Muchisimas gracias a todos!

The last few weeks of volunteering in Bolivia flew by. I don't think I had accepted the fact that I would have to leave the beautiful green house set deep in the Valley of the Moon! Our schedule was packed full of activities and events, all of which were very special and a perfect conclusion to the last 3 months.

My English students performing a tour of the zoo in English was a great success and was the culmination of many weeks of hard work. It showed me the importance of the relationships I had formed, in order to link different community projects, to support community development and ecotourism. We organised a graduation ceremony and presented all student s with certificates to celebrate their achievements. After a rendition of "Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles and some delicious food brought along by the students, Rolando Mendoza made a lovely speech, thanking us for our work. Our student Daniel, also said some beautiful words of thanks to us, in English, on behalf of all of the other students which was very moving.

Graduation day!

To celebrate the work of Up Close Bolivia over the past year, the Mendozas hosted a community event at their house which many members of the community attended. It was heart warming to see the house filled with so many new friends  and familiar faces, all of whom we had worked closely alongside, formed friendships and shared experiences with during our time working for Up Close Bolivia. It really highlighted the inclusive nature of the work of Up Close Bolivia in the community, the meaning of "reciprocidad" (reciprocity) and it felt like we were one huge family. I was really touched by the heartfelt goodbyes and thoughtful gifts from my English students and felt extremely sad to be leaving!

Students from the English Tourism classes

Presenting certificates to community members

A highlight in the calendar for the children's centre is Christmas day which we were lucky enough to be part of. Despite the torrential rain, excitement was running high for everyone! The day involved certificates being presented to the children and Tias for all of their hard work, traditional dances being performed by Up Close volunteers and Tias, a traditional Apthapi (picnic lunch) prepared by all of the children's families and the Tias, and a special visit from Papa Noel (Santa Claus!).

The Tias in traditional dress

Some of the children performing a song

Papa Noel giving out presents!

We finished off the day packed into one of the children's classrooms, sharing a delicious communal meal which we devoured with our fingers, prepared by the Tias for le Club de Madres (Mother's club). In traditional Bolivian birthday style, Emma threw one of the large, decadent cream-covered cakes in to Rolando's face causing much amusement! We all received badges and gifts from the family accompanied by some lovely words of thanks.

I truly fell in love with the scenery, traditions, colour, vibrancy and values of Bolivia and all of the people I met. I have so many memories and friends that will stay in my heart forever. I would like to thank International Service and all of the people who supported me in my fundraising, in order to make taking part in the International Citizen Service scheme possible. Also a huge thanks to Up Close Bolivia and the community of Mallasa for this incredible experience and to Choice Healthcare Solutions for supporting me. For now it's "Hasta luego Bolivia" (see you later)...until the next time!

Salar de Uyuni: Surreal, otherworldly beauty

Recently I had the opportunity to take a tour of the southern Altiplano, a high plateau stretching 800km to the Chilean and Argentine borders, including the Salar de Uyuni, the world´s biggest salt lake. It was an incredible trip, taking us through the most extreme and surreal of landscapes. It highlighted the huge diversity of the landscapes of Bolivia. Most impressively, the landscapes we were driving through changed significantly every hour, if not more! We hired a guide, Javier, and a jeep with the agency “Landscape Ecological” and he drove 6 of us for hundreds and hundreds of miles, over the 3 day trip.

The salt flats were only the start of the trip, a dazzling expanse of white, perfectly flat plains, stretching endlessly as far as the eye could see. 

The salt surface has such an intense whiteness it almost appears to be ice. The Salar de Uyuni was once the deepest part of a huge lake, lago Tauca, until 12 000 years ago. The Salar was formed when the lake waters evaporated, leaving behind salt deposits which had leached into the lake from the surrounding mountains. Apparently, in places, the salt extends to depths of up to 120m! Coming upon an island filled with giant cacti was a bizarre sight to see in the middle of this expanse of bright white salt.   

The first night we stayed in a hotel made from salt - everything including the beds, tables and chairs, to the wall decorations and light shades were salt! Javier served us up delicious cooked lunches and dinners throughout the trip, including a bottle of wine of the second night!

Over the next 2 days we drove for hours and hours, through vast high-altitude desert plains, home to llamas and vicunas surrounded by towering snowcapped volcanic mountain peaks, through red mars-like deserts, over mountain passes, past Bolivia´s only active volcano (Ollague) and by brightly coloured, glacial salt lakes (yellow, blue, emerald green and even red waters stained by microorganisms or mineral deposits) filled with flamingos. 

On the second night we stayed in a hostel inside the entrance of a huge national park, La Reserva de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, spanning 7147 square kilometres, ranging between 4000m and 6000m in altitude. We woke at 4.30am ready to drive away into the sunrise. The red sun rays rising over the mountains cast the most unearthly red light over the summits of all the mountains and slowly bathed the whole plain in a warm glow, breaking through the morning mist.

We drove on through moonscapes filled with geysers, their steam glowing through the bright morning sunlight at 5000m altitude. The smell was intensely sulphurous but getting up close to the jets of hot air shooting up through the ground was exhilarating! Despite the hot air being exhaled dramatically from the earth, we were at some 5000m altitude and the fresh morning air was freezing enough that my toes were numb after wandering round the geysers for half an hour!

We would never have believed it if someone had told us that some 20 minutes later we would be shedding off all of our layers in order to jump in to some thermal springs, still at around 5000m altitude, and only at 7.30am!! An incredible November swim, the warmest of the year and definitely the most breath-taking!

Tour of Mallasa zoo in English: Supporting community based ecotourism

On Monday 3^rd December at 3pm, 7 nervous Bolivian tour guides from the English tourism class and a group of English tourists (including other Up Close volunteers and Emma Mendoza´s parents, all the way from England – thank you everyone!) gathered in front of Mallasa zoo for the much anticipated tour of Mallasa zoo. All in all, it was a great success!

Up Close Bolivia first started English classes in 2011, as a way to open up new opportunities in the local tourist sector which attracts many visitors from across the world to visit the natural beauty of the Valley of the Moon and parks of Mallasa. Through teaching English classes I have been helping strengthen local community based ecotourism, as well as supporting family enterprises and local institutions, such as the zoo in Mallasa.

The tour guides (my English students) had copies of the animal profiles in English that they had worked hard to translate in the weeks leading up to the tour. Each pair of guides was allocated a few English tourists to lead around the zoo on a tour, to include summaries in English about the animals along the way.

Tour guides Marcelo and Rossi describing the Doves

Marcelo introducing the Andean fox to his tourists

Tour guide Rossi describing the Andean Fox

 

I was very proud to see the tour guides stepping right in to the roles, leading their tourists confidently around the zoo (in the hot December sunshine!) and answering questions in English along the way. They presented each animal brilliantly, reading out all of the relevant information clearly and confidently in English to their tourists. 

It must have been a daunting experience to be faced with a group of strangers to present information to in English, all of whom were native English speakers, so I think that all of the students did very well and should be proud of themselves! 

Tour guides, tourists and English teachers in the zoo

In front of the lion enclosure with tour guides Rossi, Marcelo and their tourists

Health in Bolivia: The double edged sword

Living and working in Bolivia has certainly affected my health in ways that I wouldn’t have imagined. I was worried, as an asthma-sufferer that I would have problems living at over 3000m altitude but I have not experienced the slightest wheeze since I arrived! After 2 and a half months I can still feel the oxygen lacking in the atmosphere on my lungs if I walk up a steep incline or do any exercise but the ability of the body to adjust to life at high altitudes is pretty amazing.

On the topic of food and digestion, I am surprised how much my digestion was first affected by the altitude – digesting a big meal took my body so much longer!

I am sure that all visitors to South America can claim to at least one stomach upset or bout of diarrhoea. This is usually caused by contaminated food or water and I am always careful to avoid street food, salads and to drink boiled or bottled water. Despite these precautions, I somehow managed to contract a particularly resistant strain of Salmonella last week, lucky me!

Salmonella (a common cause of food poisoning) does not normally cause serious illness. I had had some tests done the week before due to constant stomach ache and had been sent away with loperamide (to stop diarrhoea) and rehydration salts, awaiting one final test result. We had plans to leave early for the weekend to visit the tropical cloud forests, North of La Paz. Feeling absolutely fine I jumped on a bus to brave the white knuckle ride down through the clouds...

...24 hours later, after a long, steep (very beautiful!) hike in the humid cloud forests, in the heat of the sun, without enough water, I was no longer feeling fine... In fact I’d never felt worse.

By the time I returned to La Paz on Sunday night I was suffering with high fever, nausea and crippling stomach pains. My feverish state continued all day on Monday until my very concerned team leader suggested a visit to the clinic; this couldn’t have been better timing. I couldn’t think straight, and my brain was struggling to comprehend the Spanish being spoken by the nurses and doctors. All I know is that everyone repeated “caliente, caliente” (meaning hot in Spanish) a lot, the lights were too bright, I was whisked up in to a hospital room in a wheelchair and the next thing I know, I’m being pumped full of drugs via a drip in my arm!

The next few days are a feverish blur in my memory, of white sheets and walls, hallucinogenic dreams, syringes full of clear liquid and the concerned faces of doctors and nurses. It turned out that the final test result of last week that I had been waiting for, was positive for Salmonella… This strain of salmonella was resistant to the first antibiotics I’d been started on. So after changing the type of antibiotic, the fever finally started to subside on Wednesday.

Despite this horrible ordeal, I was very well looked after in the hospital by multiple doctors and nurses around the clock. I had a big room with everything I could need. I also had lots of lovely visitors including my team leaders, fellow volunteers, even my Spanish teacher and colleagues from the zoo :). So, all things considered, my Bolivian hospital experience was a good one! I was sent away with happy smiles from the nurses (probably glad to see the back of me!), definitely a lot lighter (I couldn´t eat for 4 days) with a stack of medications to nurture my suffering organs, and of course, a big medical bill (thankfully covered by my health insurance!).