Finally, some real adventures

Bolivia certainly is a country of many extremes - some of them good and some of them bad, but over the past couple of weeks I had the privilege of checking out two of their better extremes - the jungle territory of Rurrenabaque/Beni and the vast deserts near Uyuni. It amazes me that one 45 minute plane ride from La Paz and you are in the Jungle - 30 degree temperatures, lush trees, even the people seem to be entirely different - and then again another 45 minute plane ride (or 12 hour bus ride which is the way that we traveled) and you are 4000 metres above sea level in the Salar de Uyuni.

Both trips were amazing and had their own highlights and adventures. Floating down the river beni in a motorized canoe, surrounded by thousands of alligators and cayman definitely was one of the more exciting and scarier things I've done since being here. Floating down the river at night in a motorized canoe looking for alligators was probably one of the stupider things. For me, it was a trip of firsts - my first time really in the jungle, my first time riding a motor bike, first time seeing alligators so close up in their natural habitat, first time swimming with dolphins (pink river dolphins) and first time catching a piranha - they tell you after you go swimming that there are piranhas!!! All in all it was an amazing trip. We spent the night at a camp like hostal right on the shore of the river and even had our own resident alligator that seemed to be watching over the site. Below are a couple of photos that sum up the experience. I highly recommend anyone that is in Bolivia go to Rurrenabaque and take one of the Pampas tours as it was money well spent and an experience I won't soon forget.

Another incredible experience was this past weekend which I spent with 4 other volunteers in the Salar de Uyuni. Uyuni itself is a pretty desolate town - not too much happening, it has a plaza, a train station a few restaurants and hotels and that is about it. To our surprise when we arrived NOTHING was open so we spent about an hour or so loitering outside in the cold. The bus ride there was a bit of a mission in itself - the last 4 hours can be compared to riding a horse - literally the entire bus shakes from the bumps and rocks. Upon arriving in Uyuni we met up with our tour company and set off for a three day trek around the salt flats, deserts, volcanoes etc. To our amazement our ride was a Lexus 4X4 - not exactly something that you would expect to see in Bolivia. We started off at the train cemetery where the old cold trains have been left to die (Chile cut off their supply about 30 years ago and so they had to replace the trains with a newer technology), following that we made our way to the salar which to say the least was spectacular. It looks like ice, but it's entirely made of salt and goes on for miles and miles. Due to it's flatness it's the perfect location to take some incredible and deceiving photos and it's pretty hilarious to watch hundreds of tourists try to stage ridiculous photos of themselves - stepping on one another, crushing a banana etc. The first night was stayed in a salt hotel - which is a hotel entirely made of salt - the beds, the tables, the chairs even the floors are salt based. From there we headed out into the true Bolivian desert, drove for miles and miles and at times we would be the only ones around. Checked out several volcanoes, flamingos, thermal baths, strange rock formations and of course a handful of Llamas and even made far enough south to be a volcano away from the border to Chile. The ride back to La Paz is a bit of a long one - 7 hours in a 4x4 followed by another 12 hour bus ride but all in all definitely worth trek!

Work wise, things are going well. I have my first client meeting scheduled with a quinoa company and my next phase involves providing marketing assistance - mainly pertaining to export strategies and opportunities for a quinoa company and one of the country's largest chocolate companies. Fingers crossed that the meetings go well as they'll be entirely in Spanish :)

Sorry this is a week late

Better late than never. I wrote this a week ago, but somehow failed to post it. I'll post another update soon with details of my amazonian adventure.......

Hola amigos,
My apologies for taking so long to make a post, but as most of you probably know, I have been feeling less than stellar for the past two weeks. After spending the majority of last week in bed, not one, not two, but three trips to the doctor, a week long diet of "blanco y blando" and multiple medications, I am happy to report that I am finally feeling better.

Thankfully before getting sick I did have the chance to go and see a couple of really interesting shows in La Paz. The first of which was ABBA, performed by a Bolivian Choral Group. Close to a 100 Bolivians singing ABBA in 4 part harmony. Needless to say it was quite amusing. Below is a video link that pretty much sums up the entire concert. The accents made the show. After watching Bolivians interpret Swedish music, some of the other volunteers and I made our way to see Bolivians perform what they do best - traditional folk music. We visited a hidden spot called "peurto del luna" and were pleased to discover that we were the only gringos in the place. The difference was astounding! We along with our fellow Bolivian friends (old and new - we were quite the hit with the locals) enjoyed the music, "dancing" (not sure you can call it dancing but we tried) and even had the chance to try on the traditional ponchos.

The following day I headed to Bolivian Oktoberfest with my host sister, her friends: Ximena, Ronnie, Sebastian and fellow Canadian Sam. Oktoberfest was held close to my house in a neighborhood called Achumani. I've been told that after WWII there was a large influx of former German Nazis that moved to various countries in Latin America, including, Bolivia. Achumani is the German town of La Paz and Oktoberfest was held at the impressive Club Alemania. The club seems to have everything - indoor swimming pool, outdoor pool, dance hall etc - and part of the reason why the Nazis were welcomed was because they brought with them a ton of money. It was interesting to see women carrying designer handbags, kids in designer clothes and even some families with their indigenous helpers there to look after the kids. Kind of shocking given that Bolivia is the poorest county in South America.

This past week as I mentioned included little excitement as I was sick for most of it. I returned to work on Thursday and am currently attempting to build and access database in Spanish - quite the undertaking because my Spanish is less than stellar and I haven't designed an Access program since a group project in 2nd year University where I more than likely let a computer superstar do most of the work. Once completed it will allow Pro-Rural to easily access information on importers, brokers, exporters, trade fairs etc by product (i.e. coffee, quinoa, chestnuts) and by territory (europe, north america etc). It's been interesting to learn about the export/import process of organic and fair traded products and great to see the number of online tools that are available for SMEs (small and medium size enterprises) in developing nations. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of this week, after which I can start providing more client tailored marketing assistance for the companies that Pro-Rural works with.

This weekend is a long weekend in Bolivia, thanks to All Saints Day also know as Day of The Dead. I, along with 4 others, will be heading by bus to Uyuni for a 3 day tour of the Salt Flats. I'll be sure to write another post, hopefully with some incredible photos, once I'm back.

Talk soon!

Joanna