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Published: July 25th 2009
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Breakfast!
Api and pastillas! Maize drink and a puff of pastry! Hi everyone,
Well hope you are all good! I would like to start by saying congratulations to my sister Sharon and my brother -in-law Bruce on the arrival of their beautiful baby boy, Ethan William Dodd, and let me tell you he is a cutie, its in the genes of course!haha!
Well after all that excitment going on at home i have to work hard to make all this sound exciting! It´ll be hard but i will try.
After the Salt Flats we ended up in Uyuni and from there we took a train journey to a small town south called Tupiza. This little town was suggested to us by some people and so we decided to check it out. There really wasn´t much going on here but it did have amazing looking valleys just out side the town.
We arrived at about 5 in the morning to Tupiza with some other travelers and we all ended up staying in the same hostel which was a nice spot and they were a good bunch. There was one belgian guy, Greg, who was full of beans and when we had a few hours sleep he was suggesting that we all go horse
riding. We had a think about it and decided why not. So later in the after noon we headed off on some very sad looking horses . But Greg got a stalion and boy did it have an attitude. Mine on the other hand was a bit lazy. On one occassion we were going up a steep hill and it decided to stop in the middle and would not budge. I thought it was going to drop dead so i had to get off and walk him the rest of the way up the hill. Another girl had a bit of a wonky horse as well and when we were galloping the horse fell over its self and she went flying. It was so funny but we made sure she was ok before we cracked up laughing. We had a good day and all had sore bums at the end.
There is another valley that we went for a walk through and it was reallty beautiful with some really great rock shapes and there were Lamas, donkeys, and goats. It was a really easy walk, but when we had done all of this we had done everything and so we
decided we had to get ourselves together and leave.
From here we were given another suggestion and this was from our belgian friend Greg. He had two friends working in a small village south of there, Rossilas (near Tarija, a bigger townand more known) on a project help the local villages get a good system going to stop everyone leaving and so they are setting up a hostel to attract tourists to the area and bring money to the villages and that money goes back into the villages to improve the schools and health services and things like that. Greg had left before us and sent an e-mail saying it was really beautiful and worth the visit and so we went and we were not disappointed.
The name of the place was Valley of the Condors(Valles de los Condores) and the 360 view was of mountains, fields and little houses dotted in the hills. We stayed there for 5 days and in that time we did a hike up the mountain to see the condors. The hike was through dense jungle and was a bit precarious at times but really cool. Our guide knew loads about different plants that are
used for healing and different ailments which was interesting. We camped at the top that night and there was a full moon which was lovely.It was a bit chilly though and our feet were cold so we all had our feet at the fire to warm up. There were also some cows around that Joost tried his crocodile dundee hypnosis on but proved it doesn´t work.
Next morning we were to try and see some condors.Well if you don´t know condors are very lazy and like to sleep in until about 10ish am. So we waited but they were not coming over near us. But of course when we moved down the mountain they weent to where we were and so it is impossible to get aclose up unless you are in camouflage and have days to wait. I love these birds. They are massive and they just sore the skies until they need to eat then they attack something.
We got back to the hostel and chilled out. That night we had a local musician come over and play and sing for us. It was brill. We also did some local dancing, shown by a local lady. It
was so funny seeing the guys dance but we had a good night.
The next morning we had organized to go up to a local farm and try the local brew. Well its actually bolivian hard liquor. This was at 9 in the morning. So off we went to the farm andf the way it went was. First the Singani(the hard liquor) is added without a measure to a glass. Then some sugar and cinnomen. Then you go over to a cow where one of the farmers milk into your glass and then you knock this concoctions down in one. It is warm, sweet and very strong. The second one doesn´t go down so fast and if you try a tired well thats you drunk at 9 in the morning. Oh the fun! But theres more. As it was Easter there was a special session of castrations going to happen at the farm. Yes you read right! For the boys the alcohol numbed some of the mental pain experienced that moring. Unfortunately it doesn´t erase the memory! haha! We went up to where this was going to take place. Firstly the reason they do it is because they want the
My stallion!
Poor thing! Not the most vivatious! males to get nice and fat and this is the time of year they always do it. When we got to the pen there was a female goat giving birth which was very exciting, but when the baby goat was born the mother walked off like nothing had happened. Weird! Anyway that moring we must have seen 20 castrations, of sheep, goats and bullocks. It was a pretty gruesome procedure and i did feel sorry for these poor creatures. No anesthetic! wow!
After all that the boys felt a bit damaged and the girls felt liberated! haha!
We went back to the farm house and had lunch and then we played fancy dress and i got to dress up as a cheese girl. Those clothes weighed a tone but i think i did them justice!( see foto)
We really had a lovely time there and the people were really nice. It was worth the divertion in direction!
So we started to head north again. One crazy taxi ride to town and we were on our way again to the lovely capital city Sucre.
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Gary
non-member comment
coooool
those fotos look soooo coool!!!! Story is deadly too. That por horse doesnt like it'd take much to knock it over, poor thing!!! I dont like that castration thing, not good, not good at all!!!! Another crazy taxi ride??? That camping trip looked the bizz..... I'm very jealous..... again. keep up the good work guys, lots of love, Gary and Ann, xxxx