"Time is gold" that is what our guide would tell us on an hourly basis as all 15 exchange students from around Santa Cruz were traveling through Bolivia. We left Santa Cruz on the 21st at 7:30AM, and from that point on it was go go go until 7:30 PM when we arrived back in Santa Cruz on the 31st.
We flew from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba where we spent the day walking around, trying new foods and hiking 'Cristo" a giant mountain with a statue of Christ on top, it was safe to say that by the end of the day all of our legs felt like jello and we were all a few shades darker! From Cochabamba we flew to La Paz, but that was not without a few difficulties, we were stuck in the airport for 4 hours due to delays, but being the amazing exchange students that we are we made the best of it and goofed off. In La Paz there were a few problems with the altitude for a couple of people and while they were getting some O2 the rest of us had a sleep deprived bus party!
January 22 is a holiday in Bolivia to celebrate el estado Plurinacional. For most of those who are not indigenous, this day is not warmly welcomed. We were lucky enough to be in the capital for this day so we got to see the parade and the ceremonies and all that jazz, there were tanks and soldiers and music and tons of cholitas but all in all it was a great day. The altitude made walking up the hills a lot difficult but fortunately enough for me, exhaustion was my only side effect! In La Paz, we went to museums, shopped, saw la vallea de la luna, and explored the city, in no time at all we were off to Copacabana and on our way to the Isla del Sol.\
Isla del sol was BEAUTIFUL, im pretty sure it was my favorite part of the trip, it was the most natural part of Bolivia i had seen, there were no cars on the Island and lake Titicaca was so nice,I hiked with my friend Emily (from the states) to the top of the mountain when everyone else was swimming and it was soooo beautiful, we even made an inukshuk to mark our presence there! That night at the hotel there was a power outage so to avoid the terror of being alone in the dark we had 8 of us all bunk up in one room on three little beds!It was by far the best night of the trip!\
After Isla del sol we went back to La Paz then headed out to Sucre where we spent the afternoon touring around and getting pegged by water balloons then we bused out to Potosi where we spent the night and then went into the mines and explored the city some more. After Potosi we bused to Uyuni , we saw the famous train cementary, come mummies and the infamous Salaire de Uyuni...which was stunning. There was sooooo much salt! 12000 squared kilometers to be exact! the one thing that i didnt expect was how much it hurt to walk on the salt! do not be fooled by the idea that the salt you get in your house is the kind on the flats...it is not!
After our sunburnt salty experience in Uyuni we went back to Potosi, went to some museums and Hailey had some Credit Card Problems that me and Lou helped her out with, then we were on our way back to Sucre where we spent the next 2 days. Being the group of Gringas that we are, it was only natural that we would be the targets of the pre carnival water balloon wars, what i was not expecting was that it would get so totally out of hand to the point where I hurt my knee and am now covered in gross bruises. None the less it was a fun time in Sucre but it was not a dry one! we got to go to some little textile markets, a dinosaur museum and to a lights show we hit up the plaza, ran into some friends from SC and bought chocolate then we were off on our way to Tarija for the the final days of the trip :(
Tarija is alot like the Okanagan, I mean it is simmilar in the ways that it is smaller, has mountains and lots of wineries and it felt like home, for that reason i am glad that i am not living there. we went to some wineries, and to a beautful waterfall where we could swim and go exploring, I loved being able to climb up stream and explore the different nooks and crannies of the falls. I did unfortunately fall in the stream so despite the fact that i was planning on staying dry...that didnt really happen.
This trip was AMAZING I laughed harder than i ever have here, I made new friends and became better friends with everyone, I got to see more of my new country and develop my spanish. I saw the differences in culture and finally got to feel the cold!
best 10 days ever!
"No solviden nada!?" creo que no puedo!
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