Mines, Salt and a grande Parade

While we were still in Potosi, Rhonda and Caity took a tour of an active silver & zinc mine while I rested, suffering from a bout of sciatica which has been getting worse since I had an awkward moment with my large backpack getting on a city bus and trying to navigate the cash turnstile. I wish I could have done the tour with them but they were equally glad to get out alive. Millions of people have died working in the mines since 1585, and many more will continue to perish from the toxic chemicals and poor working conditions. The miners work for $7 / day and live to an average age of 48, but despite the risk they continue working generation after generation to hopefully make a better life for their families. It is quite tragic and any developed country would close the mines, let alone run tours. Caity made it down to the 3rd level (of 6), while Rhonda decided to turn back rather than descend to level 2 down a ladder and already in very tight quarters. While the guide offered to take the remainder of Caity's group all the way down the mine they had seen enough and the tiny shafts, heat, lack of oxygen and dust in the air were too much to overcome. She was not feeling well for the next 24 hours and has promised to never, ever complain about any job again.

From Potosi we headed south to the Salar de Uyuni, home to the world's largest salt flats (over 12,000 square km's) where we signed up for a 3D/2N tour riding in an old Toyota 4x4 with 3 other German lads. The salt flats went on forever and a good pair of sunglasses was necessary to block out the brightness........it was similar to being on a frozen lake covered in snow with no clouds in the sky. Fish Island emerged in the middle of the salt flats and a walking tour around the island allowed everyone to stretch their legs after being in the cramped quarters of the 4x4 for hours. It was near this spot that everyone takes their crazy pictures, and we took our share led by Caity, our choreographer. Our tour extended beyond the salt flats and we were able to observe lagoons (flamingo's), steam geysers (strong sulpher odors), several volcano's and a thermal pool (with an outdoor change room) but the highlight was definitely the Salar. We stayed overnight in very basic rooms, with no heat, electricity or water except for the 2 hours after arrival where they humoured us with some solar powered energy. We played cards and dice games by candlelight. We rented sleeping bags to go along with the 3 heavy blankets they provided and wore several layers to bed to overcome the cold at night.

Arriving back in Uyuni at the end of the tour, we took an overnight bus north to La Paz where we are now, awaiting Rachel's arrival in a few days. On the morning of our arrival we were warned by the bus assistant that the bus would not be able to drop us off at the terminal because of a parade going on that day...........and what a parade! It started shortly after checking into our hostel and we were able to watch the whole thing from the terrace balcony and bar on the top floor (it is also a microbrewery and everyone gets a free beer every night).........well we didn't actually see all of it........since the parade was in honour of Bolivia's 200th anniversary of independence they went all out. The parade started at 8 am but didn't reach the spot in front of our hostel until 9 am. The final group came through at 11 pm (13 hours later) so we managed to do a few things in between although it was difficult to walk anywhere in the city because of the volume of people out to see the parade and the many road closures. The colours were brilliant and the outfits (traditional dress and costumes) were amazing but by the end of the evening we could mimic the beat of their national anthem which was played non-stop by all of the groups coming through. The parade ended at a very large park where more people gathered and continued the party late into the night with fireworks going off all over the city. Caity was out after midnight with a young group from the hostel and upon her return was impressed with all the volunteers out in the wee hours of the morning dismantling all the bleachers and cleaning up the streets. When we awoke and looked out the windows everything was back to normal and you wouldn't have known anything happened the day before. Today there were free concerts and other acitivities happening around the city. They sure are proud of their country and their heritage.

I'm going to take it easy for the next few days, going for daily massage sessions, so that I can recover and get myself in shape for our 4 day trek to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, that means Caity will have to represent our family on the Death Road bicycle trip (all day, all downhill) which I had been looking forward to doing wih her tomorrow.

All for now...............

More bus adventures

When we arrived at the Cochabamba bus station to catch our pre-booked bus to Oruro (the day before......we wanted good seats at the front for the scenic trip) we were handed our money back. There was a local protest and road blockade on the main highway so all the buses in that direction were cancelled with no indication of when the road would open again. Apparently this happens frequently in Bolivia so the locals seemed unperturbed. Cab drivers showed up and started offering their services for much higher rates, taking backroads around the blockade. While we and some German girls were negotiating a price with a driver, one of the bus companies announced they were going to try the detour and everyone then flocked to their counter. The ticket price was the same as with our first company ($3.50) but instead of a 3 hour ride it was going to take 4 hours and they were using an older bus since it was mostly a secondary, dirt road to get around the blockade. We made it successfully to Oruro with only one unplanned stop when the bus bottomed-out at a low point in the road..........everyone had to depart to lighten the load and then they placed rocks in front of the tires to raise the carriage enabling the bus to carry on with minor damage to the front fender.

As soon as we arrived in Oruro we booked into our hostel close to the train station and then went there to book tickets for the next day on the scenic train to the salt flats in Uyuni. The train only runs a couple of times a week and fills up fast. However, we soon learned that there was another protest and blockade happening in the south end of the country preventing the train from going there. Since our only reason for going to Oruro was to take the train, we quickly went back to the hostel to get our bags (the hostel manager was cool with us not staying the night) and being the flexible travellers that we are, we changed our course to visit Sucre and Potosi before Uyuni (which we were going to do after), hoping the protest would be over in a week so that we could catch the train on it's return trip to Oruro. Before taking our overnight bus to Sucre we had a fabulous dinner at one of the best restaurants in Oruro, Nayjama, which was highly recommended by the Lonely Planet and run by a celebrity chef with whom we had a good conversation while we were there........his English was good and he had been to Vancouver and Alaska checking out our seafood. We had chicken soup, kingfish and lamb (2 meals)........it was fabulous but the three of us still couldn't eat it all so we took our leftovers to leave with someone less fortunate before catching our overnight bus.

We had a good one day visit in Sucre, walking around the town, spending time at the market (note the clever use of an umbrella to prevent pidgeon-poop from contaminating the unrefridgerated meat), and visiting a Museum with indiginous artifacts.........their weaving skills were awesome but time consuming, taking up to 3 months to complete the more complex design items. This morning we took a 4 hour bus ride to Potosi. We had to pay a departure tax at the bus terminal which has been common in the poorer countries. It was only .40 cents but it's amazing to see how many locals flag down the bus one block from the terminal to avoid paying the tax.........we have seen this many times. I have tried to point out to the ladies that we could save 15-18% of our bus travel expenses by doing the same thing but they think that my financial thinking became permanently impaired after spending a couple of years as a Controller at Xerox.

The bus ride through the mountains and along the altiplano (plateau) was wonderful, passing many small villages where the locals lived in small, 100 year old stone homes, and the women did the family laundry in creeks and rivers. We are now in Potosi and have found a lovely hostel (the first hot water shower in a few days) so we are going to stay here for 3-4 days and explore the area. It is supposed to be the highest city in the world at just over 4,000 metres. Even though it is late fall here the daytime temperatures are still in the low-20's C but in the evening it drops to the 5C range, reminding us a little of life at home.

Buenos noches.... familia Hevey

Welcome to Bolivia

After travelling through 6 counties, with each one escalting in price we were sad to leave such a beautiful country, but financially happy to leave Brazil where the costs of food, lodging, travel and entertainment had reached the point of being half the cost of what we pay in Canada.......an almost ridiculous level, relatively speaking :)
Fortunately, we are now in Bolivia where fellow travellers had told us it was a real bargain. After successfully crosssing the border using local transportation (blessed with our usual good fortune), we had some 2 hours to burn before taking an overnight bus to Santa Cruz so we decided to find a place to have dinner since we had been travelling all day. We found a spot close to the bus station where they had good looking food on a bbq in front of the restaurant. Each of us ordered the meat shish-kabob which consisted of a chorizo sausage, a small piece of steak and larger portions of pork and chicken. It was accompanied by a half plate of rice, a tomato salad and half a potato. We were hungry so we didn't bother checking the cost but found out at the end of the meal that the price was $1.50 per person! They didn't serve alcohol but they pointed out a place across the street where I purchased 3 cans of beer for .40 cents each.......I think we are going to like this country.
Our 12 hour bus ride to Santa Cruz cost us $11 each including movies. The only downside was that the bus was packed including a chicken on board in a crate (carry on luggage I suppose). The locals also purchased one seat for themselves and a child, some of them being up to 6 years old, so they brought their luggage on board and put in the aisle for the child to sit /sleep on. The aisle became a minefield in the darkness of the night.....it was quite the experience.

We then took one more 12 hour bus ride to the city of Cochabamba where we are now. Upon arriving last night at 9 pm we found a hostel close to the bus station and went to bed and slept soundly. Today we walked around the city, through a large market and then took a tram up a small mountain which overlooked the city and had a very large statue of Christ protecting the people (as we have found in most South American cities). During the day we had breakfast, market snacks, dinner (3 large meals and 2 one litre bottles of beer), took the tram, bought 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of rum (for our hostel room and travel), and bought 9 music CD´s and 18 movie DVD´s (mostly pirated)..............all together it cost the 3 of us $50.......and the nice hostel we are staying in, which has 4 beds in two rooms plus a bathroom is costing us $9 each. Sure glad we have another 2 weeks to spend in Bolivia!

Al the best..............mike, rhonda and caity

Back from the Wilderness

Since our last post from Isla Grande, a large no-vehicle paradise that had lots to offer including a 10 km hike on our last day to the other side of the island (a beautiful 2 km long secluded surfer beach), we have been without internet access at our last couple of stops. The first of these was at Trindade, a small village on the east coast, south of Ilha Grande. We stayed at a lovely hostel run by a Montreal lady and her Brazilian husband who spend 6 months a year in each country (he barely survived one of our winters and doesn't plan to try it again but was very much looking forward to returning to Quebec for a summer stay at the end of the month). Their hostel was on the edge of the rainforest and only 2 blocks from a gorgeous beach. Unfortunately, it rained steadily while we there so we had to forego the waterfall and rainforest hikes, along with more beach time. We had good visits with the owners and other travellers in between card games where Caity has been a dominating force.

With rain forecast for another day or two, and tired of losing card games to Caity we decided to head inland, taking several buses to reach the centre of the continent, and one of the world's largest wetlands, the Pantanal. We stayed at a lodge / farm deep into the reserve at a spot recommended by another backpacker couple, and it was a good decision. Our package included 4 days of safari's (walking, truck, horseback, boat, nocturnal drive) along with piranha fishing (nibbles only) and tubing down the same river! While tubing (floating with the current) we were observed by caiman (small aligators) along the banks who seemed more interested in working on their suntans than us (until one agressive creature approached us just as we finished our float). Our most impressive sights during our stay were a giant anteater (rare for it's size), a tapir (endangered species), an ocelot (small jaguar), brown howler monkeys (to the delight of Caity who took over as tour guide at that point), and many colourful species of birds including macaws, toucans, jabiru storks and flamingos. We met some great people while we were there (Netherlands, Ireland, U.S. family with 4 young children) and enjoyed the great meals and nightly campfires with them. With no towns anywere close to where we were, the night sky was brilliant with the Milky Way clearly visible to the naked eye every night and shooting stars crossing the sky if you paid enough attention. Our final night was filled with caipirinha drinks and was very entertaining into the wee hours of the morning..........Mike was the only one drinking cervezas that evening and the next day!

From the Pantanal we took a bus several hours south to Bonito where we rediscovered the internet. Yesterday we took a full day tour to a reserve at Rio da Prata where we hiked and then snorkelled for almost 2 km's down a crystal clear natural springs river that was filled with colourful fish that we are only used to observing in the oceans. It felt like we were swimming in an aquarium. Some of the tiny fish would actually peck at you, which was initially disturbing since we had recently been in a piranha river, but they were too small to do any damage and we became more comfortable as we continued down the river where the current carried you at a modest pace. Today we wandered around the small town of Bonito and enjoyed a caiman lunch. Last night, Caity was out with our Pantanal tour guide (enjoying a few days off) and he introduced her to piranha soup.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Brazil, taking several buses to get into Bolivia where we will spend the next couple of weeks, and join up with Rachel in La Paz at the end of the month.

Only one month to go!

Rio has turned us into beach bums

Rio de Janeiro has turned out to be everything we expected and more. We stayed in the Ipanema Beach area for 3 full days and spent every afternoon on the beach which was packed on the week-end (as were all of their other fabulous beaches......Copacabana, Botafoga, Flamingo, etc). We had cloudless skies and 30C temperatures all the time. There were many vendors selling food and drinks (caipirinha's for the ladies, beer for me) so you hardly had to move from your beach chair and umbrella. Volleyball games were plentiful along the backside of the beach including volley futbol which has similar rules except that instead of using your hands and arms, you can only use your feet, legs, chest and head. These players have amazing skills and we watched many games with long rallies even when they were playing two a side. If this game ever makes it to the Summer Olympics then Canada is in big trouble for years to come.

We tried to get our excercise in during the mornings (while Caity slept, recovering from a 5:30 am bar party return with some Calgary friends she hooked up with down here). One morning we walked around Rodrigo Lagoon (8 km) which has a walking / running / cycling path all the way around and was popular with the locals who in general seem to be in better shape than other parts of South America that we have been in.........I suppose constant time in your bathing suit provides some sort of incentive. We were unable to climb / ride to the famous Christ the Redeemer statue which overlooks the city because the April heavy rains had forced them to close the paths and use scaffolds to surround and support the structure so that it would not tumble down the mountain into the city (over 200 people had died in mudslides from the same mountain a few weeks before we arrived). On our last evening we took the cable cars to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain for a great view of the city at night.

Having enjoyed our beach time but ready for a few less speedos and thongs we then took a bus 150 km's south and then a boat to Ilha Grande where we are now...........more nice beaches and a lot fewer people since it is mid-week and the fall season (alhough the weather is still sunny and 30C). Today we took a boat tour of the island stopping several times to snorkel and at a couple of secluded beaches. We decided today to ride the weather wave and stay here for an extra day (4 nights in total) since we have a wonderful and cheap 3 bed room at our hostel. Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking on this island which is very large and hilly (along wih some more beach time). Sorry to hear about the weather back home!

Iguazu Falls

We have just completed 3 spectacular days in Iguazu Falls and we were fortunate to see it at it's best. Upon initially arriving on the Argentinian side of the falls we were disappointed to find out that we could not get all the way to the final trail at Devil's Throat because of the recent rainstorms in the surrounding countries (Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay). As we soon discovered, the closure was justified and extremely necessary. The volume of water entering the falls had increased by 800% and was actually passing over many of the tourist walkways including a couple of spots that were still open to us. There were many places where the spray was so intense that we got totally soaked even when we put on our golf rainsuits. We were glad that we had not signed up for a tour because the noise from the falls was so loud that you could not hear anyone talking very well. The pictures posted only cover a small portion of the many different waterfalls we saw and were able to walk over.......they cover several kilometres. It really made Niagara Falls seem very small to us.

The following day we went over to the Brazilian side which provided more outstanding views (and another soaking), including a walk to the top edge of Devil's Throat which was not possible from the Argentinian side.....where we could see the walkway partially submerged in the rushing waters. If anyone has a chance to visit Iguazu Falls we strongly recommend seeing it from both sides.....the overall view from the Brazilian side is a little better but there are more trails to the upper and lower falls on the Argentinian side so you get a completely different perspective.

We also stayed at a wonderful hostel in Puerto Iguazu (Hostel Inn) which had a large pool to relax around (and dry out) at the end of the day, and active evening happenings with huge buffets and bbq's ($7-10 pp) attended by most of the backpackers (60-70 young people) with great music, entertainment, and atmosphere. We shared our 6 person dorm with a nice couple from Ireland and spent our evenings with them drinking lots of Argentinian wine and caipirinhas (Brazil's answer to the pisco sour or marguaritas).

To top off our trip to Iguazu Falls, there was a drug bust on our overnight bus trip back to Curtiba. We found it a little odd that they not only tagged our large backpacks stored underneath the bus (normal procedure for claiming at the other end) but also our daypacks which we carried with us onto the bus. A couple of hours into the trip (at midnight) our bus was suddenly pulled over to the side of the road with approximately 20 federal police officers standing by. No other traffic was stopped leading us to believe this was a targetted search resulting from a likely tip. Most of us were sleeping at the time and awakened by the officers checking our passports, bus tickets, and on-board luggage while other officers checked the stored bags. With everyone now awake and watching what was going on outside, we noticed a duffle bag being opened filled with suspicious looking book-shaped packages (probably cocaine). Several were taken away to a nearby building for inspection and shortly after the officers came back on board and checked everyone's tickets to see who was sitting in seat #24. Fortunately it wasn't one of us (several rows ahead of us), and a gentleman (probably a 'mule') with grey hair was led off the bus and didn't return.........we were on our way shortly after.

We spent the next day taking a bus tour of Curitiba, with several interesting stops along the way: Botanical Gardens and Oscar Niemeyer Museum (the architect of the above eye-shaped structure) and a walk through a park which was supposed to lead us to the next bus stop but instead turned into a 5 kilometre adventure (up and down hills) which found us back at our starting point an hour and a half later! We took another overnight bus from Curtiba to Rio where we are now and will stay for several days relaxing on Ipanema Beach.

Ciao (that still seems to work in Portuguese).