Bolivia: Rurrenabaque. First steps into the jungle.

Since it´s been a while that I don´t get to update the blog, I guess I will have to backdate my posts to explain a bit what´s been going on and why have I been so busy these days. I finished work with the children at Para Los Niños and felt the urge to leave La Paz for some "peace" actually. What better place than the amazon jungle north of La Paz? So, no hesitation to take a plane to Rurrenabaque....that was just before I knew what kind of planes they had and the kind of flight that was expecting me!

What you see above is the view from inside the plane. Two rows, one on each side and barely 20 passengers. The plane was really tiny and it was impossible to even stand up on the inside. The worst thing was taking off and having to gain altitude really quickly to go through an area of really high mountains and strong winds. It goes without saying, this plane is shaken by the wind like a fly would be. Luckily, I made it alive and we landed in the middle of a jungle area, cows in the runway of the airport included, and a strong humidity gave us a "warm" welcome.

Rurrenabaque is a nice small town where everyone (and I mean ABSOLUTELY everyone) rides a motorbike. Despite the motorbike traffic is a really quiet town with a really laid back feeling to it. Surrounded by hills, a wide river and lots of green all around, it was the perfect place to escape from the chaotic and polluted La Paz. I just wished I´ve had more time to spend there.

The time I had there was well spent doing one of the Pampas tours along the river Yuca. The tour consisted of three days in the Pampas area sailing the river on a small boat and seeing all sorts of animals, mainly caimans, strange birds and a really strange animal from the same family as the rat, but as big as a pig. Crazy. Special activies included:

- sailing the river at night to see how the eyes of the caimans reflecting the light of our torches; nice and fun, bit scary though when getting to a distance of 1.5m of them!

- hunting anacondas in the swamps, with rubber boots to avoid any accidental bites if stepping onto one of them, and water up to our knees; the weather wasn´t the best but we managed to find one and a so called "fake cobra". Impressive.

- fishing for piranhas with....of course, meat! as dangerous as these little carnivorous fishes canbe, they are actually really pretty and can be found in different colours: green, yellow, red.

- finding unexpected bugs, like a cockroach looking one the size of half my number 44 hiking boot (proof below!). Nasty.

- ....a Bolivia-Argentina football match on TV that never took place. That is just another proof of Bolivian people´s organisational skills.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. As oposed to the high mountains where all is peace, there is a constant feeling of uneasiness in the jungle. You never know what´s around, especially at night, and danger is present at all times if you don´t know the areas well and where to walk. The positive aspect was that the weather was fairly cold due to a cold wave coming from the South, and mosquitoes were quite absent. I survived the jungle with only one mosquito bite, and that is a huge achievement for someone like me!

Bolivia: Climbing Pico Austria

A few days ago I had the chance to experience a really spectacular climb in Bolivia. With its almost 5400m, Pico Austria overlooks Lake Titicaca and other impressive views like Condoriri peak or Lake Chiar Khota. A place to be in peace with oneself and dream of flying.

I didn´t find the climb too hard but I guess that, having previously done the Salkantay Trek and been living for two months at a constant altitude of over 3000m, helped quite a lot. The temperature, as expected, was fairly low but luckily enough we had a sunny day and were really grateful for the warm rays of sun that made the trek more bearable.

Again, it was great to have the chance to leave La Paz behind for a while and get lost into the wild. The peaceful mountains can provide you with some fresh air far from the pollution of the big city. I also had the chance to see some rural areas and small villages on the way that would better represent the real Bolivia than the capital. I didn´t really take any pictures on the way to and from the mountain and I am starting to think that the best pictures of this trip are those ones I haven´t taken. On the other hand, I just don´t want to become a photographer of misery and poverty in this land. I will keep those images to myself. As far as you are all concerned, please be my guest and enjoy the beauty of nature in this exciting country.

Bolivia: Lake Titicaca. Copacabana and Sun Island

Sometimes plans don´t work out as expected. Sometimes places are way more impressive than we expect them to be. Both things happened yesterday when I had the chance to (briefly) visit Lake Titicaca and, especially, the Sun Island. What was meant to be a two days tour spending a night on the island turned out to be a quick one day visit due to yet another threat of transport strike and road blockades. A shame, really, as what I found there was by far the most beautiful spot I´ve found since I started travelling in Bolivia.

Coming from a busy, chaotic and polluted city like La Paz to a small peaceful island surrounded by the highest lake in the world (at 3800m above sea level), where no cars or roads have yet found their way there, was like love at first sight.

I can´t even begin to describe the inner peace I found when, after ascending an Inca staircase dating back to the 15th century AD, I could contemplate a magnificient view of the lake (sea-like), the small sister Moon Island, and the Andean snowed peaks in the far horizon. Not a single artificial noise. Just the sound of the flocks of sweet and friendly donkeys that populate the island among a few llamas, sheeps and dogs (and some other tourists and the few local indigenous people, of course). From the moment I set foot there I thought I would love to spend at least a whole month here, with the minimum company, some bottles of wine, books and a guitar. The island has pretty much everything: astonishing scenery, water views, mountains, a lovely and warm climate during the day (quite freezing during the night, I´ve heard - nothing that cannot be solved with the "good company", who is probably reading this by now, the bottles of wine and a bonfire) and especially peace at its max. I cannot think of a better place to escape to.

As you can imagine, the hour and a half visit was an extremely short one, considering the five hours that takes to get there from La Paz via bus, boat, bus and boat again each way (it is necessary to cross the strait of Tiquina by boat before arriving to Copacabana) and the magnificent impression the island instantly created in me. Feeling dissapointed and fairly melancholic, we left in the evening to come back to La Paz, under the protection of completely clear night skies and infinite stars that made the trip back a memorable one.


Tonight is the Aymara new year celebration that will mark the beginning og their year 5519,  and there will be celebrations at 80 sacred sites in Bolivia, being the main one the ruins of Tiwanaku. It is said that even Evo Morales will be present. I guess they won´t count with my presence, as I will be taking it easy while remembering the beauty of yesterday´s scenery and preparing for a trek to Condori tomorrow. Besides, I had my dose of stress caused by crowds during the Gran Poder celebration on Saturday (some pics for you below) which, by the way, was definitely an interesting event. Judge by yourselves.

Glosary of South American experiences so far

Vast mountain ranges, potatoes, shortage of traffic lights, colourful clothing, the best breakfast in the world = coca tea (not Cola Cao!), llamas, fluffy alpacas, vicuñas, guanacos, missing girlfriend, lukewarm showers, potatoes, unpronounceable Quechua and Aymara names, greenest rainforests, "Blood knot" by Agustín Sánchez Vidal,  mosquitoes, amazing Peruvian buses with beds and bingo games, potatoes, blisters, colonial buildings, street shoes cleaners with covered faces, no bus stops, Inca ruins, condors, deepest canyon, radical changes in temperature, street artists, charangos, potatoes, chaotic organisational skills, protests and roads blocked, fun parties, stars in the midnight skies, shared bathrooms, witches market, loads of new friends, "The lost city of Z" by David Grann, horrible unpaved roads, several currency exchanges (Euro, I miss you!), potatoes, "heaps" of Aussies, Irish and Israelis, Death Road tragedy, untiring playful kids, slums, Tiwanaku ruins, heavily armed policemen, national elections, potatoes, Sacred Valley, coca museum, Andean folk, new exotic dishes like quinua soup, guinea pig or alpaca, slacking, Pacific beach and wannabe surfers, professional mountain bikes, exotic international restaurants, international hostel aka gringo land, buses with the face of Che Guevara, flea markets, postcards not reaching their destinations, potatoes, crazy packed minivans, llama fetuses, bargaining, exotic flower and plant species, hot springs, karaoke night, soup with...errrmmm...french fries, "The dream of the Celt" by Mario Vargas Llosa, becoming a true pool expert, a killer stomach virus, potatoes, Cusqueña, Arequipeña, Paceña and other wonderful Andean beers, street stands where you can buy books, razorblades and memory cards, terrible music at the hostel including hip hop for breakfast, "ya, ya.....", amazing lunches for two euros, tourists with llama sweaters all over the place, sunflies, salteñas, burning sun, "Bolivia. Between a rock and a hard place" by Pete Good,potatoes.....(to be continued)

Bolivia: La Paz. City of contrasts.

It´s been over two weeks since I arrived to La Paz and, by now, I am feeling like I am settling in this city. The first thing that caught my attention when arriving here at night was the myriads of city lights spread accross the upper and lower part of the city as if the stars had a reflection on this massive human creation. The image was really amazing. It somehow reminded me of Cusco but at way more immense level. I didn´t know what to expect, but I knew I would probably find many similarities with some of the Peruvian cities I had already seen.

The first thing that catches a traveller attention once here, together with the impressive nocturnal landscape, is the bus station built by Gustave Eiffel, world wide famous for something that doesn´t need to be mentioned. If arriving during daytime, it will probably be the omnipresent Illimani snowed peaks, dominating the landscape from the horizon.

La Paz, like many other capitals, is a city of contrasts. From the skyscrapers of the city centre to the big mass of unfinished houses of the suburbs of the city, La Paz can be a confusing place. Reminiscences of a city like Madrid in some of the colonial buildings in the centre, several steep streets built all the way up to the area known as El Alto due to its height (4000 above the sea level), dark slums spreading for kilometers outside the city, residential areas with green areas, ... La Paz (and Bolivia) is not as open to tourism as Perú might be, and this is translated into the locals being more reserved than their Andean neighbours. It is not that they are cold, but they definitely lack the warmth I found in the beginning of my trip. Differences aside, they share many common aspects, like the crazy traffic, the chaotic organisation and their deep political conscience.

Watching on TV vulgar criminals being beaten up as an act of street justice or social unrest encouraging people to block roads and set barricades doesn´t give the most pleasant feeling about the country. This all can be really far from the other reality of the country: white models and presenters on TV, the importance of football and an interest to portrait the economy as a flourishing one. But there is poverty, inequality and corruption here ("everything has a price" is a true statement here). I won´t get into ethical questions like who´s responsible for this or what is the international community doing about it (or what can they do, in general). However, it makes me sad that a country with such natural resources and some of the most incredible landscapes on Earth falls that low and gets stuck in this situation. In one of my nights hanging out with locals I even got to hear an opinion as dramatic as "the indigenous people are the cause of the non-development of the country". Again, the two Bolivias.

Apart from the political and economical situation, the city is a vibrant one. There are plenty of possibilities here: dinning at some really interesting restaurants, going to concerts or the cinema, visiting the witches market (where you can buy a llama fetus to bury in the foundations of your new house and be granted luck), visiting the coca museum and understanding why Western countries unfairly "demonise" a plant that has been used many centuries before we even had any sort of civilization, dropping by the National Art Museum and seeing a national art influenced by colonial religion, indigenous aspects and social protest or simply sitting down at the Plaza Murillo contemplating some of the most impressive buildings of the city, like the presidential palace.

Due to my volunteer work with children, I will be staying in this city until the end of this month, where I expect to reach a better understanding of the city that, somehow, remains a mystery to me in some aspects. Right now I am starting to feel that I might have preferred to use my time as a volunteer in a rural area, working with farming communities and street children, and far from the misleading images I get in the capital. I also wish I could have stayed with some local family to escape a bit from the gringo land place that my hostel is, where any hint of latin culture or Spanish speaking is far from reach (apart from the kitchen, that is). I must admit, on the other hand, that the bar of the hostel makes a good place to socialise and to avoid the solitude of the lonely traveller.

Other than that, I am really glad I can get lost in the capital of Bolivia and that I can contribute, even if done at a really small scale, to change the life of these little orphan kids who otherwise would have a hard life on the streets and an even harder future at the tough prisons of La Paz in most cases.