Getting to Uyuni

With Corpus Cristie on Thursday, we had the day off from work and I also requested Friday off. So Wednesday afternoon, Kelly (a volunteer with a different program) and I headed to the bus station. We hoped to get the 2:00pm bus, but there were road blocks to the town of Oruro and to La Paz so buses were not leaving. So we waiting in the station and by the time 3:00pm rolled around, buses were leaving again. We hopped on and hoped that we could get a connections in Oruro.

The ride was uneventful. We ate an entire bag of "Grape Nut O" cereal and pinapple flavored jell-o. We got to Oruro around 8:00pm and bought our next ticket to the town of Uyuni. We had a half an hour to wait and to watch the chaos in the station. It appeared that about 5 people were moving their entire houses that night so there were huge boxes, bags, and appliances being loaded onto the tops of buses and underneath. We spotted two other girls who were traveling and talked to them for a bit. They were from Poland. When we finally loaded our bus, we had to ask someone to switch seats so that we could sit together and with the help of some wonderful Quechua ladies (with colorful blinkets, bags of bread, and babies), we were successful and settled into our last row seats. We slept most of the night (a man next to us even shared his blinket) and when we awoke, the inside of the windows had frozen over and we were very cold. Arriving in Uyuni at about 4:00am, we were informed that we could stay on the bus and sleep a bit since we didn´t have a hostel or anything to go to. It was chilly, but once we layered on more clothes and got out our sleeping bags (thanks host mom!) we managed to get a few more hours of sleep. At 7:30am we gathered our things and headed out in the the cold.... and man was it COLD! We had on hats, gloves, fleece socks, jackets, and more and we were still freezing. And of course, nothing was open that early so we couldn´t warm up with some tea or anything. We found a sliver of sun that had begun to rise over the buildings and sat to people watch.

Surprise surprise, this was a festival day! Of course. Everyone was out in the streets setting up stalls of clothes, food, CDs, and electronics for the celebration of Corpus Cristie. The very kind people even came and chatted with us a bit (giving Kelly tips on how to warm up her feet). The few hours seemed to pass pretty quickly and we headed to the street of tour companies to set up our tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats, volcanoes, giesers, lagoons, and more!

After some searching we found exactly what we wanted and a great price... and it turned out the Polish girls from earlier were on the tour too. We grabbed a delicious egg breakfast and then loaded our gear into the 4x4 Jeep with Nicole (from Australia), Jowita & Mariola (from Poland), Allon & Chris (from England), and our guide/driver Obet. It was cozy, but not uncomfortable.

Then we were off for our three day tour of the area.... more to come later this week!

Party in the big city: La Paz

Well, the week passed so quickly. Work was good and I changed my schedule on Wednesday so I get to go with the kids and staff to a different site where they get to play games, dance, play outside, and even go in a sauna! This is the place with the pool, but unfortunatly they have drained it for the winter. Oh well, but it was great to have a change of scenery and meet some of the other kids who are usually in school during the afternoons. I think it will be nice to mix it up during the week!

Also this week, I got the "second week sickness". Apparently the other volunteers got sick around this time too just adjusting to the food and what not. I saw a nice doctor and got some antibiotics and now I am feeling much better. And the best part is that I can eat again without wanting to throw up!

So this weekend we spent in the big capital, La Paz. And lucky us, again it was a weekend of celebration that we just happened to stumble upon. This was the celebration Gran Poder (great power). Honestly, I think it was just an excuse for craziness. We arrived late friday evening and there were work crews and materials all over the sidewalks as we checked into our hostel. The hostel was called Adventure Brew and had a brewery/bar inside. Included with out fee was a free beer each night and a pancake breakfast the next morning. It was great to try some good microbrews and they had really great showers!!! So Saturday morning around 8:00am we are awoken by marching band music and cheering from the street outside.... the parade was beginning. This was not just any parade. Everyone was in traditional outfits from Bolivia (especially La Paz) and they were doing traditional dances to the bands that followed them... seems normal enough. But have you seen a parade that has lasted for 15 hours??? It was not until one in the morning that the music died down. The streets were also crawling with food, toy, and gift venders. Additionally, all the building materials were for bleachers that had been built along all the sidewalks and there were only a few special entrances/exits to the street that required waiting in long lines to get in... and remember this is the street our hostel is on?!?! It was pretty crazy.

We had a leasurly morning and spent the afternoon walking around the traditional "witch´s market" with llama fetuses, secret remedies, clothes, and much more. All through out the day we enjoyed music and dancing, even got pulled into the parade to dance with them as we walked in and out of the hostel. We also enjoyed the overwhelming views of the mountain sides covered in houses and shops. It was unbelievable how packed the city was. That evening we had our free beer in the bar, which boasted floor to ceiling windows overlooking the parade. It was, again, incredible to see all the people in the streets and the amazing costumes. We had an early night after getting some food because Sunday we had to wake up early.

Sunday we went on an intense and sooooo much fun mountain bike ride for the whole day. Our friend Alexa is a passionate rider and had done a few rides not only in La Paz, but all over South America and it was with her inspiration that we signed up for the trip with an awesome company called Gravity! They gave us all our gear, snacks, water, transport, and pictures for the entire day. We had such an amazing time, although it was pretty difficult riding (the whole beginning was tiny lines down scree covered hills) and I had my fair share of falls.... actually I got the nickname from our British guides of "Tumble Pants" because I actually fell a lot, but what a rush it was! Alexa and I are going to go back for another ride through the jungle at a later date! Needless to say, today I have a purple finger and can´t walk up stairs because my knees are pretty swollen. Hehehe

We ended the ride at a "haunted" castle (thus giving this trip the name The Ghost Ride) and got hot showers, drinks, a buffet dinner, and ample time to relax. Then we headed back to La Paz in the support bus and said good-bye to our new guide friends (who promised to take us on our next trip too!) It was challenging, new, and awesome!

The overnight semi-cama bus brought us home and another week begins.... a short one though since I have Thursday and Friday off!

Chao

Toto, we´re not in Kansas anymore.....

It´s 8:30 at night and five brave Projects Abroad volunteers are arriving at the bus station in Cochabamba. We had 10 hours ahead of us on a bus, which may sound horrible. However, this is not your average bus! These are semi-cama (half bed) buses. It was like nothing I´ve ever seen. Our seats basically reclined all the way into a full bed (see Alexa!) with a fold down foot rest to complete it. After a few rounds of "name a movie that starts with the last letter of the previous movie" we all slept like babies on our way to a little town called Potosí.


Potosí is not only the highest city in the world, but in the 1500s, it was also the biggest (population) and one of the richest, thanks to the Cerro Rico (rich mountain). The heart and soul of Potosí is silver mining and although it is becoming harder and harder to extract silver, the miners still work everyday (almost, you´ll see).


So we arrived at 7:15am on Saturday and headed to a hostel that was recommended to us: The Koala Den. We set ourselves up for a room that night and began thinking about breakfast when the hostel manager asked if we were going into the mines. We were planning to go Sunday, but it turned out they were pretty much closed the next day so we had to go today. So we opted for the afternoon since we still had to eat and aclimate ourselves to the altitude. But alas, we were told that was no good either. The morning was going to be much better because.....it was the once a year festival of llama sacrificing and in the afternoon all the miners would be drunk and crazy. This was one of their few days off each year and we just happened to be there!! So, the tour left at 8:00am which meant we had about 20 minutes to change clothes, eat, and get out the door.

So the first strange and hilarious thing was our "protective clothing". We got to wear bright orange balloon pants, a silver jacket, wellington boots, and our favorite hard hats and head lamps. We looked ridiculous! Then we went to the miners market. Here they sold sticks of dynomite, beer, hard hats, and coca leaves.... you know all the necessities for working in the mines :) So we bought some presents to give to the miners and walked around the market a bit.... remember we are already wearing our "protective clothing". Yes, we got stared at.

So then, up the hill to the mines. We stopped for a photo op. and guess what?! Potosí has a revolving restaurant shaped like the Space Needle too! Except it is green... crazy. We got to the opening of a mine just in time to see the second llama sacrifice. Men held down the llama while another slit its throat and others collected the brilliantly colored blood and splattered it on the opening to the mine, the doors around the opening and painted our faces with it (Holly, Peter, and I in protective clothing with llama blood). We got to see two more sacrifices as we stood lining a tiny little ally, about a foot away from all this.

Then we went into the mine. It was more of the same from last weekend. Crawling around on hands and knees, squeezing through tight spaces, climbing up rock faces. Although this time, we couldn´t breathe at all due to both the dust and the intense altitude. After about 3 minutes of walking, we stopped for 20 and our guide told us about the mines. It was a really crazy feeling to be so out of breath so fast. When we returned to the celebration grounds, the llamas had been skinned and parted so the women could start cooking them for the dinner feast. The sacrifice is the town´s way of giving blood to mother earth she she won´t take the miners when they are working in the mines. We then had to join the miners drinking beer, 96 percent alcohol drinks, listening to accordian music, and celebrating their day off! It was bazaar. But to top it all off, they lit of a bunch of dynomite just for fun. It was hilarious to see the guy run down into a valley, leave the dynomite and run as fast as he could back out.

When we got back to the town, we were hungry so we went for a traditional meal of... yes, llama meat! It was pretty good. And at this point we still had dried llama blood on our faces :) After cleaning up, we went to the Mint, where they used to make coins for Bolivia. Of yah, I also forgot that is was sooooo cold in Potosí. And some of the rooms in the mint were even colder than outside. It was pretty neat to see all the old coins, fancy rooms, and intricate machines used to make money. Needless to say, we were exhausted afterwards and headed off to bed.

Day two: we rented mountain bikes (slightly sketchy, but they did work) and biked about 2 hours to a huge thermal bath (behind us in the picture). It was a tough bike, again because of the altitude, but when we got to jump into the warm water at the end, it was definitly worth it! We swam around for awhile while our guide made lunch... more llama! There were some amazing views on the way there too. We did get to pass a few packs of llamas on the road!

Dinner and another night bus found us again in Cochabamba. Wehw! What a weekend.

Work

So finally, a little bit about my work. I work in a tiny little place with an outdoor court yard in the middle and small rooms around the edges for the kitchen, dorm rooms, physio room, and office. There is a small playground set and all the wash hangs in the back. There are about 25 kids who live in this orphanage, 3 nurses, some helpers (cooks, professor), and about 3 other physios (although I have only seen one actually working). Only about 5 kids can speak to you and more often than not it is in the native language of Qechua, so this makes sommunication a bit hard, but these kids are a lot more active and like to play with me. My favorite is Jhonny who is kind of a trouble maker, but loves to play. I have a few patients that I usually work with. Rodrigo is three years old, blind, mute, and can not crawl or move much. He does roll over a lot and I am working on increasing his arm stength and practicing pushing up from him stomach. On Monday he bit me.... that was pretty fun. I now have quite the bruise on my arm.

I also work with Wara who has Cerebral Palsy. Along with the other Physio, Elva, we stretch her and get her limbs moving. My third patient, Lizeth, has hemiplesia (her left side doesn´t work) and is pretty lazy and grumpy. She will get up in the middle of working with me and just leave. So I, unfortunatly, have been avoiding her for the past couple of days since she won´t do anything for me.

I also help with feeding the kids and today I spent a bunch of time with Wilson, a little baby. I get the idea that he doesn´t get too much one-on-one attention so I held him and worked on leg strength ("standing on my knees") and stretched his arm a bit. He liked being bounced around and I finally got a smile out of him. I would love to buy some books so I could read to the kids. I don´t think any of them know their letters or numbers.

Over all, I like the work usually. You all know that I love to be busy, so sometimes I get frustrated when I feel like I have nothing to do. I am trying to get my imagination up to par with the 5 year olds and to feel "ok" to just play... I think that a lot of them just need some smiles and attention in their lives. I am also talking to the director about going to the near by pool, but it sounds like they are not heated and afterall, it is winter down here. We´ll see.

I included a picture of Albenia who is always smiling and of Jhonny and I :)

This weekend we are going South to the town of Potosí..... sounds like more climbing around, but this time in their silver mines! Should be pretty exciting.

NOTE

The city code was not necessary for my phone... just a note that I have changed it!

Adios

El Parque National Toro Toro

Background: The is an episode of the BBC´s Top Gear where the guys have to drive fast down this crazy cobblestone road in a POS car with a colender of eggs above their heads. The goals is to see who can get to the end with the least egg on their head and the least amount of parts missing from their car.

So, I spent the weekend in Toro Toro National Park, South of Cochabamba. I went with three other volunteers and we had a guide who took us there and showed us around. We left around 5:00am on Saturday, thinking maybe we could sleep in the car... no way. If I had had a colender of eggs over my head there would be nothing left and I would be covered in egg. I couldn´t help but think of the Top Gear guys during the trip (and luckily I was traveling with Brits who actually knew the show!!). The roads were all cobble stone or dirt and we had lot´s of interesting river crossings :) We did get to see the sun rise and there were some funny donkies, pigs, dogs, and cows along the road. Once outside of the city, you really get a feel for the true Bolivia. The houses are tiny huts of brick and mud, people are walking miles from any town, clothes are thrown over bushes to dry, and it is a much different world out there. We got to the park and got to see some amazing things. We toured an area filled with dinasour foot prints (although I am still a little skeptical) and went to a tortoise cemetary (apparently when they are about to die they all go to the same place).
We spent most of the first day exploring caves (thanks for the headlamp mom!). We had nothing but our own lights and a hard hat (thank goodness or I would have lost some brain cells). We literally crawled through tiny crevices, scaled rock faces, belayed down boulders, and went so far into the cave. We saw little waterfalls and a lake with blind fish in it too. Needless to say, when we got out, my clothes were a complete mess, but it was so unbelievable that we could see so much in the caves! The funniest part was our friend Peter who didn´t have a headlamp. He got to go in with "Big Boy".... the gas tank connected to a flame on top of his hard hat. It was pretty hilarious.
The next day was spent hiking down over 900 steps into a canyon where we were rewarded with an icy cold swim under a waterfall. It was so beautiful... but the water was way to cold :) And reguardless of the mountains of sunscreen I put on, I got a little sun burnt :( The views were spectacular and the company was good. However, we were traveling with four Dutch girls who were nice, but literally NEVER stopped talking. And after awhile, a language you don´t know just sounds like lots of noise.
I learned a new game that is pretty much like Yatzee and the food was good too.

P.S. I tried to put up more photos, but it is not working, so you get one of the three other volunteers we went with and our sturdy truck!

La Fería

Friday night we went to the local fair in Cochabamba. It was nothing like the fairs at home. In addition to rides and food and some artisan booths, they also were selling dentist chairs (at more than one location), chain saws, cleaning supplies, and cat food. There were beauty queens all decked out in their evening gowns who were advertizing for Pringles and candy, or you could take a picture with them. It was so bazaar. The most incredible thing is that today I got coffee, dinner, transportation to and from the fair, entrance fee to the fair, drinks and food at the fair, and paid back a friend for the movie ticket from the night before for only about $14!! Everything is pretty cheap here.

On another note, the weather is getting colder in the evenings, but still sunny during the day. I am going to go the the big market this week and buy a new sweater (or jumper as the British say) and a scarf!

Phone!!

Hey everyone! Today is my first day at work... I leave in about 5 minutes. Yikes.

I bought a phone today so now anyone can call me if they want to. Here is the info:

Bolivia´s international calling code: 591
My phone number: 79706600

Yay! Well I am off to the Torotoro National Park this weekend with some of the other volunteers, so I will have more for you on Monday. And hopefully some pictures soon!