The Long-awaited Solo Blog Post

Hello everyone, and Happy August.

I am sorry that this post has been such a long time coming. The last three weeks have been a whirlwind, but now my life is gaining some sense of normalcy again, and I promise to make more regular updates. Enjoy!

I hope all of you are doing well, and the warm weather has finally arrived in Canada. Since our last post, my trip has changed drastically. Lisa flew home from Bogota on July 16th, and things have been a real whirlwind since then. The transition from a constant travel partner to absolute solitude is stark, and at first, was a bit difficult.

The other big change was my pace. After four and a half months, I'd become accustomed to our easy style: deciding where to go a day or two in advance, changing our minds about every two hours, and staying way longer than planned in places we liked. This was a free and liberating way to travel, and I highly recommend it.

But as Lisa prepared to head home, I was getting ready to change things up. I'd been down here enjoying myself for a while, and I felt it was time to give back a bit. Volunteering made the most sense at this point, as a way to help out, get to know an area, and conserve what is left of my money. After research I'd landed on Condortrekkers, a non-profit guiding company (I broke this news in the last post). Based directly on Quetzaltrekkers, who we'd done a trek with in Xela, Guatemala a few months ago, Condortrekkers offers guided hikes of 1 to 4 days, contributing the profits to schools, children's centers, water improvement and other projects in and around the area where hike.

Hiking for a cause - right up my alley, and I wanted to get started right away. I felt that traveling my way slowly down here would sort of be having my cake and eating it too, decimating my budget and really shortening the amount of time I could contribute. It was settled, when Lisa left I would head directly down to Condortrekkers.

The problem? Condortrekkers is based in Sucre, Bolivia, almost 7000 kilometers from Bogota. International flights within South America are ridiculously expensive, so I was going by bus. Long story short, I did it in 11 days. Nearly 7000 kilometers in 11 days, not good for the body or the mind.

The worst part was I got off to a rough start. On the first bus, on the first day, a man got on board in Bogota with a loaded hand gun in his pants. This involved cops, papers, lots of arguing, and explanations (turns out he was a security guard and the gun was work issued), all of which I caught a lot of - did I mention the guy was sitting right beside me? All in all, three and a half our delay, yuck.

I got in late, went straight to bed, and got up early for the bus the next day. An hour or so into the ride, the bus crashed into a flat deck transport truck on the highway. Are you kidding me? We moved up into the left lane to pass the truck (standard procedure), and right as we got up beside it, the driver saw his exit, on the left side of the road, and swerved toward it - straight into us. My bus was a smaller 25 seater, so it got pretty much totaled. Thankfully, not one person got so much as a scrape. The aftermath featured animated Spanish shouting matches, and everyone, from toddlers to semi-conscious grandmothers, put in their two cents. Then the normal car accident stuff started happening: insurance, cops, measurements, testimonies, a new bus being sent. Of course, all this ran on Latin American time, meaning another three and a half hour delay. In the first two days, I sat waiting for seven hours in total. Not a good way to begin the epic leg of travel I was undertaking.

After that, things got a little smoother. I crossed into Ecuador, and stopped for a night in Otavalo and saw its famous Alpacha wool market, a spectacle in which Lisa would have bankrupted herself in about forty-nine seconds. After that I moved on to Quito, the capital city and the historic and economic center of Ecuador. I stayed for a day and a half, saw the Old City, and enjoyed myself.

Quito from the Mirador

A tale of two cities, the historic Quito Viejo...

... and the skyscrapers of modern Quito

The architecture in the Old City was very impressive (and I've become a bit of a connoisseur of colonial architecture by this point folks).

Gold doors? Check

Angel paraphernalia? Check.

Humongous Basilica? Check.

From Quito I really put the pedal down: and overnight bus to Loja, Ecuador, from where after a nights rest I traveled non-stop (back-to-back overnight buses with day buses in between) to Puno, Peru, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Probably the most memorable part of this sprint was watching the Copa America Football final from the bus station in Lima. Team Uruguay won, and star forward Diego Forlan scored 2 of their 3 goals, including the dramatic game-winner. Forlan has curly blonde hair, blue eyes, light skin, and is fond of headbands, and though I don't really see it, the Peruvians (black-eyed, and with black straight hair) thought my resemblance to him was uncanny:

The women and children managed to contained themselves to whispers and stares, but some of the young men actually addressed me as "Forlan!"

I was probably most disappointed that my camera was tucked deep in my bag (to avoid theft) on the stretch of road between Arequipa, and Puno. The highway winds through dry pastures filled with llamas and sheep, and their herds, who eek out their living at the top of the world (these fields approach 4000m). The light and colours of the sky, fields, and lakes is absolutely brilliant, and the whole thing has a surreal feel. The only shadows come late in the day, cast by snowcapped volcanoes which tower over everything.

Sadly, by this point in my journey I was anxious to get to Sucre and rest, but another trip to Titicaca is definitely in order before I come home. After a night in Puno I crossed the border and pressed right on to La Paz, the economic heart of Bolivia. Head-spinning La Paz is home to the highest seat of government on Earth, the highest airport on Earth, the highest prison on Earth, the highest brewery on Ea- well, you get the point: it's high.

Set in a dramatic valley with brick slums literally built into cliffs, La Paz has an impressive feel, and I stayed to check it out for a day and a half.

The view from the rooftop bar at my hostel. At 6500 meters, Illimani looms above the downtown core.

La Paz sits in a rocky bowl, the sides of which look imposing here behind the spires of the main Cathedral.

I explored La Paz on foot, but wasn't up for the constant stress of carrying a camera around, so I left it behind (sorry). Fortunately, most of the sights unique to La Paz were a little grim for photography. The notorious San Pedro Prison is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous in the entire world, and is right downtown on the edge of a popular park. The colourful markets were darkened somewhat by a certain plentiful product: dehydrated llama fetuses. Yep. These charming keepsakes hang in thousands from street stalls - some lean forward into the sidewalk, and, when its crowded, are centimeters from your face. They are the size of a big dog, and exactly as disgusting as you'd imagine a dehydrated llama fetus would be. Apparently they are buried underneath new buildings to ward off evil spirits. Apparently there is a flippin construction boom in Bolivia as well..

Another night bus brought me to sunny Sucre, my destination and the end of my road for now. Almost 7000 km on the bus in 11 days. Whew. I'd developed a lump the size of a croquet ball on the tip of my tail bone, which thankfully has subsided by now.

I've settled in Sucre, my temporary home, a colonial city and the capital of Bolivia. "The White City" has been a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, and is chocked full of 400-plus year-old Cathedrals, museums, and other buildings. In the courtyard of a building less than two blocks from where I live, Simon Bolivar officially declared Bolivia an independent nation for the first time.

The outskirts and the cordillera beyond, on a cloudy day here in Sucre.

The Colonial center from the Mirador.

So as I adjust to being settled down, I'm also getting used to volunteering. My biggest responsibility with Condortrekkers is the treks themselves: the volunteers do everything invoved with the treks, food, equipment, and everything else. I have been out on one so far, a spectacular 3 trek in the heart of the Andes. As a volunteer, I'm expected to carry more than the clients, so before we sat down to the first meal my pack was pretty heavy.

My camera was its moody self, and worked intermittently (though not at all on day two - batteries), but I got a few photos nonetheless.

High and dry in the Andes on the Inca Trail.

Ruining a perfectly nice mountain vista.

A little friend I made on the trail.

Crater Maragua.

Antonio (a guide) in Crater Maragua.

Every Condortrekkers hike goes with one volunteer, and one paid guides. The paid guides are local, know the area, and can speak Quechua with the people we meet. The expenses for the hikes are the guides pay, food, and transportation. The rest goes towards the projects we support: a daycare, various waterprojects, schools, community improvement, etc. I will explain more about this work as I get more involved and start to help out more.

The first day of the trek winds through a valley on the Inca Trail (the same one that goes all the way to Cuzco and Macchu Pichu - the Inca were into walking), and up into the majestic crater Maragua, where we sleep in a community-run hospedaje. The next day (when my batteries were dead, ergg) we climbed up out of the crater, and had a mid-morning break at dinosaur footprints. Dinosaur footprints! Pictures next time I promise.

After that we worked our way down into a second valley, a pretty technical trek that takes all day. Thankfully, the day ends at a gorgeous campsite, and we pitch our tents about 7 meters from steaming hotsprings. After a relaxing night we hiked out and took the camion (Spanish for sketchy truck filled with people, goats, etc) back to Sucre.

The highlight since then has been the arrival of a package from MOM! The contents were all glorious, mainly some warm clothes and candy!

Three more treks have gone out this week, so I´ve been busy working to get those out, and I´ll be off on one of the next ones. I am living in a house that Condortrekkers rents out to its volunteers, and my room/gear closet is quite cozy. As I continue to settle in, make some friends, and get to know the city, I´m going to start helping out on some projects around town, and take a few Spanish classes.

I plan to blog again very soon, with more pictures and more info on what I´m up to currently. Thanks so much for being patient and waiting for this update.

Thanks again for reading, and I promise it won't be so long till the next one!

Love Tor