Back down to Earth

Sobre las nubes, en un otro mundo, bajo el mismo sol...


Wow, so there aren{t any words to describe the past four days on this tour through Southern Bolivia. It could have been another planet, or 12 other planets for how diverse the landscapes were, and how utterly desolate some of the places are! Never has desolation looked so beautiful! So like I said before, we saw some beautifully toxic lagoons, flamingoes, llamas, all kinds of other high altitude creatures, dunes, deserts, mountains, a TON of volcanoes and the rock formations that came from their lava flows thousands and millions of years ago, through tiny villages that have been around for centuries where population is quoted by the number of families that live there.... too many things to describe and too many things that the photos won{t even come close to doing justice to. If youre down for roughing it a little bit and like that kind of stuff, you HAVE to do this. We had an awesome guide and cook, and joined a French pair who turned out to be really awesome. No one in the car spoke English, so it was finally an opportunity to only speak Spanish in South America... ridiculous! Bolivia is different though, because it isn{t made for tourists like Argentina is, and that is awesome. The smaller towns where the tours depart from are naturally really touristy, but it{s as if tourism is separated from town life, because the streets are still full of stalls selling typical food, crafts, kitchenware, clothes... anything you would ever need.

The first night, we stayed at a hostel that was a little over 4000 meters up, and freezing. The night was perfectly clear and the moon was waning, and I saw more stars than I{ve ever seen in my life, it was breath-taking! The next night, we topped out at around 4800 meters... almost 3 miles!... and got to the hostel in time to see an amazing sunset as it dropped between two mountain peaks. Pretty much every sight we saw took my breath away so I can{t really even summarize what the coolest thing was.

Now we are in La Paz. We came on an overnight bus with our companions from the tour, and that bus ride was pretty incredible too. The first half or so was on a rode so bumpy that the light and panel above Kendra{s seat broke and fell off! She didn{t even wake up, and I was sleeping too when one of the passengers behind us sort of lept over me and caught the light before it smacked her face. Then one of the bus workers came by and said sorry and ripped off the rest of the panel that was bouncing around. It was funny. Mostly funny that we slept so well on a bus that made it feel like we were having a seizure for 5 hours. The ride was around 12 hours in total, or something like that, so we got in this morning, went to a hostel that our new friends had recomended, took our first shower in a week, and now Kenj and I are walking around La Paz. It{s a really cool city so far. We walked alongside a protest-march which we couldn{t figure out the purpose of, but it was pretty chill. They passed a bunch of older ladies in the street who were arguing against the protesters and throwing bits of bread and confetti at them and laughing their asses off while yelling at them to shut up. La Paz lives up to its name so far. Plus you can buy literally almost anything in the world on the street. The city is only a million people, but maybe due to the mountains squeezing it all into a relatively small valley, it feels like it could be 12 million. The traffic and driving is nuts, it{s crowded with winding, hilly streets, and just really distinct all around! Street food is everywhere so I{m about to have my way with whatever I find out is typical here. THere is a witch market where they have a ton of natural cures for every malady, so I might as well stroll through and pick up something for diarrhea because it{s inevitably on its way. I don{t even care, as long as I enjoyed everything on its way down!

The way the trip is going is really nice because for every few days in a city, we take a few days out, way out, from a city. It makes me appreciate nature and urbanity so much more! Driving through the bolivian wilderness is probably the coolest thing I can say that I{ve seen in my life, and so moving! They seem to be really conscious of maintaining the natural beauty of the place too, which is really nice. The tours have their track, they don{t ram through any vegetation or leave garbage around, you{re only aloud to get so close to certain things so people don{t destroy what is there, and all the buildings get power from solar panels. It really is amazing to be surrounded by so much natural beauty and considering that our society in general doesn't really pay any respect to it. I'm not crazy, I've never been one to feel the earth bleed or hear a tree cry, but ever since the movie Fern Gully sufficiently ruined my childhood, I get a little maniacal about the destruction of nature for some short-term profit making and some serious long term damage. Being here, in the midst of such awesomely powerful forces of nature, I started thinking that maybe we aren't exactly destroying earth, but rather destroying our ability to inhabit it. After we're gone, some other creatures must be coming to take our place, and the scars we've left will fade away...this shit isn't going anywhere, but we're like dinosaurs walking.. maybe I'm wrong though. I don't think so, but science finds a way to support both sides... who can say.

So anyway, I just realized how quickly time has flown and how soon I am going home. Every time I realize that I get a little shock because I really haven't seen nearly the amount of things I would like to! I'll have to come back here, duh, and take a lot more time in Bolivia and places further north. I would like to see the extremes of this country - I guess the Amazon basin sort of dumps itself in Northeast Bolivia, so that would be an awesome contrast to the miles-high deserts and volcanoes of the other side of the country. It really is nice to be in La Paz now though, where I can take care of my eyes, sleep warm (by the way our hostel costs $3.50 a night) be out of moving vehicles for a few days, and eat some hot food! The people here are awesome too.. not that I've talked to too many (yet) but our guide, Oshin, had really cool perspectives about things and the general feeling you get is just... I don't know, very warm, chilled out, and you can see a lot of cultural elements and traditions that go back centuries at least, probably millenia! It's really cool being here, and I´m totally going to come home looking like that American kid that goes on vacation and tries too hard. Meaning, I have a ton of stuff from Bolivia and Argentina because since I got robbed in BA, literally everything I have-luggage, toothpaste, contacts, sweaters, shoes, are all from down here. They sure do make nice stuff though!