Meeting the real Tarzan.

The week after Uyuni was an interesting one. I endured my lack of sleep and went to the new hospital, which is a Catholic hospital in El Alto, about thirty minutes from the city. There were statues and painting everywhere of religious symbols, and all the nurses wore the classic white nurses... hats? we could call them. Internal medicine the first day, which was slow, and rounds the second day. Both boring. The third day I skipped to go to the doctor to find out I had a parasite (hence my never-ending illness) and of course missed the best day: 2 C-sections. No big deal, made up for it by watching a live birth this week.

Thursday began our journey of a lifetime. At 3:30 am Thursday morning we took taxis to the airport in La Paz for our flight to the jungle. Let me preface this by saying that we had heard the horror stories but still wanted the experience; but Rurrenebaque has two airports. One is a grass landing, so planes will crash if there is an ounce of water on the ground. We actually saw this 'airport' and it literally looks like someone's back yard. The other is a small airport with, amazingly, a concrete runway, but again if it rains the planes can't land because the altitude is so different here (15000 feet) that the planes take longer to stop? I don't understand the logistics since we never learned anything so applicable in physics (of course, much more important are the pulley systems we studied for a whole year), but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

So at the airport at 4, the counter hadn't even OPENED yet we were so early. We chilled on the marble floor and waited for either the counter or the burger king to open; we didn't really care which opened first. Of course Bolivian time is a different concept, so when both places said they'd open at 5, we were just thankful they opened by 5:45. We checked in for our flight and headed around the corner, brisked through the security checkpoint (or lack thereof) and sat down at the terminal. We met two guys from Holland and a couple from Britain and two Australians, all on our 6 am flight. So at 6 they say it's delayed, eh, no biggie, but they don't give us an expected time. Again we're learning here, so we think this is Bolivian protocol.

At ELEVEN, after arguing with the ladies at the desk every hour on the hour, they tell us it's raining in the Amazon rain forest... surprise. So half the group left and went to the travel agency to fight a bit more and I stayed with Matt and Danny and had lunch and waited for them to tell us for sure that everything was canceled. After raising our hopes with 70% taking off and 30% canceled statistics, all the flights to the jungle got canceled, and we were left with a predicament.

I decided to join 7 others, in a 7 person Jeep (you do the math), on our 12 hour ride to the jungle. They never told us we were going to be riding on the road of absolute death. If you could imagine a serpent, winding at every corner, no guard rails, and a drop-off cliff at a height of where we were literally riding through clouds (see picture) you can imagine why none of us were able to sleep. I probably have never feared for my life so much. Especially when I was in the middle seat (with four people) looking out over the edge.

At 3 am Friday (24 hours later) we arrived. Only after almost flipping our Jeep. At around 1 am we were driving along the rockiest, muddiest road (Bolivia needs to learn about pavement) we came across a stuck tractor. Of course we had to go around it, so while trying to off-road, our jeep starts flipping. All 8 of us held on to the Oh-S*** handles on the side of the car we were on (the side that was up) and weighed it down. But every time we tried to move the car it almost flipped. I'm talking land rover commercials, 70 degree angle, defying gravity stuff. Laura kindly told us that if she had to flip with any group of people, she'd like it to be us. I have no idea how we made it out alive but we were prepared... windows open on the side we thought wouldn't be stuck in mud and shoes on. That night we stayed in a precious little hostel and woke up four hours later to get ready for our big day.

It was raining.

We were so excited about our 'supposed to be' 85 degrees weather in the jungle that we failed to realize that when it rains it gets cold. Really really cold. 3 hours in a little wooden boat with rain and wind was no fun. Thank goodness I bought a rain jacket last year. We saw a ton of animals Friday with our awesome guide Yuri, and wound up staying at a little 'summer camp' cabin. Well, summer camp prepared for Malaria. The mosquito nets we had to tuck under our 'mattresses' were not at all like the little princess nets I used to want over my bed. Before going to bed that night, we went alligator hunting in the pitch black. Yuri, being awesome as he is, pulled one right out of the water and we all got to see. Definitely worth it. We made a fire with like eight 50 yr old German travelers and 2 local girls and drank wine and got some much needed, although restless, sleep.

Saturday we woke up and went piranha fishing after breakfast with little wooden sticks, strings, hooks, and raw meat. MMM. I caught two, my proudest moment yet in life, and we had them for lunch. Oh and we swam with pink dolphins in the Beni River. After lunch we did the ride back, much nicer without the rain, and then the car ride back to the town of Rurre. Krista (4'11'', petite, blonde) cursed out the travel agent in La Paz in her perfect Spanish for not reserving us a hostel. We celebrated John's 23rd birthday (old man) at all of the typical tourist places... Oh to be American.

At 4 am we were lucky enough to be woken by a rooster which decided to extend our natural alarm clock until 7, when we actually had to get up. Nice of him. We took a ferry across the Amazon river to the depths of the Amazon, with our guide Darwin. Oh Darwin. I could write an entire book about him. His most distinguishing feature: his feet. Why? He didn't wear shoes, THE ENTIRE WEEKEND. I finally asked him if he's ever worn shoes, and he replied with 'they're too loud'. I bet he runs around the jungle with a loincloth in his free time.

We got to the hostel they had prepared for us, but of course the heavenly scene of the hammocks and beds and toilets just didn't do it for us, because we agreed to go camping with Darwin for the night. How many times can you camp in the Amazon? We hiked for 5 hours, seeing lots of insects and birds, and some wild pigs that Darwin heard from probably a mile away. Darwin scaled an entire tree, to the top, to get us cacao fruit (what they make chocolate out of). He also ate termites from a tree during one of our picture breaks because he says they're nutritious. This guy could survive anything with his sweatpants, lack of shoes, and machete.

We learned everything there is to know about natural medicine/forest medicine because we told Darwin we were medical students; so basically we wound up looking at lots of branches and trees. It was kind of cool though, one time we tried anesthesia that comes with chewing a branch, and my mouth was numb for 10 minutes. We went on a night hike that night and then attempted to sleep... fail.

The next morning we got up at 5 to 'watch the forest wake up' with Darwin. Everything was still asleep, as I wished I was. Around 6, after sadly not seeing the jaguar that we heard nearby, Darwin told us to stay put while he searched for something. Next thing we know he's found a vine and is swinging upside down over our heads screaming. Now I know what he does in his free time. Of course we all had to have a turn, or 5, so we swang for about an hour and then cooked breakfast. Another afternoon hike to a beautiful drop-off spot led us to Darwin's next plan. He painted our faces and gave us headbands and made us into 'rainforest princesses'... well I guess John wasn't technically a princess. Two hours later we were making a raft out of Balsa wood to float back on; 8 logs of wood and about 25 strips of thin wood (used as rope) later and we were floating for an hour and a half, with some swimming in the Amazon breaks. We even survived the mini rapids.

So obviously it was a completely boring weekend and I've never had a worse time in my life. The trip back was completely uneventful, traveling from 7 pm to 7 am and sleeping about 20 minutes. Back to the hospital and real life this week. Will definitely miss Darwin/Tarzan and his quirkiness.

200th and Salar

Last Thursday, the 16th, Bolivia celebrated it's 200th anniversary of the War of Independence; aka the entire city of La Paz shut down from Wednesday to Friday. Wednesday we all spent the day roaming around La Paz, for once with nowhere to go, which was surprisingly nice! It was so good to people watch and experience the city without having to rush to a hospital, flag down a micro (while also getting hit by a taxi, yes, that happened to me yesterday), or play travel agencies against each other for the best price. We literally spent the entire afternoon slowly meandering up and down El Prado and watching the beginnings of the festivities. That night, we fought through thousands of people on the street to get a view of the parade; we even saw Evo!! (the pres.) Although slightly jealous of the 4 obviously American girls that subjected themselves to being WRAPPED in Bolivian flags and joining the parade (probably very unwelcome) we all survived the night as inconspicuous gringos with only one camera being stolen. A few of us even survived the street food, myself NOT included.

After we had our parade-fill, we headed off to RAM JAM, our current night life place of interest. The DJ provided us with the best of the best American music, since we were blatantly the tipsy tourists more than likely warding off local customers (maybe the music choice was meant to make us buy more, who knows). Around 1 a local band played and we got some salsa lessons from Joel (our newest, Cuban born, lives in Holland, schooled in Chile, traveling solo, friend) who completely represents the coolest of people that love to travel, have fun, and meet new people. One phone steal and 700B's later we stumbled home, only to wake up to Thursday, the REAL day of celebrations.

Thursday night we traveled over night to Uyuni, locale of the famous Salt Flats. For future reference, overnight bus rides across consistent rocky terrain = death, and I hate to think that I'll be going to Peru in similar fashion. BUT, after the 14 of us got our bearings 10 hours later, we decided that a lack of sleep was well worth what we faced when we got there. Placido, our personal driver for the weekend, came and picked us up and we went straight to Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat (4085 square miles): indescribable. Apparently, when looking out you can see for 30 miles; it was endless. And beautiful. Really cool pictures to come, because perception is completely different there (ex: we staged a picture where it looks like Ale has an angel and a devil on her shoulders (Christa and Sarah) whispering in her ears). My temporary home for the weekend was the Land Cruiser we all became very fond of, especially when Placido sang along to our ipods with us. We also had a cook that traveled with us everywhere and made, quite possibly, some of the best food I've ever tasted in my life.

Friday we stayed in a salt hotel, made from salt and water. Just Salt and Water. We ate on salt tables, sat on salt stools, slept on salt beds. It was crazy. Saturday we saw the Andes Mtns, colored lakes, and flamingos. And Sunday we saw the desert, geysers, lava (180degC), and swam in natural hot springs. Oh, and there was snow too. Sounds boring, huh.

The trip back Sunday night was pretty much the same as the trip there, with the exception of the Tylenol PM overdose I attempted to use for sleep aid. Worthless. This week I'm at a new Hospital which is a Catholic hospital about 30 minutes from town. It's been good thus far, but will be a short week since Thursday morning at 6 we fly to the Amazon. Tough life.

Lake Titicaca y Isla del Sol

This past Friday afternoon we took a group trip to Lake Titicaca, which was unbelievable. In total, about 14 of us went, but we all went separately. Friday afternoon we took a 4 hour bus to Copacabana and stayed in a hostel there, and Saturday morning we took the 2 hour ferry ride to Isla del Sol to hike. Copa was really cool and really touristy. Lots of hippies and travelers. The hostel experience was interesting; 4 American dollars, but private bathrooms and fairly warm. To get to Copa, our bus literally drove right onto a big, wooden ferry, which is where the first picture is taken from- our little 'bus ride' via ferry across a huge lake. Isla del Sol is the island that the Incas believe was the origin of the Sun God. And if that's not true then something god-like was formed there because it is uncannily beautiful (see pictures). There are no motor vehicles or paved roads on the island; the hiking paths were very conserved and the whole rocky, hilly island is perfect as is. The main economy on the island is farming, with fishing and tourism to help out. We stayed at a beautiful hostel which was actually the same price as the one in Copa but ten times nicer (goes to show you have to shop around some!). When we got to Isla we had a 35 minute hike, vertically, up a mountain with all of our gear. Needless to say we were ready for lunch. So we had fresh trout with the view shown (above, again). It took an hour, but was so worth it, and besides, I think the cook literally went and caught 10 trout and cooked them right then, that's how good it was! Around 1 we started our hike. There are two trails, the Ridge Trail and the Coastal trail- you can guess what they were like based on their names. We took the Ridge Trail for 2 hours until we reached the Incan ruins and sacrificial Incan table, where we took a break to view the scenery and take a dip in the lake. The ruins were very well preserved, and VERY mazelike. They must have been so intelligent, because I got lost about 4 times in dead ends within the maze. When I finally made it down to the shore, I was convinced to dip into the sub-freezing water, probably resulting in the sore throat I have today. Fun Fact: we saw a cow skull in the water, very vivid, very shallow, as if it had just been there for like a week. How interesting; tried to take a picture but it didn't work out.
Around 5:30 we decided that we better find our way back to the other end of the island. So we took the coastal route back, with one major slight detour of our own. We had heard rumors that the coastal route took 3-4 hours, instead of 2, and we also knew that somehow we had to get back to the top where our hostel was. So we 'off-roaded' or more aptly 'off-trailed' for an hour from about 6-7 up the steepest climb I've probably ever done. I'm talking some of the most strenuous exercise I've ever had; straight vertical for an hour, at 12,500 feet with what felt like negative lung capacity. Anyways, we all made it and hiked the last hour on the Ridge Trail again (unfortunately it got very dark and very cold by the time we reached the top, but at least we cut off some time!) It was an experience to say the least, and I definitely wouldn't have done it any differently. So then we went to a pizza place and had the nice family cook us 'Gringos' 5 pizzas. It took an hour because the table was in their living room, they prepared the pizzas in their kitchen, and they cooked the pizzas in an oven in the drawers in the bedroom. I'm not kidding. Regardless, best pizza I've had in my life. I'm not sure if it's because I was famished or it really was that good.
Sunday was low key; slept in till 9, caught a private boat from the hostel back to Copa, and got to see the Sunday Market in Copa, which was very colorful and very fun! I took the early bus back, and got some much needed rest.
This week I'm at Servicios Adolescentes (a clinic for women 10-20 for information about contraceptives and pregnancy). Today we saw two girls, 17 and 19, both very pregnant. Any form of birth control is completely frowned upon here (they think it all is abortion). There are 2 vasectomies at each major hospital in the city each year (the term for this is machismo, if you were wondering). Women, if willing to use birth control methods, hide it from their husbands. Women must also ask their partners or husbands or 'common marriage partners' (which is when you are together for 2 years) if they are 'allowed' to get their tubes tied; hospitals also won't even consider a women for the operation unless the woman is over 30 and has 3 children. The term here is 'Satisfied parenthood'. How different. When we asked the Dra. what the deal was with this, she responded with 'Why would you get the operation sooner? What if your child dies? Your life would be ruined.' So here in Bolivia you get 4.8 average kids per family but a much lower life expectancy. It's just all part of their culture.
I only get three days at Servicios, because we have Thursday and Friday off this week. Thursday is the bicentenial celebration of the formation of La Paz (and mom, yes, the hospitals are CLOSED with the exception of the emergency room. How unbelievable.) So we're going to hang out in the city Thursday and head to the Salt Flats (Uyuni) on Thursday night for an overnight bus trip. So excited.

Valle de la luna

Valle de la luna is a tourist hotspot right outside of La Paz in an area where erosion has worn away the majority of a mountain. It's composed of clay, and over the years it's become a work of art. The valley has mostly beige or brown rock but sometimes (depending on the light and time of day) it's like a red or violet color. This was my first 'trip' outside of La Paz and I can't even describe how beautiful it was! Also, the pictures definitely do not do it justice. We went on a Wednesday afternoon (after clinic and before Spanish classes started up). It cost 1.5 boliviano to get there (it's almost an hour trip... and 7 bolivianos = 1 US dollar. so you do the math-- pretty absurd) and then we watched the sunset there and took a taxi home (a little more expensive... 3 bolivianos each instead, dear lord). Speaking of the money exchange, it's so funny how caught up we all are now with things as insignificant as a few bolivianos. Like bartering between 20 and 25 turns out to be a few cents. One of my friend's Sarah has come up with a phrase that every time you're buying a meal AND dessert it's like buying a coffee from starbucks, just to keep us all in perspective. Everything here is just soo inexpensive. And we all love it.

Clinic this week ended up really well. I finished up at Hospital del Nino but am going back in three weeks again and am hoping to get to sit in on some surgeries! The illnesses here are both very rare and very sad. There is this boy, Vidal, that has become our new buddy. We gave him our cell phone numbers and this weekend when we were at Lake Titicaca (more to come later on that) the kids called us from the hospital landline to our cell phones to say hi! His friend, in the hospital, is Franz, who got beaten up by his older brothers and had a hematoma, which they operated on but also caused him nerve damage causing him to lose complete control over his left arm. There are also a lot of teenage girls (14 or so) with what I'm guessing are dislocated hips from birth that have never been fixed. We've also seen a few cases of tropical diseases, varicella gone terribly bad, and kids that lose fingers or hands due to fire or fireworks accidents. The sad thing is that each kid is just hooked up to an IV; no monitors or anything like that. I have to think that instead of spending weeks in the hospital down here, in America they'd have already been out and back home. Carolina, the girl whose medical history I had to present in Spanish, has proptosis in her left eye from a dental or sinus infection; at first she was so shy, but now everyday she has a huge smile at 9 am when we come in. Thursday night we went to the Black Market and bought a Winnie the Pooh puzzle for Carolina (Pooh is her favorite) and little light up sponge balls with faces on them for the other 8 kids. The 30 Bolivianos we spent total(less than 5 dollars) hopefully made these kids weekends (I know Carolina loved it because I did the puzzle with her 3 times on Friday afternoon haha)

the first days...

Altitude sickness, snow, and cold showers are the highlight of my days this month. But Bolivia is absolutely amazing. Everything is colorful, the city is vibrant, and everyone is so laid back. 5 oclock means anywhere between 4:30 and 5:30, and no one here showers more than 4 times a week, so I'm fitting right in. I have a host mom, Olga, that is precious, and an Irish roommate. The food is, well, cultural and interesting. Even as a picky eater I'm enjoying it all! All 20 of us on the trip immediately got along, starting in the airport on our overnight flight. It's going to be a good month...