Lake Titicaca

After a short bus trip from La Paz we arrived in Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Copacabana staddles the Bolivian/Peruvian border and is the departure point for trips to Isla Del Sol. We stayed over on Isla Del Sol for one night, hiking the length of the island. Copacabana also has great Trout and other local fish. I made the most of it and had Trout nearly everyday.


The view from a mirador high above Copacabana.


Festive Boats on the shores of Lake Titicaca.


Llamas on Isla Del Sol taking in the view. On the island there are no cars, Donkey and Llama are the only means of transport.


Attempting to set up some self-timer photos after we reached the peak of Isla Del Sol.


During our hike we went off the trail and accidentally stumbled onto some farm land.


A typical and unhealthy Bolivian breakfast of Api (a hot purple corn drink with cinnamon and spices) and a Bunelos (greasy doughnuts).

After leaving Titicaca we went down to Arequipa, home of two of the worlds deepest canyons. I hiked neither. I was still pretty spent from hiking Potosi so we relaxed.

4 for 12sole Cuba Libres is a recipe for mayhem.


We headed to the Karaoke bar after. We almost got into two fights and had an amazing time.

La Paz & Huayna Potosi

After the Salt Flats and a brief stay over in Oruro, I headed to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, to rest and recover. La Paz is huge city built in a deep valley. The valley is surrounded by dramatic 6,000m snow topped peaks, one of which I decided to climb. Huayna Potosi is 6088m above sea level and can be summitted in 2 or 3 days. I decided to try and climb it in 2 days and was successful in reaching the summitt after a extremely challenging and difficult final ascent.


Huayna Potosi.

Day 1 started with arriving at base camp. After a meal we climbed 600 vertical meters to high camp. The climb only took about 3 hours, then we spent the rest of the day resting. We went to bed at 6pm to prepare for the summitt attempt beginning at 1am.

Day 2 began at 12:00am for wake up and breakfast, followed by dressing in boots, crampons, and the cold weather equipment needed. A little after 1:00am we departed and climbed for nearly 7 hours, reaching the summitt at 8:00am. The climb was extremely difficult due to the altitude, I had trouble breathing the entire time and had a pounding heachache. We were roped in to our guide which gave me a little reassurance while jumping over crevices and negotiating steep slopes. After reaching the summitt and resting for 10 minutes we began our descent of 1400m back to base camp where our van was waiting to take us back to La Paz.




The terrain required crampons, pick axes, and being roped to a guide at all times.




Views from the summitt.


Sarah fell asleep during our brief and belated stay at the summitt.


La Paz city.


Octopus ceviche. Despite Bolivia being a land-locked country it was delicious.


A La Paz alley with great hat stores everywhere.

Salt Flats

After visiting Sucre we headed to the Salar de Uyuni salt flat, the largest salt flat in the world. Leaving from Uyuni we went on a 3 day tour of the flats and the surrounding mountains. The salt flats are described by many as other worldly, and they are just that. The expansive crystal white salt reaches meters deep and covers an enormous underground lake. The flat itself lies next to the andes mountain range and due to elevation is freezing cold during the night and searingly hot in the sun during the day.




Kung Fu battle at sunset.

A hotel we stayed at made entirely of salt bricks.

Ginger´s Paradise

I just spent the last 6 days at Ginger´s Paradise, a farm near Samaipata, Bolivia. Gingers is run by an American ex-pat, Chris, and his Bolivian wife Sol. At the farm you pay to stay and can help out doing a number of tasks to reduce your cost of staying. At Gingers I made pineapple and apple marmelades, worked construction, harvested and husked lentils, made tofu, and ate some amazing food.

The wood fire oven with fresh baked bread, soup, and marmelades cooking.


Breakfast. Homemade pesto on homemade bread. Plus the jams we made.


Sarah and her fresh picked salad.


Ginger working on peeling an apple to make jam.


At Ginger´s they use only renewable energy. Most of the electricty comes from solar or hydro power, but when the blender needs to work to make pesto, this exercise bike provides all the power needed.

Parque Ambue Ari

I´ve spent the last 2 months volunteering at an animal refuge in Bolivia called Ambue Ari. Ambue Ari is one of three parks in Bolivia run by the non-profit Inti Wara Yassi. At the park dozens of hard working volunteers work with Jaguars, Pumas, Ocelots, Monkeys, and other animals native to Bolivia in an effort to rehabilitate or recreate as natural a life is as possible for the animals. The animals come to the park for a number of reasons, some are orphaned, some were house pets, and others were injured and now rely veterinary care.

I worked with an amazing Jaguar named Katie. Not much is know about Katies past, but she was donated to the park and likely lived as the house pet of a Bolivian family until she grew too big. I would spend my days taking Katie on walks, feeding, and playing with her. Walking Katie was somewhat similar to walking a dog, she was attached by her collar to lead which wrapped around my waist. Katie was amazingly well behaved and affectionate. She was extremely calm and spent her hours walking through the jungle or sleeping in a patch of grass.

During my time at the park Katie went on heat and a wild jaguar came to visit her on a regular basis. We could tell that he would sleep next to her cage because he made a bed directly opposite hers. I was really lucky one day and after Katie began stalking, we ran into the jaguar and were about 5 or 6 meters away from him. After a brief standoff he ran away into the jungle. It was an memorable and rare encounter with a wild jaguar.

The wild jaguar spotted on Katies trail.



Katie.





The routine at Ambue Ari meant waking up a 6:30am every morning to begin tasks, eating breakfast at 8am, and spending the rest of the day with your animals until returning to camp at 4pm for lunch. The park has no electricity and uses a generator to pump water from a well. The park relies on volunteers for both labor and financial survival. When I was there the number of volunteers flucuated greatly but for the most part we around 50 or so people. During the wet season numbers are dwindle to as low as 10. The animals are amazing but the people really made the experience special. The park is full of hard working eccentrics and interesting characters that I will not soon forget.

This is Leo, a Puma that I worked with for a week.



The park has an aviary with macaws, toucans, and parrots.




This is Herbie, a loveable and gentle Tapir.


My time at Ambue Ari was fantastic and I´d recommend it to anyone who loves animals and is willing to spend a month or two working in the jungle.

Here is the website of the organization I volunteered with check out: http://www.intiwarayassi.org/articles/volunteer_animal_refuge/home.html

Rurrenabaque & The Amazon

In 1997 Bolivia created Madidi National Park. 10% of the known species of bird on Earth live within the Park.

We did a 3 day jungle tour with our guide, Ismail, who lived in Madidi for the past 13 years. His oldest sister was eaten by an Anaconda when she was 12. His brother shot and killed a Jaguar in their house when it came into the kitchen. Ismail knew his stuff. We learned a lot about the medicinal properties of some of the native plants. But spotting wildlife in the jungle was difficult because the forest is so dense and the animals are sensitive to noise and very skittish.

Leaf Cutter Ants hard at work.


Red and Green Macaws.



Building a Balsa wood raft.