Saturday, October 13, 2007 Bolivia!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Saturday, October 13, 2007 Bolivia!! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Thanks for many great years!

I woke up at 7 and made sure the rest of the Bolivia group was up and ready to go. Courtney still wasn’t feeling 100%, but she’d paid (a lot) and was determined to go. We met up at the agency and climbed on the bus, where we met a group of Mexican girls who are studying in Santiago as well and two gringos from the states. We ended up making friends with all of the, especially the gringos, Andy and Taylor. They are both in the Naval Academy in Maryland and are the first Naval students to Study Abroad in Chile. They are at the Chilean Naval Academy in Valparaiso, Chile which is the port town about 1 hour from Santiago. We all got along really well and hung out all day.

We started our trip by first officially leaving Chile, so I got another Chilean stamp in my passport. Interestingly enough, we left Chile around 8:45 but didn’t get to the Bolivian border till almost 10:30. We still don’t know if that means we were in Chile or Bolivia, but it was a long ride through the desert. When we got to the Bolivian border we saw a tiny cinder block building, a Bolivian flag, tons of Land Rovers and lots of people wearing long pants and winter coats. Most of us had on shorts and a sweatshirt since it was so hot in San Pedro and we got a little worried but figured it wouldn’t be that cold outside.

At the border the tour guide told us to wait on the bus and ran inside. A few minutes later he jumped back on a under his breath said something about, “Let’s go, we’ll just enter and leave and the same time afterwards”!! So apparently we basically snuck our way in to Bolivia!

IMMIGRATION BOLIVIA: NATIONAL SECURITY IS OBVIOUSLY OF THE UPMOST CONCERN

Our first stop was Laguna Verde (Green Laguna), a beautiful light bluish green lake in the middle of the desert. We piled out of the van and realized why everyone was so bundled up. We had gone so high up that it was absolutely freezing!! We were almost 14,000 feet above sea level and you could feel it. We ate breakfast inside, then all piled into Land Rovers. The 7 gringos all packed into one together even though there was space in the others and our driver sped off through the desert, telling us “I always win!”. We drove to the other side of the Laguna, took more pictures, then drove to Laguna Blanca (White Laguna), another incredible lake. This

time our driver drove almost literally into the lake, I think just to show off the SUV! Around the shore of the lake was a thick layer of frothy suds and the water was incredibly clear. We went to a couple other spots around the Laguna to take more pictures, then headed to the next stop, the thermals.

LAGUNA VERDE

The thermals are natural hot springs that are like hot tubs in the middle of the freezing cold desert. Despite the cold, we stripped down and jumped in. The water felt so good and we relaxed over half an hour. I talked to the Mexican girls about the craziness of Chile, Chileans and the Chilean language. They told me they have a really hard time understanding Chileans and the Chileans have a hard time understanding them! Even more, they agreed with me when I said sometimes I feel like a complete idiot because I have no idea what anyone is saying!! Then one of them told me that I have a very pretty Argetinian type accent. So basically after that conversation I felt much better!

After the hot springs we stopped by a place called Desert de Dali, after Salvador Dali, the famous Spanish artist. It was a big sand field/dune filled with tall dark rocks sticky up randomly but in a very beautiful, artsy kind of way. Then we headed to Laguna Colorada (Red Laguna). (Do you like all the creative names?) Its called the Red Laguna because the water is a deep orangey-red color because of the bacteria in the water. I’m not sure, but I think it’s a photosynthetic bacterium that captures light from the sun and produces that crazy color. The only other animal life in the laguan is the flamingos that turn pink because of the bacteria! Apparently the area of Bolivia we were in has 3 of the 4 species of flamingos in the world!

LAGUNA COLORADA

At the Laguna Colorada we ate lunch and hung out with the pet llama they had. While we were eating it came inside and when CJ tried to get it to leave, it spit on his face! We died laughing but he didn’t seem to think it was that funny.

After lunch we drove around Laguna Colorada which ended up being about 3 times bigger than we originally thought. We went to on spot full of bright pink flamingos and course had to get the “pretending we are flamingo photo”.

Our last stop planned of our epic Bolivian adventure was another crazy geyser field. These geysers were really different than the Geysers del Tatio. Instead of water, it was a crazy thick gray mud/magma liquid. It was in huge pits that boiled and steam and reeked of sulfur. It was amazing to see and kind of like watching a fire: mesmerizing because its always changing but never really changes. But at the same time I think those kind of images inspired many people’s visions of hell: boiling liquid, sulfur smell, etc.

GEYSERS=el infierno?

After the geysers we were supposed to head back to the border to enter/leave Bolivia, but on the way our Land Rover broke down. To make a long story short, we sat in the car in the middle of the freezing cold desert for almost an hour while all the drivers tinkered away. It was actually a blast because I forgot to mention: since Bolivia is at such a high altitude, the lack of oxygen really gets to you eventually. I wouldn’t know, but some one on the trip said it kind of felt like being high. Basically we were all very relaxed, happy, a little giddy and absolutely ridiculous. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m exaggerating, but it was seriously strange. And at the same time feeling happy and relaxed, my chest started to feel really tight (due to the lack of oxygen) like when I get REALLY stressed out. It was a strange dichotomy. The entire day we joked around, sang Disney songs, and acted like 8 year olds and by the end of it, we decided our quote for the day would be, “We didn’t get high but we went to Bolivia”.

They eventually fixed the car and we finally made it to the border. There wasn’t a line anymore so at “Customs” (which was a guy sitting behind a desk in a little building), the man took our $3 entrance tax and stamped our passports for entering and leaving! We said goodbye to our driver and got back on the big van that took us back to Chile. We got back 1.5 hours late and at the Chilean border/re-entry point we had to go through a long line at customs and they really anazlized our passports. The best part: we had to step onto an “anti-bacterial pad” to apparently remove Bolivia from our shoes. Ignore the part that we were absolutely covered in Bolivian sand and soil. After the Chilean hassle (p.s. I snuck back in an apple that I had in my bag. Oh no!) we headed back to the hostel, cleaned up and reunited with the rest of the group. Then we met back up with Andy and Taylor, our Navy friends and we all had dinner together. After dinner a few of us got a bottle of pisco and we all went back to our hostel to hang out. The other half of the group went to sleep in their various stages of sickness. Seriously, everyone was sick in some form or another. Luckily my Litre was fading away and I felt much better.

At 3:00 am Courtney and Lorin left for the Geyser tour because they hadn’t gotten to go earlier. Coincidentally Andy and Taylor were on the same tour but they had stayed at our hostel until 2:45 am and just stayed up all night! Once everyone left, I crashed in bed ready for a good nights sleep.

Friday, October 12, 2007 Go big or go home: San Pedro Extreme

Friday, October 12, 2007 Go big or go home: San Pedro Extreme

After my little 3 hour nap, my alarm went off at 3:15 am and I woke everyone up to get ready to go to the geysers. In usual Chilean style, the tour guide picked us up around 4:15, only 45 minutes late. Unfortunately when we woke up Courtney was feeling really sick. When we found out she could go another day without paying the $20 again, she decided it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to go. She’d felt nauseous before we’d gone to bed and had apparently gotten sick a few times already.

The beginning of the tour consisted of us sleeping in the big tour van for almost 2 hours before we got to the geysers. When we were almost there the sun started to rise over the mountains. Incredible. We got to the geysers, paid the park entrance fee, and realized how stinking cold it actually was outside. A park ranger told us it was -9°C, or about 15°F. We ran to the bathrooms then ran to get back in the van.

Our tour guide, Henri drove us into the park and we got out basically in the middle of the steaming geysers. The sun was barely peaking over the mountains and the whole valley was filled with a soft light filtering through the steam. Before telling us about the geysers, Henri took out the cartoons of milk from the cooler and placed them inside of the small boiling geysers. After a bit of an explanation of how the geysers work and how the valley is in danger of being destroyed by a power company who wants to harness the energy from the steam, we ate breakfast, including the now warm chocolate milk in coffee. It was delicious! It was so cold that we couldn’t stand being outside so all the girls climbed in the van to eat. When CJ climbed in, I started scooting over so he could sit and I accidentally spilled my delicious chocolate coffee all over my leg. My fingers were so cold I couldn’t hold on to the cup so my leg was soaking wet.

By the time we finished eating and cleaning up the spill, the sun had come up and it was already about 10 degrees warmer. Within 15 minutes it was about 40 degrees and we were
about to start taking off layers! We had time to take pictures and play around the geysers, being sure to keep a safe distance when one of them started going off.

GEYSERS DE TATIO

After about 30 minutes the sun had gotten so warm the steam evaporated almost immediately and the geysers essentially stopped. The amount of change in the environment in such short time was amazing. So we piled back in the van and drove to a pool filled with the warm geyser water. Sam, Natalie and CJ and I toughed it out and got in since we’d worn our swim suits underneath our clothes. Our tour guide claimed that he almost never gets in, but for some reason today decided to swim. We think the number of cute young girls changed his mind. After we’d gotten used to the warm water we started getting really cold, so we did a quick dry off and jump back in the van before heading to the last stop.


GEYSERS POOL

At the end of the tour we stopped in a tiny (i.e. about 20 houses but only 3 families currently live there) village. I’m still not exactly sure why we went there other than for a touristy thing, because the only thing there was a beautiful white adobe church up on the hill and people selling anticachos (meat kabobs) with llama meat and sopapillas and empanadas. But we hung out for a while then drove the hour plus ride back to San Pedro.

We got back to the hostel around noon and most people went to take a nap. But Sam, Natalie, Calli, CJ and I walked into town to pay for our observatory tour later that night and to figure out our tours for the next day. I knew I wanted to go to Bolivia and about 4 others had brought they passports, so I went from agency to agency asking about their one day tours to Bolivia. Most of the tours are 3 or 4 days but I finally found an agency that had space for a one day tour on Saturday. I went back to the hostel and got everyone’s money that wanted to go to Bolivia ($60 for the day!) then walked back and reserved our spots.

At 3 we started our next tour of Valle de la Muerte y Valle de la Luna (Valley of Death and Valley of the Moon). We did this tour with Juan, the brother of our hostel owner. It was great because it was just our group with Juan driving us around explaining stuff, so a lot less touristy than the other tours. First we went to the Valley of Death, which is basically a huge desert valley in the middle of the desert. (Alright, so that description doesn’t do it much justice). But it was beautiful and looked like something out of a movie.

Next we went stopped at what seemed like the middle of the highway and followed Juan to what seemed like no where until we came to a huge cave 150 feet into the ground. There is an urban legend that a meteor fell and created the cave because it the walls down into the cave look like something fell straight down and sheered it away. Juan said it probably wasn’t a meteor because that would have caused a crater type hole, but it was still impressive.

VALLEY DE LA MUERTE

Next we went to a look out over one side of Valley de la Luna. I don’t know what the Grand Canyon looks like in person, but this is kind of what I would imagine. While we were at the look out I had to pee really bad (its so dry so we’ve been drinking water like its going out of style) but there was no where to go so I ducked behind a rock. Everyone had a good laugh, but with the amount of traveling we’ve all done together, we’ve gotten really close. The whole bodily function subject is completely open with all of us and we have a great time with it.

VALLE DE LA LUNA

Next we went to Las Tres Marias, a rock formation in the middle of the desert. Over thousands of years the wind blew away all the soft rock, leaving three vertical rocks that look like three women praying, hence the name “The Three Marys”. There was also a rock that looked like a T-Rex head, so we took a picture in front of it looking like dinosaurs.
Finally we made it to Valley de la Luna and hike up the sand dune with hundreds of other tourists. Everyone sits along the ridge and watches the sun set. Juan took us to the very end so we ended up being quite secluded and just before the sun went down he passed out Pisco Sours for everyone!

SUNSET AT VALLE DE LA LUNA
After the sun set we ran down the back of the dune (awesome!) then got back in the van and drove back to the hostel. We had a few hours before tour number 3 for the day started, so we cleaned up then got dinner at great restaurant in town (amazingly San Pedro has a lot of great restaurants since it is so touristy. But much better cuisine then Santiago).

At 10 we got on the bus for our next tour called Space Orbs. We drove about 30 out of the city into the middle of the desert and for the next two hours stood outside freezing but learning all about the stars from a very funny and entertaining French man. He and his wife are both astronomers and moved to San Pedro about 10 years ago since it is one of the clearest night skies in the southern hemisphere. They had some amazing telescopes and now I see why most little kids what telescopes growing up. I still can’t believe the things we saw. Star bursts, star clusters, a galaxy 48 billion light years away (it was a tight dull dot in the middle of their most powerful telescope) and all kinds of other celestial phenomenon that I can’t remember. They pointed out some easy to spot Southern constellations and taught us how to find the southern pole. Unlike in the north, there is not southern star to guide you, so you have to use other stars to find it.

After the tour they gave us hot chocolate, some of the best I’ve ever had in my life. Then we drove back into town. By the time we got back it was almost 2 and after waking up at 3:15 am we were exhausted! But I set my alarm for 7 am so we go get up and go to Bolivia in the morning!!

Thursday, October 11, 2007 All day on a bus. Literally. All Day.

Thursday, October 11, 2007 All day on a bus. Literally. All Day.

Amazingly I slept on the bus till about 8 am, and 8 hours of sleep on a bus is amazing! Unfortunately I woke up again to ridiculously swollen eyes. I spent the morning with the handkerchief over my eyes, partly to help the itching partly so that no one would see me. So the rest of the day I try to work a little ( I read about 50 pages of the book I had to read for my test on Wednesday) but really just slept and hung out. The TVs weren’t working on the bus, so no movies. Between the 7 girls and CJ we kept ourselves entertained and well fed. Every hour or some someone decided they were hungry and shared whatever goodies they’d packed. And we stopped every few hours and were able to get off.

So the hours passed one by one and the sun rose then began to set we finally made it to San Pedro around 7:30 pm. To be honest, the trip wasn’t that bad and I enjoyed being forced to relax. It was dark when we got off the bus but Roberto, our hostel (Hostel Iquisa) owner was there waiting to pick us up with a big van. We piled in and when we got to the hostel we asked Roberto about doing the Geyser del Tatio tour the next day. The tour leaves at 4 am and we figured since we’d spent all day on a bus we might as well go to bed early and wake up early the next morning for the tour. Roberto made a few calls and told us we were go to go. We just needed to be ready at 3:30 am! So we spend the evening settling in and everyone was in bed pretty early. Courtney and I had to write our journal entries that we have to do for our Poverty class, so we were up late trying to send them over the ridiculously slow computer. I got to bed a little before midnight, which at that point I was thinking of just staying up!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Off to San Pedro!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Off to San Pedro!

I woke up early to study, finish my paper, and completely pack up for my trip to San Pedro. The bus was leaving at 10 pm and I had class until 8:30 so I didn’t have much time in between. Unfortunately when I looked in the mirror, my eyes were completely swollen again! I was really upset because I’d expected them to be back to normal but when I think I know why they got bad again. My theory is that the cortisone shot I’d had Monday morning had basically run its course and I didn’t have any more in my system to keep the swelling down. When Olga saw me she sent me to bed and brought me warm tea bags to place on my eyes. That didn’t really help so then she brought me cotton balls soaked in milk that had been in the freezer for a few minutes. That felt great so for the next hour or so I studied and she brought me frozen milk cotton balls to place on my eyes. I don’t know if it really helped the swelling, but it stopped itching a little. Luckily my face wasn’t as red and I put on a little makeup to try to hide it, even though I doubt it did anything. So once again I went to class attempting to hide away from the world with my big sunglasses and hair covering my face.

My Education test went pretty well. It was actually exactly the same as one of the review guides the professor had posted online, so I finished pretty quickly and felt confident that I’d done better than last time.

Side note: while the professor was passing out the tests, I took off my sunglasses and when she saw my face, she gasped and asked me what had happened. I told her it was litre and she asked me if I felt alright. I was honest and said I didn’t feel great and she offered to let me take the test later. But I knew I just needed to get it over with, so I thanked her and said no. Afterwards when I turned in the test she wished me the best of luck and gave me a concerned smile.

After Education I had lunch with Christian and once again he didn’t do much to make me feel better. I know it wasn’t on purpose, but I’ve realized that sometimes complete honesty isn’t always what people want/need to hear! I went to my Biblia class and found out that despite the fact that the professor had given me an extension on my essay, everyone got an extension because the TA hadn’t given back the last one yet. And I thought I was special.

Finally I went to my Poverty class and we had a discussion session about our essays and our experiences volunteering up till now. It was great hearing everyone else’s frustrations, joys etc. and we all agreed on many things:
1. Its hard to start volunteering in an organization if they don’t give you explicit things to do.
2. The biggest challenge is the language barrier. ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH….
3. A lot of times we feel worthless.
4. Despite 1-3, its been a great experience so far.

After class I rushed home, where Olga was waiting for me with dinner hot on the table and my stuff piled and ready to go. She was great help and I got all pack and headed out with plenty of time. She had bought me snacks for the bus and a new handkerchief that I could put water on and lay over my eyes to help the pain.

We all met at the bus station a little before 10:00 and we finally got to meet Calli’s brother CJ who’d come to visit. There were 8 of us and we kind of took over the bus noise wise, but we had fun. I tried to get a little work done before I went to sleep and around midnight I turned off the light and joined the rest of the bus trying to get some sleep on this wonderful 23 hour bus ride!! Luckily I had my anti-histamines which made me really tired, so I was out in a few minutes.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Recovering Slowly

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 Recovering Slowly

I woke up this morning and my eyes were practically not swollen. My face was still slightly red and dry but I felt much better. Since I didn’t have class today I used all morning to study and write my paper. After almuerzo I headed to Nuestra Casa to “volunteer” /hang out for a few hours. I had a good time explaining what had happened to my face and all the men told me that I got litre because I didn’t greet it! The urban legend is that if you say “Hola Señor Litre, dejame pasar porfavor” (“Hello Mr. Litre, please let me pass”) or something along those lines that I wouldn’t have gotten litre! I told them I’d wish I’d known before but I’ve definitely learned my lesson.

Around 7 Lorin (the other volunteer from my program) and I walked back. My friend Nick came over to the apartment to study for our Education test tomorrow and Olga was pleased to play hostess. We studied for a few hours, which basically consisted of him explaining all the theories and ideologies about education to me. Luckily he understood it all and could break it down for me; otherwise I would have been completely lost. Olga made us once and Nick was thrilled to have so many vegetables and kept saying how great Olga is.

Nick left a little before 11 to catch the metro home and I studied a few more hours before going to sleep. My face had slowly gotten more red and swollen throughout the day and by the time I went to sleep I looked pretty bad. But I figured it’d be better in the morning and that it was only worse because I’d been up and around all day long.