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...!
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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." December 1st 2016, new month, new project! Having always wanted to discover Arts Therapy I decided to volunteer for the great project of my crazy but yet amazing roommate, Lisan, called Pintar in Bolivia (https://pintarenbolivia.wordpress.com/ ) which is a project that offers arts therapy for sick children. It now holds two projects: one in the Viedma hospital for children with cancer and one in the Mosoj centre for burnt kids.
Despite the chance to gain experience by working with her I am excite to be able to help her further develop this project and can’t wait to see how the experience will be! Today was our first day with my French friend Stephanie and we started at Mosoj. I was really surprised to see how open and friendly the kids were despite their traumatic conditions. None of them even tried to hide their scars, which I think was very brave of them! This already says a lot about the great work this centre is doing to help rehabilitate the kids in day to day life. Let’s see what this experience will bring! |
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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