The final and absolute cherry on top aka my last days in South America...

Night buses...oh the joy!!!!

After a truly pleasant stroll through the historic town, its recoletta, park and winded streets, we all met up for a brill almuerza ( a set meal with soup, main and dessert for 2$) at El German. We all scuffed down our yummy lunches and after packing our stuff at the hostel decided to have one last mango beer ( god it is a delicious drink) before we headed to the bus station.

Bolivian logic: there are 12 bus companies, all of them have only one bus to la Paz a day, all these buses leave within 15min of each other. Brilliant isn´t it!?

night bus. fat, old bolivian man snoring LOUDLY. no toilets. general uncomfort for 12 hours ie. bolivia aint no argentina when it comes to buses.

So we arrived in La Paz early in the morning and the next adventures began.

Day 1: witches market with lama fetuses, black market, street food, slices of pineapple, beautiful churches etc etc....as it was going to be our last dinner all together, we decided to do something special!!!

And in the spirit of me going to India soon, and the Peggs couple having lived there for 6 months, we decided to dare and visit The Star of india. Why am i using the word 'dare' to describe a visit to a restaurant? Well, this happens to be the indian restaurant that claims to have the 'Spiciest Vindaloo in the World'....so we went, we ordered, we tried to conquer, and many of us didn't.....

Simon was the only one who managed to down the entire bowl of the deadly Vindaloo ( to be fair, he had had 6 months of trainign though). The rest of us just started swetting, coughinf, generally taking on a rather red tint etc.....it was pathetic :)

Simon got a t-shirt, as do all who manage to eat the whole curry, and the rest of us got the bill and a nasty after taste the whole of the next day ( the less fortunate ones also got agood work-out during the night, runnign from their room to the toilet :( oops...)

The next morning it was already off to Copacabana- 4 hours on the bus- and one arrives to the tranquil views and surroundings of Lake Titicaca. On the way, the bus has to cross a big river. How do we solve that one, ey? Well, we obviously load all the passangers on a seperate boat, and then just drive onto a massive wooden raft and casually cross the river on that :)

The town of Copacabana was very touristy, with the only businesses being numerous gringo caffees and shops, full of the identical items, BUT the beautiful church, located at the end of the town did make up for it. Upon my arrival in the church, a little old blind lady was begging at the entrance. I scruffed up all my spare change and popped it into the lady's conveniently positioned hat, that was readily being held up towards me at this point. wow, that really set her off. To cut it short, I believe i received a 10000 different blessings and she woudl not let go of me for at least 2 minutes. It was beautiful though, to see that simple change to me, coudl mean the world to her. As my nose seems to be the guide through the entirety of many fo my walks I just happened to find the local market with all their goodies. I also foudn the highlight of this market: the eatery!!! Although I was by far the only gringo in there, surrounded by possibly 99% of the town enjoyign their lunch, I munched on some delicious soup, and anyway, who cares when your stomach is happy and your mouth is full. right?

At 1.30pm I catched a boat to Isla del sol. THE slowest boat ride int he history of man....but the silver lining of this of this tediously long boat ride was that I had enough time to get acqainted with kevin, sabrina, charlie and chema....the two later beign from israel and the others from switzerland, we got talking, to forget that our limbs were slowly loosing all their sensations and that our ass might actually be frozen to the bench. We quickly decided that we might as well stay at the same hostel and compared stories about travels so far. when we arrived on the island, we were all surprised to find that a obligatory 5bolivianos tax fee had to be paid ( so much for developing country, ey? they seemed on it)- welcome- after all just becuase its an island in bolivia dont mean there aint no arrival tax. So after a staggering 200 very steep stairs- the joy the joy!!! break, step step, break step step....we made it to our hostel. The chippery little local boys hopped in front, basically just making us feel bad about our slow old asses, showing us the way to their hostel...

The hostel wwasnothign extraordinary BUt, oh but, the views!!!!! unlike anythign i have seen since guatemala. The LAKE- beautiful, and finally soemthing a little like lake Atitlan (oh how I miss it). After we dropped our stuff of, we decided to explore this island. We walk in one direction- ruins! walk in the other-a hill! In other word, there aint much to do on that island BUT at the spot called 'gate to the sun', the views are really lovely, peaceful and generally very soothing. The others didnt join me, but i decided to just have a proper evening hyke, and so upon my arrival back at the hostel ( the sun had set in the mean time) we were all wrapped up in ALL of our clothing, freezing ,as the night dampness started to set in. A warm veggie soup for dinner to warm up the body and night night, off we went to the land of dreams: after all 9pm is way past our bed time on the island.

All of us woke up for sunrise, gulped down some warm coca tea and down we went, down those 200 stairs we had climbed less than 24 hours ago. Boat back....yep styill took us loooonnngggg!! I had to have a brisk lunch at my fave mercado (the local market) again BUT this time trout-their known specialty!! for 2$...wow what a bargain a and what a treat!

At 1pm I hopped on my bus back to la Paz and at 5:30pm, i found myself already walking through the door of Adventure brew Hostel ( th eboys had moved hostels in the tiem that I had been gone- yep, i just leave and get them to move my stuff for me). very ready to just kick back and relax for the night, i was a little surprised to have to get out and about very soon again.

what you mean i cant just relax?? oh i have to go and organzie a 100 things again?? hm...no surprise there then :)

Ryan had used my absence to get our climb booked, which was going to start the following day, and so important things, such as tryign on shoes, waterproof jackets, trousers, gaiters, crumpets...the whole shebang! was required.

Our last supper before the hyke was considered very important by all of us, for different reasons. by ryan and me, because we were convinced we needed as much energy, and fat to warm us up up on the mountain, and by matt, because he kept saying that we might die, and therefore this migth ACTUALLY be the last supper. freak. Basically anythign that smelled good and stared at us from inside those inviting stalls eg. pork bun, chorizo bun, corn, fresh apple juice....anything, qualified for our dinner that night!! i think we defo stocked up on fat that evening.

Not often does it happen that i am desperate to buy candy and anything high in suger but that night i did: cookies, biscuits, lollies, snickers, coke...anythign that will keep me going!! ryan kept saying how we will need emergency rations and how i will appreciate a sip of coke, when i am hanging onto an ice cliff and have no energy left to pull myself up...bla bla bla...basically scaring the shit out of me, and makign me buy alot of unhealthy sugary crap.

6:30am LETS DO THIS!!!

ryan and me, threw on our 'climbing' gear aka trousers, t-shirt, jumper and hyking boots, grabbed our big 60litre empty bags ( they were going to be filled up at base camp with all our hyking gear), grabbed two free pancakes, spread some jam in between them, and with our fingers still sticking together with jam, and our stomachs struggeling to digest two massive pancakes at 7am, we ran down the main street to meet our driver in front of the company's office. We were of course exactly on time, but our other companion, 'amigo japones' as he got to be called by all, was a little late and so we used this time to chat to our guide. When he did arrive, he had a spare loo roll hanging of the side of his backpack, big water bottle loosely hanging out of his arms and about a thousand jumpers hanging off him- we immediately knew that this would be fun! We got reassured of this as soon as we realized that our 'amigo japones' not only spoke no spanish but also no english....yeeey!!! Anyway, we all filed ourselves into a small truck and together with a massive bag of stale bread rolls, which has been our staple breakfast throughout the entire of Bolivia, we trottet off to climb this son of a b****!!!

The first day was GREAT. We arrived at the mountain, no doubt a little surprised by the actual very imposing size of the mountain- Hyuani Potosi- but ready to get active! We dropped our stuff off, had lunch, chicken and rice, at the very unusual hour of 10:30 am, and off we went with our crampons, ice pick, waterproof gear etc, to have our go at ice climbing. it was immense!!! We climbed up vertical ice walls, hanging onto an icepick with our entire strength not to fall into the debths of the below lurking crevices....then down-sailed, then walked up another vertical wall again, thsi time using purely our crampons...basically it was awesome adventure sports all day!! We spent about 5 hours doign this, having fun and getting well acquinted with our gear, which was to become our new best friend during the next two days. We then retreated to the base camp, by thsi point thouroughly frozen through and through, and ready for some hot coco. As we returned, we met our fourth and last team member, Mark ( a 2m tall dutch guy). We pulled on all our warm clothes, and sat down to have our next warm meal of the day at 6pm. A yummy warm soup and more chicken with rice, were actually surprisingly appealing to us, as they did provide certain comfort in the cold rooms of our camp. Afterwards, we started doping up on litres of coca tea and cream crackers with butter and jam ( these became our staple snack of thsi trip- they were truly amazing- but then anything will seem amazign to you int he freezing cold, or am 1am, or after a life threatenign hyke). We met the other two groups that were going to attempt to climb the summit with us in two days, and amongst them were the three great people: Andrew, Shawn and Charlie ( all from the US- brilliant). Shawn taught us all THE essential card game ( according to him that is)- Shithead- and that pretty much , accompanied by more coca leaf and crackers- kept us entertained till bed time aka 8pm. You dont argue about this bedtime hour when you have to get up at 7 am only to hyke a VERY hard piece of mountain.

So that night I struggled to sleep, as it was freezing and I really needed to pee ( obviously) but i am after all very stubborn after my dear old daddy and so argued myself out of havign to venture outside for as long as possible, only to then have to sprint outside for it was getting rather urgent.

In the mornign many of us woke up more tired than the evenign before but nonethelss ready to get going. After a 'surprise surprise' breakfast of bread rolls with jam, coca tea and more crackers ( oh and actually a special treat of a banana) we packed our bags ( thsi time truly packed to the rim with all our gear) and off we went...OM fucken GOD ( excuse my french)!!!! I simply cannot describe how hard that day was. We had to climb a difference of 1000m in height but in about 4km. So actually the distance was nothing BUT with 20kg on your back and your terrain being loose rocks on a cliff side this proved to be VERY challenging ( if only I woudl have known what was to come the next day- ha i would have runned up). I shall not ellaborate on the pain, the anger, the sadness and determination ( actually that i just might expand on...haha) it took to get up to high camp that day BUT the important thig is I did, we all did it, and we smiled once we did. And boy did we have reason to....the views were exquisite, the sky clear as water, the glacier on one side, the entire valley and mountain range ont he otherm and the brilliant afternoon sun. We all dinned on pasta with beef and soem undefinable sauce and for dessert: well more crackers and coca tea. That afternoon we just sat at the foot of the glacier ( to mentally get used to the idea that we woudl be climbign that in a few hours), chatted about our lives and travels so far. It was fun- we were a great group!!!

A quick dinner at 5pm of rice and more beef and off to bed. Rising time was at midnight.

I tried to sleep, i really did, we all did, and i think that mark, the only one of us, managed to get 4 hours of sleep in. me personally, I slept for 3 hours, but some slept for maybe an hours or two max. Anyway, I was WAY too excited, the wind was screaming outside and the brightness of the stars and the almost full moon was intense!!

11:58, 11:59, 12:00- FINALLY!!!!!

We were all ready to go. In record time I had my long underwear, 2nd layer of trousers, two pairs of socks, 5 layers of tops, and scarf on and made my way down, where our guides were already laying out hot water for coca tea and some bread for breakfast ( our eating schedules got seriously screwed up during that 3 day trip). We all rushed to the loos, did what we had to do, in order to get used tot he fact that its midnight, we are awake and have to now climb on ice and snow for 6 hours to the height of 6040m in the pitch black. for me that purely entailed sitting down and sipping on my coca tea and chewing my stale bread roll.
1am. Mark, Ryan, Amigo japones, me and our two guides carlos and david- head torches attached to our helmets, crampons on our ice shoes, waterproof on, ice picks in hand and attached to each other with two ropes, we were ready for this as we would ever be.
It was hard, it was pitch black, the ice was glistening in our torch lights and in those shining from the stars, every step was hard, the breathign was tough from time to time and the peak invisible for most of the time. Ryan started throwing up at around 5800m - with 240m to go- GREAT!!! attached to me by rope, i had to pull him up though. either both of us make it or none of us- and I was gonna make it. At 5am we were at 5090m- the summit in sight, the sunrise lazily waiting behind the horizon, a puking ryan and a MASSIVE ridge of ice in front of us. the final stretch wasnot gonna be an easy one.
WE DID IT!!!!
I couldnt feel my fingers, I was deliriously tired and Ryan was deliriously dizzy BUT we snapped some pictures, congratulated each other as best as we could in the freezing cold, watched the sun rise ( the most beautiful thing I have ever seen) and headed down.
The way down was a lot easier, ryan started to be rather cheery very soon, and so we could even take some cheeky bottomless pics- haha...oh yes, our bolivian guide was surprised when ryan and me both pulle dour pants down at -15 degrees Celsius and posed for him to snap a picture- but as he said later...we gringos are crazy, nothing surprises him anymore..
We made it back to the high camp, repacked everything, changed into 'normal' clothes, gulped down THE best hot soup from a packet EVER and made our way down all the way to base camp. We were there by noon and surely enough by 2pm we were being dropped off int he city center again. I cannot deny that as we made our way back to our hostel i walked down that street with my shoulders slightly pulled back, my stride having a slight pride about it, and with every person we passed I thought to myself: if only you knew, if only you knew what I have already done today!!! The feeling was cereal and wonderful.
That shower we took upon our return to the hostel was great and HOT and we were both very ready to have soem serious down time. this took place at a little venue outside of la paz, watching cholita wrestling- don't ask me how i got talked into it- but somehow i did indeed end up watching women s wrestling. One thing: don't do it to yourself!!! That night we celebrated our survival and return to civilization as heroes with a meal at a Mexican restaurant and then a rather early retreat!!! We NEEDED our sleep.
The next day was to be a CHILL out day!!! it was, but it wasn't. I woke up with a massive cold but my slight obsession 9 more interest should i say) in prisons, made the San Pedro just too appealing. yes, i did go and visit the prison. yes, it was amazing, yes, it was exactly like in the book "marching powder" (read it if you haven't, its really good). yes, it continued my experience of cereal in Bolivia and yes, you will be shit scared but GO!!!! I spent 3 hours there, and loved every second of it. I would elaborate more but really can't. because, no offense, but you woan't understand. i visited the 'la posta' the gringo posh side of the prison. only 100 of the 5000 prisoners live there BUT there was no way i could go into the other population side- they would, no kidding, actually kill me. i did not doubt that after the uproar that simply our entrance through the main gates made in the population side of the entrance area.
That night we had another cultural experience in a Moroccan restaurant ( Very very very good hummus) and met up with Andrew and Charlie from the hike for a beer after...
Again an early night- still catching up on sleep- after all- didn't do much resting that day and the day after that, the 27th was my last day in Bolivia, and South America in general...:(
Woke up at 6am AGAIn but this time had a great reason to: World's Most dangerous road!! you heard me. we had signed up to ride mountain bikes down this road. It is knows as the world' smost dangerous as an average of 200-300 locals die on it every year. look it up on the internet- only pictures really explain the current state of the path. It was SO fun though!!! You basically ride for 3 and a half hours downhill (with only one 8mile cycle up), and descend 3500m. Brilliant!!!
At the bottom we chilled out, had some showers and a all-you-can eat buffet at an animal resort. I spent an hour cuddling up to a little monkey called Cobo (he really liked me and actually nibbled my lip- yep i indeed had a little afternoon lovin' from a monkey :))
That afternoon we headed home and it was indeed time for me to part with the boys- my dear companions- so to have our last supper, we finished our multi-cultural experience in a Cuban restaurant. With a mojito and a rich, very rich, chocolate brownie, we toasted to our good times together and promised each other to have a reunion sooner rather than later. I packed up my stuff and at 1 am I was sitting at my gate at La paz airport to board my plane to Santiago. Woth 3 stop overs, it was a LONG night, and i passed out on airport benches many a times BUT I made it and believe it or not: it was the 28th of April, 23pm and I was sitting in seat 13F, Santiago to Auckland.

yes. My time on this lovely continent had come to and end, it had been beautiful , sad, amazing, challenging and I fell in love with it. I will be coming back, that was for sure and I kept on reassuring myself of it as i heard the plane's wheels accelerating and finally being tucked in by the pilot as i watched the night lights of Santiago swiftly being replaced by the darkness of the below sea!!!!

Bye bye South America and hello NZ!!!

OMG- this is really happening, I am now off to the land of the Kiwis, the sheep and the other side of the world- WOW!!! wish me luck :)

Bolivia and the adventures it brings...

WOW!! The mines were an absolutely eye-opening experience. We left our hostel at 8:30 am, after a very hearty breakfast of eggs, rolls, jam, bananas etc..., and hopped on a bus to the 1st miners' station, to get all geared up! It was funny, to say the least- over our trousers we all had to pull on red, plastic trousers, then massive knee-high wellies, a green plastic coat, a massive belt, with a battery attached, which then connected with a long wire to the torch on our helmet, which was bright yellow, and definitely evoked some sexy looks amongst the group! Our whole group consisted of 16 people, but we got divided into three groups: two guys from the czech republic ( its true, there are actually other czechs who travel- i am not the only freak) , who had their own spanish guide, and then two groups of 7, each with a english guide! I feel like I have to spend a few words on our guide, Rodriguez: his english was fine, and his enthusiasm definitely plentifull, but so was his supply of swear words in English, which he has learnt from the tourists over the years, and so there were several occasions, where I stared at him in desbelief, as he referred to us as "mad cows", or " f****** crazy bitches"!
Anyway, all ready to get dirty, we made one more stop at the miner's market: the tourists are asked to buy dinamite, alcohol, cigarettes or coca leaves for the miners, as a gesture of respect and general politeness! Amongst the 7 of us, we stocked up on a good amount of dinamite, alcohol, juice and coca leaves and were ready to party!!
We arrived at the mines, and a couple of people immediately backed out ( amongst them an 18-year-old lad, who had been boasting about his lack of fear in the bus- I am not going to lie, I laughed quite a lot)!!
Off we went...general idea: started out on the first level, absolutely fine, wide corridors, pleasant breeze and cool temperatures..
the first obstacle came, when we had to climb down a VERY small, slippery, tight ladder, down a dark hole, to get to the 4th level.
general idea: hot, crawling on all fours due to the lack of space, dusty air, strong smell of gas and other fumes, mud up to 50cm at points!!
We ran into numerous miners working and so got a good idea as to what the labour consisted of- whether they were blowing up sections, sorting out the materials or digging their way through scarsely existing holes, all of them were working crazy hard, in conditions that one cannot imagine till one sees it!!
I believe around 5 out of the 30 men we saw in the two hours we were down there, were between 50 and 60 years old, and had worked in the mines for over 30 years! And a further 5 were under the age of 15! The tragic fact, that these men will most likely die of a very serious lung disease, and the young boys' life expectancy is around 48, cast a sad and contemplative mood over all of us, but the truth is harsh and that became very clear!!
Two hours later we all crawled out, swetty, covered in dust, desperately sucking in the fresh air and getting used to the sharpness of the bright noon sun!!
The afternoon was then spent, strolling around Potosi, little stall there, cute shop here, yummy fruits there, strange jelly with meringue here!!!
In the late afternoon, just as I was about to start retreating to my hostel, I found the cutest little convent, which obviously had to be explored!! Judy, a lovely bolivian lady, took me around for almost 2 hours, telling me crazy stories of the lives of the 21 girls that used to occupy the convent almost 300 years ago!! Conclusion: I am never going to become a nun- if I haven't learned anything else in my gapyear, that I now know for sure !!
Later that night I had a good night out with my ozzie friends, in a local little bar, live reagge mucis and all...little tip: do not under-estimate the effect that altitude can have on you when drinking!!! Not saying that I got very ridiculously drunk or anything, just warning those people out there, that might do so!!! haha
The next mornign we all hopped on a bus to Sucre, and off we went bumping up and down little stone roads for 4 hours, till we arrived in Sucre!!
Quite a surprise: really hot, massive, well-dressed people on the streets, just a proper city I guess!!
We all ( by this point we were a group of 9, we were all headign in the same direction and so just stuck together), checked-in at the Amigo Hostel and ready to explore yet another town quickly made our way into the streets of Sucre!
The town is very pretty, with a very spanish feel to the old buildings and little squares!! In the evening we all went for a group dinner at Joy Ride ( not just for gringos, as the menu says), and had a great night!! We all shared two massive tacos combos - altogether 50 tacos, and heaps and heaps of guacamole, cheese, tomato and beef...all for 30 $ JOKES!!! It was a typical south american night: sangria, beer, cheesy music, out-of-breath dancing ( the altitude seriously kicks in)....
Yesterday, Ryan, Matt, Andy and me went horse-riding !!! Haha..it was soo mcuh fun. We rented horses, and with our guide, we roamed around the beautiful surroundings of Sucre!! The horses were basically not trained, so attempting to steer them was useless and caused alot of laughter. Matt had a horse, which nonetheless behaved more like an old donkey, Andy's horse just did anything that my horse did, and Ryan's horse was clearly very keen on hard terrain, and from time to time just started heading up into the hills. My "muchacha" was the most lively one, but seeign that I was the only one who can ride, it was better that way...As the boys struggled to get their horses trotting, I had a few lovely sessions of galloping trhough the country-side!! After about 3 hours our horses started to slowly have enough of it: Ryan's horse actually seriously broke down- legs out, just collapsed on the road and Ryan was lucky enough to have jumped off in time. My horse started standing up on her back legs, because she apparently doesn't like white cars ( my guide could have told me this earlier), and one passed us about every 5 minutes, as we had to ride along a main road for a while!! Anyway, it was fun and for 20 $ absolutely worth it. It is fair tosay though, that Argentina is a horse country, and bolivia isn't!!
In a little town of Yayana, where we finished our ride, we then discovered a strangelly posh swimming pool complex, with a beach volleyball court and a lovely loval eatery!! So the hot afternoon wa spent at the pool, playing volleyball ( or attempting to play on my part), sipping beer...
Slightly exhausted we arrived back home, and just chilled in the courtyard of our hostel..
Dinner was a lot more low-key than the previous night, with a visit to a pizza place ( amazing pizza, not even kidding) and ( I know that this is not very traditional but it had to be done) a banana split!!!
To walk out our acquired massive food-babies, we strolled around the night-lit city streets with my ozzie friends. To finish off a successful day, we listened to some music and drank one last Sol in our hostel, before calling it a day!!
Today, yet another sunny and hot day, is the last day in Sucre! We all, by now almost 20 of us, head to La paz tonight ( its a over-night 12 hour bus), and so we are all using today to just see those last things worth seeing...there are plenty of parks, churches, markets and old building!! That being a great excuse to stop writing, I finish today's entry and off I go to suck in some sun and bolivian city spirit...

Mucho amor para Bolivia...in other words I LOVE Bolivia!

The Salar de Uyuni was incredible!
4 days of pure heaven: silence, beauty, nature, animals, no toilets, temperatures below zero every night, a visible milkyway and millions of stars, sleeping in ALL my clothes, getting up at 4am every day to see the sunrise and generally just head out onto the road- as we usually drove in our 4x4 for a good 8 or 10 hours.
Flamingoes, volcanoes, salt planes, weird shaped stones, incredible landscape, bumpy ride, delicious food ( and alot of it)....

i could keep on going! We headed out from Tupiza at 9am on Sunday the 10th. Who? Simon, Emily, Heather and Kevin. Two couples, both from the UK and me. Our driver, Alberto, was a doll and constantly told us stories from his 7 years as a driver through the salt planes. His wife, Elizabeth, is an incredible cook and surprised us every day with new yummy creations. Breakfast ( which we ate at 5am pretty much every morning - you get used to eating at that insane hour) was usually bread with dulce de leche, some hot tea ( my saviour). When she really wanted tot reat us, we had fruit salad from a can or panckakes- yep, they were pretty good! We would then usually head out in our jeep, it still beign dark, we had trouble staying warm, but seeing the sun rise over the beautiful landscape was always worth it. Lunch would be served at noon ( one was pretty hungry by then, as it was 7 hours after breakfast) and would contain some delicious meals, such as lentils, meat, rice or other filling food!
We stopped about a hundred times, to take photos and generally just admire the scenery- although the mornign stops would be very limited in time, as after about 5min I usually had to retire to the jeep- the cold was simply unbearable! We would then arrive at our next accomodation around 5pm and would be ready to eat some more- the cold really gets to you! Plus we were constantly in heights of approx. 4000-5000m above see level,. and it tires you out.
Dinners were epic. Soup- my favourite meal of the day- followed by another warm meal, and then hot chocolate and soem biscuits. As sad as it sounds we were all tucked in by 8pm, wrapped up. fighting the cold, and ready to get up in 8 hours again!
The last night we stayed in a salt hotel- yes, you heard me, the entire hotel was made out of salt blocks: beds, tables, walls, floors, ceilings- todo!! That night,. our last, climaxed with a super hot shower, the firts one in 4 days, and a toilet with a toilet seat ( even a toilet seat can become a luxury when you don't see one for days)!
So all in all it was wicked and i would recommend it to anyone ( also- if you feel like getting some funky photos takes, the salt planes are the place to go- as sad as it sounds, posing next to an apple, and appearing to be the same size on a photograph excited me beyond belief)!
On Wednesday, the 14th, we arrived in Uyuni- a dissapointingly ugly town! But we only spent one night there, exhausted, and ready for some rest in a hotel, which actually had heating, proper beds and a normal bathroom. We all, the five of us, decided to stick together for a bit, as we were all heading in the same direction, and so the next morning, today, we took a early bus to Potosi! The drive to Potosi was beautiful. The landscape varied from sand dunes to craggy rock features to green valleys.
WOW! I think I am in love.
The highest city in the world, at 4080m above sea level, it is lively, pretty and full of bolivian authentic spirit. We arrived, after 6 hours, in Potosi and headed for our hostel, the Koala Den. Only 10min were needed, to drop our stuff, and off we went to explore the city. The little charismatic streets, filled with stalls, markets and smiley grandmas were enought o convince us all to stay a bit longer.
We bought an enormous amount of veggies at the local market for a smashing 6 Bolivianos ( about 90 cents) and whipped up a delicious dinner in our kitchen at the hostel. After swapping some photos, I left the two couples at the hostel and headed out to meet Ryan, Matt and Patrick for a quick beer. Who are they? Ryan and Matt are two ozzie guys, absolutely lovely and they are travelling with Patrick, a welsh guy. We had a nice chat over a couple of beers and it seems like my next few days will be spent with them.
Somethign yous hould knwo about Potosi: it has numerous active mines. Now what could that possibly mean in the travels of Ivy-Victoria? That she obviously has to go and see them! It took me a while, but after some hard-core convincing, I have now signed us all up ( Emily, Simon, Heather and Kevin) for a mine tour for tomorrow mornign at 8:30am. We leave the hostel in the morning, go to a market, so that we can buy somehtign for the miners ( usually visitors stock up on coca leaves, unfiltered cigarettes, 96% proof alcohol or dinamite- yeah its true, dinamite) and then head to the silver mine. We will spend 2 hours underground with the miners!!
Emily, seing that she is a doctor, is concerned about the lung diseases we could catch, Simon (also a doctor) about the possibility of an asthma attack, and Heather and kevin keep checking the statistics of how many people have died in the mines in previosu years. And me? Well I am just bloody excited. First of all, when will I be able to see an active mine- possibly never. And secondly- what would life be without its dangers!!
So with that in mind, I am going to sleep, very excited to have my go at crawling through some extremely small, dark and dangerous mine corridors tomorrow!
Potosi is full of old churches, lovely caffees and little squares, so I imagine the afternoon will then be spent exploring those thourougly.

Bolivia!! Oh okay.....

* Footnote:

In my previous blog I mentioned several Estancias, one being Estancia La Paz in Ascochinga.
I forgot to mention that it was the summer vacation house for the Argentinian president Rosa for 2 entire periods of his reign...so, that is just an example of how amazing South America is. In Europe you would pay huge amounts of money and all you would get is a 15min tour round the main rooms, and an annoying old man following you round, reminding you not to touch ANYTHING!! Here, we slept in his chambers, ate in his dinning room and sipped on wine in his receiving room- kind of magic!! I feel a bit bad though, whilst sipping away on some good Argentinian red wine with my parents, my mother managed to knock my glass over and so I can now say ( slightly ashamed but also maybe a little proud) that I spilt red wine on the president´s carpet :P


BOLIVIA!!!!!
So Wer drove even further north from salta and arrived in Purmamarca- a beautifully situated villager, with a setting that is unbelievable. With a massive mountian, called "Cerro de las siete colores" ( The Hill of seven colors) you really cannot believe your eyes. As we arrived in the late afternoon, the sun was beginnign to set and...WOW. The netire mountain flames up with colores like copper, brick red, purple, green, blue, orange...nothing like it. We stayed 2 nights and mainly explored the surroundings, visited some of the other sweet villages ( although we had to come to the conclusion that Purmamarca was the prettiest of the lot) and generally took in the culture of the far north. Seeing that my father and I had been searching for the perfect poncho throughout Argentina, we were extremely pleased when we wondered into a little forgotten shop, that turned out to be a treasure chest. Packed with antique ponchos, full of colors, shaped and styles we had more than enough to choose from. Over an hour later, we left the shop, both wearing out ponchos with great pride (and my mother walking visibly further away from us than usual...haha..clearly a bit embarassed. although I dare say more by my father than me, for he walked through the quite streets of Purmamarca, slightly carried away by his new attire, flapping the sides of his poncho like a moth)!!
Yesterday came the day that I had been fearing a little if I am ohnest. Crossing the border to Bolivia. After I said my goodbyes to my family ( I shall be seeign them in about 4-5 months again) I got on a bus in Tilcara, which took me to La Quiaca, the border town of Argentina. On the bus, two blokes from Argentina started questioning me about my journey and as it turned out we would be doing the same route, and so I was once again not alone!
We walked 10 blocks to the border and thats where it began. First standing in line for about 20min to get a stamp for leaving Argentina and then another 30min to get a stamp to enter Bolivia. It was incredible!! As soon as we crossed over into Villazon, the town on the Bolivian side, a man starting shouting at me and following me for taking a picture of the big welcoming sign "Welcome to Boilivia". Slightly frightened, the boys, Javier and Juan, took me under their wing and slowly but surely the guy stopped hassalign me. We exchanged some dollars and made our way up to the bus station. the goal was to leave Villazon ASAP and make our way up to Tupiza. The streets were colourful, loud, manic, women in traditional attires everywhere, babies tied to their backs with old traditional cloths....literally within 200m it was another world. Villazon is in 3,200m above see level and the sun was very stong. We all kept on drinking masses of water as it is easier to get light-headed and kept being astounded by the new surroundings.
HINT: chew coca leaves. yep, you heard me. It is what you think it is. In Bolivia people buy plastic bags full of leaves from the coca plant ( which when processed with millions of chemicals produces cocain). it is completely legal and actually helps a lot with the high altitude. We were lucky and so at 4pm we were seated in a bus to Tupiza, coca leaves in cheek and water bottle in hand, we were all ready for the next adventure. On the border we also met a german guy, called Thomas, and he joined us. Then there were five!!
The journey was a jOKE: the bus crossed, rivers, train tracks, dirt roads ( 70% of the road was not paved)...in other words we payed only 15 Bolivianos for quite an adventure ride!
At 7pm we arrived in Tupiza and straight away got approached by a sweet little girl who was adveritizing a hostel- for 25 Bolivianos a night ( approx. 3 dollars) we couldnt complain. We4 dropped our bags off, freshened up a bit and headed out into the streets- after all it was Friday evening.
Apparently Friday evenign is the night to be out in the town of Tupiza :) The local school just had a ball, so all the streets were full of youngsters clothed in beautiful evening attire. The main square was full of little stands selling local delicacies, and I myself got blown away by "pancho de canela" - basically hot rum with water and cinnamon - ricissimo!!!
But we were all tired and so called it a night around 12pm. thsi mornign it was tiem to part. The boys had been great for helping me cross the slightly manic border buit now they wanted to continue to Uyuni. Me???
Nope. For me it is time to head into the Salt plains - Salar de Uyuni. I depart tomorrow on a 4- day trip around the Salt plains, volcanoes, pink flamingoes and many more incredible things I am sure.
I shall write what I saw once I amk back but for now it is "Adios amigos". I now have to go and buy a sleeping back as the night temperatures can drop down to -5 degrees Celcius and we will be sleepign in simple cabins without electricity.

Lets keep going North, we are bound to hit the border at some point....

From the end of the world to the centre of the world it might seem. As we departed from Ushuiaia on the 15th, only the grand glaciers lining the horizon, I knew little of what lies ahead. And so when the glaciers and turquoise waters got replaced by the endless sea of Buenos Aires’s buildings, it was a pleasant and slightly confronting realization that I was back in a major city. Buenos Aires is exactly that- a major city. Numerous boutiques line the pavements, with the newest and funkiest designs jumping at you from behind the glass windows. The amount of restaurants could make a hungry person go mad and the smell of steak wafting through the streets from every kitchen door becomes something you become somewhat numb to. We arrived at the national airport, which was very conveniently placed just outside central Buenos Aires and so before I knew it, we were dashing through he busy streets in a taxi, of which the taxi driver is still to receive a formal complaint from me. Little note on the side- taxi drivers are generally known to be slightly on the crazy side in South America BUT Buenos Aires taxi drivers take it to a whole new level and if any one of them happens to, by complete coincidence, get to read this blog then: WHAT the hell are you thinking? Are you deliberately trying to kill someone or are you just plain stupid?? Okay, so now that I ventilated a bit of anger I can continue..:) Anyway, only a few minutes later we arrived at our apartment in Palermo Viejo, a beautiful part of Buenos Aires, where sitting at an outside table in front of a cute café, sipping cafe con crème and reading a novel, is absolutely acceptable ( if not slightly expected). We had 2 full days before we had to head out to our next destination, which was to be Baradero, and so we made full use of them. Rather than rushing my way through all the typical tourist attractions I fully embraced the Buenos Aires life-style for those 2 days: For breakfast we would sit in a beautiful café at the corner of a park in Palermo Soho called Mamaracha. After waking up with a freshly squeezed orange juice and a couple of media lunas, it was off for a brisk walk in the park, maybe a bit of window shopping and generally a well- balanced few hours of relaxation and fun. Light lunches are luckily a concept they do understand in Buenos Aires (unlike anywhere outside of the city) and so a salad was actually an option- for which I was very grateful. Afternoons were spent doing more activities, which demanded little strenuous exercise and so in the early evening, only a quick freshening up was needed before the night part of the day could begin. Bad habit: eating at 10pm. Who has this habit? The entire population of Argentina, and Buenos Aires even more so! I could write long essays on, how steaks are hard to digest when consumed after 9pm, or, how Argentineans have a strange perception of what is a human size portion of meat, or how one basically looses all his/her human rights as to what one wants to consume, due to the fact that there is no option apart from meat BUT that would be pointless so I won’t…but you get the idea!! On the 18th of March it was: no more lazing around and lets get to business – or polo in our case! We spent 8 full days in the surrounding area of Baradero, the beautifully tranquil region north of Buenos Aires. From our picturesque cottage, we could spot Nicaragua in the distance, horses grazing on our outside lawn and purely listened to the angelic sounds of nature. Although it must be said that mosquitoes did become our greatest enemy (just after bloody bums and aching arm muscles), we defeated them night-by-night successfully and so with ridiculous amount of OFF! Sprayed all over ourselves and frantically shutting the door behind us each time we entered the house, not even the blood-sucking mosquitoes could ruin the experience. Our schedule was simple: rise at 8am, munch up on a huge breakfast, spray an entire can of OFF! All over ourselves and head over to the stables. Marcelo, our lovely stable carer, helped us buckle up, saddle the horses and so with little ado by 10am we were already stepping onto the (by the end of the weak very familiar) polo field. We would practice for 3 hours, usually stick n’ ball, to only dismount with cramps along our entire inner thighs ( only the first day to be honest…exaggerating a little here I know) and head into the house for some LUNCH!! We were actually, not kidding, like a bunch of wolves. We ate veggies, and meat by kilos each and so it is only understandable that a siesta was extremely necessary. After a 45min nap and a quick coffee, the horses were being galloped by us, skilled riders, all around the field by 5pm again. In the afternoon we usually practiced games, rules and technique. We would make use of the last sun just barely lighting up the field and would retreat only if absolutely necessary ( in other words, when it was too dark to see the ball on the ground). For 8 days we played a solid 5 hours of polo each day, ate like horses ourselves (although I probably ate more than my horse) and generally fell into bed absolutely shattered each night. Polo was an interesting experience for me. I disliked it a lot at first. I LOVE horses and so the idea of crashing my horse into another horse in order to then attempt hitting a tiny ball with a heavy wooden stick, whilst galloping at full speed and being attacked by another 4 riders on their horses…..no, really not my cup of tea!! But unfortunately, as I was the only girl amongst many guys (my father and brother being rather dangerous as they were new to the game also, and the others being professional so just plain scary as hell) I had to show them what I am made of. It took time, before I managed, but by the end of the week, and after numerous conversations with myself about not being a wimp, I successfully partook and actually kicked their asses. Go girl power!
Down sides: well apart from having bloody bruises all over your bum and not being able to use your wrist because you have been using muscles you didn’t even realize you had….let me think…hmm…oh yes, maybe the fact that my upper thighs acquired the size of a grown male body builder!! Yep, it is official; I left Baradero, with thighs like a sprinter. Its fine, let me calm you down, I have tried my best to reduce my upper thigh muscles (mainly by simply not galloping 5 hours a day) and am slowly getting there. It was definitely a great experience though. But all things, good or bad, have to come to an end and so we headed back to Buenos Aires.
But not for long!!!!
Although, before we did manage to head off again, I managed to meet up with Axel, Charlie and Tom (all former St. Paul’s students) and it was FUN! I am not going to elaborate, simply because you weren’t there, so you wouldn’t understand anyway..haha BUT all I am going to say is 3 words: 69, go there!!
Seriously, transvestites can apparently make for a good night in Buenos Aires…just some food for thought!!
So on the 27th of March it was LET’S GO time again. And so we did. Mendoza was our next destination. We all know that Mendoza is known for its wines, so no surprise there, that we pretty much just visited wineries all day, ate wonderful food, went horse-riding and enjoyed the beautiful hot weather (average aprox. 35 degrees Celsius). For me the true highlight of the trip (and I think that my father- a big wine lover - was slightly disappointed) was the visit to Aconcagua. With almost 7000m, it is the tallest mountain in all of the Americas, and stunningly beautiful. During this visit I only hiked to the bottom of the mountain ( to check out the terrain and conditions) but I am coming back soon and climbing it – its going to be for Ecolibri, my charity, and I have set my heart on it!!! I needed a next challenge ( what after the whole travelling on my own around the world thing) and so climbing a 7000m tall mountain seems about right!! So that’s that…otherwise, the scenery is incredible, striking colours of the mountains, combined with the blasting wind, azur sky and glistening small ponds- truly mesmerizing. From Mendoza on we went- and bussed it to Cordoba. Just a little note on the side- the buses are GREAT!! You just basically fold your chair into a fully horizontal position and sleep like a baby all night…just thought I would slip it in there, for those adventurers, who are planning their own trip to the heart of South America any time soon). So Cordoba…well..not much to say. Kinda’ disappointed. Rained all the time we were there, slightly sketchy. Don’t know. BUT to be fair, it had been hyped up by many, so it had big expectations to fulfil and in all honesty we did find a great eatery and the hotel we were staying in was beautiful (good thing that, as we did have to end up spending a lot of time there).
Forgot to mention some news, which I received just before leaving for Cordoba; received my replies from universities. To my great surprise and joy I had some brilliant offers – top being St. Andrews in Scotland, and Georgetown in Washington D.C. I decided for the latter and so it happens that I shall be enrolling into Georgetown University in August this summer, into the class of 2014!! Very excited about that aspect.
So in Cordoba we rented a car and the next few hundreds of miles were to be crossed by car.
Cordoba - Estancia La Paz (Ascochinga) - Estancia Las Carreras (Tucuman)- Estancia El Manantial des Milegros (Salta).
1000km, 3 days, many stops, incredible scenery!!
Each night we slept at a different Estancia – old typical Argentinean farm – using their horses to go on horse rides early in the morning, walking through rich grounds, milking cows ( yep, I actually milked the cow and then made my own cheese- got it in a bag to prove it). The farms are always very homey and comfortable. I am getting (maybe a bit too much for my own good) very used to drinking my evening cup of tea in front of a flaming fire, with a soft blanket made from lama wool over my lap, and fresh dulche de leche flan to snack on. OMG!!!! I might have already mentioned dulche de leche, but I certainly have to mention it – even twice if necessary. OMG – not much more can be said. It’s basically like caramel but better, richer, sweeter and EVERYWHERE! Haha…its true. Smeared on every cake, served at every breakfast with toast, even put in coffee, this ridiculously sweet “thing” is maybe something I might miss a little. I must admit (and please don’t tell my dad, he might disown me), I will miss the excellent steaks BUT I might miss dulche de leche a bit more. Sshhh…(he would b devastated if he would realize that I am in fact not as obsessed with meat as he is). Although on the note of meat; today we drove from Tucuman to Salta, but on the way we stopped in Cafayate, known to be the most beautiful village in the whole of Argentina. It was soooooo cute! Really glad I saw it, plus they did in fact have some great meat. We stopped for lunch and as my father insisted on ordering himself, sooner than I knew it, I was not only confronted by about 6kg of meat for 5 people ( one being only 4 years old) but the meat also included goat and rabbit. Not judging I kept my mind open and tried it all- wow. I am not going to go into details BUT I am simply going to say: try goat and rabbit. The drive to Salta was amazing!!!!! It’s like driving through the Grand Canyon; Massive, deep red stone formations, pinks, reds, violets, oranges, then slowly as more greenery appears, the mountains’ deep reds start contrasting with the lush greens of the rich flora and the dominating plantains of endless cacti. Yep, one cactus larger than the other, thousands of them…it was wonderful, and as the sun was setting, the mountains were actually flaming up, the colours even richer than in the light of mid-day. So with those burning mountains, prickling 4m-high cacti and yummy rabbit in mind, I now finish this entry. I shall now go and have my ‘traditional’ cup of tea in front of the fire and then off to bed- the beds happen to be very comfy at these farms. Tomorrow morning a morning horse ride awaits and so with no time to waste- that’s all for now!!!