15 March, 2008: Matthew
Ready or not, here we come... Nearly impossible for me to comprehend, we are actually on our way back to the US today. What an amazing year for adventure, experiences, joy, and learning. Tonight we fly from Lima, Peru to Miami, FL.
The plan is to spend a couple of days in Lake Wales FL visiting our friends at HEART (where Nina and I met) and then making our way up to WV for a couple of weeks. Among our many anticipations, we are extremely eager to finally meet our nephew Isaac who thus far we most intimately know through Kodak Easyshare. Then after our time with my family we will fly to Seattle where we near life back in the real world... but only after again a couple of weeks of visiting with family. This will also include caring for Eden and Mila (another eagerly awaited, yet to be met memeber in the family) while Andrea has her radiation treatment.
As sad as I am to leave this part of our journey, I must say that we are ready for it. I don´t know if it is because we are really ready to be stationary for a while, or if our mentalities have been set to be home or what. But, I think that the timing in relation to our mood to come home is quite good.
March 11 2008: Nina
Well, we have been on the go since I last wrote, but now we finally have some long awaited down time. Not that floating through jungle rivers was so draining, but the past few days were a marathon of long distance busses, and not very pleasant. But before that, we visited the beautiful Salar de Uyuni and surrounding areas in Southwest Bolivia. We had heard many accounts of how beautiful this trip was, and indeed it did not disapoint us.
Really the only way to visit this area is with an organized tour, and so we were choffered around for three days in a 4x4 landcruiser, visiting the spectacular lakes, deserts, and of course, the salt flat. The first day we drove through the salt flat, it was so surreal and strange. All you could see for literally miles, was a blanket of pure whiteness meeting the blue sky.
The Salar is so vast and bright that it can bee seen from space. We saw men digging up salt and making piles that would later be thrown into trucks and then treated to be used as table salt. This area of land, although at over 12,000 feet in elevation now, was once covered in ocean, and the theory is that when Africa and South America separated, it of course disrupted the earth´s crust and the area was pushed up to form a lake like strucutre. Over time however, all the water evaporated and all that was left was the salt. Shells have even been found among the salt. It is pretty amazing. Because of the lack of depth perception, we were able to take some funny pictures. Check them out! It was so bright however, that it was hard to see exactly what was being taken, you'll see.
That night we stayed in a hotel completely constructed of salt. It took the last two years to build it, and the father and son owners dug the salt bricks out by hand. It had just opened to tourists so we were only the second ones that had stayed there. We also visited a tiny museum inside a cave that the locals had made, telling the story of the early peoples who lived in that particular place. They had some very interesting artifacts including bows and arrows and shovels, used by pre-incan people. The hotel and the museum, as well as the small community, were literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by high desert and mountains in the distance. The night sky was truly spectacular as there was no artificial light for miles around.
The next day we drove for miles and miles through the desert, and saw lake of all colors, flamingos, foxes, crazy rock formations. Early in the morning we got up to watch the sun rise over some magnificant geysers, all the time bubling and shooting steam high into the air. Afterwards, we took a soak in some hotsprings, with nothing in sight but red and orange hills for miles around. It was so cold that frost still lingered heavily on the grass, but the steamy water felt wonderful.
Later that morning, Matthew and I left the group and crossed into Chile. We figured that it would be slightly less bus time than returning to La Paz, and heading toward Lima from there. We only spent two days in Chile, but as soon as we saw the prices, we knew that would be enough for us! Chile was a world of difference from Bolivia. It once again amazed us what crossing a border line can do. All of a sudden, the roads were paved, the service was proffesional, and there were soap and toilet paper in the bathrooms. Everything was outright expensive though, and we were literally left jaw-dropped when we went to buy our bus tickets. They were about 7 times more expensive than in Bolivia, and 4 times more than everywhere else we had been to that point! Reluctantly, we shelled out our week's budget and were thankful that we only had one bus ride in Chile. It really was a beautiful country though, and we only saw the desert! The night of the second day, after our long and expensive bus ride, we crossed into Peru. We were willing to bite the bullet and hop on another long distance bus that night, in order to make it to our anticipated destination, Huacachina (about 4 hours south of Lima), where a desert oasis, lounge chairs, and a pool were waiting for us, but there were no night busses towards Lima. Someone suggested we take a night bus to Arequipa, since there were night busses going there. From there we could take an early morning bus to Huacachina, and it would only have been a few hours out of the way, but would put us there much sooner. We thought it was a good enough idea, but our mistake came when we randomly chose a bus company. We should have known when the bus tickets were much cheaper than the rest, but nothing is ever standard, so you never know. As it turns out, we got on a bus with a bunch of smugglers. That sounds really bad, but really they were just smuggling clothes. I don't really know that much about it, why it's illegal, where they were from, but sure enough, the bus was packed with a bunch of junk and clothes. We didn´t realize it until we were stopped by customs the first time, and all ordered off the bus. It was very strange, they were throwing stuff out the windows, confiscating loads of items, and then putting alot of it back on the bus. We thought that was bad, until we got stopped three more times during what should have been a 7 hour trip. Remember, this is in the middle of the night, and it is already hard to sleep on a bus, especially a crappy one. It doesnt make it any easier when custom officers board the bus and shine flashlights in your eyes, then people start whining about the illegal stuff that the officers are taking from them. All this ended up delaying us 3 more hours! When we finally arrived, we had missed our early morning busses and had to wait another 3 hours for the next bus. Another 12 hour bus ride later, we were finally in Huacachina.
It was all worth it though. We are staying in a lovely hotel, with a gorgeous pool, open air restaraunt on grounds, and are taking advantage of their tour services. Today we went on a wine tour of two of the local wineries, and tomorow we are going dune buggying! The best part though, is sipping fresh mango juice by the poolside. We are here for 4 days before we make our final bus ride to Lima, where we will spend another day with Anthony, our sponsored child, and then fly home on the 15th. We are very excited for this next leg in our journey. :)
4 March, 2008: Nina
Continuation...
So with not much time to spare, we headed for the bus. We were able to get seats on the same bus as our friends, Des and Bruno. The bus started out on the bumpy road and before too long, we noticed muddy water leaking from the ceiling over our heads. This did not sit well with me as it was just the beginning of a very long ride. The leak was right over my head and Matthew had mud and dirt fleks falling on him from the hole where the speaker should have been. The bus attendant of course did nothing but wipe off the mud and told me it would stop because it wasn´t raining anymore, which wasn´t true. So I finally saw an empty seat and sat there, but the leak seemed to follow me. By this point I had to laugh. Eventually some people left the bus and there were two empty seats next to each other, so we moved there. I was just beginning to feel like things were ok, and slowly drift to sleep when the bus stopped. The bus stopped behind about 10 other busses and trucks. Not a good sign. We got out of the bus, in the rain, and walked the 100 meters or so to the front of the vehicle line to see what the problem was. Before us lay a complete washout about 15 feet across and 10 feet deep. There was absolutely no way around it, the water had completely washed out the road. So.. the next step was to see if anyone had a plan. We began asking the bus drivers what was to be done. It seemed like no one knew but no one really cared that much either. We heard that they would send busses from the other side, to pick us up, the next town was about an hour away. Ok we thought, that could work. Then awhile later we heard that there was no bus coming but there was some type of machine coming to fix the road. That could take awhile, we thought. We began thinking about returning to Rurrenabaque, at least it was dry there. The bus stunk when it was just sitting still but it was raining outside, nonetheless, we opted for standing in the rain and waiting. We asked the bus driver to take us back to Rurre. In fact, the entire bus wanted to return, but he would not take us. He just sat there. After two hours or so, we realized we were pretty stuck and nothing was going to happen any time soon. We happened to be parked next to a little shelter in the yard of an old church, in the middle of nowhere, so the four of us broke out the playing cards and passed a few hours under the dry shelter. After a few games of Whist and some good laughs, we heard the sound of what we thought was the bulldozer. The guys went to take a look. As it turns out, the machine was just a chainsaw! The passengers were cutting down trees to fill in the immense gap. Hours passed by and we watched as the final branches and heaps of mud were thrown onto the makeshift road. It was just wide enough for the big busses, but we had yet to see if it would hold up.
After a few trial runs and a stuck bus or two, it did indeed suffice, and the busses were able to pass. We were back on the road, seven hours later. I passed most of the night fairly comfortable, as many people had left the bus during the long delay, and I had two seats to myself. We were stopped a few more times on the muddy roads, but nothing to long. 26 hours after we set out, we arrived in La Paz. The worst part of it all however, was when we got our backpacks from the storage compartment. We discovered the foulest odor being emitted from my bag. It literally smelled like a dead animal. We couldn´t even put it on our back it was so bad. It stunk up the taxi and everywhere we went. We were already so gross and dirty from the long ride, not to mention dead tired, and above all, we now carried a dead rat smell. The four of us hobbled into town to find there were no more rooms in the place we wanted to stay. We passed a nice hotel and got a great idea. A friend of ours had recently given us a chunk of cash to stay in a nice hotel, and we couldn´t think of any better time to use it. We invited Des and Bruno, who had had their credit cards stolen and were low on cash, and who had also shared their food with us on the bus, to stay at the nicest place that any of us had stayed yet! We were delighted with the super hot showers and comfy beds. I even had a blow dryer. Thank you dear Cochabamba friend! I washed my backpack over and over in the shower. But I must admit, the smell still lingers a bit. It is really disgusting. We can´t exactly say that we regret the trip, because we would have been stuck in Rurre for many more days with the cancelled flights, however, it is one of our few experiences on this trip that we would definately not want to repeat!!
3 March, 2008: Nina
Happy Birthday to my beautiful little sister, Anna! We love you. :)
Well there is so much to write about and not nearly enough time. I will try to get the basics down because it may be another few days before we get to internet again. Last I wrote we were about to take off on our boat trip to Rurre. The trip was really neat. For three days we cruised down the river and saw a variety of vegetation as the altitude and climate changed. We camped on a along the river the first night and in a small community the second night. We took two hikes further into the jungle, including Madidi National Park. We saw some amazing medicinal plants, and fished for pirhanas! On this trip there were ten of us, from a variety of countries, Germany, Argentina, Holland, Switzerland, England. We had a great time with everyone and became quick friends with the Argentian/Dutch couple. I had been pretty prepared for mosquitos, but they weren't nearly as bad as I had imagined. Even so, we didn't walk away without several, several, bites- including some from our favorite friends, the sand fly.
We stayed in Rurre two nights and then headed back out again, this time to the Pampas. The Pampas are grasslands, and this is where you see most of the animals. This trip was nothing but pleasant. We took a three hour boat ride through a windy, peaceful, river, through the Pampas grasslands to our jungle camp. Within the first two hours we had seen a sloth, pink river dolphins, caimans, capiwaras, monkeys, and numerous birds! It was so beautiful and relaxing. We stayed at the jungle camp but went out on the boat several other times for spotting animals, searching for anacondas, watching the sunset and sunrise, and swimming with the dolphins. That activity was certainly one of our highlights. The dolphins really are pink, and grey. The first time we saw them it was so sureal. They seemed so out of place, these dolphins swimming and playing in the tranquil river. They were bigger than I expected, about 6 feet long. One afternoon we were able to join them in the water. We had been warned that they like to bite your feet, in an effort to play, and to not pull your feet away if they do, so as not to injure their mouth (or your foot!). Well, I had felt them rubbing against my foot when I was in the water, but later, I was dangling my feet in the water while sitting in the boat, and sure enough, the dolphin bit me, and hard enough to draw blood! The thing is that the water is so murkey you can not see them until they rise from the water to breath, or flap their fins, or splash. So needless to say, I couldn't help but jerk my foot away and scream when it felt like an aligator bit my toe off! Nonetheless, it was an amazing experience being in the water with such strange and beautiful animals.
When went back to Rurre on the third day, and went to dinner with our friends from the jungle trip, who were also in the Pampas at the same time as us. The next day, we began preparing for our morning flight out of Rurre. Normaly we take busses everywhere we go, but since it is the end of our trip, we are short on time, and we had heard how terrible the long bus ride could be, we had decided to splurge and take a small plane back to La Paz. But the morning we were to leave, it was raining. The lack of infustructure in Rurre, like a lot of Bolivia, means that flights will not operate when the grass runway is wet. We were afraid this would happen, and had heard about people getting stuck for days on end waiting for the weather to clear. It had been sunny our entire time in the jungle and the pampas, it was just our luck that it would rain the day we wanted to leave!! So we were faced with a very difficult decision... wait it out until the next day, or take the bus. Neither was a great option for us, as it would put us a day behind. But, if we took our chances and waited for the flight, it could get delayed another day, and even another. Atleast we would be in La Paz be the following day if we were to take the bus, we reasoned. So at the last minute, we decided to join our friends, Des and Bruno, on the bus back to La Paz. I had heard rumors of the trip taking anywhere from 18 to 30 hours, and we were not at all happy about taking this option over the flights, but it seemed like the best choice. I now know that the flight was cancelled today as well, so it was indeed a good decision, but there was about 26 hours where we were deeply regretting it. More to come on the adventures of the leaking bus and the washed out road....