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So this blog will incorporate Day 2 and 3 of my Bolivian Adventure.

Day 2 was quite a quiet day, we visited some more lakes, and the Stone Tree (Arbol de Piedra). It was a slow day, travelling through the mountains telling stories, finding out information from our guide Andres and generally decreasing in altitude –  a relief to everyone (no pun intended).

We crossed the train tracks of the Bolvia-Chile trainline. Unfortunately for us the train only carries freight cargo now, but here is a photo nonetheless:

As we started our descent we heading to our hostel, right next to the Salt Flats. The hostel, amazingly, was made out of Salt. No electricity, no drinks allowed in the rooms (for fear of spillage!). When I say the hostel is made out of salt, is LITERALLY ALL SALT, apart from the mattresses etc.

We had a good dinner and a game of cards and then headed to bed, as we had a very early start the next day.

Oh I should add that we purchased a trip mascot, his name is Lionel, and he is a Lion.

Day 3. Very early start. We headed to the Salt Flats in pitch black. The first 20 minutes were pretty boring, just driving through the salt, then we hit the water. At this point Andres put his CD on, a mix of Boney M and other 70s and 80s hits. The water with the sunrise was THE most spectacular thing I have ever seen.

We continued to drive through the water until we had to stop and help a fellow 4×4 who had a puncture. This gave us the best excuse to get out and take photos. Wow, just wow.

We were told that the water on the salt flat was there because it rained 2 months ago. Another bit of information, when there is water on the flats, it becomes the biggest mirror in the world!

Naturally with this spare time we decided to take some silly photographs. Here is my particular favourite:

 

After playing in the water we set off once again to head to our destination. The Isla de Pescados (Isle of Fish) and the Salt Flats.

The Isla de Pescados houses a huge amount of Cacti – something I am very fond of. Here is a picture of a few examples with the salt flats in the background:

After a lovely breakfast of Pancakes, made by Andres, we headed to the more empty section of the Salt Flats so we can do the very touristy thing of taking photographs without perspective. The Salt Flats contain 10000km3 of Salt, that is a LOT.

Here is a photograph of one of these perspective photos:

and one of Ed (and Lionel) and I (deliberately silly pose from me):

After the fun of the Salt Flats we headed towards Uyuni – the end of our trip.

The 3 day trip to Uyuni was worth every penny. It was a fairly expensive trip, and I am going to struggle in the last few days of my trip with money, but, this really was a once in a lifetime experience, and one that I will always remember.

Next stop La Paz and some serious English-ness!

Chao x

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Upon arrival in San Pedro de Atacama, Ed and I hurried to find the quickest way out of Chile to Bolivia. This was mainly to do with the fact that Chile is so darn expensive.

We signed up to a 3 day, 2 night trip to Uyuni, Bolivia via the Salt Flats and the Lakes in the deep south of Bolivia.

We went with a company called Estrella del Sur and our guide was called Andres, a lovely Bolivian who spoke barely any English.

We left San Pedro at 8am sharp and headed to the Bolivian border – about 40 minutes away. On the way we picked up 8 other travellers and we formed a nice group of 10.

The Bolivian border is a bleak, open expanse of mountainous terrain. Only 40 minutes away from San Pedro and the temperature is significantly lower. The freezing winds made it fairly unbearable to be outside, so we covered all exposed skin and crossed the border. Luckily a breakfast consisting of bread and Coca tea was waiting for us on the other side of the border!

As I mentioned before Andres, our guide spoke barely any English, so Ed and I acted as translators for the rest of the group. Quite satisfying really.

We travelled in a group of 4 and 5, as 1 girl, Japanese, thought the whole trip was too much for her, 1 hour in. She said the altitude was too much for her – we were basically at sea level…

Driving up to the mountainous Bolivian roads in our Toyota Land Cruiser (great car) was incredible. We listened to an iPod through the speaker system of the car, without speaking and just admired the views for a good 2 hours.

Our first stop was Lago Verde (we think that was the name!) It’s name is a direct description of the lake itself. The water is bright green because of the sulphur content found in the water. Fun fact: at night and early morning the lake is actually clear, this is because during the day the strong wind moves the sulphur within the water causing the colour change.

An hour more in the 4×4 and we were at the hot springs. Ed and I were very unsure about these hot springs after our encounter with the Chilean ‘hot’ springs which were actually freezing. We de-kegged again and launched ourselves into the hot springs. To our utter disbelief and amazement, these were actually hot hot hot springs. 40 degree heat! Amazing.

We travelled around a lot that day, visiting another lake on our way to the final lake of the day, Lago Colarado and to our ‘hostel’. Lago Colarado is a bright red lake formed by the algae that lives in the water. Just like Lago Verde the lake is clear in the early morning when there is no wind. In an environment dominated by yellows and browns this bright red lake highlighted and enhanced an otherwise monotonous landscape.

Throughout the day we had been going higher and higher, albeit gradually, but by about 5pm at Lago Colarado we had hit 4500 metres.

At 4500 metres there is around 30% less oxygen in the air, making even the smallest activity very difficult but not impossible. At this altitude your head constantly hurts, you get bad stomach aches, and your brain just does not work. An example of this was when I got absolutely outclassed by an 11 year old Bolivian girl in a memory game with a pack of cards!

Constant intake of water and cocoa (via sweets or tea) are essential.

We stayed in what was described as a ‘hostal muy basico’. A very basic hostel in the mountains of Bolivia means no electricity, no hot water and windows in both the walls and the ceilings – the latter caused by corrugated iron roofing held down by stones!

At 9pm after a basic dinner and a glass of wine we were all shattered and went to bed. We were told beforehand that you HAD to bring a sleeping bag. Wise advice. Temperatures plummeted overnight and I slept in all my clothes, a sleeping bag and 3 blankets; I was just about warm enough.

That night I was woken regularly with bad headaches and a throbbing stomach. Just part and parcel of the Bolivian experience.

Next blog post I’ll be writing about another Lake day, and some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen.

Chao! X

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We woke up at 3:45am this morning to go on a Geyser tour. We were already packed the night before so it was only a matter of waking up, getting changed and making our Coca Tea. Coca Tea and any Coca derivative is banned worldwide, except in South America. This is becuase it is an essential element to combat altitude sickness. We made a litre of this green Coca tea – that smelt like wet grass and pondwater according to Ed – and set off on the bus.

For those of you who havnt experienced the desert, you won’t know that at 4 am it is bloody freezing. I was wearing 5 layers and was still shivering uncontrollably. After the 90 minute bus journey we arrived at the national park that housed the Geysers. This natural park is situated at 4200m, the highest both and Ed and I have ever been at. Surprisingly, at first it did not affect us but we took a Coca Sweet each just incase. I should mention that we bought both Coca Tea and Coca Sweets, both recommended to us by friends who have travelled at altitude in the past.

We walked around the Geysers in the freezing -15c atmosphere for around 30 minutes. It was absolutely incredible. It was explained to us that there are different types of Geysers according to their toxicity. Luckily for us these Geysers were not toxic. The Guide joked that we wouldn’t be leaving San Pedro with Cancer – Chilean humour at its best…

Here is a video of the Geysers. Quite incredible.

Here are a few photos of the Geysers:

After another short bus journey we headed to another set of Geysers, this time with hot springs. The Guide asked on the bus who wanted to go swimming in the water. Only Ed and I put our hands up..!

We de-kegged behind a rock-face and pranced around in our swim shorts in the -12c dirt and then jumped into the water, much to the delight of our group and other tourists.

The hot springs were NOT hot.

So the two of us, absolutely freezing, were fannying around for a good 5 minutes in the water until we hit the jackpot – unbearably hot water. Upon hearing this news we were joined by another 10 or 15 fellow tourists. It really was an amazing experience.

We dried ourselves off and headed back to the bus. This is when I started to feel a bit dodgy. I really disliked the Coca Sweet we took at the beginning of the day, so I opted to try the Coca Tea instead, Ed chose the sweet. 5 minutes into this bus journey I started to feel a lot worse and then to my surprise, I passed out asleep for the remainder of the 40 minute journey.

We got off the bus to see some wildlife in the tranquil surroundings. I felt completely spaced out, so I took another Coca Sweet. Within a minute I was back to my normal self. It really is scary and fascinating how much altitude can affect you. So we will definitely be stocking up on Coca Sweets when we head to Bolivia on Wednesday.

After the wildlife we headed to a little village for a quick walk around, and then back to the hostel.

This afternoon we are heading to the Valle de La Luna, not sure what to expect after this morning’s activities!

Chao for now x

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I arrived in Guayaquil after travelling on one of the most unnerving planes I’ve ever been on. This tiny, wafer thin excuse for a plane shook incessantly for the full 5 hour journey. I was picked up by Becca, my friend from University, and her driver. I must explain it is not her personal driver, but a lovely man employed by the family she was staying with. After a short trip in the car we arrived at the compound where Colin and Ceci lived. Colin is English, and is the Honorary British Consul for Ecuador, Ceci is his Ecuadorian wife. The house we pulled up to was outrageous. It wouldn’t have looked out of place on MTV Cribs or in Beverly Hills. I was given a tour around the house which was just droppingly exquisite. Like a bright white, mansion with a host of paintings from famous South American artists on every wall. Other rooms had lavish furniture with the odd family portrait. It really was an amazing house. After I had sorted my bags out we sat down for dinner with Colin, Ceci and some of their family friends, for a typical Ecuadorian dish; Sausage, Egg, a type of fried potato with cheese inside (called Japingacho), rice and a spicy satay sauce. It was delicious. After dinner Becca and I caught up over a few drinks as we hadn’t seen each other for the whole of our third year. We swapped stories of our 3^rd year experiences and then we headed for our bedrooms as we were heading to the beach the next day.

The next morning fairly early we headed to Colin and Ceci’s beach house, about 2 hours away by car. Well, actually it is meant to be more like 3 hours, but Ecuadorians have a different idea about motorways. It is an absolute free for all. We were headed to the beach to watch the Champions League final. The final was especially important this year for 2 reasons. The first, Antonio Valencia, an Ecuadorian was starting for Manchester Utd, and national pride had to be supported. The second was that Barcelona has a special place in Ecuador’s football history. Ecuador has a team named Barcelona, this is because years ago Ecuadorians couldn’t afford to have their own clubs so they copied a number of more famous clubs and started a league with these teams. Something I found really interesting.

After a lovely lunch and the football match, Becca and I headed to Montañita, a really popular tourist destination, located on the beach and is renowned for its parties and cocktails. We stayed in a fairly simple little hostel, and because it was ‘feriado’ weekend the prices were a little higher than normal. Montañita is a hippy-esque little town selling different foods and jewellery on the street, and not forgetting those famous cocktails. We enjoyed a few cocktails and made friends with our cocktail maker. He grew fond of us as we were both speaking Spanish to him, which seemed to be a nice change for him. He offered us stronger drinks with different fruits if we fancied, all for the paltry price of $2.50 a drink!

We carried on eating and drinking for a few hours and then headed back to the hostel as we were both exhausted. All was going swimmingly until 4am when we were woken by a cockerel outside our room, making the most horrific sound for a good 2 or 3 hours.

South America really is a crazy place, nothing is ‘normal’.

Next Post: Baños, Riobamba & Alousi

Chao!

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I had a bit of an emotional send off yesterday at work. After 9 months working at a company you make some real friends, even if you don’t realise it at the time. I’ve worked at different companies before, for fairly long periods of time, the longest being 4 months, but this was the first job I’ve actually had where I had real responsibility, and input – albeit a minor input. I sent a message around the company yesterday thanking them for everything and to my great surprise I was swamped with well wishes and thanks for my hard work. After all the stresses and annoyances of actually working at the company, I can now look back at my time there and safely say I have achieved something. Upon arrival I was pretty terrible at Spanish and utterly clueless about industry. Fair enough I’ve studied both Spanish and Business for a number of years, but there really is nothing like putting them into practice. I can now say I have experience in one of the biggest fruit companies in the world. I regularly spoke to clients in a number of different countries, negotiated in both English and Spanish with success. Obviously there were some hiccoughs along the way, like when I forgot to book a flight for 1500 flowers and we lost close to $2000, but I think they have just about forgiven me / forgot about it!

So now the real business begins.

I’m off to Ecuador in about an hour. I’m all packed with my ‘travelling’ bag (people who know me will probably know that I’m more of a suitcase person!) This really is a new experience for me. I’ve never really been ‘travelling’. I’ve travelled from set destination to set destination, but never just gone to a country and go, “Right, now what?”

My New Year’s resolution for 2011 was to be more spontaneous (and to read more). So I’m armed with few books and a stomach full of butterflies and very much looking forward to the next 9 weeks.

Here’s to spontaneity…

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I have just entered my last week of work at Vital Berry Marketing, and thus my last full week in Santiago.

I have been in Chile just short of 9 months now, working for more or less 8 of those months. I have generally enjoyed my whole time here. I have achieved a lot; Improving my Spanish, working in Industry, living in a foreign country running the half marathon etc.

I cannot however look back on my trip just yet with rose tinted glasses. There have been a few negatives that have  marred my time here in Chile; being so far away from home, the cost of living, February (let’s not go there…) and the horrendous bus journeys to work.

However, with my trip to Ecuador fast approaching (a week today) I have to think to the future and not dwell on any negatives in the past. Furthermore, this next week I will have to be extremely organised.

I’m going to visit my friend Becca in Ecuador, more specifically Guayaquil. I managed to get some fairly cheap flights to Ecuador, (300 pounds return) which for a 5 hour flight, booked a week before flying, isn’t too bad! When in Ecuador we are going to do some adventure activities, visit a place called Baños, and also Montanita. I shall definitely take some snaps whilst I’m there.

When I get back from Ecuador I will have 2 days to move out of my house and leave to go on my 9 week adventure!

The plan – more or less-  for the next 9 weeks is as follows:

• Week 1: Ecuador (to see Becca, my friend from Manchester)
• Week 2: San Pedro De Atacama (the big desert in North Chile)
• Week 3&4: Bolivia
• Week 5: Peru
• Week 6&7: Jujuy, Salta, and Cordoba (Argentina)
• Week 8: Argentina (hopefully working on a farm!)
• Week 9: Santiago, Chile (just to relax before my big trip home!)

I will be travelling with my very good friend Ed Greaves, who can be found here: http://www.thecuriousenglishman.com/

We shall be blogging, photographing, and (hopefully) filming our trip, so these updates are going to be much more regular!

Hopefully that clears up what I am doing in the next few weeks. I shall try to post some pictures soon.

Chao x

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Ask any Brit how they picture April and they’ll mention little rays of sunshine with a lot of rain, they may even refer to the classic song from Bambi, but I won’t get into that.

April here in Santiago is strange. The mornings are cold, and the evenings are colder, with a hint of sunshine thrown in. However, now we are approaching the middle of April, it’s looking more and more like proper Autumn. Think late October, Bonfire night-esque weather. This is such a strange feeling for me, it’s my first autumn away from the UK. All I can think about, is log fires and Christmas. Obviously I’m about 7 months early (or 5 months too late…) for these thoughts, but being a northern hemisphere lad, bad weather and short days are synonymous with the end of the year.

I think bad weather and cold temperatures are one of the few things that remind me of home. Anyone who spends an extended period of time without being ‘home’ will tell you, thinking about home is the worst thing to do, as this will start a bout of homesickness. I can tell you from previous experience (February) homesickness is a killer.

Luckily I’m currently not homesick. However, I can’t help but think of good old blighty when the weather turns sour.

I’ll write something a little more interesting next time, probably about my little holiday I’m taking on Saturday (see video below).

Chao from chilly Chile.

Haslam xx

 

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Yesterday I did something I never thought I’d be able to do; The Santiago Half Marathon.

I started my training in the first week of January. I started small, running 2 kilometres, which absolutely killed me. I was horribly unfit. 2 years of University, drinking and eating cheese and ham sandwiches does that to you. I realised that this was going to be a bigger challenge than first thought.

I started doing 2 kilometre runs 2 or 3 times a week, when one day I breached the 4km barrier. From then it was fairly plain sailing until I got to 7km. This was a particular milestone; I had never run for more than 30 minutes before (except in a rugby match). So a 38 minute 7km run was a massive deal.

Eventually I got up to 14km, this was around the beginning of February, and then I had a few problems…

I got a pretty bad stomach infection when I went to Argentina that kept me off training for a good 10 days. Then I twisted my ankle coming home from a night out, which delayed my training another week. So I had 2 weeks without any training. I was back to square one.

I worked out I had just short of 4 weeks to train fully for a half marathon. I combined bike sessions in the gym with 14km runs (on the weekend) over a 3 week period. I wasn’t as fit as I had hoped but I went into the marathon confident I’d complete the race.

Yesterday when I was queuing to start the race I set a target in my head. If I average 6min/km I should be ok and I have to finish before 2 hours and 15 minutes; anything after that would be considered a failure.

After a very sweaty race, and a pretty emotional last kilometre, I finished the Santiago Marathon in 2 hours 9 minutes and 57 seconds. I was pretty chuffed. To think at the beginning of the year I was struggling to run 2 kilometres!

Here are some photos from the end of the race, thankfully Myles didn’t take any of me crossing the line, I looked HORRENDOUS.

Anne and I did the 21km, Felipe did the 10km

The ‘W’ sign is a tribute to the absolute nutter, Charlie Sheen, who coined the phrase “Winning”. This was a little bit of inspiration for me, and making a ‘W’ sign whenever there was a camera made me laugh throughout the race.

#Winning

Doing a little celebratory dance!

 

Just checking it’s real…!

I’m planning of doing another half marathon in the future, I definitely will not be one of those mental running enthusiasts who live for running, but it’s a great way to keep fit and to get out the house and run around the streets!

Until next time,

Alex x

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Last night I went to a house party at one of the more social houses in Santiago. When I say more social, I mean, within our student/foreigner community, there are 4 or 5 houses which regularly host parties and pre-drinks (previas), my house being one of them, this house being the most lively.

This was a massive house, 16 people lived there, and I soon found out why it was called a more ‘social’ house. The house itself, was very very basic, it looked like an average hostel. However, it had it’s own DJ system, lights and lazers aswell. We had a quality night, lots of drinks, dancing and general spanish speaking antics. All that aside this house was a dump.

Now I pay a lot for my room in my house, probably definitely more than I should be paying. My house is old, has a horrendous colour scheme and a lot of things are on their last legs (landlady included). However, the selling point to my house is that it is social but remains a house, rather than a venue.

There is nothing worse than wanting an early night or to just chill and watch a film in the living room and not being able to because 30 or 40 people or even 10 people are getting battered 5 metres away from you.

My house has the perfect combination of quiet and loud. Some people find the quietness boring, but for me it’s perfect. Another selling point is that once a week the house gets cleaned. I’ll use the term cleaned loosely, but still, it gets cleaned. The house I went to last night looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time. I doubt anyone really minded the uncleanliness last night, as we were at a party, but come the morning when you have to wake up to a messy house (due to the party) which when cleaned up reveals another layer of grime is pretty grim.

So in summary, my house is expensive and not worth the money, but it is miles better that the dive (albeit a fun dive) we went to last night.

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I work at Vital Berry Marketing, in an open plan office on the 5th floor. As with most open plan offices, there is always the sound of someone on the phone, somebody chatting to a client and the occasional bit of office banter. Before Christmas I worked primarily with Anita, selling flowers to American clients. Whilst doing this I was also analysing data from last season’s Blueberries, as well as making sure this season’s prices where regularly checked and updated. I do this with Pablo – who sits next to me.

Pablo and I were partners in crime, regularly playing pranks on each other, talking about world football news, classic rock songs and his undying love for Kate Moss. Unfortunately for me, and for our office, Pablo has decided to leave. He was regularly over worked and completely burnt out. Being on the phone upto11pm talking in 2 and sometimes 3 different languages whilst looking after a young family clearly wiped him out – so it didn’t come as a great shock to me when he announced he was leaving.

Quickly changing the mood of this post, I’ll cut to the chase. We had a leaving party for Pablo on Friday night at a live music bar called El Barril, in Vitacura. Below are some photos from the night. In heinsight I probably shouldnt have taken advantage of the 2 for 1 offer on all drinks…

The start of the night (L-R Francisca, Me, Anita):

 

The future of Vital Berry!

(L-R: Me, Camila, Francisco)

The boys:

 

The team:

Me and JC:

My dance moves are classic:

And finally Pablo:

 

We will all miss you Pablito!