Bolivia = otro mundo. No joke.

Three things before I really go into detail about anything.

1. This past week has been almost indescribable. To the point where, I don't even know how to write about it in this blog. With this being said, I just want to thank God that I was able to have this experience in Bolivia because I will definitely NEVER EVER forget about it. With Him, nothing is impossible!


2. I'm all the way in South America and Roy Halladay is still the man!! Doctober baby! Get it Phils!!!!!!

3. I'm apologizing in advance for the length of this entry, but be patient because it will definitely be interesting!

Wow, where to start? I'm sitting here sin palabras (without words, speechless) thinking about how drastically different other countries seem in comparison with the US. I feel like I just got back from Mars or something. You might think that's not possible, but just wait.

Wednesday, October 6th

We had a flight from BsAs to Salta (a city in northern Argentina). We were going out of the smaller airport in the city (yes there are 2 airports in Buenos Aires). We laughed at 1- the size of the airport, 2- the lack of security (not only did it take us all of 5 minutes to get through security, but the guy didn't even look at the screen when my bag went through the scanner & yes I was able to sneak an already opened soda bottle on haha), and 3- the fact that we took a bus from the terminal, walked on the runway, and THEN got on the plane. Apparently this is what they do in Argentina? Who knew that we would get the opportunity to play and have a photoshoot on the runway when planes were taking off? Haha it was actually kind of fun :-)

Thursday, October 7th
We stayed at a hostel in Salta Wednesday night because we had an early bus (5:30 am) to La Quiaca, Argentina. La Quiaca is the town right on the border with Bolivia. Apparently in South America, the thing to do is walk across the border, so that's what we did! But before we get to that, I'll tell you about the viaje en bus. Well, we ended up driving through Salta and JuJuy (provincias in northern Argentina) and it was absolutely beautiful! So much pretty landscape to see (and we intentionally picked to sit in the front row on the second level of the bus, obviously after having such a wonderful experience with this in Chile!), and we also drove through some indigenous towns that really caught my eye. These people in these towns live in extreme poverty (well maybe not extreme poverty for all of them, but compared to what I am used to it seemed extreme). There were no paved roads, the houses were made out of like mud and brick, no windows, the rooves consisted of sheets of metal held down with rocks, and etc (refer to the pictures below). However, the highlight of this viaje was something else. At one point (I was half asleep), the bus driver slammed on the brakes, which was when I woke up. Why? There was a LLAMA CROSSING THE ROAD. Haha I guess there is a first time for everything? Because this was definitely a first! I guess it makes sense though because there were llama crossing signs every mile or so on the side of the road. There are also a ton of hitchhikers that buses just stop and pick up on the side of the road. So if you're ever stranded in South America, just park yourself on the side of the road and someone WILL stop for you!

So we finally arrive in La Quiaca. WOAH. Where were we and what did we get ourselves into was my first thought. Good job Kath. Trying to have a Bolivian adventure sounded like such a good idea in theory haha. It wasn't that I felt unsafe at all (ok, maybe just a little), it was that I got off the bus and I have never felt further from home before (even though geografically I was much closer). The people in this region are not like my beloved Porteños, that is for certain. No, no, they are much more rough around the edges so to speak, and I guess that comes with the way in which they live their lives (less resources, less opportunities, etc. - they don't even have paved roads for crying out loud). Not only that, but I also look like a foreigner, backpack and all. We walked about 5 blocks or so to get to migraciones (and btw, I'm thanking God again for my good sense of direction because we didn't know where we were going... pero, todo bien). Finally made it there! Ever been in two places at once? Check. We finally got through the line, paid our ridiculous fee because the US has to charge to everyone else (and in turn, everyone else is mean back! I could probably fly to Europe and back with all the fees I've paid, and still have money left over..), got a sweet visa on my passport, and we were on our way! We crossed the border into Villazón, Bolivia. I really wanted to snag a picture of the welcome sign on the side of a building, so thinking that I will probably never be back here again I whipped out my camera (which was a mala idea in this sort of town I would come to find out) and took a picture. It's a cool picture, really it is. But as soon as I took the picture this CRAZY MAN (I still don't know what his deal was) came running towards us, screaming half in Spanish half in some other language (who knows?) about how we're not allowed to take pictures. Really? I just paid 140 US dollars (which is worth much more than a Bolivian peso will ever be worth) so I think I'm going to take a picture of my experience. Gracias and chau. I say this now as if I wasn't scared, but the truth is I was mortified, shoved my camera in my bag, and walked swiftly away. Bienvenidos a Bolivia. Welcome to our country Kathy. Hope you enjoy your stay.

By this point, it had been awhile since we had eaten a good meal. No biggie, I can tough it out a bit. Little did I know how DIFFICULT it would be to find food, let alone a balanced meal in this country. But we'll save that story for later. We started walking up the main street in this sketch, border town (which I actually thought was really cool, but I don't really have many pictures of because the loco hombre scared me) until we arrived at the train station. Maybe there will be food there? Wrong. It's funny that I actually had hope at the time of finding some sort of technically savvy or some sort of life from this decade in this town. We hopped on the train (which also looked pretty aged) and we were on our way to Uyuni, Bolivia (home of the largest salt lake in the world). The view from the train was absolutely gorgeous. We rode through the mountains the entire time! We also resorted to eating train food (again, bad idea) and I more than quickly lost my appetite after they put the food in front of me. To give you an idea, they made milanesa (aka South America's version of chicken parm) with ketchup instead of red sauce. Who does that? So by now, my diet consisted of cracker products (ie cookies and crackers) and candy. Real healthy Kath. We arrived in Uyuni at around 2 am, and went to our hostel. Although it was pitch black out, it still didn't stop the shock of where we were. Not to mention, it gets into the 30's there at night. We were somewhat unprepared for this weather haha.

Friday, October 8th
We decided to sleep in a bit this morning, being that it took us over a day to arrive in Bolivia, and we really hadn't eaten anything in a day and were dead tired. Let me just tell you, I have a whole NEW appreciation for heating. Why? Let's just say that heating doesn't really exist in Bolivia. At all. This makes a great combination with their lack of running water as well. And when you do have running water, don't make the mistake of thinking you'll get hot water either because that doesn't exist either. Yes, this past week consisted of me freezing and layering whatever clothing I had to sleep, and taking freezing cold showers. Props to those who live with that day in and day out. But man, am I ever so grateful for the technology and resources I have available to me 24/7. We didn't exchange a whole lot of money at the border because you get much better rates when you sacar dinero from an atm, so this was our next production. Well, with no surprise because we were in the middle of the BOONIES (honestly, this town looked like it came out of a movie that's how outdated it was) there was one atm in town. ONE. There's one on almost every corner in BsAs! And this atm didn't even work half the time! After a bunch of shenanigans we finally were able to take money out, but seriously I never would have thought it would be so difficult to get money. I should also mention that there is ONE place to get internet in the entire town. Haha oh how different life can be in foreign countries!! We spent the day walking around and touring the town. Did a TON of shopping :-) Things are so cheap in Bolivia!! There are a ton of artesan markets and people are just parked on the street selling everything you can imagine. We finally had a good meal (actually it was pizza.... but it was the most healthy food I had had in awhile haha), and just had a relaxing day trying to take everything in because it was just so different there. There's really no other way to describe it.

Saturday, October 9th

Best day of the trip. Hands down. One of my favorite days down here actually. We went on a tour of the salt flats!!!! They picked us up from our hostel and we were on our way! The first part of the tour included visiting a train cemetery. It was super cool because I've never seen anything like this before, so naturally we spent our time climbing them, playing on them, and taking a ton of pictures with them. Besides, how often do you run across trains in the middle of the desert just chillin? They also had all of this cool graffiti on them (most of it in Spanish). It was very interesting. After this, we hopped back in the car and made some moves to get to the salt flats. We were staying in the town (Uyuni) closest (well not the closest, but the closest touristy town that had safe places for us to stay) to the salt flats. We drove for about 45 minutes before finally reaching the salt flats. We stopped in a town (Colchani was the name I think?) right on the border of the salt flats. MAN OH MAN. This place looked like it came out of a movie or something. I felt like I was on planet Mars. Dirt roads. Houses without windows and rooves. I doubt there was electricity or running water for that matter. Dirty (by that I mean everything looked like it was made of mud). Salty (this part was really cool). Outdated. Poor. I just got the impression that most of their money came from tourists coming and taking pictures of their lives and the way they live. Can you imagine being dependent on people coming and exploiting you and your family like this? It made me EXTREMELY grateful for the roof over my head at home and here in Buenos Aires.

Anyway, after visiting this town for about half an hour we finally drove into the salt. I was paying attention the entire time we were driving, but it was still like all of the sudden, BAM, we were in the middle of the salt flats. I thought it was the neatest thing. They first took us to this part where there are all of these piles of salt that look like little pyramids. I shouldn't say little because some of them you can hide behind. After having a few photo opps with these we hopped back in the car and took off for our next destination (ie: COOLEST PLACE EVER). Our next stop was Isla del Pescado (island of the fish) which was named this because as you are driving towards it, it takes the shape of a fish from far off. Pretty neat. We arrived, had a wonderful lunch (in reality it wasn't super wonderful, but it was the first balanced meal I had had since arriving in Bolivia, so I was happy!), and then went exploring. This island (rather it looked like a mountain) was filled with cactuses (cacti??) and there was a trail that you could hike up to look at the view from the top. Wow! This was absolutely breathtaking. We got to the top and you could see everything! Nothing but salt in every direction! I've never seen anything like this in my life before! It was incredible. I was having one of the moments where you just stand there and take everything in because that's how incredible this experience was. It was picturesque and part of me couldn't believe what I was actually looking at. I just stood there marveling at the size of this thing. Pure salt. Yes, I tasted it too. How could I not!? Hahaha. I also brought some back with me!

We walked down the island and decided to go and play in the salt. By that I mean we spent a good half hour taking ridiculous pictures and acting like kids. When we got back in the car, the rest of our group asked us if we took enough pictures. I laughed and we joked around, but in my head I thought, "well actually I could have used another half hour of time, but we're on a time budget now so I can't." Before I forget, I wanted to tell you a little about the group we were with. We were with a Bolivian man (the one driving the car, he didn't really say much). We were also with an older man from Spain (and obviously I was raving about my wonderful experience in Spain with him). There was another girl named Gabby who was our age and from La Paz. The last person was a woman from France who had been living in South America for the past 14 years. How cool is that? She had spent time living in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Brazil, and had just previously lived in Lima, Peru. She told us that she had booked a flight home at the end of November to return to France after all this time. What stories this lady must have by now! I can only imagine!! Everyone was extremely nice, and we spent most of the day talking with all of them in Spanish. Gosh Kath, you are so cultured now. Muy bien hecho. It was super interesting talking with all of them about South America and all of the places each of us had seen.

We then visited the volcano (which is inactive now) in the salt flats. There were also flamingos chillin right on the border of this. Ok? Don't know how they got there or what they eat to survive in the middle of 4,000 miles of salt (yes, that is how big these salt flats are!!!!!), but there they were! After this, we drove for about a half hour looking at nothing but salt. I couldn't get over it. All I could see was salt. Then the group dropped us off at our hotel.

And oh what a great decision it was to stay at this hotel because it was AWESOME. First and foremost, this hotel was made of salt. And when I say that I am being completely serious in that 95% of the things inside that hotel are salt. The floor, the walls, tables, chairs, fireplaces, my bed (excluding the mattress that is), my nightstand, the desk in the room, the bathroom, and etc. Don't laugh at the redundancy of my video below, but seriously have you ever seen anything like this?



Sunday, October 10th
We wanted to get on our way to La Paz in the morning, but because Uyuni is so not in touch with the rest of the world we weren't able to leave until night time, which is when the buses leave for the city. Not ideal, but it was fine because the hotel was cool enough to let us hang around and chill all day (and feed us which was a HUGE plus). Not too shabby lifestyle relaxing and looking at the salt flats all day! Did I mention there is a spectacular view from the hotel on top of everything?

We had to go back into Uyuni to catch our bus. No big deal. Wrong. We had someone pick us up (taxis in this town don't really exist; it's more like people volunteer to drive you places and you pay). I've mentioned the whole no paved roads thing before. Well, in this part of town (land rather) driving is like off roading. Imagine the ride that you go on in Animal Kingdom in DisneyWorld where they purposely drive over the bumps as you're going on the excursion in the car. Well picture that except real life and much faster. Oh and in the dark. I was scared out of my mind sitting in the back seat holding onto the you know what bar the entire time. I was beyond relieved when we arrived safely into town. Last time I EVER do that again. Next time I'll walk, thanks. Oh but here's the good part. That ride was nothing compared to what I am going to tell you next. Remember the whole thing about no paved roads in Bolivia. Oh yea, for some strange reason I thought there would be a road leading to the capital of the country. False. We were off roading again, but this time in a huge tourist bus at 50 mph. No seatbelts this time either. I'm going to stop talking about this because it brings back scary thoughts and memories.

Monday, October 11th
Despite always getting motion sickness, this didn't happen on the bus ride to La Paz. Could be that I loaded up on dramamine. Was super happy when I got off the bus because I didn't get sick. Ha.... little did I know! We hopped on a bus an hour later to Copacabana (a touristy city about 3 hours from La Paz). At this point I started feeling kind of sick, but I thought it was just something I ate and that it would pass. Mentiras. The bus ride was absolutely beautiful, but I missed most of it this time because I was sleeping due to the fact that I felt awful. But I tried to put on my happy face because I knew I would probably never be back to Bolivia, let alone this place again.

We arrived in Copacabana, and went to our hostel. It took a lot out of me to not lay in bed the rest of the day (at this point I really didn't look healthy), but I tried to be champ status and go tour Isla del Sol (a beautiful island with ruins a boat ride away from Copacabana). So we left the hostel, and hopped on a boat (really great combination given my love for boats and my current status). The weather was gorgeous and the town was really cool. The water was so blue too! We get to the island, and this is where it goes downhill haha. Instead of walking around and checking out the island, I literally spent the entire time in the bathroom feeling awful. I mean, I did get to see the island, just not as much as I wanted to. We finally got back on the boat to head back. I lasted all of about 5 minutes in my seat before running to the back of the boat, sticking my head over the edge, and getting sick (sorry if this is TMI haha). Because we were scared that I had possibly contracted a parasite in my system we decided to go to the hospital when we got back to the town. It fittingly suits with my habit of going to the hospital on vacation. This wasn't the first, second, or third time for that matter that this has happened hahaha! Not even my first time in a foreign country. I say that as if I'm proud or something ha. Anyway, long story short, I was seen, given a shot in the butt (which hurt really bad!), given pills, and other medicine for all of EIGHT US DOLLARS. I can't even believe that we were concerned about insurance before. I paid less than a quarter of my co-pay at home for all of this. Not to mention it didn't even take a half hour to do all of this. Oh life. At least now I can check going to the hospital in South America off my list. Three continents down, four to go! Hahaha kidding!

Tuesday, October 12th
We took a morning bus back to La Paz. Thankfully I was feeling much better, but still not great. But like I say, you can't win 'em all. At least this time I was able to see the landscape on our way back! We arrived in La Paz (not after our bus driver decided to leave us in the wrong bus station, at which point we got very angry and started yelling at him) and went to our hostel (which was one of the coolest hostels I have stayed at down here!). We didn't want to waste any time so we put our stuff down and went on our way to el mercado de las brujas! This witch's market was an artesan market that went on for blocks and blocks on this one street in La Paz and is one of the most famous places there. Naturally, I did a ton of shopping again and bought some really cool stuff! We headed back before dark (La Paz didn't exactly seem like the safest city in the world) to our hostel. La Paz is really cool though (even though it was kind of ugly). I really enjoyed my time there! It is a lot bigger than I expected, and it's built into the side of a mountain which makes it unique.

Funny story here. We ate dinner at our hostel because it was cheap and also reliable (given our track record with food at this point we weren't risking anything haha). I sit down at one of the tables across from this guy, who obviously heard us speaking english. He asks where we're from and we say the states. He is too, cool. I tell him I'm from Jersey and he goes oh this girl (as he points to a girl sitting at the table next to me) is from Jersey too. I've met two people down here from New Jersey in the past five months so obviously I was super pumped about this! I asked her where she was from, and ironically she was from Cherry Hill, the town next to mine. My excitement elevates because I can now talk to this girl about how wonderful the So Jerz is for the next hour or so. We talk about Wawa, the Phillies, the shore, and all that good stuff, until it finally strikes me to ask her when she graduated high school and from where. Well here, it turns out that we had several friends in common and I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Who knew I would have to go all the way to Bolivia to meet someone that knew how good life is in the good ole jerz! Talk about a small world!!

Wednesday, October 13th

Hahaha. Yes I am starting off this day with a laugh because you probably won't even believe the shenanigans that took place this morning. We had a flight at 9 am from La Paz, but we figured we'd leave a little early because we weren't able to check in for our first flight online. No biggie, we would just do it there. HA! We get to the airport before 6 am, get to the counter to check our luggage and check in, and here comes the killer. The lady tells us that our reservations were canceled. REAL COOL because we already checked in for our flight from Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires (the flight from La Paz was just our connecting flight). We have problems. Big ones. As soon as she told us this we both WENT OFF in spanish (Kiri moreso than myself, but I tried to keep up with her haha). I kind of feel bad for the woman now that I think about it because we were not being nice. But even so, we had already paid for everything, why would STUPID Aerosur go and cancel our reservations. Word to the wise: apparently in Bolivia you have to call 48 hours before your flight to confirm everything and then check in online 24 hours before. Seriously man? Who does that? And why wouldn't you send me something telling me I had to do this? So after the freak out session at the counter with the lady, she puts us on stand-by. We call the director of our program (this was not an easy task either considering the weird area codes and stuff that we aren't accustomed to either; fortunately we bumped into a really nice man that helped us and let us use his phone), the poor guy, we woke him up at the crack of dawn because we just didn't know what to do! So after numerous phonecalls back and forth, we were told to accept our fate and go to the gate and talk to the people and try to get on the plane. Now we play the waiting game. Oye was this stressful. Waiting, waiting, everyone boards the plane, more waiting, and FINALLY (with the wonderful mercy of God; He is so good!!!) they let us on the plane! Of course all of this could have been easily avoidable had they not up and gone canceling my ish, but whatever. Learning experience, no?

We get to Santa Cruz (delayed might I add) and still have to check in with Aerolineas Argentinas, pay another airport tax (at this point I was getting fed up with Bolivia haha quit taking all of my money man! I already paid you $140 to get here and now you want me to pay to leave?), and go through customs. So we were a bit rushed and also concerned that we went through all of that and could possibly miss the only flight back to BA in the next 48 hours. Pero, todo bien because we made the flight (however, not before waiting in customs for almost an hour). Interesting fact here: there is a narcotics section in the Santa Cruz airport where you go up, put your stuff down, and they full on search everything. No privacy in Bolivia apparently! Deservedly so considering their problem with drugs and such. I didn't mind though. I just thought it was really interesting especially when the guy in front of me had a teddy bear to give to his daughter I'm assuming, and they cut the back of it open and were searching through the cotton to see if anything was in it.

After all of that debacle, we finally arrived back in BA. Home sweet home!! Well, for now at least. Sin problemas! Well, except for the lady at the BA airport giving me attitude about going in the wrong line (I went through the tourist line because it said US citizens instead of going through the Argentine residents line because I have a visa; My b for thinking that my permanent residency presided over my temporary residency). I quickly countered that though because I've actually become pretty witty in Spanish. I'm kind of proud :-) I finally arrived back in my lovely apartment. Oh how good it felt to be home! I can't imagine what it's going to feel like when I actually AM in my real home!

Overall, I'd say this trip to Bolivia was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. Although it was super frustrating at times, it was totally worth it to see something so drastically different from what I am used to! The salt flats are one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my entire life, and I really thought that Bolivia was super cool in its own special way. It definitely made me sit back and be grateful for what I have because some of the things I've seen still seem unreal to me.

Check out my new videos!!! I finally put more up! My apologies for not uploading more, but the internet is not speedy mcspeedster here like it is at home. That and I just don't have the time to upload everything. I took an AWESOME trip to Iguazú Falls this past weekend that I will definitely update you all on later because it was hands down one of my favorite weekends here!!! I am also leaving to go climb the glaciers in 2 days as well! I'm leaving Wednesday morning and getting back Sunday night! This trip not only includes a visit to the glaciers, but a visit to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world! South America is for sure wiping out my bank account fast, but I wouldn't have it any other way! More to come soon! This time next month I will be home!!!!!