Caracas, Venezuela.......the end???

Border crossing from Colombia to Venezuela is far from efficient. the stamps for visa was pretty straight up.. only the waiting time on the border was killing :). until the driver came to us and said " 20.000 pesos colombianos... es voluntario". well i guessed i caught the clue. after that there were 2 more stops; the national garde and the local police... sighing was the proper response i guess. crossed the lake of Maracaibo in the night was something amazing. and the city of maracaibo itself was full of life, from what is have seen from behind the windows (took a direct bus from Santa Marta to Caracas). the next morning the bus arrived in caracas. big metropole with slumps built on the slope of the hills, equal to Rio.. but miss lot of Rio's flair.

just straight up metropole i guessed (and supoosed to be the worst city in SA), but in the 3 days that i have been there nothing life threatning happend (thank god) and just bored waited for my flight back to home. Expensive .. that's how venezuela right now. if you pull cash out of the ATm it will damage your wallet pretty bad . 1 US dollar = 2 Bolivares. and hot dog is about 5 bolivares.

it was totally not wat i was expected from the city of my idol, Simon bolivar. hmm i guess Chavez ruins everything. Sorry, i really do not have anything fun to tell abouth this part of my trip.. it really was that bad. only some funny facts: all officials wore surgical masks precaution against swine flu, and extensive research in the airport which delayed my flight for about 2 hours. but when i was waiting i had some conversation with a Venezuelan woman but now she lives in Pijnacker. she traveled with her son and i heard her son talked both Spanish and Dutch and it was so funny to hear.

Back on Dutch soil.. I need to looked for my mom and my lil brother because they were hiding behind the crowds.. :P. anxious because she tought that i caught swineflu .. hahaha.

well folks a nice ending of Adventure in South America, it have been really great experience for me. I'm in love with that continent and definetly worth to see it again and discovered some parts i haven't been to. I hope you enjoyed my journal. sorry for the crappy ending but hey ....it's not the end.. i'm going to Indonesia in about a week. Back to the country where i was borned and raised. i'm really looking forward to be there :) . hope you will follow my story in Indonesia and enjoy it. Thanks and have a nice sunday.

Ch'

Drogas son malditas

after the bordercrossing i went from ipiales to Cali. and stayed in Cali for about 2 days. actually in Cali is absolutely nothing to do. the city centre is nice, but easily doable in about 5 hours. the most fun stuff in Cali is happening in the outskirt of the city. but hey i`m kinda short in time. the only thing that i regret that i didnt took a salsa lessons in the salsa capital of Colombia. I only want to learn the step, other people already said to me that i had the swing :D.

after Cali i went to Bogota (so right now i have been in all capitals, yess). the zone of candelaria is reallyt interesting with the beautiful palaces and the colonial houses. well because of miscomunication i didn`t see my friends from bogota. but instead i met another one on my bus to Cartagena (like quito, bogota is cold :P). Colombia is now one of my favourite countries. they are really working hard to polish up their bad image and right now definetly much better for travellers.

The big walls of Cartagena is really amazing. despite all of the afford to made such huge walls the pirates still able to breaked through. but the pirates of carribean feeling is still present. also the small streets with the colourful houses and the balconies are really beautiful. i really want to live / build equal houses, really love it. and maybe if the heat is not to opressing i could definetly live in cartagena. because not so far from cvartagena there is a chain of island with turqoise water, white sand and palm trees. spent amazing days in islas del rosario and snorkelling in Playa Blanca was absolutely the bomb.

Not far from Cartagena there is Santa Marta/ Taganga, the sea is really tranquille and it`s where i spent the last days of my trip. basically it was lying down on the beach, swimming and drink fruit juices. just trying to enjoy of the beautiful carribean as long as it last. the beautiful sunset was also an unforgetable memory of the place.

the following story is not suited for persons under 18 / parents advise is obligatory.

the magical last night in Colombia was a blur.... luckily i didn`t hurt myself. typing this page is still a bit hard for me. well i`ll uncover a bit of it in the end of the page. but the details i will tell you when i come back home ;).

here come the story:

well i`m not talking about the ¨Polvo Colombiano¨ or ¨yerba Jamaicana¨ or ¨pastilles de amsterdam¨ because you could get it everywhere in the world. But it`s something that`s closer to the magic mushroom in holland. It`s a halucinogenic flower that was also used by the shamans, and native to colombia (and it`s legal i heard) . well the guys in the hostel who went to the Lost city picked some of the flowers and made a brew of it. the final product is a tea that has similar taste with the chinese jasmin tea. 2 cups were supposed to be sufficient to feel any effect (the 3rd cup was suicidal). well after a while i started to get a really dry mouth and starting to feel really drunk and very very sleepy, when i decfided to go to bed. and after that well... sequence of things that might be happened or maybe only happened in my head. the effect last for really long time tho because it was about 2 days ago and im still feeling really weary (or maybe it was also the bus trip, Santa Marta - Caracas). I think the shamans were really strong men to handle the effect. luckily i didnt see anything scary, because other guy seen things like tentacles and stuffs. well that was once in lifetime experience because i don`t really like the side effects.

abrazo

Ch´

In rapid stream as rio Napo..

almost one month that i havent wrotten anything about my trip. well 2 things: times and the internet accomodation. went from town to town and from city to city until i stoked down in a little town named perucho where i stayed for one week to work in the ecological farm. in perucho there wasnt any internet cafes or anything only green hillside, lettuces, mandarines, avocados, coffees and sugar canes. anyway it was a pleasant week on the farm, because after that we went to the oriente to dos some work for the Bolsa amazonica. AHORITA, i'm in Cali; Colombia. so i'm going to sum up my trip to ecuador in one breath.

first, i was riding wave in montanita. a beautiful place were the wave was nice but also fill with sandflies (i still has some kind of skin rash not sure from what, bust suspected it was sandflies). after montanita i went north to Puerto Lopez where i took a tour to Isla de la Plata and seen alot of boobies. blue footed, red footed and nasca. the same ones as in Galapagos. besides birds i also saw some coloured fish. after Puerto Lopez i went to the capital of ecuador, Quito. probably the cheapest and the most beautiful capital in SA. went to the (slighly off) monument of the ecuator but also to the biggest artisan market of SA in the town of Otavalo. after that i went to the farm in Perucho. one week i learned about weeding, cultivating, irrigation and did some trekking to maybe one of the most beautiful farm in the surrounding area. learned alot but i regret that i wasnt helped the community significantly. but the people in the farm and the friends of michael did enjoy my cooking, so on the other hand it was a pleasure to stayed in the farm.

after one week in the farm, Michael was needed to do some work in Amazonia and thus we went to the oriente with Coca as starting point. it was here where Francisco orellana started his trip to explore the gran amazon river. but we were in Coca to helped with the refining of amazonian fruits in to juices, pulps and mermelade. after Coca we went to Tena were we met a group of ladies that recycled old papers into arts (and everything was ecologicaly done). from Tena we went to el chaco where we visited a mushroom farm and ate a delicious ceviche de hongos.

all of these businesses were in line with my interests and i really learned alot from this trip. and also with my background of bio chemistry i could explained the people in the farm how everything worked in the microscopic level. so it was kinda interchanging of knowledge and culture (indonesian food ;) against Ecuatorian).

my stayed in Ecuador was pleasant and it is definetly a country where i want to visit again. definetly i want to go back to perucho and maybe to have some adventure in Amazonia (Coca to Belem; Brasil).

abrazo

Ch'

Wrap it up,,, Ecuador here i come

long time ago when i updated my blog... so lot of things to write about, pero primero..
quiero dicer un felicitacion para dos personas quien tienen su compluaños este mes.

Feliz Compluaños para ustedes

A. van den Berg
y
tambien S.Becu

mucha salud, suerte y divertir en su vida
disculpe por este muy muy tarde.

i`m city hopping and when traveling for so long you started to lose your sense of time.
okay the pictures are from top to down: the nasca lines (the tree), Lima (plaza de armas- cathedral), Chavin temple (the head), Huaraz (cordillera blanca), Chan Chàn (city of Chimu),
huanchaco (nearby chan chan).

Nasca is a sleazy town there is practically nothing in town excepts restaurants and hotels. the picture of the line i took from the mirador, (not going to pay 100 bucks for the aerial tour)
so it`s slighly unclear but it is still amazing to see it from close range. but i did went to the planetarium and the museum and they were really interesting. especially because they provided a good knowledge about the origin of the Nasca culture (pre-inca).

Lima on the other hand is a huge metropole, really similar to Buenos aires. the upmarket district of miraflores and san isidro are good places to stay and much more beautiful compared to the center. The cathedral at the plaza de armas housed the remains of Pizarro as well a good collection of paintings (worth the visit).

From the dessert coast i went back to the andes to the cordillera blanca. the main city is Huaraz.
Huaraz is the base to trek the cordillera and / climb the highest peak of Peru, or go skiing when in season. but it also the site of what they said the precursor of the andean culture. the Chavin culture (pre-inca). nearby huaraz in the city of chavin there is a small remains of the temple fortress ¨chavin de huantar¨ the building is magnificent and the relief are really good. the chavin culture (peaked at about 800 b.c.) dominated about the half of peru at it`s golden time. the fortress is much more amazing than macchu pichu. right now, really think that machu pichu is overrated (and overcharged).

another interesting pre-inca culture is on the north coast of Peru, the Chimu. it was as Inca a conquering tribe and it was expanding about 1000 km in total (at it`s peak). the chimu was kind of the successor of the moche culture whose thrived from the agriculture and fishing aswell. the city of Chan chan is made from adobe (stamped dirt and water) but the amazing thing is they enclosed the palace with huge walls (from adobe). Another amazing building built from adobe: the first version of great wall of china. on the center of the palace there was a huge well dedicated to the god of fertility and it was also a ceremonial center. through the whole sites there are images of fishes and sea animals, it`s really shown the strong connection with the sea.

not far from Trujillo and chan chan there is a small fishing village of huanchaco. it was actually the place where i was headed for, for the sun, sea and .... surf. according the history it was also the place where the people started to surf. the fishermen still conserved the old tradition of the moche and chimu by using reed boats to fish on the sea. the boats are flat and it kinda surf on the wave.. so in theory here was the first time that people started to surf. surfing itself isn't really hard if you have the help of the teacher (considerated to be one of the best surfer in the north of peru) but when i tried on my own i wasn't able to stand up.. so in theory i need more practice :).But.. For some reason i kept bumping german speaking girls (maybe i should learned german), like the girls in my surfing class.

Abrazo

Ch´

the flight of the condors

I thought that i would love arequipa. but i didnt, not for one bit. it`s even didnt make the name truth as ¨ciudad blanca¨, the true ciudad blanca is still Sucre, Bolivia. (and the best city ive ever been) Asi, asi, Bolivia por lo mejor mundo. i really hate to be treated like a bloody tourist. on my trip ive never felt molested like when i was in arequipa. i couldn´t even walked a arcaded hall without somebody yelled ¨amigo¨or ¨konichiwa¨. I do not have any interests in your overpriced restaurant, ¨uruse, baka¨.

so i did not spent one night in arequipa and just used it as transit to camana and Colca canyon. which are 2 amazing spots.

arrived in arequipa i went directly to camana. one of the ugliest beaches ive ever seen in SA. it`s the dessert background that make the place sligthly unpleasant. but when i was theere, the lady of my hostal told me about her place in Colca canyon. well the canyon was my goal to be in arequipa departement anyway so yeah of i go.

i had really bad luck the night ive arrived in Yanque. it was 23.00 and the town was desserted i walked around and try to find a place to sleep but there was no one that answered my called.
so i went to the hospedaje of the lady of camana and decided to slept on the porch. in my mind i knew that one day i would stranded without a place to stay, and so luckily i stranded there in yanque where is relatively tranquille.

i learned more about the town from doña Gloria. a cafe owner, a guide and director of a NGO. and also a coca leaves reader. the first time i saw someone read coca leaves. she also told me about the colca (it`s a circular pre -inca tombes build inside the canyon walls). also on my way there when i asked for the direction, the guy was gladly offered to walked together (he headed to the same direction) and asked me about Holland, and what kind of stuffs people cultivated and also offered me information about the canyon and surrounding area.. and without expecting any money. sometimes i lost the faith in humanity but things like this made me really happy.




the next day i went to cruz del condor. its the deepest part of the canyon and also a natural habitacions for the condors. one condor strucked on a rock really nearby and sat there for 45 min without even bothered about the just arrived group of french speaking tourists. after that 10 condors circled about and flew really closed. when they cruzed nearby you could heard the wind whizzled. the colca itself with 3400 m depth suuposed to be the deepest canyon in the world and with the chain of snowcapped peaks of the andes it provided a majestic thrones for the majestic birds. one of the best spot in peru ive visited.

next stop: Nazca

abrazo

Ch´

Macchu Picchu y Valle sagrado

eu sou do brasil. Sao Paulo no Liberdade...

well that`s what i told to the taxi driver when i went to Moray (inca laboratory). I wasnt really sure to tell the truth because that taxi wasnt licensed. but it workd out really well. he believed in it. because everytime people think that i´m from Japan so i use that as my weapeon now (like aikido, hehe). Liberdade is the japanese district of sao paulo. you probably need to go back to 4 months ago when i was in Brasil.

but anyway i was going to tell you about the amazing machu Picchu. in Cusco, i met a muchacho from Chile and we decided to went to machu picchu together. we took probably the most economic option to go there. and that`s by taking the bus to Santa Maria and after that to hydro electrico. we arrived at hydro electrico at 17.00 -17.30 and we followed the rails to Agua Caliente. that was probably the most amazing walked ive ever had. with the light from the half moon we made our way to agua caliente and seen the mountain machu picchu lighten by the moon. AMAZING. really tired we arrived in agua caliente and after we bought our ticket we decided to go to sleep becaues the next day we need to walked up to the entrance of machu picchu. another amazing experience to see the sunrise on the lush vegetate valley. we ran to the entrance of wayna picchu (the hill back of machu picchu). because they only allowed 400 people/ day on that hill. so we climbed another hour an half to the top of that hill. but it was really worth it because the view over the whole sight is amazing. after that we (me, chileno y ecuatoriano)
walked our way back to the templo de la luna. made our way back through the jungle and after that took some picture of machu picchu and listen to the guide (for free :D, just sit around and listen to a guide when she / he explained things). So right now i know the difference in the inca architecture. Cusco the capital has alot of buildings with brilliantly cutted stones. that kind of stones were only used for the most sacred buildings or for the royals. machu picchu contained alot of building with stone and dirt mixed all together, which in theory it made machu picchu a place for the plebs. so it was actually a city for the commons. only the temple of the sun is beautifully made from cutted stone.

so after that when i visited a ruin of the incas i looked carefully for the stones and how they put it all together. which brought me to the sacred valley. My chilean companion decided to take the train (cheapest option $30 until up to $ 500) but i decided to walked back to hydro electrico. on my own it was less tiring and i made it much faster. but in santa teresa there was a road block of angry drivers (never had that problem in Bolivia) and in santa maria my bus was about 1 hour late... great. but i arrived in ollantaytambo and diced to spent a night there. the day after i walked around the ruins of ollantaytambo (the great walls of sun temple was great). and after that i went to urubamba, where my next destination was Moray. Moray is really interesting because it was actually an incan laboratory. its here where they experimentated with the maize to produce a better maize. inside the circulair terrace i could feel the different in atmosphere (how lower how colder), so it really had it`s own micro climate it was really amazing to see.

after Moray i went to Pisac (when someone cutted a pocket of my pants and took my alcohol, to wash hands, that i bought in La Paz for 1, 50 €). no respect for someone`s property... that`s the side that i hate here in Cusco. But anyway Moray is another great site in the sacred valley. i think it`s area is much bigger than machu picchu but it contains less building. But its amazing to walked around and discovered new ruins everytime... hey that part i haven`t seen, ooh another one i haven`t seen.

but now i`m back in Cusco. to stay another night and go to arequipa tomorrow, i still miss saqsaywaman, ruin with stones over 70 tons in weight !!!

Abrazo

Ch´

La diablada Oruro, La Paz en Lago Titicaca Y Cusco (Peru)

there is no peace in La Paz instead you need to be very cautious.

After arrived in La Paz from Potosi, ive made a huge mistake. used to the tranquility of the others Bolivian city i decided to wandered around with all my belongings. the results i felt in a swendell to rip money of the gringos (cuenta del tio). after that, i spent about 6 hours in tourist police + FELCC to report what i`ve lost. already not feeling really well this add more and more the agony. But after all that i decided to go to Oruro anyway.

La Diablada



there is a famous carnival in the city of Oruro, it called La Diablada. it`s actually better to go to Potosi and did the mining tour and after that go and watch the carnival because right now i know what the true motives of the carnival really is.

La diablada is dance of the devil, or ¨el Tio¨ how the miners called it. But it`s also in honour of the Virgen de Socavon (Virgin Mary of Socavon a patron of the miners) or as the indigena called her ¨pachamama¨ (earth mother). the carnaval is a mix of catholic faith, indigenous believed and as well represented the struggle of the indigenous miners against the Spaniard oppression. UNESCO declared the carnival as a cultural humanitarian heritage. yeah right, The south american handbook said, ¨the tour from La Paz pick you up from your hotel at 4. 30 and go back to La Paz at 17.30, so you`ll be missing alot of fun¨. yeah right, which fun¿¿ paid 80 bolivianos for a seat and after 5 hours it`s started to get really boring. LA diablada itself it`s fun to see because their masks really are beautifully done. but the rest of folkloric parade it`s all the same (thousands of spaniards looking faces, thumbs down). so i went back to La Paz (i stayed in La Paz because it`s cheaper). after that i felt really ill and stayed almost the whole sunday in bed. the monday ¨la diablada y moreno¨ went back to Oruro becasue i want to see the play of ¨San miguel vs 7 deadly sins¨. that was really fun to see because it has more action than only dancing and parading around.

PADRE NUESTRO
Jesús nos enseñó a rezar: (Mateo 6, 5-15)

Padre nuestro que estás en el cielo,
santificado sea tu Nombre;
venga a nosotros tu reino;
hágase tu voluntad
en la tierra como en el cielo.
Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día;
perdona nuestras ofensas,
como también nosotros perdonamos
a los que nos ofenden;
No nos dejes caer en tentación,
y líbranos del mal.
Amen.

La Paz

la Paz is actually nice city if you not get scammed or something. it`s cold in the night but the days are warm. because i stayed in altiplano i didnt have any problem with the altitude. but i catched cold because they have throwed bucket of water at me.. (this tradition started to get annoying). anyway when i was done with the police i decided to go to copacabana on the lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca

Here is where i find La Paz (the peace), the lake really is incredible. stayed for a month in the inland of Bolivia, it was really surprising to see that huge inland sea on the cordillera of Andes. copacabana itself is really touristic. but what really great was i stayed in a hotel next to the basilisc of Virgen de Copacabana. and it was only for 20 bolivianos per night, the cheapest and the cleanest of all residencials in Bolivia. the main attraction of the lake titicaca is Isla del Sol where Manco Kapac and Mama ocllo were borned (the creators of inca), at least that`s what they believe in. In the island i stayed in a house where i slept on the floor with thin matress (for 1o bolivianos you can`t ask for much luxury). the worse thing was, that night rained alot so it got really cold. In the north and the south of the islands are Inca ruins, but in the North east of the islands there is a stone where the manco kapac y mama ocllo were borned. I looked and looked but couldn´t found the stone. but i did found the sacrificial table. Although the isla is heavily touristic the atractions were really bad signed.

Cusco (peru)



2 days after the isla i crossed to Puno on the other side of the lake and now i`m in Peru. the bus terminals of Peru is crowded with Jalagringos (salesmen that tried to sell their hotel to just arrived travellers). Luckily i read that on my handbook. but now i act more harshly, and not going to talked with those stupid salesmen or anyone on the street trying to sell things. Peru is on one hand similar to Bolivia but on the other hand also really different. I think here in Cusco i cannot felt the different really well because same as copacabana, Cusco is heavily touristed. everywhere where alot of tourists are around the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed. Cusco is a wonderful city with a lot oc colonial city intermingled with old stone buildings of incas. so far i liked it here in Peru, but the damn cold started to get annoying. so after macchu picchu i`m going directly to Arequipa where it`s a lot warmer. and after that back to the pacific coast to the north

La ciudad blanca y cerro rico; los dos patromonios del mundo.

it was definitly Cristo that made me stayed in cochabamba. otherwise i will never met my ¨guardian angels¨. The one from Colombia the other one Peru / Argentina.

small intermezzo: ¨my conversation with Cristo de la concordia¨

Cristo: Christian, mi hijo, venga.

me: Si señor, yo escucho

Cristo: que deseas mi hijo?

me: warmi munaypi :D (it´s quechua)

Cristo: oye, no solo me doy te una, me doy te dos

me: señor muchas gracias

¨another conversation with Cristo o Redentor (Rio de Janeiro)¨

Cristo: Christiano, bem vindo

me: obrigado senhor

Cristo: meu filho, que quiero.

me: senhor, eu quiere tem uma boa experenzia

Cristo: Muito boa, voce recibo.

me: muito obrigado.

In all places where they have put an image of Christ on top of the hill i have been there. started in Rio, then tupiza, then cochabamba and now i went for the one in sucre (with my yugoslavian friend Victor, again it`s Cristo that brought us together again). I really apreaciated my sacred name, and really thankful to have it (thanks mom). but enough about religion, lets move on to my what i have seen. that last sunday i went to the Cerro de San Pedro. i bought the ticket for the teleferia (cabin ski lift) that brought me up the hill to the image of Cristo. The one in Rio is bigger than this one but this one is more buff. well when i was taking picture of cochabamba (and see how big it really is), two senoritas came to me and asked if i could took some picture of them (because they lost their camera). and suddenly i became a photographer. well after that we wandered around, climbed up untill the arms of Christ and we started to descend the cerro. note: on this cerro happened alot of armed robbery. but with the protection of the 2 senoritas nothing was happened :D. and before i left to catched my bus, i got an exhibition of what is called earning money during travelling from the senoritas. before you think about something bad; it`s acrobatic tour at the crossroad. same as the kids in BA do, juggling balls for money or similar. Right now im thinking to buy a small inca guitar and play on the street for some extra money (i aready have the llama poncho and the llama inca hat).

Sucre


After my adventure in cochabamba i arrived in Sucre (la ciudad Blanca) and perhaps one of the most beautiful cities in Bolivia, maybe the most beautiful. all building in the center are painted in colonial white and here they have the most prestige university in the continent: San Fransisco xavier. which results that sucre right now packed with students from all over SA, to study right here (and it`s improved the amount of cuties as well -.O). climbed the cerro with Victor and we spent a day sightseeing sucre, with good weather, in the afternoon El Señor opened the tap above us (rained very hard). the next day i went to the Casa de la libertad. it`s here where the university student of this Jesuit university started to planned liberation movement. It also housed one of the best picture of Simon Bolivar. but what impressed me most was the main hall. the architecture of it is really similar with forum romanum. And i meant the building where the senates of rome came together to discussed (Roman history is like a crack to me). and the gold coated balcony was really splendid. In this room the forefathers of bolivia have signed the act of independence. everyday i´m learning more and more about bolivia and it made me love this country more and more.


Potosi




after Casa de la libertad i went to Potosi. the highest city on it`s size in the world. and in the 16th century the biggest metropole in the world. the reason herefore is Cerro Rico. In cerro rico the spaniards found the indigenous performing rituals and also mined silver. it`s then when the spaniards started to extract huge amount of silver and made them very rich. The richness of potosi could be seen in the center, in the buildings and one in particular is Casa de la moneda. La casa is one of the biggest colonial building in america. and it cost 10 million dollars,present currency, to built it (which is exessive for it`s time). it`s now a museum with collection of really beautiful religous arts and of course coins and the machineries to produced coins. really recomended to see. I don`t have picture of the coins because i do not want to pay extra 20 bolivianos :). instead i spent my money on a mining tour. for the one with good stamina and no heart problems really recomended. we strated our tour buy buying presents for the miners (dynamites, coca leaves, cigarretes and some drink). I also learned to respect ¨pachamama¨with drinking 96% alcohol and also ¨El tio¨ the god inside the mine. when the Spaniard arrived they have brought their 2 gods (the good and the evil). for the indigenous there are no good or evil, only things that happened in the nature. thus they belive that ¨el tio¨(the devil) is their protector because the mine is his territory. to respect the devil means also money because if u respect the ¨owner¨ of the mine he will give u more precious metals. This mix of Catholicism and indigenous believe is really intrigued me. anyway the ¨portal to hell¨ is at 4000 m high and our group descent for about 100 - 200 m to the bowels of the mine. And i have experencied to worked as miner for abit, by pushing carts full with ores (when the guide asked nobody wanted to do it). right now i`m thinking to worked in the mine for a week just to experenciated for a bit.



also when we done the tour, the boss of the tour company asked me to come to the gathering of the most experence miners. where we drunk some singani. the miners asked if in Holland the speak spanish. i said ¨no, i`m learning spanish¨. and they said then now u need to learned quechua. and i said ¨imaynalla¨. the miners bursted in laughter and they really appreciated it. it`s the first time that i felt one with the people here. i`m still amazed right now. so learning quechua is really worth it.


until next time


suerte

Ch´

YMAINALLA??

repuesto es.. allillan. ymainalla is quechua for ¨como esta¨ and allillan is ¨bien¨. i was so impressed that all of the people on the bus spoke with quechua that i decided to learn it as well. my guide Emilio told me that its not that hard.. well it is. but i think i´m more a audio/visual learner rather than a reader. but anyway its long time ago that ive wrote a long article, so right now i want to write a really long article about the centre altiplano of Bolivia.

After a long bus ride started in Concepcion i finally arrived in Cochabamba, with the statue of Cristo de la concordia welcomed at me. the city of cochabamba is surrounded by hills and it´s so green and very different with santa cruz it`s much more fresco. although it is a city of 600.000 inhabitants it still preserve the colonial feel, and it´s kinda remind me of San Telmo a barrio in BA. around the city there are plenty things to do, but i came here to get some information about Parque nacional Toro Toro. And yes if you decide to visit bolivia this one is absolute MUST SEE.

To arrive at the parque it´s kinda complicated (the terrestial transport in Bolivia is a chaos, but organised one) . but i finally arrived in Toro2 at around 3 am. after like 6 hours of good sleep (sleeping in the bus is almost impossible), i went to the office of tourism to registrated and to hired a guide (not allowed to go by yourself). My guide is 20 years old but already worked as guide for 4 years and he is really brilliant, knows alot about the birdlife in surrounding area and the plants aswell. the first thing we saw was the cerro wayllas with the footprints of dinosaurs. and there were HUGE and small footprints. the big ones belong to the giant herbivor and the smaller ones to the carnivors. they were very distinctive because the herbivors have a rounded foot and the carnivors have a distinctive three toes print (with claws). after the cerro we walked to the nearby canyon. Dios mio, the canyon is huge... 200 m deep it was really incredible. I was really amazed about the size of the canyon because I really thought it was a small one (the canyon started nearby the village and it was really small). also great to see was the Frente Roja.

a Arara (big parrot) with colours of bolivian flag, and this species is endangered. after that we take a turned to see the cavern Ciflon- qaqa and the Vergel waterfall. because it was raining it is a bit dangerous to go down to Vergel and thus we stayed on the top of the hill. This canyon is reminder to Iguazu falls but it´s much bigger (and i must admit it`s much more fun walking around here, than walking around Iguazu). To enter the cavern of ciflon is also not possible because of the rain, its better to go to toro2 in dry season i guess. after the ciflon cavern we went back to the village but before that we went to see the walls painting. the painting is not yet researched very well, thus it is not really clear how old the painting exactly is. after that we walked to the turtles cementery where fossils of 60 -65 millions year turtle could be seen. the great thing about toro2 is, everything here is really cheap.

second day we went to umajallanta cavern. uma= water and jallanta= lost in aymara. it was the people of aymara who found the cavern for the first time. before the cavern we waded through the mud (toro toro is a abreviation of T´uru t´uru which means ¨mud¨in quechua), to carrera pampa where there are a distinctive carnivors dinosaurs footprints fossils. the prints are caught when they were on the run thats why it called ¨carrera pampa¨. arrived at the cavern again i was amazed by it`s size but sadly this cavern is kinda destructed. people came here and they cutted the stalagtites and the stalagmites and also the graffities around are kinda ruined the cavern. but it`s still fun to walked through it. we saw vampiers bat´s, stalagtite with strange form, crawled through very small channels.. it was one big adventure. probably the most fun Parque Nacional around. I really enjoyed Toro2 because it has so many things to do: palentologic, archeologic, spleoncologic, rockhopping and crossing some river..

which reminded me, when i went back to cochabamba we were stuck for about 2 hours because a car was stuck in the middle of the river. also the trip back was amazing. when the bus crossed the river water was splash around and the roads were really muddy. This is Bolivia, exactly what i was imagened about it.

back in cochabamba i went to the terminal to buy ticket to Sucre. but i was kinda confused because the lady said ¨veinte y treinta¨ so i though i have a ticket for a 20.30 but when i wanted to get inside the bus i founded out that it was for 20.00 so i ran for the bus but it was already gone. so i need to spent another night in CBBA. but maybe Cristo wanted me to visit him, now it`s sunny so it`s perfect to go to the hill but the hill is rather unsafe.... but tonight i`m going to the officially capital of Bolivia, Sucre. and after a day i want to go to Potosi. this time i need to do it right because carnaval is next week-end and i need to be in Oruro on time.

Entonces.. if you go to Bolivia dont miss Parque Nacional Toro Toro.

Salud

ch´

La perla del Oriente

Yes still in Bolivia, right now in Cochabamba but ive been to the ORIENTE with the collection of the finest churces in Bolivia. and maybe the Most beautiful ive ever seen. started in Robore an old military outpost where ive made friend with the local chicha saleswoman. also with one of the colonel lived there. nearby robore is santiago de chiquito where one they have erected one of the ten jesuits temples. didnt know that there are no transportation back to the robore i have walked back 20 km to robore on my havaianas which richt now i have strained one of my foot. in robore it self there is a fine walk through the forest and to the waterfal (didnt went there). after robore i went to san Jose, with it`s magnificent cathedral and after that i went city hopping (san ignacio, San miguel y san rafael) and ended in concepcion with one of the most magnificent temple. the fine carved benches and the pillars and all the woods resemblence the life of Jesus as carpenter (but thats my own conclusion). But the gilded altar and the paintings on the wall were a big contrary of all that humbleness. i guess it´s one of the times that i would say a picture says more than 1000 words