Sooooooooo it has been absolutely ages since i've last written anything, it's crazy how busy i've been! I'll start with the ascent of Chacaltaya. We awoke early tuesday morning - went for a swim with toby early in the morning at a swimming pool near us. They lent me a pair of extremely skimpy swimming trunks and goggles which i managed to break, but it was really good and toby is also like a merman/ semi-pro swimmer so I have a good teacher. We came home after that pretty exhuasted grabbed our stuff and ran for the bus, not wanting to carry around a heavy jacket I packed light and set off on what I thought would be a gentle stroll up some hill in the afternoon sun. We drove for a few hours and got to some mountains that surround La Paz, and then drove up them on a crazily tight road with shear drops either side in the snow. We got to a certain point where we decided it was safer to get off and begin the grizzling trek on foot. I was pretty suprised to see snow let alone a mahosive mountain! We hiked for an hour or so up to the old ski-lodge which is still used as a haven for trekers - it's crazy the affects of global warming that can be seen there, until a few years ago it used to be one of the highest ski resorts in the world but over the last few decades the glacier melted until it was completely gone in 2009! When we arrived at the ski resort we were all pretty dead and the weather had turned from sunshine to blizzard conditions, we had also had to leave some straglers behind to return to the mini bus. It was becoming quite hardcore and we still had not conquered the summit which was another 200m up. Not wanting to be defeated Me, Lukas, Marius, Paul, Su and Niko started the last leg , already soaking wet, cold, frostbitten and oxygen starved we staggered up to the peak. Unfortunately we were unable to enjoy the apparant breathtaking views due to the artic blizzard but we still felt proud of our accomplishment! (maybe a little exaggerated in my description but it was pretty tough!). However on the way down the weather cleared up and we saw the most amazing scenery, it was kind of like middle earth and I would not have been suprised if we had met a few hobbits.
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| At the summit |
Since then work has been good, we've got more involved in taking boys to hospital or the dentist (which are also projects both run by arco iris and the kids get free treatment) We are also receiving more boys for Casa de Paso (the half way house) who have progressed to live at esperanza and I have to take them to school and pick them up which sometimes means not getting home until 7.30 ish but its good to spend time talking to them on our minibus journeys. Recently Todos Santos 'all saints' was celebrated here - which is a big festival and a national holiday. It's kind of a wierd mix between catholicism and ayamaran tradition, which involves families making tables and filling them with food for their dead relatives. Me and lukas spent the whole day in a backery making bread for our project with a crazy old man that spoke ayamaran to us the whole time and therefore forgot to put the eggs in our bread, we tried to remind him but he didnt seem to take note - he was soo funny though. On todos santos everyone goes to the cementry (which is massive - with graves stacked on top of each other like houses) and prays and people give out this bread to people who stop and pray for their dead relatives - people wander round with huge sacks of bread which they have earned - it's more an excuse to get like a years supply of bread than anything else.
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| Challa -the village we stayed at |
This friday me, lukas and max (two of the germans) set of for a weekend on the Isla del Sol (an island in lake titicaca), after a cramped 3 hour bus journey we arrived at .. to take the ferry across the bay to copacabana from where we would take our boat to the isla. However, as soon as we landed we were greeted by police who wanted to see our visas - unfortunately none of us had actually thought to bring our passports and visas when travelling in the same country and when we were techniclly still in la paz. We were then taken to the local police station where we were lectured about how we could be illegal immagrants (funny as there were more likely to be a hordes of illegal peruvians on our boat than three europeans) and quized about everything, including our income - to which we replied that we were volunteers. After this the decided not to fine us and out of the kindness of their hearts, let us continue our journey. After this excitement we arrived in copacabana and took the hour and a half with a boat to the isla. We got to the island dock which was heaving with tourists - and quickly began our trek to challa - the village where the friend of lukas and max works. After a two hour hike, taking alot of pictures of donkeys and adopting a random dog that followed us the entire way we arrived at the village. It's kind of like stepping back in time when all the tourists are gone, there are no cars on the island - just lots of donkeys, mud hut villages and local people in traditional aimara dress. We then suprised the volunteers there - well I did by being left to walk straight into their bedroom alone by lukas and max - with them looking very confused. They are really cool - jonas the friend of lukas works in the school, pratically on the beach - its more like holiday as they only have school 9 - 1 and then they just chill on the beach which is in the most amazing setting. We then spent the weekend going for 'swims' (the water is so cold you would probably freeze to death if you stayed in more than 10 minutes) visiting inca ruins, a making a camp fire on the beach and playing this israeli card game the volunteers there are crazy about.. It was a really really good weekend and the weather was great - we all now have ridiculously burnt legs that we forgot to suncreme. Tommorow we set off on yet another adventure (my time here isnt actually all holidays!) to rurrenabaque, medidi - one of the most diverse national parks in the world for a weeks holiday. So i'll definately have a lot more to write about
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| Lukas, Me and Max |
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| Me, Lukas and Max with the other German volunteers |
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