When you decide to take the plane to rurrenabaque to avoid 18hours of bus on a curvy and dangerous road, you are in for a special experience. The plan is so small only 19 passengers fit in, the seat number on your tickets do not correspond to the ones written inside the plane, the gas mask is hand made, it doesn't fall from the top, you would have to fix it, and the plane is so small you can see the pilots and its cabin as there is no door and feel any weird mouvements.
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Hitchhiking from BA to Iguazu was the idea of a couple of friends, and I am so glad we did it. It enabled us to fully enjoy the northern route to Iguazu and to exchange with some many people from different backgrounds, it was so interesting!
Leaving Buenos Aires at 6:30 in the morning to catch a bus from the city centre to Zarate where the highway starts, we start hitchhiking around 9:30 am. Within 30 min a car takes us and the journey begins! 8 cars and camions later we finally make it to Iguazu the following day at 4pm (2 hours later than our friends who left BA 6 hours later than us. Some have more luck than others…!). The first day we managed to make about 1’000 km with 3 cars and 2 truck drivers. If there’s one thing hitchhiking made me discover is the special and tough life of truck drivers. Dilmar nicely helped us the first day, driving us 280km further down our route. He is Brazilian and drives different merchandise (23’000 kg of Mc Donald’s French fries in his truck when we were with him) between Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. His work is very much technologically controlled by the company and he only sees his children about 2 to 4 days per month when he has to chance to be back home. Sometime he spends 8-10 days on the road, and once it took him 22 days to go from Brazil to Santiago de Chile due to blocked routes because of snow. And most of the time he stays blocked at the border a good 3-5 days for customs control. What a life..! Provoking our luck on the first day, the last car who nicely took us drove us all the way to Posadas and even hosted us in their beautiful house overnight. We approached them asking for help and felt that they were novice to hitchhiking and unease at first. Luckily though they accepted to help us and we shared a lovely 4-5 hour route exchanging a variety of interesting discussion. After few hours of sleep and a full day of hitchhiking we were so happy to being offered hospitality, especially seeing the beautiful and comfort of their house. They even offered us local culinary specialities for breakfast and put us in contact with one of his friends who could advise us about hitchhiking through Paraguay. Experiences such as these two days of hitchhiking give me an exciting feeling of travel greatness! Pablo welcomed us within 24 hours of notice and we were luck to sleep in a comfortable place, where he lent us his room and he slept in the living room...!
On our last night, he invited us to a BBQ at a friends' place. Al Bough we had already eaten we couldn't say no. So off we go, picked up in town by Pablo and his friend, thinking we would only stay for a couple of drinks as we had our bus leaving the next morning at 7am. We were warmly greeted by Marcelo welcoming us in his house as if we were at home. Marcelo has a charming house on the top of the hill with a view over the town and bay, a house where anyone would feel good, at ease, at home. We ended up staying until 3am sharing a delicious meal (BBQ of lamb, sausages, pork, beef and salad FINALLY!! :) ) discussing over life, travels, culture differences between Europe and Latin America, and much more; an enjoyable moment of exchange and laughter, fluidly in Spanish, such a perfect way to end our stay in Ushuaia. Some interesting facts we learned exchanging with locals of Ushuaia is that many Argentinian from the north come and live in Ushuaia, for work of course but mainly because despite the unpleasant weather compared to the north, Ushuaia is a an island and a place of no corruption where nothing really happens, where you feel safe and where one earns more money than in the rest of the country, especially due to the tax exemptions over there (a law instated to incentivise companies to come and settle here). So of we go to Punta Arenas where another Couchsurfing experience awaits us. Exhausted from the couple of days in Torres del Paine we couldn't wait but be comfy in a warm bed and sleep (which we did for 12 hours that night!! 😍). We didn't know what to expect but had a great surprise with this couchsurfer! We were welcomed by Rodrigo and Cocha (a friend) as is we were part of the family. Barely settled in the house they offer us a Picada de Cerdo (pieces of marinated pork meat) and red wine. We couldn't say no and thankfully we didn't as the meat was delicious and so was the wine! Throughout our stay here we were nicely surprised by the kindness of the people and their chilled say of life. Rodrigo calls his neighbour by knocking on the wall, he answers by knocking on the well, Rodrigo calls 'pasa!'and here he comes! His neighbour nicely drove us to town a few times and even dropped us at the bus station when we left!
We shared a fun moment with the three of them on our arrival night, such a moment of our time for us, relaxing and entertaining: here we are sitting with three physically different people (who look way way younger than they are) living similar but such different lives as well. One is the boss of his own truck company, the other one the national director of the taikwendo team and the last one the regional director of an airline company. It makes you look back on our lifestyles back in Europe where we always want more and aspire to be the best in most things and makes you realise that no matter where you come from you can make it happen in life and life a happy and especially simple life should it be here or back home. If there’s one thing I didn’t know is that one can easily cross a boarder on foot! We already had the experience when crossing from Chile to Bariloche and back but we also hitchhiked which helped us go through. This time, there are no buses possibilities between Chile and Argentina (because of high taxes) and in order to avoid losing time commuting through other boarders further up north or south, we decided to pick up our courage and head to the boarder ready to walk it through. After being lucky to having found someone who could bring us to Chile Chico (closest town to the boarder, 3-4h drive from Rio Tranquilo – see the beautiful road we had on the pictures below) we started walking to the boarder, through it and then to the bus station of the next town. A roughly 10km walk with all our gear, and stiffness from our hike of the day before. Having an inflamed knee, back pains and foot pains from my shoes the walk wasn’t very enjoyable, especially when both countries who have their boarders right in front one of the other decide to force everyone to take a 5km loop between the two boarders instead of a direct pathway! But we finally made it to the bus station of Los Antiguos on time to catch a night bus to el Chalten, what a relief! And a pride to have walked all of these km despite everything that could have prevented me from doing it!
The feeling of walking in the middle of nowhere almost alone to a boarder to cross to another country was something unique though, un unprecedented feeling. I enjoyed it very much (although when we tried to cut the path through the dried river and camp to gain some km I felt like an illegal refugee, that was weird…! What a road trip! After 13 hours of buses from Santiago to Osorno we decide to hitchhike to Bariloche to save some money. 4 cars later we finally make but after 10hours of travel! We were picked up by a nice Chilean truck driving (driving military furniture from Santiago to Torres deal Paine) who drove us from Chile to the border. There we waited about 4:30 until he gets his border stamp, only then to be stopped by the police saying truck drivers are not allowed to collect hitchhikes if they are not subscribed on the car's insurance. We then had to find another car and luckily enough a couple of policeman on holiday safely drove us to Bariloche! They were this typical police partner couple but with the local touch: drinking mate like Argentinians do in any situation!
On the way back we were more unlucky with HITCHHIKING: after 4 cars and 4:30 of traveling for 150km we decided to take a bus from the Argentinian border to reach Osorno, where we had a bus ticket to Isla chiloe. Lucky as we are even though we arrived 5min after the scheduled departure of the bus it had already gone! (Incredible punctuality for Latin America right?). So back we go on the road heading to Puerto Montt with the same bus. And there, when we had already given up on hoping to catch our bus, here it was at the same terminal ready to leave. After a full day of doing our best to get to destination we finally had a stroke of luck to help us reach Castro at night as planned. Halleluyah! Off to Potosi! Crossing the Andes (from 2800m to 4070m) we encounter one of the most beautiful scenery we've very seen, and by far the most beautiful 3h route. Driving up the mountain we find ourselves overlooking the mountains as if we were in the tip of the world. The mountains, not only shaped like we have in Europe are tip shaped with many curving inside (as if there were carved by lava) which offers a more impressive scenery, all around us, infinite! What made it even more rare and beautiful was the weather: stormy, dull with lightening but mostly with the sunset far away through some clouds, which gave the mountains an incredible dull green/yellow colour.
We couldn't get enough of the view and wished we could stop to enjoy it a bit more... The pictures are hardly representative due to a lack of good quality, dirty window that wouldn't open and a speedy driving bus. But at least it might give you an idea of the beauty we saw...! One of the things I love the most about traveling is meeting new people. Not only as it favourites cultural exchange and opens your mind, but mostly because I believe it's one of the most beautiful things in life to meet new people, exchange, share unique moments, make friends and keep the great memories forever. I believe that everyone you meet along your life contributes in a certain way to who you are. It helps you build step by step who you are and I am so grateful to everyone who came my way, showed me how worthy of a friendship I am, reassured me in times of doubts, helped me see the positives of my life and the strength I have in me. All these encounters and experiences made me a stronger and better person, and it keeps nourishing me every day. All the great and inspiring talks, all the kind and love-filled words mean a lot and bear with me every day, help me stay loyal to myself, and help me work towards who I want to be.
Thank you for everything each and every one of you brings to me! I have had a great time in Cochabamba and am grateful for the wonderful people I have met here. Each one of you is special and you should keep it that way! Thanks for the kind words and great memories! Ojala no volveremos a ver de pronto! Last journey before leaving Cochabamba, and first one with Stephanie! Weather forecast has always been off ever since I’ve been here. But for once it wasn’t and maybe I should have trusted it for once… Here’s why:
After 4 hours of crazy driving in the valley with fog, imperfect roads and about 10 accidents prevented at the last minute, we finally made it to Villa Tunari, the touristic capital of the department of Cochabamba – nested within the jungle and in-between national parks.. It’s 9pm but so warm though (at least 28°), as soon as we get a hostel we dig in to the swimming pool, warm as well, and get a silpancho (a typical dish constituted of pan fried meet, rice, potatoes, fried egg and a tomato/onion salad) in one of the remaining open restaurants around 10.30pm on a Sunday night. It’s time to go to bed to get fresh for the coupe following days of jungle and nature exploring. Oh wait did I say a good night sleep? That was without counting on the tremendous storm we had from midnight until 7am, I had never heard such a strong storm! That’s when you take a step back realise that on a whim you took a bus to a tropical jungly place where the weather isn’t as gently as in other places. Where such a strong storm can damage the road back to Cochabamba and flood the streets. So anyways, after a few hours’ sleep and some worries about what would happen with this type of weather, we were surprised to see that the streets weren’t flooded at all, so off we go to visit the surroundings! We start off with Parque Carrasco, of which I’ve been told many great things about. After negotiating the taxi up to there (15km further), we had to pay 90Bs per person for a 1h30 tour. First deception of the day, the tour was way too expensive for what it was. We walked around the jungle, seeing 3 special trees, but barely no wildlife. We visited two caves: one with Guacharos, a cavern bird that only lives in Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia. We heard them more than we could see them and they avoid daily light and stay hidden in the cavern, into which we couldn’t enter. Too bad right? Yes tell the bolivianos that! We enter the following cave where we can see a bunch of small bats flying around, before returning back. Annoyed by the price we had to pay for such a tour we decided to walk a bit back and see if anyone could bring us back to town. After an hour nice walk within local villages a moto taxi taxes us back to town: a nice feeling of freedom within a warm and unique setting. The following visit if Parque Machia where we look forward to seeing monkeys. Decided to hike a bit around the park, and after crossing a bunch of “no pasar” signs, we find ourselves suddenly surrounded by a lot of monkeys flying around the jungle, breaking many branches of trees. Luckily they didn’t attack us leaving us a great opportunity to sit down, enjoy the unique moment, and admire them in their natural setting and even taking a few pictures! Oh and by the way we also saw what seemed like a lynx!! Shortly after arriving at the viewpoint it started to rain hard and we got out of the park drenched! Definitely the weather isn’t our best friend today! We decide to go to an animal sanctuary despite the heavy rain and temperature. Trying to fight touristic prices and to find a public transport up to there we get the strong feeling nobody cares about helping us. We decide to walk back to town (1km) under the rain to find one. And then, SPLASH! Like in the movies we get drenched by a wave of water – all our stuff is wet! Getting the impression the weather isn’t going to get better we go and check it out on internet: following weather forecast is 100% rain for the following 36 hours… Because it was preventing us too much to really enjoy the surroundings, we decide to head back to Cochabamba. 5h30 ride later, of which 1h30 traffic jam where everything tries to overtake everyone despite the situation, and after losing half my pyjama, we finally make it back home, still wet and cold. Bref, we’ve been to Villa Tunari…! See photos here: http://serendipitytravels.weebly.com/villa-tunari1.html Today was the last day of ours hot volunteering experience with Pintar en Bolivia. Although short, our experience has been very interesting and has giving me and interesting insight into art therapies. Pintar en Bolivia works with two different projects: kids with cancer, and kids from a burnt centre. In both locations I was very surprised to see how open, creative, engaging and loving the kids with us were. I could feel that they feel grateful for the work we do with them, grateful that some volunteer take time to bring a few hours of entertainment, creativity and joy in a day usually full of treatment and few activities. I think Pintar en Bolivia is a beautiful project and can’t wait to see how it further develops with other projects in Cochabamba.
Another interesting moment of this volunteering was when this week we had the opportunity to learn more about the sad issue of burnt kids in Bolivia, which appears to be a deep cultural issue. Between 16 and 20 kids are admitted monthly in the poorest hospital of Cochabamba for burn treatments, and between 1000 and 1200 operations are executed per year! Burnt kids here isn’t only an issue of kids getting burn by playing with fire or by hot liquids by accident, but many kids get deeply burnt due to some cultural traditions or incidents. Examples include: kids living in the countryside getting thrown into fire by monkey, kids falling into a campfire during a traditional celebration due to a lack of protection, children having similar incident in poor homes where the kitchen as so poorly equipped that the fire is set in the middle of the room, children getting burnt from hot liquids because they have to help in the kitchen, and most surprisingly of all for me: in the county side they believe that if a children pies too much it is because there must be an issue with their kidney. A way to cure it is to sit the kid on burning bricks because they believe the heat would release whatever disease or dysfunction the children would have. The presentation we had on this subject was very heart-breaking and seeing how well the children we worked with are doing (being severely burnt in addition to have poor living conditions and hard family conditions) is something to be proud of. Not everyone can recover of such severe burns; most of the people go through deep suicidal thoughts… we were very touched by the bravery of the children and of the few local doctors who fight every day to save these children. Casa Mosoj Punchay should be very proud of their great work! "Al pasar por un periodo difícil recuerda: aunque hayas perdido grandes batallas has sobrevivido y estas aquí. Eso es una victoria. Demuestra tu alegría y celebra tu capacidad para seguir adelante." |
AuteurHola! I’m Aliénor, a 24 year old life enthusiast and eager to discover the world in any way possible with an emphasis on engaging with local people and cultural exchange! Archives
Mars 2017
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