The World Turned Upside Down

After a three day tour of Southwest Bolivia, your mind is awash with images. With every curve around a mountain or dip into a canyon, the landscape seems to change completely. We went from the stunning salt flats which offered surreal mirror images of the sky, to bleak, lifeless desert moonscapes and finally to vibrant blue and green salt lagoon, all in one day.

Our group consisted of me, David, who I had met at the refuge, Tirini from Spain, a New Zealand* couple and our quiet guide/driver Raolo. We had also begun with a couple from Venezuala, but we lost them after the truck broke down the second time. Ah, the truck. It was a four-wheel drive Toyota that had apparantly seen better days. It broke down around 12 times during our trip, often leaving us stranded in very remote, desolate areas. There was apparantly something wrong with the fanbelt, but fear not! Raolo was able to cut pieces of the rubber that secured our luggage to the roof and use it to fix the fanbelt. I won´t get into the techie mechanical details but I´m pretty sure I saw bubblegum being used at one point. Fortunately, the scenery was amazing so we didn´t mind waiting while Raolo worked his magic. There was also a strong communal aspect to the truck tours, so often during our pitstops a fellow driver would stop, look under the hood and offer his bubblegum.

After three days of jumping around boulders, skipping stones on salt lagoons, prancing around salt flats and warming up by geysers, we were dropped off at the border of Chile, bus ticket in hand. Next stop, San Pedro de Atacoma.

*One useful piece of information gleaned from this trip: Kiwis will put ketchup on ANYTHING.

Salt Flats

Flamingo Reserve
High Plains Desert

Our Truck Broken Down, AgainValle de los PiedrasSalt Lagoons Early Morning Gysers

Inti Wara Yassi

I don´t think Inti Wara Yassi could exist in any other country. My partner Mikel had a saying, "Bolivia: Todo es posible, nada es seguro". (Bolivia: Anything is possible, nothing is safe.) At times, I felt like I was living in a John Irving novel: we had an ocelot living in one of the hostal rooms because a landslide destroyed her cage; I danced with a Spectacled Bear; my housemate had a cute, green inchworm-looking bug pop out of his hand, the monkeys teased my 300 pound cat by peeing on him from the trees; I was quasi-attacked my a large spider monkey baring fangs while on dawn patrol of the "Big Bad Monkey Watch"; and the list goes on...

There was a fun cast of characters at the refuge and we spent our evenings drinking beer or macoyoa juice at the cafe or at a local restuarant, destressing and swapping animal stories. We had many a fun night, including trading gifts of Christmas Eve, kisses on New Year´s Eve and money on poker nights.

IWY is always in need of volunteers so if you are thinking of heading to South America, consider spending a month or so at the refuge. For me, it was one of the most intense, amazing and unforgettable experiences I have ever had. Where else can you spend nine hours a day bonding with a Puma in the jungle?