SUCRE

NEW: SOME PICS FROM SUCRE


....could have been any Spanish. Portugese or Italian city...but it's still nice...

Sucre is the second capital of Bolivia where the independance was declared in 1825.
It is a very white colonial city, it has nothing in common with Tupiza or La Paz, I felt like in  Europe.

They are really proud of their colonial European style and seem not to understand why they are not that attractive to me ...too much traveling Maja - you became too fincky...:) 

Anyways , they have some interesting weird looking castle which has been a mix of everything its owners saw in Europe - which is kind of funny summary of "our culture", no art historian should ever go there ;)

And next to this beautiful building ( 20m away ! ) there is another army unit, which similary to my befriended soldiers from Tupiza did its own Xmass decorations :) These guys also wanted to show how eco-friendly they were - well done Liceo Militar de Sucre !!

what is really nice is Sucre´s cementry ! It is said to be one of the most beautiful in South America and I can belive it is ! It is devided into 3 parts ( what I´ve learned from our 9 years old guide) , 2 of them are really impressive with nice monuments, elaborated sculptures and nice parks...where many bolivian expresidents lie ( also the prince who build the castle above has its cenotaph there)... that is why I will show you the third part, which was not a part of "cementry trip", but I found it the most authentic and interesting.

here we go : 

our super guide - he really knew a lot and was really well tipped for that, in the background you can see a wall with coffins of a bit poorer people...with a great imagination though !

There is one nice rule - the poorer the people are ther more they care about their relative´s graves, in the most simple districts you could even found graves with sun umbrellas!

behind each window in the wall there is a coffin with the body, the family has the key to the "window" and everytime they visit their dead relative they use to bring him/her presents ( the most annoying are music greeting cards, with horrible melodies that poor dead people have to listen even in their afterlife - what about holy peace ? )  I generally find this tradition a little bit trashy, but really cute , but sometimes I think they exagerate a bit....

just next to the jar with alcohol there is a bottle of liquid for hair discoloration....come on...let the poor woman rest in peace!

Sucre was very nice and peaceful city, more you go to north, much more busier and hectic the bolivian cities become... today I came to Cochabamba - it´s totally different !

Last days in Tupiza and Xmass with bolivian family

                             
In Bolivia similarly to Poland they do celebrate Xmass Eve on 24th of December, but honestly saying the date is the only similarity of this celebretion.... First of all they have a very nice tradition of making nativity scenes, but what I found the most bizarre is that they might consist of as much as 5 baby Jesus !

They also have a very nice traditional pole  dancing :) where children dance around the poll creating nice figueres with their colorful ribbons.

                                   

Christmass Eve dinner starts....at midnight 24-25th with a " brindis" with extremely sweet sidra  you spend this moment with all of your family and after that you are prepared to eat.... MEAT AND MEAT ONLY. ( To non polish people, in PL we do not eat meat on Xmass Eve, just vegetarian food, fish and some delicious cakes...and pierogi...mmmmmm....pierogi :(   ) Unlike in Poland there is no vegetarian traditional food, there is "picana"  a soup made of 3-4 kinds of meat + vegetarian accent - patatoes :)  than you have different kinds of meet prepared in different way - and you can seat and eat like that drinking some " singani" ( traditional bolivian stuff) or whisky or extremely sweet and grapy wine until the morning, unless you are young enough to go to the disco-karaoke what we did around 2 a clock, I stayed alive till 6 , but when the rest walked me back home they kept on drinking till 9-10 a.m !  and than if there is somebody still alive they go to drink some beers as the pubs are opened in the morning :)

First day of the Xmass is somehow similar if alcohol and parties are concerned...so is the second...and so is till 2nd of January in Tupiza !!! So I escaped to Sucre...where I am starting mu real gringo advanture :)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


bye bye Tupiza !

gonna miss you a little bit.......

MERRY XMASS !

TO ALL OF YOU !
IT´S REALLY HARD TO BELIVE IT IS DECEMBER - +24C AND SUNNY,
TANNED SANTA CLAUSE CREEPING NEXT TO THE PALM TREES AND CACTUS...
don´t ask me why I look as if I wanted to kill the Papa Noel - he was really nice !

ANYWAYS... EVEN IF THERE IS NO SNOW AND " LAST XMASS" SONG IN THE SHOPPING CENTERS - IT IS STILL XMASS!

AND I STILL LOVE YOU AND WISH YOU ALL THE BEST !

yesterday I talked with kuba , he asked me if I missed home, I said " not that badly" than he told me who they were having dinner with yesterday – and from the bottom of my heart I wanted to scream -  HELL YES - I MISS IT ! Than all these sms and pone calls – even if I cannot answer them, you have to contact me on my bolivian number…THANK YOU GUYS!

WISH YOU ALL THE BEST FOR THE XMASS AND 2012!

CHEERS ¡
M

P.S.  BOLIVIAN SOLDIERS WISH YOU A VERY MERRY ...TOO :)

The Salar again

To Salar again, tomorrow I am going to go as a full pro guide to the salar. That means that communication with  me will not be posible until 23.12, do not panic, that doesn’t mean I am dead or sth – that only means that I am enjoying myself on the salarJ

I have to come back, as it is said to be one of the greatest miracles in the world - and the first time I saw it didn't impress me ......sufficiently....moreover the salar is a salt lake right now due to the rain season – and it is said to be awesome – lets check it out ¡J

a little bit of news: I almost had a breakfast with the president of Bolivia last Sunday, as I have hitch hiked the president of Tupiza recently and we became friends, than I was also shooting some pics on the beauty contest miss Tupiza, and got caught by the ice storm when trekking nearby, worth to mention is the fact that when I started my trek it was app. 30 C sunny, no clouds….Bolivia is a woman !

Ok folks – hear you in 4 days

cheers!

M. 

something about my life in Tupiza....

something about my life in Tupiza - the truth is - it is not a city - not city-like at all !
no cinema, theatre, good club, art gallery or any place where I normally use to go when traveling or living in a place, Tupiza is totally not like places I know.

Tupiza is located at 2850m and has approx. 40000 habitants, and I think I already recognize a lot, and definitely a significant part of them recognize me :)

I was at the after graduation party last Friday, huge amount of people ( every student invite on this ocassion approx. 30-50 people !, that looks more like a collectvive weddings party than a prome ), today for instance I went alone on trekking  15km from my place ( the surrounding of Tupiza is just amazing, gonna put some pics as soon as I will be able)  and on a way accidentaly  I met two people who have already known me!
 
I spend most of my time in my tourist agency I work till 18-19 ( but I have 3h lunch break) I eat with the people from the agency  - tommorow is my turn to cook. The agency was established 6 years ago by a local doctor and his wife in order to give jobs and opportiunities of development to local people, there are app 30 people involved in a  project. What I like about it is that they really offer fair work conditions ( transparent ang good contracts) with, at the same time, very good quality service, and they do care about their clients !

what does Maya do over there:
Every day I give english classes (cooks, drivers, guides, and hotel stuff and their kids - student age varies from 5 - 55 :) ) and german ! ( agency stuff) ALL IN SPANISH !
I also work on some little marketing improvements and audio guide. And has a possibility top go as an english speaking guide on tours, probably I'll do it one of these days.


 It is good. I feel I am doing sth good and I feel they appreciate it a lot.

Gonna stay here a little while...

my first trip SALAR DE ULLUNI

NEWS:  MORE PICS FROM THE SALAR DE ULLUNI!

After my first day in Tupiza I was told I was supposed to go as a translater on a 4 days trip to the Salar. At first I was more confused than helpful, but on the second day it started getting used to the situation and afterall it wasn´t that bad I think ….I hope…

The trip is amazing, Bolivia is really beautiful (I´ll try to upload some pics on picassa, so that you can also see what I mean) mountains, lagoons ( 7 different ones!) , salt flats, volcanes, geisers …lamas, bicunas, flamingos. If somebody plans to visit Bolivia I truely recommand this trip , it´s awesome!You travel by spacy jeep , 4-5 tourists + the driver ( who is normally your guide) + Cook + me ( if you are lucky :) )

The driver must be a mechanic as well, as there are everyday some stuffs that do not work exactly as they should. The Cook was amazing in a very primitive conditions she was serving us extremely delicious meals ( consisted of several plates and fresh salads!).

The only negative thing about the trip is that due to the height ( you cross 5000m at some points) many people ( 3 out of 4 tourists that were in my jeep) have an altitude sickness. The first night I was the only one in my 5people room who was actually sleeping. Two guys felt so bad that during the first two days they looked more like zombies than living persons. We gave them some mate de coca and magic tea from special “magic” plants PUPUSA  that could be found high in the mountains – and they magically got so much better!

The best of all things –for me – were the flamingos!
The only way I´ve seen them before was on TV or Las Vegas, and I am telling you, they are much prettier  on their natural habitat. The lagoons are also home to three types of flamingos; the Andean, James and the Chilean Flamengo ( all pink, pink with black wings and beaks and a white one) on Laguna Hedionda  they can be 5m  to 10m away from you and not running/flying away! Amazing creaturas!

Salar the Ulluni,  which is said to be the best attraction on a trip didn´t impress me that much…maybe my expectations were too high, this place is basically to take pictures with  plastic dinosaurs, coca- cola, pringles and stuffs ( maybe I am not sensitive on it because of the photoshop knowledge I obtained, or maybe I am just a weirdo, the rest of the people seem to enjoy it – a lot)
   
p.s. NO WAY today the internet is to slow to upload anything, in Tupiza there is a big problem with internet , there are very few points you can get it and if you find them you will be more than suprised about the speed of the transfer, it takes me literally 5 min to open my gmail ! and skype ? what is skype ?

ok I´ll leave you with a photo teaser though ;)

 

TUPIZA por fin

Hey guys,
afterall I was really lucky and I managed to get to Tupiza in less than 24h :)

I arrived yesterday and in an hour I am going on a salt desert  tour as a translator, so I won't be able to be write anything within the next 4-5 days , mom-dad don't panic - I am safe :)

kisses and hugs to everybody
and I promise beautiful photos after I come back :)
M.