Sunday, December 23, 2007

Feliz Navidad!!!

Thought I would leave a quick note to wish everyone a happy holidays! I am currently in La Paloma Uruguay, traveling with a good friend from Vancouver. With the heat it does not quite feel like Christmas, but there is no shortage of decorations to keep the spirit alive.
La Paloma is a cute little surf town, but quite dead right now. There is a constant wind that keeps things cool (sometimes a little too cool), and everyone seems to be in constant preparation for the high season in January.
Tomorrow we will try to get our hands on some surf boards (and by the feel of the water, some wet suites as well).
As always, Im having a blast... but I am itching to get some climbing done. After wasting some time googling the climbing in Bariloche, Im planning on trying to find an appt. there to stay for a month or two (or three... it looks really good).

Merry Christmas to all!!!!

love

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Leavin The Rest to You Sis

Hey Everyone!
Well, I am officially finished my travels. Yesterday I arrived back to chilly Canada, leaving behind the wonderful places that I had the pleasure to visit in the past four and a half months.
After parting with Stacey, I made my way back to the wonderful little town of Copacabana, Bolivia where I chilled out by Lake Titicaca for a few days. One day I managed to go kayaking, which was a blast, except I went way to far and had noodle arms by the time I made it back. Good fun.
After leaving Bolivia, I bused back to Peru and then flew from the town of Juliaca to Lima for my last 2 days. I stayed at the Loki Hostel in Miraflores, which is great, I definitely recommend it for the youngen's that go travelling. Miraflores is very nice and clean, I had a much better experience here than when Stacey and I were stuck in central Lima for a day. That place is just plain dirty. I went down to the beach on my last day and watched the surfing.
Nothing too exciting, but I figured I would just say bye to everyone! If I have any other exciting trips, I'll let you know!
Miss you Stacey!

Love,

Vikki

Monday, December 17, 2007

Tango City

First of all, I have to say that the climbing community is amazing. After one visit to a local gym in Bueones Aires, I already have a group of friends to road trip with in January. We will head to the lake district which boarders Chile, and is full of amazing sport and trad climbng. Can´t wait.

For now, I am relaxing in Buenoes Aires, where the streets are full of music, and people are always dancing. Its hot hot hot at 30 degrees, and only getting hotter.

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home. I miss it.

love

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Ahora, estamos solitas!!

Potosi was a delightful city with bustling pedestiran streets overlooked by the giant Cerro Rico (rich hill), righfully named for its silver mines that made Potosi rich in Colonial times. While the hill is running low on siver, many a miner (15000 a day) haul thousands of tons of minerals out 24/7, 356 days a year. While mining burdens most all miners with bad lungs and shorter life expectancies, it is a very well paid profession (for Bolivia, about 2000Bs a month... 7bs=1$). Of the 14 Hummers in Bolivia, 12 are in Potosi. There are no main companies in the mines, and the miners work for themselves.

While we had heard that the mines were a crazy place to visit, we unsuspectantly took a full day tour. First stop was to the miners market where we purchased presants for the miners (as they do not stop work for tours)... mostly dynamite and pop. Next stop was a processing plant where the minerals are separated from waste in a bubbly mixture. Here we also properly learned how to chew coca leaves, which left our mouths numb.

Now, into the mines, dressed in our miners outfits with gigantic headlamps that must be as old as the mines themselves.

Only in Bolivia... what else can I say? The main tunnel shaft was lined with pipes that hissed and dipped who know what, while we were constantly jumping to the sides as workers hauled huge loads of rock out. We walked into the mountin for about 20 min, and then headed down a small shaft that started out to be 1m round. We ended up on hands and knees wheezing, most likely due to a lack of xoygen (well over 4000m) and a mixture of strange chemicals from recent explosives (the bandans around our noses and mouths didn´t help much). Continuing down the tunnel we were told to stay to the left (for there was a huge gaping hole to the right where loads of minerals were being hauled to the upper levels). Crawling down the shottiest ladders I have ever encountered, with the odd surprise of a swiveling step, we decended a level further. Here we gave our presents of dynamite to the workers (some of whom were a mear 14 years old).

The scramble back out was farily nerve wracking, gasping for breath in the thin air, combied with the closed in quarters left everyone feeling fairly uneasy. Vikki made it very well known that she never wished to enter a mine again.

Glad to be back in the open air, our guides gadly lit some left over dynamite and let er rip on the side of the hill. Good times.

After the not so pleasent mines, we decided the next day would be spent with a relaxing bike tour to some nearby hotsprings. All the biking, they told us, would be down hill, and we could enjoy a taxi ride back. "There is just a little bit of up at the end... no problem." Yes, there was a little bit of up at the end... but at 4000m, it left my lungs burning.

While relaxing in the large hot spring, a friendly German couple informed us that they had read in their guidebook that many a person had dissapeared in the hotspring, reappearing 24hrs later boiled... um... fun. After being reassured by our guide that everything was fine (even though we could now see bubbles in the middle of the pool) we enjoyed the water, and left unboiled.

After a wonderful few days in Potiso, Vikki and I have sadly parted ways. As she heads back to Peru to catch a flight to the great white north, I head further south to meet a dear friend in Buenos Aires for Christmas.

Traveling with Vikki has been amazing, and I am going to miss her dearly!!!

Hope that everyone is well, and having fun preparing for the holiday season!!!

ciao ciao

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Salar de Uyuni

Hey Folks!

Stace and I are now in Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4070m. We´ll be walking slowly here!
The last three days we were on a 4x4 tour of the Bolivian backcountry. It had to be some of the most incredible landscape I have ever seen in my life. It was a three day tour so I´ll give you all a nice recap on what we saw and how it went!
DAY 1
We were told to meet at the tour agency at 10am. Keeping true to South American timekeeping, our guides drove up in the necessary Toyota Land Cruisers around quarter to 11. After sorting out the gringos into the 2 vehicles we drove to pick up our cook and the food (the eggs were shoved under the front seat in front of my feet), we soon headed out of town and onto the gravel, pocketed roads that were to keep us company for the next 3 days.
Our guide introduced himself as Obed, and began talking to us in Spanish. I was perfectly fine with that as I understood him for the most part but we were told that we would have an English speaking guide. When asked if he spoke English he said ¨un pocito¨ (A little bit). Great.
Our first stop was a train cemetary where we were told (by Obed who suddenly began speaking perfect English...sneaky) that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had killed the trains. Crazy!
After a quick bathroom break we drove onto the incredible salt flats. These flats stretched for more than 40km and with the bright sun overhead, the reflected glare was really strong. More than a few people ended up with tomato faces at the end of the day. Stacey and I felt almost right at home as the vast white land reminded us of good ol´ snowy Canada!
That night we stayed in a salt hotel! It was really cool until in the middle of the night it started raining. Although the roof itself wasn´t made of salt, it wasn´t made well and I woke up to hear the drip-drop of water in our room. I figured it was just on the floor and decided to ignore it until I heard Stacey yelp ¨Oh crap!¨ and realized she was getting a nice little shower in bed. After trying to stuff toilet paper in the leak and holding a water bottle underneath it, Stacey just shuffled against the wall and went back to bed.
DAY 2
After a nice 5am wakeup call, we all grumbled our way out of bed and shoved back into the Land Cruisers for a nice bumpy ride to wake us up more fully. We drove until 5pm, visiting a lagun filled with hundreds of amazing flamingos, as well as the train tracks that connect Bolivia and Chile. We also visited 2 incredible groupings of boulders, both with so much potential for climbing that Stacey and I were running and bouldering everywhere, always the last ones back in the car. The only and very devestating drawback to these areas are their isolation. They are more than a days drive over very rough terrain from any main town or city. One place was very famous for having a giant boulder that looked like a tree. It was really impressive and my fingers were itching to climb it!
After a flat tire which was fixed with incredibly speed by our guides, we arrived at our hostel. It was so cold that snow was flowing around us, which excited both Stacey and I but no one else. Crazy Canadians..live in igloos!
That night, the cold and a promise for a 4am wakeup drove us to be around 9pm.
DAY 3
Yes we woke up at 4am. I was not a happy camper, yet our first destination brightened my moods immensley! We got to see a huge group of geysers set in a Mars-like landscape. It was pretty incredibly, with these geysers reaching heights of almost 30 metres and temperatures of more than 85 degrees C. There were pools of water where the steam poured out of, which were the colour of clay and bubbling up. Apparently people have died in them, so we stayed away from the edges!
After that we drove to a point of 5060m, where Stace and I hopped out of the car and went for a little jog that made my head spin and my lungs heave.
Breakfast was served near hot springs. Everyone lounged around warming their bodies in the toasty water!
After that we visted Laguna Verde..Green Lagun, which was extremely beautiful with a volcano in the background giving a perfect reflection in the water. Then most of our tour group was dropped off at the border of Chile and we began the labourous drive back to Uyuni, the town where we began our journey. Along the way we stopped at another incredible group of boulders with solid rock and great potential. And once again it is far too isolated for any development.
We arrived back in Uyuni at dinner time and after a much needed shower we ate the most amazing pizza at Minuteman Pizza, and then dragged our very sour behinds into bed.
All in all it was a fantastic tour, and I had alot of fun!

Stacey and I are now in our last city together before we part ways, with Stacey heading into Argentina to meet her friend Jay for Christmas and New Years in Buenos Aires. I am going to retrace my steps back to Lake Titicaca where I will fly back to Lima, Peru for a few days before I head back home to Canada!!!

I hope you´re all enjoying yourselves and are excited for the holidays!

All my love,

Vikki