3 countries. 2 days.

After our relatively slow-paced two-month haul through Bolivia, Cat and I decided to step it up a notch. We visited Chile in the blink of an eye. Seriously, I arrived on Thursday afternoon after a long and arduous 3-day salar-trip and booked tickets to Salta, Argentina for the next day. There's nothing wrong with Chile, honest, it's just that everything's bloody expensive! I've been warned many times by backpackers who've travelled in Chile, but it still came as a bit of a shock. Meals cost almost the same as they do at home. San Pedro may be an exception seeing as the sole reason for its existence is tourism, but I doubt it. It definitely seems like a cool place to spend a few days chilling out, but due to budget restrictions we decided to get out of there as quickly as possible. Maybe next time.

The bus to Salta was lush! I've got nothing against Peruvian and Bolivian bus-services, apart from the occasional 2-hour delay, but getting fed on the bus was a real novelty. Not only were we fed lunch, at about 7 in the evening we stopped of at a hostel and were given complementary sandwiches and tea! Hell yeah. Plus, I completely forgot how comfortable it is driving on paved roads. At one point, when the bus was approaching Salta, it felt like we were heading through European countryside. And there was light pollution - a nice orange/reddish tint in the sky. Just like being in Brussels. Now, I'm totally against any form of pollution (of course), but it did make me a little bit teary-eyed. It's amazing how quickly things change as soon as you cross the border. Chile and Argentina are probably the two most westernised countries in South America and the differences are very apparent - indigenousness is almost nowhere to be found. It certainly feels like I'm one step closer to home. Just had my first Argentinian steak and it was TASTY! A portion is 800 grams. That's nearly a kilo of meat. Mental. Of course Cat and I shared one. Argentinians know how to do meat. After all, a lot of people claim the best (beef)meat in the world comes from here.

The salt flats. Hmmm. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't the most exciting tour I've been on. Sure, the landscapes were dramatically varied, interesting and bizarre, ranging from salt flats (really), deserts, volcanoes, strange rock-formations and what looked like moorland, but it wasn't worth the long days in the jeep. Especially on the second day. We seemed to be covering a lot of distance without seeing anything truly spectacular. The pinnacle was supposed to be the Lago Colorada, which is usually coloured a beautiful shade of red, but when we arrived it looked more like a murky brown. Great. Actually, two things put a real damper on my enjoyment: 1) the incompetence of our "guide" (driver) and 2) a fever I came down with in Uyuni. Our guide didn't even introduce himself. He must have said a grand total of 100 words to the group, most of which he mumbled to the French guy sitting in front who couldn't understand Spanish in the first place! His real triumph, however, was when he dropped our group off (6 people) at a lagoon where we could photograph a group of flamingoes, but then proceeded to drive to the other end of the lagoon without telling us. We turned around and the jeep was gone. So we had to make our way over there ourselves in the freezing cold! That's when we knew he wasn't getting a tip. It's such a shame because the tour company had been recommended to us. The driver just ruined the experience for us. Also, my fever was a real killer. The night prior to the trip we stayed at a hostel in Uyuni (a miserable, bitterly cold and windy place, essentially the Nazca of Bolivia), and I felt cold shivers coming on. Probably a bad sign, but I still decided to go ahead with the Salar trip. Terrible idea. The second night was dreadful. Temperatures below zero and a strong wind was enough to make me feel like death. No matter how many layers I was wearing I couldn't warm up inside. My bones were cold. The whole time I was dreaming of sunny San Pedro. Looking back on it now, I hope I never have to experience a moment like that again. I keep blaming it on the altitude (at one point we reached a pass at 5,000 metres), and I'm not sure if it had any effect, I'm just glad to be in Salta. The Salar always felt like an obstacle we had to pass before reaching lower altitude, even when I was in Potosi.

There's a lot I forgot to mention about Potosi, so I'll do it now. The Spanish lessons were a blast. Alex, our teacher, was an absolute legend. He tended to lose the thread quite regularly and go off on a tangent about what music and film he likes and discuss all sorts of other things such as random Bolivian customs. On the friday before we left, he invited us and Amanda (a Swedish girl who was also taking lessons with him and who we shared a dorm with in the hostel) to his mother-in-law's house for lunch. They were so welcoming and the food was delicious! Alex has a baby boy of 2 years and 8 months old who's just hilarious. On that same day he asked Cat and me (native English speakers - I don't think I qualify somehow) to come into the classroom and speak with the students in his English class, so they could practise their conversational skills. There was a beginners group and an advanced one. One of the boys in the advanced group was practically fluent. And he's only been learning English for two years. Mighty impressive. It turns out he's a huge fan of progressive metal. There you go. The beginners group was much less repsonsive, so we spent the majority of the time speaking Spanish which helped Cat and me out more than them! I think they still got something out of it though. Then on Sunday, Alex threw a party at his mother-in-law's house for Friends' Day (Dia de Amigos), a holiday that doesn't really signify anything. It's a type of Secret Santas. The majority of Alex's beginners English group turned up. Once we exchanged gifts, Alex cracked open the beer and singani (a type of grape brandy), put some traditional Bolivian music on and a-dancing we went! I definitely learned some new moves, although I'm not so sure if I'll be using them when I get back. It was exhausting but lots and lots of fun. Like I said before, Bolivians know how to party. When we weren't in Spanish class we went to our favourite restaurant in Potosi, the Mirador Cafe. It's on top of one of the old churches and has a brilliant view of the city. Plus, it was nice and warm, as the sun always shined in Potosi...

So, the Bolivian adventure has finally come to an end, the Chilean one was pretty much non-existent and the Argentinian one is just about to begin. Our hostel is organising a massive BBQ tonight, which sounds very promising. I also heard that there's a huge party on in a club somwhere in Salta (electronic music), so I'll see what that holds in store.

Mines, dynamite and other tales from the underground

Just a very quick update (has it been 12 days since my last one?). Just as Cat and me thought we were well on our way to Chile, we got stuck, again. We've spent the last week or so in Potosi, the highest city of its size in the world (4100 metres above sea level), doing an intensive Spanish course. It's been incredibly helpful and I'm finally managed to get my head around the past and future tenses. Always useful for conversations!

At the beginning of the week we visited the famous silver mines in Cerro Rico (rich hill). The tour was mindblowing. The hill has been mined for well over 450 years now, and the working conditions haven't changed a great deal since then. It used to be mined only for silver in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the heavy output of the stuff made Potosi the richest city in South America at that time. Many men in Potosi are doomed to a life in the mines. As a result, life expectancy isn't terribly high. Supposedly there are 12,000 people working in the mines, 2,000 of which are underage. On my tour we bumped into a boy who was just 13 (!). Apparently they will be lucky if they make it past 30. Just imagine what we were doing at that age. I spent 2 and a half hours down in the mines, but I wanted out badly after that. The dust is what killed me. We had to buy presents for the miners including dynamite, coca leaves and fizzy drinks (on fridays, 96% alcohol!). Mental. Our guide saved a stick of dynamite for the group to show us how powerful it is. We were standing at leats 100 metres away, but I could sure as hell fel the impact!.

More on the mines shortly, we're leaving for Uyuni tomorrow to do a 3-day trip of the salt flats.

Amazon Adventures

All you zoologists and biologists, be jealous...very jealous! The amount of wildlife I saw on the Pampas tour was phenomenal. In the space of 3 days I caught a glimpse of pink-river dolphins, capybaras, red and black howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys (which I fed a banana), turtles, as well as a huge variety of bird species including: a royal, black and imperial eagle, blue and yellow macaws, vultures, many egret-like species and lots of smaller exotic birds. Too many to name. And too many I don't know or remember the name of. Both evenings we went alligator-hunting and successfully caught one. The second evening the guide thought it was a good idea to put the rope around the neck of a 3-metre alligator and unsurprisingly, it put up one hell of the struggle. It was enormous! The beast looked like a croc. I'm glad he decided not to drag it into the boat because I can guarantee there would have been casualties of some sort. He assured me that was nothing: in some of the lakes nearby the river that we were exploring, alligators grow up to 6 metres in length. Insane.

I also went piranha-fishing and managed to catch 3! Between our group we caught all three species living in the river: red, yellow and white. And what do you do with piranhas once you catch them? That's right, eat them! Our cook fried them for us. There wasn't much meat on the fish but they were actually quite tasty. The food on the trip was fantastic. In a basic kitchen with no electricity the cook literally prepared feasts. On one of the mornings, we spent 4 hours wading through knee-deep swamp looking for anacondas. Cat and another girl in our group were the only ones who saw one slithering past, but within a split-second it was gone. Fortunately on the last day, on our way back on the river, we had time to stop off for half an hour to look again. The guide went on his own, but came back with a two and half metre long monster! It was incredibly heavy (I held it for a good 2 minutes), but stank like hell. Not long after the anaconda-holding session we came across a mother capybara and her 2 cubs. They were amazingly photogenic and just chilled out on the muddy banks while I was happily snapping away.

The highlight of trip for me has to be swimming with pink-river dolphins. They got as close as 1 and a half metres from where I was swimming. The feeling is just incredible. Mind you, the water was alligator, caiman and piranha-infested! However, dolphins are apparently an indicator that there are no piranhas in the surrounding area, so we were safe. Plus, I'm sure they could kick alligator-ass anyday. At one point I did feel something nibbling on me, but I think it was only sardines. Little bastards! The whole trip was absolutely brilliant, without a doubt one of the highlights of the last 2 and a half months. Give me jungle over high-altitude anyday. The only downsides are the mosquitos and the humidity.

The 17-hour busride to Rurre was dusty as hell but much less painful than I imagined it would be. A few hours before arriving the driver blew one of the tyres, but he repaired it relatively quickly. We arrived in complete darkness: there was no electricity in the whole of the town, which apparently is quite a common problem, so we had to wait until the morning to see what the town looked like. Rurre's a really picturesque and chilled-out town. A great place to wind down. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we need to get a move on and head down to Chile. We treated ourselves to a flight on the way back, just for the easy and comfort, although it was pretty turbulent towards the end. Coming back to La Paz was a shock. Damn altitude difference! I'm in La Paz now until Thursday evening.

Sorry for the delay, but here's the link to Jean-Sebastien's blog (the French-Canadian guy I was volunteering with in Villa Tunari). Now, I know the majority of you won't be able to read the text, but if you scroll down you'll find a few photos. Check it!

Villa...

Alas, the 3 weeks of volunteering with the Angels of Hope have come to an end. The time we spent here really has flown by. It was definitely sad leaving everyone and everything behind; it began to feel like home! The most heartwarming moment was when we were given a little poster and bracelet by the children from one of the 5-year old classes in the school. Very cool. Cat deserves all the credit though. The whole of last week Cat was teaching that class, as their teacher had to go to Cochabamba to sort out something. She successfully tought the kids Old MacDonalds farm in Spanish (translated herself), which has now unofficially become the anthem of the school. The kids love hearing and singing it. Especially when Cat's riding the bus they always want to hear "El Chaco". Brilliant. Definitely a way to leave a mark on the foundation. I spent the majority of last week helping out with serving meals, feeding babies and construction, painting things in the playground (which still isn't open!). Because there were only 5 volunteers, we helped out at the school both mornings and afternoons, having Spanish lessons during lunchtimes and in the evenings. This week has been much more slow-paced. I came down with a mild flu on Monday, spent most of the day in bed of Tuesday, but once I started taking antibiotics they killed the fever, so I recovered pretty quickly. There was a serious shortage of volunteers for a little while: from Friday until Monday Cat and me where the only ones there, apart from Amanda and Brent (the directors of the foundation) who helped take care of little jobs. Cat and me spent a lot of time playing cards and drinking beer with them. Then on Tuesday, 9 new volunteers turn up out the blue, including a Belgian girl. Excellent, I finally had someone to speak Flemish with! It's amazing how few Belgians I've met since I started travelling. She's the second. At least it means they can manage without us. Next week the school is closed (shame for the volunteers), but they're hoping to finish a lot of the construction work on the kitchen. There will always be plenty of jobs to do. Seriously, anyone who is considering visiting Bolivia and looking to do some form of volunteering should certainly check out the Angels of Hope. I'd love to come back in 5 years time and see how the volunteer programme has evolved (also to see how much bigger the school's gotten and how the children that we were helping have grown up!).

Am currently back in Cochabamba, immobilised. There's constitutional elections on so no driving allowed, which means we have to stay here for an extra day. We're experiencing a completely different Cochabamba this time around! The hostel we chose is relatively nice hostel and is located at the nice end of town (not like the grotty piece of crap we stayed in last time). Hopefully Cat and I will be able to catch a bus to La Paz tomorrow and then continue on to Rurrenabaque (a 18-20 hr bus ride of which the first bit is basically the death road I did by mountainbike!). Once we do a Pampas Wildlife tour in the area around Rurre we'll be on our way south to Sucre, the salt flats in Uyuni and then northern Chile.