From Bolivia to Quito (yes I did skip Peru)

It has been a while that I updated my blog. Main reason is slow internet in Bolivia and busy with too many nice things.. which makes it even more difficult to update my blog since I don´t know where to begin....so let´s do it chronologically :-)

While I was doing my previous update I was planning a trip to the rainforest in Bolivia. I met some people that wanted to do the same and we decided to do 3 days in the so called pampas (wetlands) and 3 days in the real jungle in Madidi National Park. Unfortunately I´m not able to upload  many pics from this trip since my memory card is so full that all compus crash when I try to copy/paste . But in case you are interested, the following linke should give an idea how it was: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?fbid=10150621908205557&set=a.10150621897335557.687340.673175556&type=1&theater

The trip to this place in Bolivia was fantastic. We were with a nice group of people, saw many nice places, spotted (and catched)many interesting animals..exactly what you would expect from the jungle. Highlights were; swimming with river dolphins (they even touched us and one put his nose under my arm and stayed there for minutes). piranha fishing, sounds and sights of monkeys, tarantulas, a group of 100 pecaries..and much more. Oh and I almost forget to mention the mosquitos....35 bites just on my back.... 

Coming back in la Paz I bought directly a ticket to Quito. Despite many nice stories about Peru I simply want to have sufficient time in Equador and Colombia so needed to skip Peru

First objective in Quito was to make a plan for the Galapagos. Finally I booked a 8 dayboat trip that will take me (tomorrow) to the best (and less visited) places. From the moment of booking till tomorrow I had a week to discover some other parts of Ecuador. First I spend a day in Quito. Beautiful old colonial city but  strangely enough this is not the main commercial and tourist area. So if you want to actually do something you need to go somewhere else and that makes this city less attractive to stay for a long time. Therefore i travelled quickly to the coast. Just as a reminder for myself. I have never experienced such a bad night bus. Not because of the state of the bus itself but the way of driving. Coming down from Quito (2000 mtr) to sea level, gave the driver many opportunities to drive with high speed through a dozen of hairpin curves....and this does not stimulate sleeping at all. Despite a lack of sleep I still wanted to directly do what i came for .... practice my surfing so that I can impress Ela when we are travelling together. And yes I did make some progress. The waves were much better (for beginners) than what I experienced in Chile and I actually can catch some waves ...even with a smaller board.  

Being exhaiusted from 2 days surfing. I travelled back to Quito to someting more relaxing......climbing an active volcano of 5900 mtrs altitude (Cotopaxi)

 I booked a trip where we first did a trekking of 6 hours to a summit of 4700 mtrs. This was supposed to be an easy start to get ready for the big one..but with lots of rain, snow, hale and thunder this was much more than a warming up. And why do I only realize that I´m afraid of heights when I´m standing on a mountain.??? Anyway this was stll a very good way of getting used (again) to the altitude, which was a question mark for me because of the surfing. And finally I saw my first condor......

The next days was Cotopaxi day. According to the lonley planet only 50% of fit and acclimatized hikers make it to the summit....and now I understand why. I have never done someting so exhausting inmy life (yes Sophie this was worse than Ol donyo lengai). First we drove to a parking place on the mountain at 4500 mtrs. From there it was an easy (what is easy at this altitude??) walk up to the refuge at 4800 mtrs. Arriving here we were teached how were going to walk to the summit. This was needed since it is walking and climbing on a glacier. In other words we needed to pratice walking with ropes, clamp ons (no clue how you write that but it is sa thing on your boot to have grip in the snow/ice), ice pick etc. After that it was waiting..(trying to sleep in -5degrees in the room) for the start of the summit attempt at 01.00 at night. Last night we were in total with 9 tourists on the mountain..of which only 3 made it (in 6 hours) Including me!! But what a hell. Every step you take requires so much energy. And that in very very cold conditions and very strong wind....I thought i was going to die...serious. But most of you know me..when I want something I do it....this time not realizing that I also had to get down....and there in the daylight my fear of heights was present again.  Fortunately I was attached with a rope, and we could slide down the last meters.... But wow what an experience was this...a day that i will never forget!

Now back in Quito and looking fwd to my Galapagos experience...might bcome sick on the boat but it will never be as frightning as Cotopaxi.......

Island in the sun!

Obviously i woke up the day after Qday with an enourmous headache.

But how easy can it be to deal with that if you are in a city like Sucre. I spend the day just walking a bit around, reading and mainly looking at the bolivians celebrating Labour day. It looks like the bolivians try to make a party from every opportunity. Not sure though whether that is to forget the harsh reality or just because they like to party…

After three days in sucre I decided to continue to La Paz. There is an easy night bus (with cama= kind of bed) that takes you in 12 hours to La Paz. But depsite of this cama I didn´t manage to sleep a lot. Especially the stars kept me awake. So nice to just look out of the window and be able to see so many of them.

I stayed for 2 nights in La Paz. I arranged there a trip to the amazon forest (2 days cycling, 3 days by boat and hiking), however at the moment of writing I´m back in La Paz to get my money back since they cancelled the trip. That is really a pitty since I was so looking fwd to it. But the nice things about travelling for a longer time is that you can change your plans, and later today I will book an other trip to the amazon (more about that later)

What else about la Paz, the city centre is quite organized, again many people on the streets selling things, however the view over the city from one of the viewpoint is the most impressive. A bowl full of houses, that is according to me the best way to descibe la Paz. So far, I did not yet feel unsafe at all here. But you never know.
Oh yes before I forget it, they have people here that are dresses as zebra´s to help people over the (zebra´s) crossover...how cool is that...and funny

From la Paz I moved on to Copacobana, no not the beach in Brazil but the  main Bolivian village at lake Titicaca. This lake is biggest high altitude lake in the world. But I think I will write to the lonely planet that they should change the description to the most beautiful lake in the world (sorry Ela, i still need to see lake Bled in sunshine). Having a crystal clear lake at such an high altitude with hills and snowy mountains around simply take your breath away (literally as well).

I met up withg a Danish girl with who I´m travelling now for a few days  and we also vitited together the Isla del Sol. According to the Inca´s this is the place where the sun was born…not sure whether I need to believe that but at least the sun was constantly there and according to my red arms the sun was also very close. We walked for almost 6 hours on the island which was so beautiful, but at the same time exhausting. BMy western body will never get used to low oxygen levels  But at the end the reward was there; a beautiful and tranquil hostal on a Cliff looking over the lake. So nice to then take rest with a good glass of Huari (the beer)watching the sunset…..a moment that i will not quickly forget.

THere are so many small stories that I would like to share with all of you but I´m afraid that will need to come when we see each other again.  I´m keeping a sort of diary for myself but it is kind of hard to capture everything on my blog (just like all the beautiful  pictures). Ask me when we see echother again for our prívate boat back from isla del sol, a priest throwing empty chips bags from the cliffs, barking dogs in la Paz  and I´m sure many more stories will follow.

Now am in la Paz trying to arrange a new trip to the amazon. We will stay in an ecolodge in the middle of the jungle to experience it in the best way. I have heard that it is even possible to swim with pink river dolphins…….that would be quite an experience…... At the same time I´m also still looking how I´m going to skip Peru. I will try to book a ticket today to Ecuador so I can continue my travel with Surf, Galapagos and Colombia…..

Bolivia and Queensday!

After some nice days in San pedro I decided to take a tour in a 4x4 jeep to Bolivia. Initially I was afraid that the scenery would become a bit boring (after the tours) but this turned out not to be the case at all. Every piece of dessert, rock, mountain, geyser, lake, flamingo is different and I think I could have stayed in that area for ever simply enjoying the beautiful landscapes.

After 3 days we arrived in Uyuni in Bolivia. Directly you can see  and feel the differences between the richest (chile) and the poorest (Bolivia) South Amercian countries. The differences are obviously reflected in prices but also in regards to  the state of the roads, garbage on the streets, the number of people trying to earn a living by selling things on the streets, numer of indigenous people wearing traditional clothes etc. And I have to say I like it here. Finally I really got the feeling that I´m experiencing a truly different culture.

After one night in Uyuni, I decided to directly continue my journey to Potosi. After a few hours watching the green mile in a bus where tourists were puking and a window was broken, we arrived in the city that was one day (around 1670) one of the biggest cities of the  world. This was mainly driven by the huge silver source. Although most of it has been shipped to Spain many years ago in the form of the silver coins, the mines are still open and many Bolivians hope to be lucky and discover a new vain of silver. The mines are also the main tourist attraction, so obviously I needed to witness with my own eyes how it is in a mine.  Although many tourists are doing it, it is not a walk in the park. At an altitude of more than 4000 meters we had to crawl, bend, and climb through sometimes very narrow corridors. So now and then miners are pushing little cars with rocks through the tunnels and you need to jump aside in order now to be hit.  It was a very impressive and interesting experience but I will not do it again, it is simply not fun. I will probably think a lot about it when I´m back at work one day staring at my pc screen, sitting in a meeting room or having lunch for the same price that the miners earn per day….lots of respect for all of them!

After the mining experienced I visited a bit the rest of the city. Potosi and  Sucre (where I am now)  are the most beautiful cities I have visited in entire Latin America. Many beautiful colonial buildings in a suprisinly good state and always a clear blue sky makes it very nice to just sit on the main plaza and read or just watch the people walking by...or selling stuff.

Yesterday I celebtrated Queensday here in Sucre. Without even planning it, Sucre was the perfect place to celebrate it. There are quite  a few Dutch Cafe owners and obviously they turned their place into orange....we even had bitterballen.....perfect. 

Today a relaxing day to make the plans for the coming weeks. Tomorrow I will take the night bus to La Paz and then continue to lake titicaca.  It would make sense to then continue to Peru but I think I will stay in Bolivia for a 5 day cycle/boat/hike tour into the rainforest. After that I might decide to completely skip Peru and fly straight to Ecuador. At that time I will have 6 weeks before I go to Costa Rica (with Ela!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and I think I prefer to do Colombia (everybody is very enthusiastic about it)  and Ecuador (galapagos ) in a proper way instead of rushing throught it. Anyway, you will see what I decided. In case you think NOOOOOOO don´t skip Peru, please tell me.