The journey to the Amazon

Day 1:

We left the hostel at 7am, and I drove for the first half, where there was a lot of descending and 70% paved roads. Eventually, he told me, he began to relax as he saw that I was a “very good driver”. Yay. I let him drive for the intense offroad, though. They say the road up north there is worse than the tourist attraction: the worlds most dangerous road, and they were right! The roads could barely fit a car, so you had to honk before every turn to let them know you`re coming. From there, it went straight down, faar, far. Many areas are made up of mud and puddles, and you pass by a lot of landslides. Some places, rocks were still falling. One massive rock fell off a truck, and landed one meter from us.


Day one:

We drove for quite some time, and it had become hot, so we went for a swim in the Amazon river. – Amazing! But then we encountered trouble: a long line of trucks and cars lined up towards where a landslide had destroyed the road, and they had apparently been rebuilding the dirt road for already a day, and wouldn’t finish until night time. We were told that one could drive a smaller road up the hills, so Fernando went for it, while I crossed over by foot and walked to where he was supposed to come down. Unfortunately, it didn`t work, so we went back to the nearest town to spend the night. While I was waiting around for him, I met some guys who were going to join the navy. I didn`t know Bolivia had a navy, as they don’t have any ocean line, since Chile took the northern part of Atacama, but they still practice in places like Lake Titicaca.
Driving here is intense and beautiful. Quite the adventure! It often smells like Colombia, which makes me all nostalgic, though Bolivia is wonderful, too. We could hardly see anything on the way back to town; there was so much dust that you had to honk extra. We were also all covered in dirt and mud, so after washing ourselves, we gave Tornado a wash in the river. He`s now getting a new front light.

Day 2: We visited Rurrenabaque, which was an hour away. Its packed with tourists.
As for the Ayahuasca ceremony, I`ll have to hunt it down sometime, somewhere in the future. In Rurrenabaque, they don`t do it right. In Iquitos they do. In Rurrenabaque, you get a weak potion from a shaman thats from
La Paz. Some locals told me that you had to live with the shamans for months before they`d give you it, or you could go to where they grow it and ask around a lot. I was, mildly spoken, bummed.




We struggled a bit with the lack of gasoline. Another motorcyclist had to push with one foot, while driving, so that we could get to Rurre, to buy some overprices gasoline from a water bottle. Gasoline just wasn`t reaching Rurre.
We then cooled down again in the river, before dinner and reading a bit. I`m now reading "Zen and the motorcycle maintenance".




Day 3: And so it rained

To expect rain in the rainforest, in the rainy season, is not exactly crazy. There was nothing to do when it first began. I was tired, so sleeping the whole morning in the family hammock was way okay for me. Later
in the day, we explored the nearby area and gathered guava fruits and some other fruit, I can`t remember the name of. Before sunset, we played football with the locals, with a big handball. In between that, the family, as always, fed me with way too much food, so that I had to relax and write some. I`ve been writing about people this time, only its not for publishing. Just for me. It was nice to recall.









The food bit makes me feel a bit bad. It`s been a while since I`ve had to deal with politeness, and when we went to a family birthday party at their friend`s place, they fed us even more. Chancho, the meat is called.
White and delicious. The house was packed, and some people couldn`t sit. There was a loud buzzing of a motor, as that was running to keep us entertained with electric light! All in all, a very good day in the little town called El Horisonte, with the family of El Chaco.


Day 4: Entering the jungle

Right now, you can`t do tours on the rivers, where one normally does them, as the rivers are too fisty. Most tourists say that the problem about the Amazon in Rurrenabaque, is that its too touristy. With a local tour guide that hadn`t done a tour in a whole year, far from where the others were doing it, I didn`t have that problem.
He actually owns a great part of it, saving it for later, when it holds greater value. We spent the nights in the shelter of a roof, though we did buy a tent for the mosquitos. They didn`t sting me much, but God, they are annoying!
The reason we couldn`t go yesterday, was that rain makes the rivers too tall for crossing, and we had to cross two of them. We went early, as it does get really hot in the day. It did. There`s a lot of mud and dead trees
right now, and our guide, El Chaco and his budd, were very upset by this. Both kept saying over and over that I Had to come back in the dry season, and that its just so much more beautiful. I still did find it beautiful, though.










Its a bit like the jungle in northern Colombia, only that you`ll find much more interesting animals and fruits, for instance. I discovered one of the best fruits I`ve tasted. Chocolate! Not kidding, chocolate! Surrounding the seed
used to make chocolate, is a wonderful and sour fruit that resembles passion fruit. I just discovered this fruit(or was handed), right before we encountered a big tarantula. Just standing there, really.
I enjoyed the four hour walk with machetes, but got tired of mosquitos in the end, and was glad to get a fire going. The guides wanted us to rest, so they left us to search for prey, while we constructed a bench and found
trees to climb and swing in. I read as they came back, while Fernando was cooking. I keep letting the men do the cooking. What a terrible lady I am.



Day 5: Jungle trekking

The walk today was much prettier, though tiring. Like the locals, I`m chewing a great deal of coca leaves; just got the hang of it! This gives you energy and a lot of nutricion. Thats why the two of them chew so much: they
work with timber. I gave away my ibux and panolin, as he said they made wonders for his back problems. They were just as wonderful as lime. Lime is amazing. Lime cures everything. Sugar is bad, but with lime its all good.
"no pasa nada".





In that photo, I`m drinking very healthy water from a tree.

We were walking slowly, creeping up on monkeys a lot. They`re fast little buggers, but we got to see a great deal of them from afar. As we were walking, El Choco suddenly throws himself back at me, in fear, hoing a word I didn`t
understand. Apparently, there was a big snake. The other guide killed it with a machete(photo), and we could see a frog just standing a few inches from where it had been, possibly in shock and bliss that we had just saved its life.
Close one!





As for other animals, we found a massive turtle that Fernando brought with. It didn`t occur to me that we`d be eating it for dinner and breakfast. It was actually really good! Poor people eat a lot of it. One shouldn`t eat too much.
After a nap on a plastic carpet, we were going to go hunting for Chancho, but they got away. That just reminded me that I forgot to try their rifles! Damn...

Day 6: The return

It seems like a short trip to visit the Amazon, but it didn`t bother me, really. We`re still in the jungle, in some way. Just not squeezed in between trees and mosquitos. Its still beautiful and warm.
We woke up to rain again, thinking; nooo. But the rain passed, and after some turtle pasta, we were off again. As we started out a bit late, it got Hot! Then a powerful wind started to tear at the treetops, so that trees were falling, and the rain was on again. It wasn`t cold, and I didn`t mind the shower, so I walked without poncho. It reminded me of good old, rainy days, playing football, for some odd reason. Luckily, we could still cross the rivers.





The family had cleaned all my clothes and shoes. Most of them got dirty again the same day, but the effort was delightful. We said goodbye, and head off an hour later. We didn`t make it all the way, as the roads were awful, but it
was so beautiful in the hours before sunset, that I was thrilled to be on the back, taking photos. There were a lot of kids with waterballoons on the sides of the road, but we avoided them, luckily. Its carneval season in Bolivia, and in Oruro, especially, madness rules. Fernando said that yesterday, all bolivans were wasted. In that little town, some women with colorful, big skirts, were dancing in the streets to terrible orchestra music. Other than that, people decorate their vehiculos. I was considering to decorate Tornado a bit.

Day 7: San Borja

We drove one hour to San Borja, which is a quite large town. We found a nice hotel and head off to swim in a little lake. There was a very nice little area with a flat, wooden boat, that I sunbathed in, while Fernando was manoovering. He was too much of a chicken too swim in the waters, even though the family living there, said it was fine. We just got back, and the rain is pouring. We, who were going to see some local tribes living without shoes!
This town loves karaoke, so I have a feeling we might fall for that trap, tonight. After some spare parts shopping today, we`re off to Coroico, tomorrow.


Day 8: My ass!

Sore. So sore!
We drove off at 7.15 with fresh gasoline and an extra waterbottle full, just in case. For a few days, we couldn`t get hold of gasoline from the stations, as the trucks didn`t make it cross the bad roads. The scenery was still great, yet cloudy, for the most part, but it was hard to always enjoy it with that sore butt, from in total, ten hours of humpty dumpty roads. It was really, really bad somewhere, and I had to get off to walk a few times. Reaching Caranavi to have lunch, swim in the river, and sunbathe, was amazing. After that, we were off for another two and a half hours to Coroico, which is a stunning little town on a mountainridge, surrounded by many other green, lovely mountains, and a river below. I`m quite swoomed, and wouldn`t mind staying here, really. But the whole morning tomorrow will have to do. I`m considering catching a night bus to Sucre(roads are said to be terrible) and then later to Potosi, before returning to La Paz. I think its a good idea to go straight to Uyuni from La Paz, avoiding that detour. Buses are cheap as hell anyways.

02.03.11 A new travel buddy

Change of plans, again. After jobhunting online, Fernando came along, and we went for a ride. He first took me to his favorite sandwich place, where you can also play beach volley. We will!
Then he told me that we could go to the Amazon tomorrow morning, and we are. I let him get aquainted with Tornado, and he showed me all of La Paz and Valle de Luna. When we continued on to a beautiful lake in a quiet village, the rain started pouring, so we had to find shelter and eat cookies for an hour.
As Tornado still has too little force, we took him to the mechanic, but they said it will pass as we descend.
Later, I still had some shopping to do, and we trotted along to finish the search for rainpants and a memory stick. I'm a bit tired of speaking spanish all day, as he doesn't speak a word of english, but I`ll get used to it. Kinda have to.
We're not going to Rurrenabaque, where the rivers are all flooded, but an hour away, where its not supposed to be that bad. But yeah, I wont be able to post pictures for a while.

Back from the mountains

To start this off randomly, six days in the highland has made me look like an idiot. I blame that on the strong sun, but I also feel different.

I dropped Huayna Potosi to go with some guys from the hostel, for six days of trekking in the Las Cordilleras. Unfortunatly for us, Kings Cross is supposed to be better. The trip was then delayed one day, where I bought "Marching Powder"; the incredibly interesting book about the english guy who started making the San Pedro prison into a tourist attraction.
This prison is like nowhere else in the world, and for a bribe, you could earlier get in quite easy. Nowadays, they`re cracking down, so its very hard. I settled with reading the book in the nice park outside of it.

The San Pedro prison works its own political, economical and social system, where you pay an entrance fee, for an apartment(where you can have whatever you want) in a security and wealth divided zone system. Within these zones, you`ll find families living together, restaurants, markets, shops, and in the heavyer areas: a cocain factory that produces some of the purest stuff you can get hold off. The tourist usually sniff this stuff together with the tour guide, as the police never enters this zone, where you`ll be receiving the tour.
How this prison system, where you can bribe yourself to a day off, with escort, works on money, and the rest of Bolivia, is shocklingly described in this great book. It was pretty strange to read it, looking at the place where things were still going on.

But back to the trip!
My travel companions and me made up a quite nice team. There were two Israelis, who taught me a bit of Hebrew, and a New Zealander that unfortunatly had a worsening mouth infection from Huayna Potosi. He had come to La Paz by motorcycle, too, so I could get some useful input. We were all gonna build a raft and raft the river Tuichi to Rurrenabaque, in ten days. Due to the rivers alarming strenght now in the rainy season, and the fact that I`d rather squeeze in some horseback-time in Tupiza, I had to be the chicken and bail out.
Our bolivian guide, Fernando, who we all grew very close to on this trip, has convinced us all to go to the big carneval in Oruro, and then the Amazon, as there is flooding going on. He started off as a serious tour guide, and ended up as a teasing little baby, who just loves his glacier caves.

It took us ten hours by bus to get to a deserted little town, where we spent the night in a non-isolated house with dusty and rocky floors. We then woke up to find snowcovered llamas outside, we simply thought: ooh boy...
The first trek to our camping spot lasted a few hours, and the weather kept changing(probably the most annoying part, as you have to change clothes all of the time). We passed 5000moh at the most. Always when you`re trekking in altitude, its kind of like yoga, as you have to focus a lot on your breath. I don`t like walking slow, so I always stayed in the head of the group, and waited for the rest, instead. The guide was pleased that we walked so fast. He brought delicious snacks, and I was soon to be named the cookie monster, as I constantly was covered in crumbles.
We crossed a river an hour before setting up camp by a lake. That was cold, but not as bad as the morning we were returning. We were wet and cold when we reached camp, but after changing and chilling a bit, the good mood came creeping. That disappeared in the night, when the tents were damp and freezing. Me and one of the israelis clunched together and at the worst, I promised him a sunny day. He pretty much squeeked out: really? you think so?

I was right. We had a beautiful day. I mean seriously beautiful! Fernando also got to visit his caves. He would enter each one, and urge us to follow. It was quite spectacular, and destructive for my rain pants, who were completely destroyed by the day. I looked like a poor miner. We fell asleep twice in the sun. Lovely.. But the New Zealander was struggling with altitude, and didn`t follow us, as I was dead keen on going up an intimidatingly steep mountain(5700). We had already walked all day, had no more food, and the others grinned that I just wouldn`t give up. Still we had to return before dark, and stopped 200m before. I think the old me might have quit, but I`m definatly not.. the same, as I was. I needed to prove this to myself.

We were not as lucky the next afternoon. We couldn`t go where we were supposed to, and I preferred drying my feet instead of going for a walk on the glaciers. That just isn`t worth the risk, and I was right again. Coming early back to camp, changing, listening to music and reading my book, just kickstarted a great mood, just in time for the snow to stop and stars to appear. In Fernando`s tent, the cooker made it warm enough to sit down. We called it "the sauna". The food was still good(everything is good on treks where you need your calories), and we devoured a great deal of cookies and chai tea, as well. Naturally.
The rest of the nights in the tent, hadn`t been that cold, althought its impossible to sleep deeply in that altitude.

But that last morning.. ohhh, that last morning..
I`d say it was the worst morning of my life, and I could do nothing but fight with my own mind, reminding myself of the comforts that were awaiting, and how so many people suffered worse than me.
We woke up to the tent being Deeply covered in snow, and the snow still falling. We needed to wrap up the tent, put on icy socks and shoes, not have breakfast and hope that we would`t get too wet to not survive the next day. My rainpants were already a mess. The no breakfast thing doesn`t work for me, so... well.. the top layer of yesterdays pasta, thrown onto the ground... I couldn`t Just survive on coca pills!
After one hour, we were due to cross the river, which had almost grown to hip height. The river was warmer than my shoes, so that was fine, but it cut off all bloodcirculation in my legs for the following climb. It was a rough climb, and after an hour, I had given up that my feet would stop hurting. It didn`t matter how hot I got elsewhere, and exclaimed that we had to stop before I`d loose them. (such a whimp)
After warming and drying feet and socks, I said; fine, I can live with this. Fernando however, called my feet isicles and told us to wait a bit longer, giving me extra socks that absorbed a lot of the water, so when we started going down, I could remove them and my feet would have circulation once more. Everything after that was amazing because that morning of freezing feet, losing their nerves, starving and being tired from the uphills, didn`t knock me Completely down. I wasn`t cold elsewhere, and the pain would pass. And I`m on a holiday, I thought to myself..

We were supposed to walk further, but honestly.. we were thrilled by the idea of a car lift to the hot springs. We were gonna catch a night bus to La Paz, but there wasn`t one going that night, a bus driver said. In such small villages, if a bus goes or not, depends on rain... You never know if the bus is actually gonna come, or when!
The villagers offered us beds in case it didn`t, but in the end, it showed up at the exact time I had betted, while we were sitting in a friendly mans little shabby shop, drinking tea and jabbering on.
The man was lovely, and was so keen on learning english that he had bought a grammar booklet and everything. The village itself was pretty dead, apart from alpacas trodding around in the streets, and later on, some teenagers drinking beer around a truck.
It was a wonderful sight to see the bus arrive, with seats available. It was a hell of a bumpy ride, but we got back to La Paz in the morning!
I`ve had a loong, fantastic shower, breakfast, a long nap, chilled out and ahh.. Its just so good to get out and back into your comfort zone. Especially when you can get such cheap massages and good food.
The plan is now to go to Valle de Luna with Fernando, tomorrow. Shop some necesseties and then take off for Sucre the next day. I`m catching a bus back up to Oruro and then La Paz, to fly to the Amazon, when its dryer. A ten hour bus ride costs 25kr, which wont get you 15 minutes in my hometown.

Update

Not a whoole lot to say. I cant find my camera memory stick! I`ve done a lot of shopping, went to the coca museum(which involved a whole lot of reading), enjoyed the fact that Tornado is ravishingly clean and working smoother than ever with a new generator and a larger gasoline tube.
So if you need a trustworthy mechanic in La Paz, call Enrique: 7777391. I wanted to pay him extra for the great job they did, but he wouldn`t take it.
I`ve also been reading the incredible Steppenowolf, which I wont finish, as Sander takes it with him when they all go south tonight.
In a famous indian restaurant, I was challenged by the words "finish this spicy place and you`ll get a t-shirt"... irresistible.. my stomach was hurting for 2,5hrs afterwards, though!

Tomorrow morning, I`m doing the Huayna Potosi(6094 m.a.o.s.l) 3 day trek. That will be seriously tough. Bought coca-pastilles. If coca could keep those mine workers in Potosi going, they might just save me too. I`m gonna need some chill time after that, before the Amazon. What a week!

La Pazing the time

Dear God, what a title. Buut but, I can`t help myself!

Yesterday I went to the witches market with two australian girls. I got a good massage that fixed my back, for 50 bolivianos(45min). I thought that was pretty cheap, but I just discovered a massage place inside a swimming pool building, three blocks up from Loki, that charges 25 bolivianos for an hour! Thats like 20 NOK...

I bought some necesseties and nice shoes for 47 bolivianos, met a lot of nice locals that were constantly warning me about keeping my stuff safe, etc. While buying some bike- equipment, I stayed a while, talking to the store owner and his friend, Raoul, who was a cop. Raoul offered me a ride on the back of his bike. He was a really nice guy. Invited me for dinner when he dropped me off, even. It wouldn`t have been dangerous to be n the back, as the traffic is so slow at that hour, that I could`ve jumped off anytime. Was just fun to pass by my friends on the street.

We all hung out at the hostel that night. I really like Loki! Tall ceilings, classic interior design, nice people. Once again, I wasn't able to sleep long. Altitude and my day rythm makes it so hard!
I went to find a mechanic for some repair and update. In the parking house, one of the guys offered to show me where to go. He went with me on the back, pretty high up, to one of his friends who charged too much. I replaced the mirrors myself, and we went to another place where the really nice Enrique charged me half! He fixed my signal light, and we made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Tornado`s going to do so much better with a little force. He keps shutting off.
The same guy who showed me the way(three blocks up from Loki, and to the right), works in that swimming pool place, so he gave me a tour. 22 bolivianos for swimming and sauna. I`m going there for the massage when it opens at 3 pm. My friends are all doing the death road, until 7-8ish, while I`ve got lots of shopping to do in the main market, which is ten minutes away.