Back to Bolivia and Beyond!

After spending a wonderful week in Chile, and spending my birthday on the beach drinking mojitos and eating ceviche, it was time to return home to my beloved country Bolivia! I decided it was about time I got to know La Paz, the capital, after being in Bolivia so long, but I it was a bit of a climate shock, from the warm beaches of the pacific to 4000 meters in the Andes! So with my alpaca gear I went exploring, and found some interesting things, such as the Coca Museum, just to make sure Coca is not cocaine, it is the original plant which is native to the Andean region and has cultural and historical importance since before Inca times, being the Anthropologist I am, this seriously interested me! I also stocked up on all the artesania I wanted and checked out some Pre Incan ruins, which I wanted to get to know before heading to the Inca land of Peru! Although La Paz was fun, my heart was still in Cochabamba, so back I went, to see old friends, my family and to try to get rid of the ridiculous amount of stuff I had accumulated on my travels! It was lovely going back to somewhere familiar and the first day I got there my volunteering organization had a ecological celebration for world earth day! All of a sudden we were in the middle of a procession with about 30 children with stickers spreading information about world earth day, very Bolivian to be protecting the environment while producing bags of unbiodegradable rubbish, but you know, there getting there! We were the music, so I was banging a drum and shouting slogans about the planet for 2 hours, which was so enjoyable, made better by the lack of knowledge and practice we had in this field! This was then followed by a fun packed weekend of dancing, brunching, and enjoying the dia de pedeton, which was an amazing way to see the city with no cars and everyone in the streets! I even bumped into one of my kids from the orphanage, who had been adopted and remembered me from the flautas, this was so lovely and really showed that my volunteering did have some positive effects even if this wasn’t felt at the time. I had to meet up with my host family who of course cooked me a typical massive Bolivian lunch, and various other friends that I had made in Cochabamba, it was lovely going back but after almost a week I then had to move on, as there are more places to explore and I had to get back on the road! First headed to Santa Cruz, which I really didn’t like, reminded me of London in a tropical climate which is no where near as nice, London is only London with the rain! Keen to get out of the city I found the Jesuit Missions de Chiquitanos, which are tiny missionary villages created by the Jesuits in the 1700´s. It was cook just seeing amazing scenery and talking to people about their culture, but obviously not without adventures, such as getting stuck on the top of a mountain with a motorcycle taxi, which he then had to restart, and hitchhiking in the back of pickup trucks! Although being the only gringo in town was nice for a few days, I then was keep to head to the tropical paradise of Samipata, one of the nicest places ever! With perfect climate in beautiful mountains with a great hippish vibe show  that there are now 28 different nationalities living there, which was seen by the amount of cool cafes, restaurants or bars all run by gringos! A reason to why I probably liked it so much, I also saw wonderful waterfalls and more ruins did some hiking and a lot of chilling in this lovely place! But again a week was long enough and my endless time in South America is running away with me and I am still in Bolivia! So to La Paz again, the place where you have to enter Peru, I have being exploring  for the second time, about to do the most dangerous road on a bike, which is a must do, and spending some time organizing things before I leave Bolivia, hopefully by Monday, unless I just decide to stay forever which may happen! Looking forward to the delight of Peru, and also meeting my mum who is coming out to meet me which will be lovely! So, so long Bolivia, it has been wonderful and I will be back, but its time to go!