the tiny town, everything was shut but as it turned 9 everybody started to wake up and the place started to liven up, I booked my tour to Uyuni, across the famous Bolivian salt flats which leaves early tomorrow morning and will see me cross the border into Bolivia and go through the salt flats over the following 3 days. I also booked a really cheap tour this afternoon to go and see the Valle de la Luna, the Moon Valley. This is honestly a breathtakingly stunning place, located in the Atacama salt flat only 10 minutes from the town. Our tour guide Mauricio was very entertaining and explained everything about the area.

Flashbacks to 127hrs anybody...?

We saw some of the amazing rock fomations, caverns and salt flats that the valley has to offer. The valley is supposed to be so similar to the surface of the moon and Mars that NASA brought their robots here to test them out! There are lots of lithium mines near the area, 70% of the world's supply is mined here, but all of them are tucked out of sight behind various mountain ranges. After exploring the park with our guide we headed up to the Coyote viewpoint to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset with 360 degree views and the kind of tranquility you can only dream of in London. From the viewpoint I could see the mountain range that currently stands between me and Bolivia, as well as the Argentinian border. Tomorrow I head to Bolivia and will try to update you all on my progress before I leave there.

6 things Chile doesn't do so well...

This post is the follow-up to my other post "6 things Chile does well!" which you can read here: http://whereswahab.blogspot.cl/2016/11/6-things-chile-does-well.html. This one isn't designed to be a negative view of Chile at all, but if you do plan to come out here, there are a few things you should know that can be frustrating, different or just plain weird about Chile and Chileans.

1) Spanish - One thing I mentioned as a thing that Chile does well is slang, unfortunately this means that if you want to practise your nice formal Spanish, you've come to the wrong place. I've studied Spanish for a long time now, but even when I arrived I had literally no clue what people were talking about! At first, I thought that it was my poor level of Spanish, but was then told by many people not to worry, because it's actually the Chileans that can't speak Spanish. If you come here as a Spanish speaker you'll be confronted with all sorts of weird new vocab, verb endings, interjections, idioms, accents, not to mention that they talk ridiculously fast. However, after a couple of weeks of concentrating quite hard, I began to understand more and more of the lingo (better described as chileno than Spanish). Over 4 months in and whilst my formal Spanish went out the window a long time ago, my informal chileno has come on massively. It's definitely a challenge, but in a good way.

2) Punctuality - This is one thing that any English person who's been to Chile will be sure to mention. Chileans suck at arriving on time! It's a really laid-back and relaxed culture, which means that if you come from a time-obsessed place like the UK, you're gonna have some adjusting to do. Here are some tips to help you interpret what the Chileans really mean when they speak:
"Llego en 5" (I'll be there in 5) - "I'll be there in half an hour"
"Nos vemos mañana a las 8" (I'll cya tomorrow at 8) - "I'll cya tomorrow at 9"
"Voy en camino" (I'm on my way) - "I'm still at home, but I'll leave in a bit"
"Voy llegando" (I'm arriving now) - "I'm still at home, but I'll leave in a bit"

3) Bank opening times - I'm aware that this one is very specific, but this is one thing that drives me insane. Banks here open at 8am and close between midday and 2pm... If you work Monday-Friday, nine to five, how the hell are you supposed to do your banking?!?! Also, the fact you have to queue for ages every time you enter a bank doesn't help either.

4) Dairy - Food and drink are generally really good in Chile, there is one area however where it's lacking. Anything dairy based, cheese, milk, yoghurt etc. tends to be a bit rubbish out here. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of regional cheeses and stuff that are great, but I'm talking about the day-to-day stuff that you'd pop down to the local Tescos to get. Unless you can deal with only funny tasting UHT milk, and plastic laminate-style cheese, try and avoid the dairy section of Chilean supermarkets...

5) Machismo - For those unfamiliar with the term, machismo is the name given in Spanish to the macho culture that exists in many Latin American countries. For me directly this has not been so much of a problem, but does affect many of the girls I know in Chile. Some of the girls I know can't walk down the street without being cat-called or go to a club without being touched up. It's not that it makes them scared, Morocco for example is definitely a country where it becomes slightly dangerous, but it is unacceptable and uncomfortable.

6) Planning - Chileans in general are pretty poor planners, they don't really believe in it. It seems that the majority just believes that everything will work out in the end. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all, it's actually something that I've learnt to adopt. It's not always necessary to have a plan, things do seem to turn out OK in the end.

This post is mainly just to write the other half of the post I wrote such a long time ago, to not leave my blog unfinished. Chile is an amazing country and has loads of great attributes, if you are planning a trip here, these are some things to bear in mind though! 

It's all coming to an end...

So it's official... I suck at blogging! It takes literally no time to write a post, but I always find myself forgetting. Well a lot has happened since my last post. Parent came and went, we had a great time travelling a large part of Chile. Year Abroad Project came and went. Ish. The only academic work I've had to do this year is a project for back home, we're supposed to use the whole year to make it really good. I did a lot of reading around the topic and left all the writing to the last two months (I guess that's on excuse for not writing anything on this blog).

On a side note, physio is going really well. I went kayaking on flat water for the first time since my accident on Saturday and it went really well. My shoulders feel strong and I'm more motivated than ever to get back to where I was. My last water and teaching related activity that I'll be doing here in Conce was a presentation/workshop I gave at the technical university, DuoC, on Monday. I gave a lecture style presentation to a group of tourism students and firemen about whitewater rescue, followed by a 2hr practical workshop outside. I really enjoyed it and after all my work in the field this year, I have a lot of contacts to arrange future trips and courses in Chile.

Back to my YAP. I've been lucky in that the author of the novel I'm writing about, Diamela Eltit, has been really helpful in answering all my questions via email so I've had some input directly from the creator of the novel. I'm now writing this post having completed everything, packed everything, and organised everything at my flat in Conce. Why am I packing? Because it's time to go! Yup, 10.5 months have flown by. Time to go home now.

Well actually... I am going to make my way home, but very slowly. I have until the 26th July to get to Bogotá, Colombia where my flight leaves from. For those unfamiliar with South American geography, this will involve a mammoth overland journey passing through Northern Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. I've chosen to take on the journey by bus because it means I can stop wherever I want and take it all the famous attractions, but more importantly a lot of places off the beaten track that don't see so much tourism. Nonetheless, this mammoth 7500km journey is gonna involve a lot of uncomfortable bus journeys. I'm travelling alone, which will be great because I have no plan or itinerary and can just go with the flow and enjoy myself, meeting new people on the way. If there is anything that I've learnt in Chile, it's that you don't always have to have a plan. If you're vaguely streetwise, have a good grasp of Spanish, and not bothered about comfort, things will always be ok in the end.

On that note, I will tentatively say that I'll try to write at least one blog post per country, but with my new 'screw planning' attitude, anything could happen. Below are some picture of my workshop on Monday. If I don't post before I get back, I'll see you all in 2 months!!!