Leave 8 december – 1st stop Buenos Aires

Hi there. I’m Jillard (Jay): love surfing, salsa, cooking/eating/drinking in good company and.. traveling. I just quit my dayjob (again) to travel through South America to find out more how people live there. Whats your goal people ask. Well, here’s some small ones: just like to experience the gaucho lifestyle of the Pampas, eat some legendary Argentinian steak, see lake Titicaca, join the great Inca sun celebration, visit friends in Colombia, mejorar mi espagnol, visit Suriname, find a nice surfspot (in Brasil?), meet nice people-hopefully help some, and hey there’s still the dream of visiting the dancing island of Puerto Rico. Of course in this kind of travel there’s a nascistic risk- a deeper goal thereby has to been found on the road. If you have any good tips, ideas or commentary for me – they are more than welcome! Just leave a message. Have a good one! J

 

Europa

Biarritz

 

Colombia de nuevo!

Birthday breakfast

A standard cheap but tasty breakfast. From L to R: Mr papaya, banano, mango, kiwi (imported from Chile) and my favorite fruit of all times níspero (heavy sweet caramel taste, typical from the coast here).

Small cloudy day

(no burning sun, soo nice..)

Central market

A visit to the central market is an adventure in itself. The most amazing fruit (see coconuts), animals and foods can be found.

Cooked turtle, fish soup, seafood rice, bean rice, coco chicken, chicken and porc rice, pork coco stew, sea bass stew and many more……. very delicious

Famous travelcook Anthony Bourdain was recently in Cartagena, look here for a nice report.

Incredibly I found (and bought) an amazing surfboard somewhere in a fishing village, surfboards are *very* scarce here..

La Guajira

Colombia’s and South America’s most northern province is a magical place. Scarcely populated, burning heat and mostly desert, historically land of fierce indians, smugglers, pirates and pearl hunters, the place is hard to get to but soo rewarding. My trip there was one of my favorites in the whole of Colombia (and one of the most photogenic places). First palms trees in Rionacha. The region’s speciality is grilled goat. I was served the biggest plate in my life with I think 1 kg of goat……………………………………. I could finish half….

From provincial capital Riohacha one takes a 4×4 to the fishing town of Cabo de la Vela. On this board it says a line from Uribe Colombia’s president: “Aqui he sentido la patria en la dimencion de su grandeza.” Here I have felt the fatherland in the dimension of its greatness..

And then at 06.00 in the morning you take another 4×4, 5 hours drive through desert to the end of the world Punta Gallinas. Here you will find your ‘I am alone on this world’ moments, here one indeed feels the greatness of nature. No tourists, no towns, no traffic, just some indians and overwhelming desert. At first you think where you have landed, a barren Mars like wasteland, desert, sand, rocks, immense heat, an emerald colored bay with huge mangrove islands on the inside of the peninsula, on the other side the turquoise warm Caribbean sea, here rough on its edges. Some indian families living in some huts and small clay houses, only at night some energy provided by engine. Who can possibly live here…? But on the second day it slowly starts to make sense: this impossible collision of elements makes for its raw beauty.

I arrived on lobster day, all people (men, women, grandma’s, children) came to sell their just caught lobsters to the owner of the place where I stayed. A total of 170 kg of lobster was collected and driven that night to the restaurants of Cartagena and Bogota. The small fishermen were paid €1 per kilo, I paid €8 for this huge lobster that was prepared straight away (yummieee) and in a restaurant in Cartagena you will be €30 lighter after ordering one. A simple but very effective business!

Sometimes one is fed up with lobster and eats a red snapper.. or catch some yourself! This group of birds were flying like crazy over the sea making the most spectacular movements as a group.

At night the freezer room with all lobsters in the freezers got an eary feeling to it… and in the middle of the night some boys brought more snapper and other fish..

And this is the end of the world, south america’s most northernly point. Excactely one year after I had been in the most southernly point Ushuaia…

The only vegetation that survives here are cactusses

These boys caught some rabbits with bow and arrow.

A bit further there’s these massive sand dunes, 50 m high, and they just drop straight into the emerald Caribbean sea – what an end to a continent!! and a great run straight down into this refreshing bath.

By fishing boat, first the fishing net has to be thrown out, visiting a flamingo colony in the bay’s more shallow water. They flew away when we got too close

It was full moon. And sitting on a rock high above the bay while the moon illuminates the waters in silver blue one just listens to this deafening silence, just the distant sound of the water movement of the bay. Its those moments that make you realize what a special place this is.

There was a big swell going on but unfortunately I don’t have a surfboard with me perfect lines and nobody out… an impossible rarity in this world, well it exists in Guajira…..

Here a little video.

Sierra Nevada

With Thomas, Olaf (Olafreizen.nl) and a travelbookwriter and fotographer we went to the indigenous area of the Sierra Nevada. This area is really close to the Carribean sea but it goes up to almost 6000 meters! The highest mountain so close to the sea in the world. So close to the heat but it gets really cold. Before we entered the main village we had to ask permission from the chief. This was the weirdest scene. We all entered this long indian house where only the chief sat at the end. Thomas asked him if we could enter the village and shoot some photos for the travelbook. The chief looked at up and said nothing. Silence. Thomas asked again. Silence. We were all feeling really weird now, it felt like being transported to another time. At last the chief gave permission to enter the village (the 20.000 pesos maybe helped) but we couldn’t photograph his people. We entered the village and all indians -all dressed in white clothes, made from the pointy cactus leaves- fled straight into their houses, the village was a ghost town from this point on. It really felt like being 500 years ago, a mini Macchu Pichu but inhabited.

The next day we had a nice hike through the mountains and came across some scattered villages where we could some pictures and stuff. And we came across the Waterfall!

This is a nice painintg in the city of Valledupar, birthplace of Colombia’s national music, the vallenato, tropical rhythms with accordion.

Carnaval de Barranquilla

Carnaval de Barranquilla is the second biggest carnaval in south america (after Rio). Its pretty crazy, here photos of the big parade with Miss Colombia, the Aguila girls (beer brand), A team, chusos sticks and felipe and me.

Mud volcano

Some 50 km outside Cartagena lies a mud volcano, 28 m high and 3000 m deep! a lot of fun. Btw you go for a clean swim in the lake afterwards

Cartagena

My father has been hospitalized again… the same as exactly one year ago… i wish him well (of course my mummy too)..

At 08.45 when I go surfing, my breakfast is an empanada with orange juice.

I arrive at the surfspot after a short busride (in the background the old -left- and new city).

After surfing I have a fruit lunch from this fruit lady (€1), there’s a few fruits in there quite unknown in europe.

Some of her plates are made with ‘Bella Holandesa’, a sort of cream I guess.. things like creams or cheeses: not very recommendable here (lousy taste)

The last days the planet Mars has been remarkably bright. Hard to photograph with a small digicam.. but worth the try, at least one can see why it’s called the red planet.

Because I dont have any cool pictures or adventures here’s a pic of my temporary home.

Oh and one ‘from the old box’

It was cool that Mascha was here. We went to the great fortress San Felipe (again, my 3rd time ) and spend the evening at the other end of town, sunset at Bocagrande. Oh beautiful Cartagena..

Best hamburger chain in the world: El Corral

Typical Cartagena house, colourfull, balcony, flowers

Livin legend Fidel, owner of Donde Fidels salsa bar. With Mascha, former colleague!

The heavy city walls with the new Cartagena in background

Def one of the coolest bars in the Carribean, Cafe del Mar

Bogota

Well… never thought I’d do it but one has got to try everything once right. I always got disgusted by bull fights where the bulls are bloodily slaughtered in the arena.. but when some fellow hostelers invited me I thought I’d give it a try once. What can I say. My experience was that it wasn’t as bad as I expected… Theres a lot of blood on part of the bull, he gets spears in the back and get slaughtered in the end, all very cruel – I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do that -, but I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that condemning this and eating an hamburger afterwards and tomorrow is just hypocrite. In fact there’s a lot of spectacle , traditions and music in the stadium and somehow it’s got its gracious moments… the worse is seeing people enjoying the animal having pain. If I’m still a fervent opposer of this events, I don’t know, I’m certainly not a supporter and I don’t think I would go again. I took some pictures that I erased from my camera because I just couldn’t look at them, so bloody. I wont share them here of course.

Outside the stadium there were very agressive anti protesters, when we passed them, they were screaming: ‘you bloody Gringos!!! Killers, Go awaayyyyy!!’ Pretty intimidating but they have their reasons (they had to stay behind fences and we were protected by police).

The stadium in the middle of the city. The people who live in the flats can ‘enjoy’ the events from their windows..

One of the traditions, drinking Manzanilla, a light alcoholic wine.

Manizales

So.. im in Colombia again.. after one great month in Holland with family and friends. Hadn’t looked at the blog at all, seems that there are still quite some people looking at it every day! Cool! So.. I will improve my activity here. Lets see if we got some more pics… (and although its way too late, still happy NY everybody).

The flight was with Colombian airliner Avianca in an Airbus 330-200. Its a great company with good (!) food, nice service and all the new movies you want..

Just after I arrived in Bogota we went to the Feria (party) de Manizales, city of hills. Thomas’ wife’s (Paola) family is from there. Their son Sebastien came along as well. The first night we went out partying on the streets and the second day we had an easy bbq at her family’s house. It was a very nice weekend, on the way back we stopped at this leather sale point (Thomas bought the first coushin).

Paola’s dad took care of the bbq.

Sebastien (right) and his nephew are learning young! (Of course the bottles were empty )

Sombreros. Manizales is in the heart of coffee country, that means cowboys and hats (we bought them both).

Hungry? Why wait..

A steep street in Manizales. Imagine the breaks cars must have here..

 

Holland!

From 10 dec till 8 jan I spent a lovely time in Holland with family and friends. I was very lucky with the weather too, it snowed the whole month, which makes me happy. Gotta watch out with biking though.. All new photos have been made with my new camera Fuji F200, a great little cam (the other was stolen in Ecuador).

My nephews/cousins (?) Mira and Thom (kids of my sister, twins, 4 yr) who just loooove to put up silly faces

Real Dutch food ‘Boerenkool’, cabbage with sausage, gravy in vulcano, made by mum. Yummie!

After dinner my parents, little brother Ruud and his gf Yvonne play some games of Rummikub.. and they can be quite fanatical!

New Year with friends Malle Edje and Roughboy Teissie

NY’s dinner with only cheeses? It’s possible in Holland…

Beach of my hometown Scheveningen

Quite chilly.. in summer its totally different here with thousands of sunbathers!

 

Colombia

A Holanda

After 1 year and 2 days im off to holland today. But not before i can get my hands on some nice hams in madrid airport hehe. Ill be in holland for about a month before returning to lovely colombia……. im working on a hotelplan on the coast here. Colombia is an amazing place with amazing people. Although naturewise not as impressive as argentina or chile, nor did the indigenous indians ever reach cultural levels like those in peru or bolivia; colombians are among the most warm hearted people i´ve come across – they looove a party like no one -.  And its safe despite its violent image. Well ciaooooo

Bogota

This is own favo place to lunch in Bogota. Guieri, wild pig, on the parilla.. yummieeee

Near Bogota there´s the Salt Catherdal, a church in the old salt mines, huge halls with crosses everywhere, very impressive, here with Manuela

Pacific Coast

Before Cristales I visited friends in the lovely city of Medellin and from there by plane the Pacific coast. In Medellin started a Colombian fenomena of using ski lifts to transport people to the poor neighboorhoods up the hills. A system so easy that it works and it is copied in other cites. A strange but captivating sight to see ski lifts moving above the houses.You can look on all rooftops and into the houses! In one of the poorest neighboorhoods up the hills the local government has recently build a new iconic library, talking about some unorthodox city development, and now the whole neighboorhood seems to be ´in the lift´: streets are cleaned, parcs are constructed…

Well on the coast theres waves which I unfortunately due to poor information didnt get to. I did get to the village of  where a detariorating grand hotel remains as proof of the former glorious possessions of drug lord Escobar. Furthermore, theres whales. But no tourists. So I had to hire a boat solo to see these gigants. And of course this day it rained and rained. There I was sitting alone (with 2 locals steering) in this boat in just my t’shirt in the pooring rain feeling.. well not miserable but, ok a bit. No whales all day and I was feeling a new wild animal trauma coming up (after the Chilean pinquins and the missing of pumas or jaguars in Bolivia) when on the way back some whales were spotted. Huge whalebacks, I think 3, blowing these watershowers meters int the air. Really cool but when we closed in they dived under, where you could still hear them communicating.

Cano Cristales

I went with Thomas and a group of very nice Colombians to this amazing place called Cano Cristales. Its a riverdelta full with waterfalls, waterholes to dive in and very special red plants, that are only found in this place. Still a mystery to scientists. This place was unvisitable a couple of years ago due to guerilla activity but its quite safe now. Army patrols the area and due to this previous unstable situation the place is still seren with hardly any visitors… (that will change). The way there we went in little chesna planes, theres no road there.

a piece of the garden of Eden..

breakfast, pigs jaw

anywhere theres places to jump into the river. one was 14 meters high, a bit too much for me but not to others. this jump is more easy with 8 meters altitude. down there in the water theres a system of underwater tunnels you can enter..

The way back was with the ancient DC3. No belts, no rules, justtake a piece of rope and hold on during takeoff! The big bags in the front look like some illegal contrabande but its just cheese..

Back in Villaviciencio we had to kill some time waiting for the bus. At 8 o clock in the morning a lot of beer and bbq… The whole group was just an amazing company of people and that makes half the fun. The day after we were invited to the place of one of them (yesterday) and it was another great party at his place with paella, class whiskey and a mexican band (no photo).

Santa Marta

A bit further along th coast from Cart is Santa Marta. Here`s beaches and old rain forrests. Its always 35C. And the place where the Liberator Simon Bolìvar died in 1830 after liberating 6 South American countries from the Spanish. The yellow house, a national museum, is the place where he lived his last days.

Cartagena

On the Caribean coast lies the arquitectual pearl of South America. The old town is a collection of colourful colonial buildings and squares. The whole town is surrounded with 13 km`s of fortified walls and outside there`s all forts everywhere to protect this once essentially important Spanish town. Its here that all Andean wealth was tranported to Spain. Hence, pirates - English, French and Dutch – were always on the watch to attack the ships or just ranson the whole city. Today its an amazing place where you can wander through the streets and feel the history. These pics are from the fort San Filipe. The biggest defensive fort the Spanish build anywhere in the new world. In the back you can see the modern Cartagena, highrise tourists flats along the beach.

Cali

The capital of Salsa!! I am invited by my friend Thomas, through his company DeUna, to join him a 5 star tour through the city and stay in 5 stars hotels at the World Festival of Salsa Cali 2009. Pretty amazing I can say, a warm reliable shower and a soft sweet bed to sleep in after 9 months…………….. and wow the music and dancing.

So sunday night was the night of the final of the festival, held in the Plaza de Toros, a round open stadium with 15.000 spectators. I can say it was the best salsanight I have ever experienced and the best night of the last 9 months. It was simply AMAZING. The dancing was awesome, the winners in group, made the stadium explode with excitement. And to finish it of there was a concert of Fania legend Cheo Feliciano. I was sitting-standing in the VIP stage in the front but everytime I looked back I saw people crying and singing to his music. Goose bums the whole evening, just, the best… Gracias Cali !!!°!!!! – te amo!

Here´s a piece of Cheo´s concert that night, his classic El Raton(Im somewhere there in the front ..)

 

Ecuador

Disaster struck. In a nightbus through Ecuador my small backpack with laptop, camera, mp3 and my books was stolen. This means I dont have a mean to take pictures nor a device to upload anything. Bad luck! Lets see if I can get another cam at least..

 

Peru – again

Cajamarca

Cajamarca is maybe most famous for a very important event in Peruvean history. It is the place where the last Inca emperor Atahualpa was captured by the Spanish and excecuted, thereby basically finishing the Inca empire and starting centuries of slavery for the indiginous population. The story is this: Atahualpa had in 1532 just won the civil war to his brother and was returning to the capital Cusco with his army when he heard that strangers had landed and were waiting for a meeting with him in Cajamarca. He went there to meet them. He rested in the baños del Inca, 6 km out of town, with his army of 40.000 soldiers. The only 140 Spanish were setting a trap. When the Inca entered the town the next morning with 5.000 unarmed men, the Spanish, under leadership of Pizarro, ambushed them, killing almost all the indians and taking Atahualpa captive.   

The only Inca building left in the city is the house in which Atahualpa was kept prisoner for his last 8 months. During this time he promised the Spaniards to fill the house with gold, because that was what they mostly desired, as high as his streched hand, in return he would be set free. The room was half filled with gold when they decided to finish him anyways. In the kinda museum where the house is, I witnessed the guided tour for school children. I was surprised to hear the guide realistically explain to the children the cruelty of the Spanish (Atahualpa himself was cruel himself too apparently, he had his half brother, who he defeated, killed). In all, the old empire is still very proudly present in todays Peruvean mind it seems. Here my Inca journey literally and symbolically ends.

      

Baños del Inca. In these hotsprings one can take a thermal bath, I took the Imperial bath and the hot swimming pool afterwards. One feels reborn. 

 

One Andean specialty is Guye, guinee pig (cavia in Dutch). It is eaten for thousands of years and I had never tried it before! So here in Caj I had my first Cuye and I can say it´s pretty terrible. Almost no meat nor taste and I spend all night on the toilet.

Outside Cajamarca are some interesting pre Inca archeological sites. Here is an old culture that practised a ´water cultus´, and made a 9 km canal to provide the valley with water. The aquaduct is from 1500 BC.

  

Most houses in the countrysice are made of mud stones. Here they make and dry some.

Peru´s national dish is ceviche, raw fish cooked in lemon juice. This is the tastiest one Ive tried. A combination of raw and fried fish with some sweet potato, yummie!

 

Another night bus. Some are terrible but some are very nice. Here on a chair that goed down to 180 degrees. A bed basically. How many thousands of kilometers have I done by bus now? Its a quiz, the winner gets something, dont know yet what. 

 

Arequipa

Arequipa, the pearl of the south. It’s a very pretty city full of colonial architecture and and an old women convent. Its a town in a town totally where women devoted their lives to Christ, same as in Potosi. Although this one is way bigger and prettier with very cool architecture that changed through the centuries, Unesco World heritage. Only in 1971 the first visitors were allowed to go inside, after 370 years of isolation!

   

 

Bolivia

Bolivia. What an amazing country, full with contrasts. The most striking feat is the difference between the Altiplano, the highlands with all its indigenous culture and coldness, and the Oriente, the lowlands, making up for 2/3 of the country and is hot, fertile, rich, green and way more relaxed and open people. Its almost two different countries and it shows, for many years the lowlands claim autonomy while the highlands want a bigger share of its riches. But the country is not only strikingly beautiful, there’s a also lot of poverty, criminality and widespread corruption (all of which I have experienced several times myself). But Bolivia is pretty mindblowing to the last minute. Here’s my flight out of Rurre to La Paz in a 10 person plane. It flies soo close to and between the mountains.. not a pleasant place to be for people with flight fear (not me, ok a bit). 

Jungle of Alto Madidi

National Parc Madidi is one of the world´s most prestine rainforrest. The parc is full with animals as monkeys, jaguars, tapirs, otters but also stinging ants, trillions of sandflies, blood and sweat searching wasps, moskitoes etc. And the rivers are full with fish. We did a 15 day jungle track with the last 5 days down the Madidi river on rafts which we had constructed ourselves. I went with an American and Israeli dude, the guide and a cook. It was especially the first days very tough, 8 hours a day tracking through jungle and rivers with 25-30 kg of bagage (food). Guess I lost 4-5 kg. We ate rice and fish as breakfast and dinner every day.

    

Water is drunk straight from every river, sometimes the river was very brown and not that tasty. But in case of El Concho – this little waterfall-, the water was cristal clear and delicious.

 

Of course I had brought my fishing rod and caught several lunches. Here with the guide and our lunch, which was usually prepared on a fire. Very fresh indeed.

    

After dinner there´s the washing up. The guide was fishing with just a single fishing line and one night caught this 25 kg beast of a catfish. Way too big to eat so we threw it back in the river. The rivercrossings themselves were kinda dangerous as well partly because of the many manterays, the fish that puts a huge venimous spine in your leg. Luckily nobody got attacked this time..

One dark night we were fishing next to the river when there was a white parrot like bird not too far from us on the shore. The cook took his flashlight and shone it in the eyes of the bird, which seemed hypnothiosed by this and didnt move. He then slowly approached the bird which still seemed captured in the light, in what now seemed like a little opera stage, somehow I felt it was a deadly stage for the bird cause I though he was going to catch it to grill and eat. He got closer and closer, the bird made 2 short flights only to return to the same place. The American and I were watching the scene with choaked breaths, so exciting. Only when he was 50 cm away from the bird and ready to grab it, the bird flew away and escaped. Afterwards I asked the guide what they would have done with this gracious beautiful white parrot, to which he responded in his broken english: ´Por Pishing´ (for fishing)….

  

Everynight we would make our camp somewhere in the jungle or on the riverside. Camp is a piece of plastic over our heads and everyone layed in a moskitoe net, on the hard jungle floor. But one gets used to that after a couple of days.

  

Riverotter. Endangered. The parc is facing more threats, the government is planning a hightway through the parc to connect some cities. Furthermore there´s quite some illegal hunting (by cheap tour companies) and deforesting. It is probable that we are one of the last generations that can enjoy these wonderfull worlds of nature. The American guy saw a jaguar, I didnt. But thats ok, seeing wildlife is a privilage and not a right. I did feel bad when we had to cut some trees to construct our rafts. The raftin itself was an adventure, the river gets pretty rough especially after rain. The rapids with huge rocks and fallen trees make for treacherous moments..

     

After 15 days, this is the way you look. No shower -some washing in the river when the sandflies werent too bad-, no washing of clothes. In this pic I hadn´t touched water for the last 6 days. The first thing we did at return was having a nice cheesburger with coke. What a treat. Oh and a shower of course

 

San Ignacio de Moxos

This little village hosts an anual Amazone festival. Although the real Amazone component was a bit dissapointing to me the bull chasing was spectacular! The release these bulls into the arena with one person riding it. There´s no killing involved, just running. And some guys, every single one of them is drunk beyond believe, really got the horns! We saw a few of them getting spearced and carried of to the hospital. Local tv did a little interview with this weird gringo.. (not entirely sober himself.. )  The second day there was supposed to be poll climbing day, some 15 m high, but unfortunately they couldnt because of the rain.

 

Cochabamba

Contrary to popular believe, the highest Jesus statue in the world is not Rio but Cochabamba, with 34 meters altitude. Near Cochabamba is a nice lake where fish is the name of the game.

Salares de Uyuni

Just outside Uyuni is the ´train cementary´, hundreds of old rusting train mobiles just stand there in the desert. They were used in the mineral transport in the 20-30´s but as minerals declined these carrages became useless – that is except for a cool strawl around.

  

We, still with Amanda and Anthony, had a little trip to another planet. Its called Uyuni. The largest salt flats in the world, leftover of a once huge salt lake at an altitude of 3650 meters, a white world. In the middle there´s a cactus island, dont ask me what it´s doing there, but cool it is! We did the 3 day tour and had 4 other people in our jeep. The slat flats are so perfectly white and ´flat´ that you can play with persfective. Some of the cactusses are 10 meter high and 1300 yrs old…

     

   

We stayed a night in a salt hotel on the edge of the flats. It was pretty cold but nothing compared to the next night. The next day we continued through otherworldly landscapes, past vulcanos, flamengos, llamas, red and green lakes, slowly ascending to 4300 meters altitude where we would have a verrry cold lunch and spend the night at -25C!!!! Protected only by 4 thin walls it was the coldest Ive ever felt. In the morning one can see an amazing Venus rise though….

          

Early in the morning we drove at 5000 meter altitude past geysers and hotsprings, how cold… hands freeze instantly. More comfy were the hot springs somewhat later where we went in half. Well past the green lake is the Chilean border, the vulcano in the background was the place of a sacret Inca burial. And then through Dali´s valley (because of the weird rock formations) and past an 300 yrs old church back to Uyuni.

       

Potosí

Impressive. That’s Potosí. The whole town was created around one thing only: the huge mountain that looms over the valley. The Spanish found silver here in the 16th, and a lot. They said that the Spanish got enough silver from this mountain to construct a silver bridge to Spain and still had silver left to carry across it, an est 45.000 tons. It was the main source of income for the Spanish imperial crown, at a huge cost: some estimates count that through the centuries some 8 million people were worked to death in these mines…. The wealth build the colonial town which is now Unesco world heritage. For me it’s an amazing sight, this mountain alone has changed the course of European history. It’s the reason why Spain could fight its European wars in the 16th and 17th century. Its the reason why Southern Holland is Catholic, its the reason why we Dutch still sing a famous victory song about a naval heroe who conquered this ‘silver fleet’, Piet Hein. These days the mine is almost silver empty but mining goes on. Approximately 4000 men work every day deep in the mountain under the most horrific circumstances. And you can take an organised tour to meet them down there.. you bring presents for the miners (dynamite, softdrinks, coca) and afterwards you can make some dynamite yourself!!!! And then set them off, the explosion at 50 meters distance is very loud. JAJA fun!!! Oh and try one of the citrus drinks on the street.. ‘yummie’, another very interesting to visit is the age old Catholic women Convent where girls at age 15 went in to serve God and never got out or got to see another human being…

     

First you go to the miners market where you buy presents for the miners and some for yourself.. (I went with US Amanda and Ozzie Anthony btw)

  

The chewing of the coca leaf helps stand the altitude, it is restricted to experts only… not me!!!!

  

Then you go to to a refinery where you can witness the process to extract the minerals from stone, the guide smears some silver on your face.

  

Then you enter the beast. Soon it gets very very dark and very hot, the poisonous fumes take your breath away, therefor you wear a scarf in front of your mouth. You crawl through tiny passages and reach here and there an individual worker. They wotk 12 hours a day with beat hands and dynamite. We came across a 58 yr old man who workes there since ago 14.. (not the photo)

     

And after a few hours in the mines, fresh air and preparing the dynamite!!!! hehehe. The fuse takes 3 minutes to explode, so you pass around the ignited dynamite like a bottle, before the guide took it some 50 meters away where it exploded with a surprisingly hard bang (see film Travel Continued prt 2).

     

 Anthony has written a pretty cool account of this trip as well, read here.

Sucre

This all white colonial town is a real surprise – how chilled out an pretty, totally different that La Paz. Climate is way nicer too.. Sucre used to be the political capital (now La Paz) and remains the juridical capital. 

  

La Paz

Street life

Well here{s some pictures from the sundaymarket at El Alto, the high part of La Paz. The chicken with (many) potatoes is being served with all bare hands.. but it was the most tender one I ate  in whole south america I believe! The potatoes themselves make a spectacular sight, there{s so many of them in all shapes and colours. Yummie. Fruit juices are another Bolivian favorite and I generally have one a day – delicioso!

  

 

Tiwanaku

72 km out of La Paz is one of the most important pre Inca archeological sites of Bolivia, Tiwanaku. The ‘Sun gate’ is a archeological icon. The site, once a spiritual centre, is under restoration (Bolivian style: men, women, children) and it remains an impressive place with it’s statues and sunken temples; so high in the mountains, so obsolete. The leftover culture was incorporated by the expanding Inca empire halfway the 15 century.

  

Valle de la Luna

Half an hour outside La Paz is Bolivia’s own Moon Valley. Although it doesn’t come close to Argentina’s spectacular Moon Valley (but what does compared to that amazing country?) – what is interesting here is that you can really walk about everywhere through this valley due to lack of status and parc security (due to lacking financial resources, awareness?). Though this is a lot of fun for now it means that the parc gets pretty damaged, the same was to be seen at the ruins of Isla del Sol. I hope the Bolivian authorities can undertake serious preservation programs soon to ensure that these magical places remain intact for future generations.

   

One of the most spectacular cities for sure, Bolivia’s capital. Build partially on a high plane (3800 m) and the majority in a dramatic canyon overlooked by giant white-capped mountains..

We went to a wrestling show night, men and women were wrestling, the girls were super tough! They must have experienced some serious pain. The most funny moment though was a moment when one of the girls was climbing up the corner ring but trickled over her own skirt thereby falling from 1 m straight on her face – so painful!!.. I was laughing so hard jajaja… (its not the picture). The fights were even taken to the tribunes.. what a fun night!

 

 

Lago Titicaca continued..

Magic…. just magic is Lago Titicaca. The peacefulness, the beauty and history. There’s many islands on the lake but the most famous is Isla del Sol. According to Inca legend the famous birthplace of the Inca empire. It’s here that the first Inca recieved the mission to create the new empire and order in the world. On the island there’s still very nice Inca architecture as the temple of the sun.  

       

Yes this was my hotelroom. Not bad the view..

 

 

Peru

Lago Titicaca (Peru)

Arriving at this amazing place Lago Titicaca. At 3810 meters altitude the highest navigable lake in the world. Famous for a lot of beautiful stuff like: the floating islands & delicious trout… The floating straw islands are very interesting. People lived there to escape wartribes from land. The islands are aprox 2 meters thick and have to be ‘fed’ from above to keep the whole island fresh. The photo with girl wasnt my idea but that of the islanders and as u can see if one turns the camera from the island scene one sees a lot, lot of tourists boats. Its heavily touristed.. to an uncomfortable feeling and all.. 

   

This is an interesting image I saw all along the route from Cusco to Titicaca. On every free wall there’s paintings of the famous Inca emperor Pachacuti, smiling. Don’t exactly know the exact meaning of this but a smiling friendly looking ruler all over the countryside seems to me as a positive sign that people still admire the old Inca empire.

 

 

From Valle Leyki it was a 22 hr bus ride to Arica, Chile’s most northern city. A surfers mecca! Nice tubes were rolling onto the shore but I didn’t have time to paddle out (ok ok I wouldn’t have in those big waves anyways..). From Arica one take a taxi across the border to Tacna. Here I learnt that the Andean Mountains are on fire with indigenous protests against the government. The government was trying the sell the rights of the ancient rainforest to foreign companies, thereby of course crushing indigenous rights. What a pleasure to hear that the indigenous finally don’t put up with that s# anymore! What is pretty terrible is that a lot of casualties have taken place in the conflict.. Anyways, all roads to Cusco and the Andes are blocked by protesters but a buscompany knew a small detour through the mountains. End of story is that it took 48 hrs from the border to get to Cusco in a shitty bus (2 nights), but for me it’s def worth it if they get their rights. 

Cusco

The old capital of the imperial Inca empire, the largest (from Colombia to Chile) and most efficient empire of the old world where, it is said, no citizen had hunger or lived in poverty. All that changed of course with the conquest of the empire by the spanish who first killed the ruling Inca emperor and basically put all citizen into slavery. I had been to Cusco 6,5 yrs ago, and then visited Macchu Picchu. This time I’m here to see the biggest old ceremony of the sun, the Inti Raymi. The most important event in Inca society whereby the emperor connects with the sun and opens the new year on 21 june, here 24 june. This is an important date in all ancient societies. In the 40′s some Cusco intellectuals came up with the plan to reenact the old ceremonies and today it’s a great expression of live Andean culture. I was so happily amazed to see that Andean, and old Inca, culture is so alive! Cusco really transforms these days into the old imperial city with dances, indigenous people from all over the Andes, festivities, big parades and as the highlight on the 24th the big procession with the Inca emperor (acted). Here’s some pics of that day whereby the central square first fills up with soldiers of the imperial army, followed by the ‘virgins of the sun’, the ‘mummies’ of the deceased emperors and finally, guided by pan-flute music, the Inca emperor himself enters town: a thrilling moment..

   

After the ceremony in the center of the town, the whole ‘party’ ascended to the old fortress Sacsayhuaman high above the city. Here the emperor made contact with the sun and a llama was ‘sacrificed’. Btw the rainbow flag is the imperial Inca flag. Yeah the 24th of june there’s only one place to be in this beautiful world.

  

Years ago I wrote a lot about my trip to Cusco so this time I keep it short. The most important site in the city was the Sun Temple, Coricancha. It was the religious centre of the empire. The Spanish destroyed it for the most part (stripped it of it’s gold and silver, melted it, and which today can be seen as Jesus etc in the cathedrals of Sevilla and Madrid) and build a Christian monastery on top of it as symbol of rule. Some parts of Coricancha remain (in black stones) and it’s an amazing building.. the Inca’s were famous for their architecture, seen for example in Hatunrumiyoc, the 12 sided stone. It’s part of a royal palace and the most famous stone in Cusco, it’s even featured on the local Cusco beer bottle.

  

Many years ago I read the book ‘The Secret of the Incas’,an amazing theory that the Inca empire was a race against time to organize the world before it would fall down into chaos. If found one of the intriguing documentaries that the writer made on youtube for anyone interested, it’s in 4 parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1GKcwiQ3Oo&feature=related

 

Valle Leyki

Some 7 hrs busride north of Santiago is the Valley Leyki. Here’s where the famous drink Pisco comes from. It’s an amazing valley with the valley floor full with yellow/red grape fields, the hills full of orange trees and on the mountaintops sky observatories. Unfortunately I couldn’t visit an observatory cause it was clouded. I did get to go to a famous Pisco producer and unfortunately I was the only tourist on the tour with a very lonely drink afterwards..;) Furthermore the valley attracts a lot of alternative lifestyles, so if you want to chill out.. go there! And rent a bike and bike through the mountains or take a horseride. What struck me the most about the valley was the perfect balance between nature and human activity. Chile is an amazing beautiful country with a lot of hidden beauties. 

    

 

Easy days in Santiago

The last two weeks I’ve been living easy in Santiago. Winter’s coming soon and it gets colder and colder, snow is soon to arrive in the mountains above the city, and thereby opening the ski season. Sofia invited me to a winetour around Santiago. We went to two famous wineries, Unduragga and Concha y Toro, biggest in Chile, producer of the famous ‘Casillero de Diablo’). It’s waay better than the tour in Mendoza. More wines to try – at 11.00-, more info and everyone gets to keep the glasses as gifts. In between wineries we had a great Chilean lunch (more wine) at the Vaca Echa with the waiter singing as well. A Brilliant day..

      

An amazing museum in Santiago is Museo de Artes Pre Colombino, pre Columbian Arts. Funny thing always with all these amazing colour- and shapefull statues ed that the most striking object for me was this little sitting Mexican image.

But all good? No, I have been sick a few times over the last weeks. Went to the hospital to have some checks, nothing serious but in this 24-hrs news and look-at-me-world of course I would disappoint the world and myself if I hadn’t taken a picture of it.

Santiago. It’s a great place. BUT as we know it lies in a Valley and the smog is pretty terrible… Chile is doing very well in the worldcup qualifying, the night of the match I was invited for a parrilla. Absolutely cool but as far as parrilla’s go, Argentinians are unsurpassed…