Bolivia volunteering

I'm in Cochabamba and first I stayed at hostel Buenos Aires and wanted to find volunteer work. I heard about an organisation Sustainable Bolivia, so I stopped by there and were lucky. They offered me three different opportunities and I chose the energy one. ;-) So in the next days I had a visit in the organisation CECAM and learned about what they do and started work the very next day.

The organisation is a little family run business and has an open air workshop in the back garden of the house. They build solar ovens and efficient wood burning stoves. I started helping with office work especially translating from or into English for correspondence with other countries companies, organisations, volunteers etc. Further I continued updating their facebook page which was actually an easy job and then I helped with some new projects in a suburb of Cochabamba. We provided food and medical support to impoverished families in Villa Esmeralda. I as well donated some money to build five wood burning stoves for five selected families.

It was good to see how the people there are thankful for the work we did and it was heart-touching to see when a dentist, who helped us for free, checked the kids teeth.

The whole time I was living in a house with seven other volunteers which was really nice. I had a home for a while with my room that I shared with Justine, a french girl, a kitchen and a TV in the living room. Every week we had shared dinners with all other volunteers in the main house. We were appr. 25 people plus some local friends. Me and another German girl cooked once a typical dish from home. The weekends we went out for party or visited different places close to Cochbamba. Besides shopping on the big local market or hanging with friends it was a welcome change from the work.

First trip was to Tupiza, the wild west of Bolivia. I had a long weekend and did a two day horse back riding trip. The landscape was so stunningly beautiful and I have never seen anything like it before. Canyons, rock formations and those colours, so intense in blue, yellow, red and green. It was great wherever I looked, just my but didn't like the horse ride that much! ;-) But it was worth it.

A few weekends later we went to Santa Cruz and from there, after visiting the zoo, to Samaipata. That's a little village in the rain forest and with one of the most eastern Inca sites. The ruins were nice and offered good views over the mountains and valleys around. A lovely weekend with friends.

Another 'fin de semana' we went to Torotoro national park. What a weird place, the landscape shows formations where you can see what tectonic geology means.

It looks as the earth just moved into that position recently and not thousands of years ago. We crawled through a very narrow cave, hiked into a canyon and saw some dinosaur footprints. They looked quite real, so I was very impressed!

We hiked in Pico Tunari national park what is right next to Cochabamba, met many new people from Cocha and international.

And I went to La Paz a few times to just enjoy good food and party. This city is so breathtaking and not only because of the altitude. ;-)

Further we took part at the Aymara new years party and celebrated into the year 5520. We got up to meet the local people on a hill to dance around the fire and to welcome the sun the first day of the new year. We expected a llama sacrifice, but luckily there wasn't one, only some herbal and alcohol gifts for Pacha Mama, the god of the earth.

I had a great time in Cocha and met so many great people, thanks to everybody that made my time so special. And it felt good to give at least a little help and support to some of the people there. After a great laving dinner and three days of partying, I left Cocha for my last tour and into Peru.

First Justine and me travelled to Sorata, a little town in the mountains north of La Paz. It was a curvy ride because we went from 4500m down to 2700m and we got the most amazing views. We could see down the valley into the rain forest at 1000m and up to the snowy peaks of 6500m. The altitude difference was huge and the landscape stunning.

We wanted to hike to a lagoon but because the taxi dropped us at a wrong start point we walked and walked and found only a little pond. 1,5h turned into 4h hiking uphill and the 4000m lagoon was suddenly 5000m high. Well, it was so beautiful so we didn't mind that we hiked for 7h instead of 4.

After that beautiful side trip into the mountains we went back to La Paz and met some of our volunteer friends from Cochabamba, they came to party with us and to visit Lake Titikaka together. We stayed at the Wild Rover where the bar is next door and where we started the night out with some drinks. When the bar closed at two we went to a club and I got home last, early in the morning. But after a shower and breakfast I was fit again to continue.

We took a bus to Copacabana and enjoyed the fresh trout from the lake for dinner. Next morning we took the ferry to Isla del Sol and started to hike over the whole island. We saw some ruins in the north and followed the path towards south with amazing views over the deep blue coloured lake and the snowy peaks of the Bolivian mountains in the back. It's beautiful and it was warm in the sun.

After three hours we got to the village in the south where we found a little place for the night.

Next morning we got up to see the sunrise from the view point what was freezing, but so lovely in reward. Then we had breakfast in the sun and took the ferry back to Copacabana.

We ate another trout and enjoyed the sunny afternoon. Then it was time to say goodbye! Everybody went into a different direction and I left Bolivia to Peru.

I was sad and happy.

After three months Bolivia, I loved the country and wished I could stay longer, but I was as well excited to continue and see Peru with famous Machu Picchu! Just, everyone please go and see Bolivia, it's great!

Bolivia travels

Bolivia! Yeah! Was so excited to go there and I stayed for the whole length of my visa. Three months!
I think I didn't do anything wrong with this decision, I had so much fun here.

Well, first I went traveling to the best places of Bolivia before working as a volunteer. When I arrived in Uyuni I met Grady again and we started a tour to the salt flats and the national park in the south west. What an amazing place on earth. The landscape dry like a desert, but with snowy volcano peaks, rock formations that appear alien like as from another planet, then colourful lagoons in white, green and red and as well pelicans and llamas everywhere. It was just incredible. I think I took a thousand pictures because it was so inspiring and stunning.

It was very cold at night but sunny every day. We stayed one night at about 4600m and it was freezing. But from there we were going to see some geysers going off early in the morning and could jump into a volcanic heated pool.

And at the end of our tour we got to see the big white salt flat which was a highlight itself.

Salt as far as you can see and a blending white that your eyes start to burn. Without sun glasses no chance. But so amazing! With the white clouds and a blue, blue in the sky it was overwhelming! And we had fun with the camera and took the photos that have these special effects because of the wideness of the flats.

When we got back to Uyuni town we just took a shower and continued to Potosi, cause Uyuni itself is only the start or end point for the salt flat tours and therefore a bit boring. But Potosi was interesting, it is located at an altitude of 4000m and you can feel how easy you get breathless when walking somewhere. We visited the mines and had to crawl through some pretty narrow tunnels with almost no safety precautions. So I got a little worried, but it was adventurous in the end. For the miners inside we bought some presents like Coca Cola or dynamite. And because it's so crazy to buy dynamite legally, we just bought some more to try it out and have some fun. We hired a taxi, went out of town and hiked into a little deserted valley. There we blew up a cactus and some stones. The explosion made a big pressure wave and even I was 50m away, I could still feel it and thought to sense some cactus needles blowing over as well. ;-) And because it was so funny, we had to buy some more including the catalyst to make the explosion even bigger the next time. But because our bus was leaving soon, Grady had to carry it in his bag. Weird feeling to travel around with some explosives in your baggage. ;-)

In Sucre we enjoyed some warmer weather and great food. It is a super nice town with lots of colonial architecture and nice cafes. We went to the recoleta cemetery, the view point, the centre and to a castle outside town. There we blew up the dynamite again, finally got rid of this dangerous accessory. ;-)

Wish we could have stayed a little longer in this nice place with the sweetest mangos ever. But we wanted to see some more places before Grady had to fly home and my volunteering started.

So from Sucre we went to La Paz, the highest capital in the world at 3800m. It got colder again and the air was thinner. Because the city lies in a valley with hillside extensions, it goes up and down when you walk the streets and makes you gasping the whole time. But it has great party and good food. We found the best Thai place in town.

We explored the city and wandered through the witches market where they sell llama foetuses and other ritual or witchcraft accessories. Odd place but interesting.

It was nice to hang out in La Paz for a few days and we went as well to Tiwanaku to see some Inca ruins and hear some history.

Not to miss, of course, was the death road biking and it was a spectacular ride. From freezing cold and fog into beautiful green mountains and a swimming pool finish. Only thing, the next days I couldn't sitm because my but was in pain. ;-) But still highly recommendable.

But then it was time to say goodbye and I went to Cochabamba to find some volunteer work.

Cochabamba is the city of eternal spring and the weather is like it, sunshine every day and warm temperatures daytime and cold at night. Surrounded by mountains and an overlooking Cristo statue on a hill in the middle of the town. There were not many tourists, but that made the place so special. I liked it a lot and found the organisation Sustainable Bolivia where I got a volunteer assignment.

Finally I started to do something useful during my trip! ;-)