So we chose the breeze of a 17 hour night bus to Santa Cruz rather than risk going to the Jungle with no way to Brazil and having to do 21 hours out of La Paz then 21 hours back! Although we hadn't intended to we have just spent 4 days and nights there as we kind of got stuck. Whoever writes the Lonely Planet has a vivid imagination because the daily 8am trains to the Brazilian border it speaks of are completely fictional! So we got some correct infor from the hostel and hiked to buy train tickets for Sunday [View Full Entry]

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Nun also alles nochmal etwas ausfuehrlicher, da ich gerade wieder mal auf einen Bus von Santa Cruz nach La Paz warte (was wieder mal 14h Fahrt bedeutet) und noch etwas meine Wartezeit verbummeln muss. Vor genau zwei Wochen war ich also auf dem El Gran Poder Festival in La Paz. Es war wundervoll! 55 Tanzgruppen aus ganz Bolivien und auch bisschen Peru und Argentinien haben von frueh 6 Uhr bis nachts um 12 getanzt, durch die gesamte Innenstadt. Dazu wurde schwungvolle Marschmusik gespielt und die Julia am Rande immer schoen mit in die Menge zum Tanzen gezogen (das hat man davon, [View Full Entry]

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Yo! Ok, this is a quick special report, especially for VLM. We went to the Santa Cruz Zoo this afternoon. This is a seriously wacky zoo. For instance, there were almost as many animals roaming freely about the grounds as there were safely in cages. Among the animals that scampered accross our footpath were: a sloth (well, it more slothed than scampered), a capibara, and an alarmingly large monkey of sorts. That one was actually sitting on the fence OUTSIDE of the monkey cages of its same species (see photo). The main purpose of our visit was to find and photograph [View Full Entry]

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After another 16 hour overnight bus journey from the border town of Coromba, we eventually made it into Bolivia. We had an overnight stop in Santa Cruz planned, however upon arrival, Esteban informed us that there was political unrest in Sucre which meant nobody could come in or out of the city the following day. We decided to miss out our night in Santa Cruz and fly directly to Sucre. That night we got fairly intoxicated in a gringo hangout called Joyride. The next day we met the new members of our group. All sound enough, some sounder than others, some [View Full Entry]

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Once back from the Madidi trip we got a flight to Santa Cruz (via San Borja and Trinidad). Our main reason for coming to Santa Cruz was to see if we could get a trip to Noel Kempf Mercado NP. The Bolivian jungle in Madidi was great but Noel Kempf is noted as one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. It doesn´t have the infrastructure that the Madidi does but that was part of the allure. First though we lobbed up in Santa Cruz and stayed at the Jodanga hostel. Not usually into plugging hostels but this one [View Full Entry]

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After a very good night's sleep in the little hostel in Uyuni we were ready to hit the bumpy road to get ourselves to Potosi. The bus was very bareable (I for one slept most of the way) and we even got a free Coca Cola on board! We arrived in Potosi late afternoon and were pleasantly surprised by its quaint little streets and attractive buildings. Once we had found a hostel we went and booked a tour of the mines for the following morning and then had an early night after indulging in a four-course meal that cost us all [View Full Entry]

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5 Weeks at Ambui Ari A story if slow blood loss, mortal fear and beast walking!!! No electricity, long drop toilet, about 30 other volenteers from all over the world, 22 cats, 12 monkeys, lots of birds, 2 deer, a tapier and a dog! [View Full Entry]

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I recently got back from a Bolivian campemento in Cameete, that I went to during the weekend of Carneval. I went with the spanish-speaking church that I attend with my host family. The best way to describe the experience was one that I was glad that I did, but also one that I would not voluntarily do again. We hardly got any sleep on the trip, and we're never given a moment of free time or relaxation. I felt like a needed a vacation after the weekend... Some of the pictures are from the landscape around the camp, some from [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, a group of us from World Concern traveled to La Victoria, a small community on the outskirts of San Julian, to have a meeting/celebration with one of the CAMS groups. This group has been a very successful group for microfinancing within World Concern, and yesterday was the 8th anniversary for the group since its start. So we drove out to the community bringing cake and drinks to congratulate them and coordinate for further work. Also, I'm putting up some pictures from the weekend... Just some pictures of the house I'm staying at and also a few pictures from the [View Full Entry]

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This is my first entry to just try things out... I'll be uploading some photos soon and hope to be pretty consistent on this thing. As of right now, I'm just sitting in my house after playing soccer with some of the guys I know from church. Playing soccer with Bolivians has been a very humbling experience. Not only have I hardly ever played soccer, but, as in all of Latin America, soccer is huge here. And I guess I shouldn't call it soccer..."football" from now on... I always reserve the defensive positions for myself (least amount of actual ball [View Full Entry]

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