* lake titicaca - sick as a dog can be....

once i got to copacabana i decided to do 17km trek from copacabana to yamapupata to get some views of the lake titicaca and the small villages around. it all started lovely: me, my backpack and even the old scouts´songs in my head, people on the way greeting me and refusing to belive that im going by meself and that my husband is not with me :) amazing views of the lake titicaca, isla del sol and later isla de la luna. no gringos on the horizon. maybe a bit too hard to catch my breath, but this is to be expected at 4km altitude.on the way i get attacked by 2 dogs, but once i start screeaming ´ayudame` there comes a senora with a stick and chases the dogs away. somehow half way through i started feeling really sick, got a fever and had to go on a side of the road... the trek is getting harder and harder and im having less and less energy, i need to stop every few meters to lie on the ground...no cars nor people on the horizon to save me. if i could have just quit and lied down on the side of the road i would have, but regardless if i come back to copacabana or keep walking to yamupupata it is a few kilomiters each way. i thought i would just break down in tears...no more photos.. somehow i managed to get to yamapupata and found a little pier with few boats which could take me to isla del sol. here i had to choose if i wanna go with a motor boat, quite expensive, with a young capitan or if i take a rowing boat, cheapper, but with a man who looks as if he was a 100 years old. im thinking: ´he is so old, it is not right to use his energy for rowing... but then if he is here that means that he needs to work and needs the money... and it must be easier for the young guy to earn money than for him´ so i decide to take a rowing boat. on the boat i feel so sick that im falling asleep (or loosing consciuosness, hard to say now) and burn my face so much that the skin is still peeling off. the old man makes me pay more than agreed but when he treatens to leave me at the very tip of Isla del Sol where i would still have to walk a great bit to get to hostels i agree. this is how money is made on sick people i imagine. they have no energy to bargain or even defend the original price and pay whatever are told....i was supposed to go to a hostel where sheen was staying but on the island i have no energy to climb so i allow a little girl to lead me to a hostel lower on the hill. she must think that there is something really wrong with me when i need to sit down every 10 steps. she gives me some leaf to smell and says it is good for the alttitude sickness, but i know this is not it, coz in la paz, potosi, uyuni i was fine. in the hostel i want an individual room and they only have twins left so they make my pay for both beds but again i have no energy to argue nor look for another place. i ask the guy who runs the place if there is a doctor on the island, he says ´no´and if i want to take a boat to copacabana it is gonna be expensive and dangerous as none wants to go at night. im dozing for few hours and then realize that i have no more water. i climb up a bit to buy water and force myself to go up to find sheen´s hostel. maybe we will figure something out together. really nasty senora tells me that my friend is not staying there and tells me to go away. i know he is there but have no choice but leave. on the way down i meet some people i had meet along the way and they say they will send someone to check on me later. after a few visits to the loo i fall asleep. the owners´dogs comes to my room and falls asleep too. later sheen, jola and thomas come and comfort me:) thomas says that as long as the dog is here im fine, as they sense death and then walk away! imagine my scare when i come back from one of the countless loo visits to see the dog is not there!!! but it was just hiding under the bed. anyhow, i sleep poorly, run to the loo every hour or so. in the morning sheen and jola come to get me to the boat so i can go to the hospital in copacabana. from my bed, through the open doors i watch the sun rising over the mountains and the lake and this is the only pretty view i ll remember from here. the guys drag me down the hill and off i go to copacabana. i wait and wait and wait but once the doctor asks me what i ate and i say : ¨everything´he shakes his head and says:; ´disenteria´. i get antybiotics and are sent to bed. i spend 2 more days in copacabana recovering, bored to death, but the only acvtivities i can force myself to are: washing my towel and paiting my toe nails... i cant stop thinking of my mum´s food... after 2 days of anytbiotics i recover enough to get on a bus to peru. it must have been water i drank at the pampas. so i have learnt my lesson: be hyper carefull about the water... the trip continues through the floating islands on the peruvian side of titicaca to cusco.

the yellow picture is to illustarate how they sell crisps over there :) from very very big bags.

*beza na pampach lowi piranie i zalega w hamaku

namyslilam sie na wypad na polnoc, w pampy boliwianskie. 20 godzin w teleboczacym autobsuie po tak zwanej drodze smierci do rurrenabaque, gdzie chwilami sie wydawalo ze autobus zawisnie nad przepascia. wszyscy gringosi robili zdjecia i zamierali w oczekiwaniu (i przerazeniu) , a lokalni drzemali niewzruszenie. goraco, spocenie i spoczyscie zielono. ale oplacalo sie, chocby dla przeplyniecia sie lodka po rzece yacuma gdzie mozna wypatrzec malpy, aligatory, tukany, kormorany, zolwie i mnostwo innych istot. nad ranem slychac dzikie wrzaski ptakow i wycie malp a noca widac oczy aligatorow swiecace jak dwa bursztyny w krzaczorach, drzewa sa pelne swietlikow a niebo, niezanieczyszczone swiatlami miast jest usiane gwiazdami. moglabym sie w to wszystko gapic dniami i nocami. i plywalam z delfinami rozowymi! ale jak mnie jeden musnal w piete to bylo to dosc dziwne, chyba nawet nieprzyjemne. bylam w grupie z samymi izraelitami i jednym amerykaninem i jakoze bylam najbardziej chetna dukac po hiszpansku stalam sie ulubienica naszego zlotozebnego przewodnika jose, ktory wygadal zupelnie jak pirat (zdjecie na gorze). poszlismy na poszukiwanie anakondy, ale podobno poziom rzeki byl za wysoki i nikt jej nie widzial przez ostanie 12 dni. ale pokazal mi drzewa z kora leczaca niestrawnosc. na tym samym drzewie zyja mordercze mrowki ¨pare ukaszen i kaput¨ mowi jose. podobno w la paz byl jakis facet, ktory wykorzystywal dzieci, ludzie zrobili nad nim samosad i przywiazali go do takiego drzewa i w ciagu 3 godzin mrowki go wykonczyly. lowimy tez piranie ale nic mi sie nie udaje zlowic wiec mi sie szybko nudzi. spotykam tez duza grupe polakow i znow jest to nadzieja ze jednak mozna podrozowac mieszkajac w polszy. popoludniami i wieczorami zalegamy w hamakach. jedyne mankamenty to komarzycha i insekty i duchota...wszyscy jestesmy non stop zlani potem, noc przynosi troche ochlody..spedzamy jeszcze jedna noc w ruurenabaque i ruszam nad jezioro titicaca.
mam nadzieje ze wszystko dobrze w domu :)

*a monthly rent in a paradise is 30 euro!!!

a monthly rent in a paradise is 30 euro!!! a huge part of me just wants to stay in tocana village, picking up bananas and oranges from the trees, talking to the locals and soaking up the greenness of the hills. tocana is a little village near coroico where most of the people are of african descent. it´s so amazing to see the african-looking people wearing traditional bolivian clothes and women with curly hair woven into short plaits. they were brought here by the colonizers to work on the coca plantations and in the mines. somehow they have not mixed much but they adopted to the indiginious culture. sadly they dont know whereabouts in africa they are from and their native culture has been preserved mosty in forms of music and dancing. its only been 60 years since slavery was banned in bolivia! scarly enough some of them still work for the rich, looking after the laters´ houses and gardens rather then for themselves. but there ia a strong revilval spirit and more and more young tocanans go to study in la paz with an intention to come back and work for the community and cultivate the traditions.
we are unable to find a bus that goes there from coroico so we find a lady taxi driver who takes us there. we know she is giving us a very touristy price, but we want to see the village so much we decide to pay. the lady is asolutelty hilarious, knows everyone in the neighbourhood and stops every now and then for a chat with someone.we spend some time chilling with a family sitting in front of one the houses and the grama says she is 100 years old.
in the evenings we swim in the pool and stare into the stary sky. i truly dont need anything else...

*cos jakby raj na ziemi

dzis dojechalismy do coroico - malej miesciny w gorzystej dzungli na polnoc od la paz. jedzie sie szalenie waska droga (powiedzialabym nawet sciezka), obok przepasc, trzesie i rzuca a kierowcy szalency wyprzedazaja na zakretach. plecaki na dachu a z nami babuszki opowiadajace o swoich rodzinach. mowia po hiszpansku, w keczua i aymara. smieja sie do rozpuku jak im mowimy ze w europie to mozna kupe kasy zarobic jak sie mowi kilkoma jezykami i jak widza nasze przerazone twarze na coponiektorych odcinkach trasy. jest calkiem sporo szalencow ktorzy pokonuja ta trase na rowerach ale mi poki co zycie mile i tez nie do konca chyba ufam ichniejszym rowerom.
na srodku coroico maly placyk z palmami, pare straganow, pare hostelikow i chatek i
tyle. za 50 boliwianow (5 euro) hotel z zapierajacym dech widokiem na gory i basenem !!!wlasnie jakas parada trwa bo maja niedlugo wybory. a w sumie to ciagle tu paraduja z blizej nieznanych nam powodow. jest tu sporo ludzi z korzeniami afrykanskimi bo przywiezli ich kolonizatorzy do pracy w kopalniach i na polach koki i czesc z nich ise do dzis nie pomieszala.
wczoraj w la paz zszedl nam prawie caly dzien na poszukiwaniu tabletek przeciw malarii bo bardzo chcialam odbic na polnoc i zobaczyc boliwijska amazonie. planeta mowi ze trzeba isc kawal autostrada do miejsca gdzie sprezdaja tabeltki wiec zrobilsymy kupe niepotrzebnym kilometrow zeby w koncu dotrzec gdzie trzeba, na co lekarz nam mowi ze nie trzeba antymalarianow bo od 10 lat nie bylo tam zadnego przypadku malari. dzis rano spotykamy chlopaka ktory wasnie z tamtad wrocil i mowil ze bylo ohydnie dzuszno, spocenie i wogole nie fajnie. wiec teraz musze pomyslec co tu zrobic.
okazuje sie tez ze mam podwojnie zabukwany lot do hawany wiec dzwonie do agencji zeby to wyjasnic i tam nikt nie mowi po angielsku wiec dukam niemilosiernie po hiszpansku i przepraszam wielokrotnie za moje dukanie, ale w koncu pani obiecuje czesciowy zwrot kasy wiec chyba dobrze wydukalam.
pokico zostawiamy przyziemne troski i zanurzamy sie w zielonosci :)

*what our gringos´ eyes manage to see in la paz

we got to laz and instaled ourselves in a very gringo hostel. on a plus side it has hot water and is in a very centre. after sucres´ beauty, la paz seems dirty, chaotic and not too impressive. maybe coz i havent spotted a good market yet :) the city is located in a canyon and quite high too, so we keep loosing our breath pacing up and down the streets.
we go to the witches market and ponder the goods which can be bought. they are as follow : llamas´ fetuses which people bury under the houses in order to scare of ghosts and as a sacrifice to patchamama (mother earth), fertility and potence herbs and teas, little figures and stones and other stuff that our gringos´ mind wont be able to apprehend.
we also go the museum of the coca, which is a fascinating eye opener. it shows how coca has been used for 4500 years and has been a sacred, ritual palnt which bonds the community, helps to reach to the spirituality and helps to fight the altitude, the hunger and the tiredness. then the europeans came and the church banned it as ´diabolic´. but when the opressors understood that the miners work more efficiently when they chew coca, they asked the church to allow it and even made it abligatory. how 2 faced we humans are!
then the europeans extracted cocaine from the leaf and the whole mess started. intrestingly enough coca cola used to contain cocaine. now the 50% of cocaine consumption goes to the us, so the us wants to destroy as much coca fields as possible. how about doing something to prevent cocaine use or fight the drug trafficers at home, ha? also the chemicals needed to produce cocaine from the coca leaf come from the western countries.
there is a legend here that says the leaf given to the people of the andes as a miracle, in the hands of a white man turned into the white powder and brings misery and darkness.
we also go to the valle the la luna, amazing canyon just outside la paz, where water, winter and sun created maze'like structures.
on the way back we try to exchange our books in the city book exchange spots and are disgusted by the fact that they CHARGE you for this. i guess humans wont take long to come up with money making ideas from anything.

*nieprzyzwicie pyszne jedzenie w sucre

strajk sie skonczyl i ruszylismy do sucre. przepiekna koloniala architektura w znacznie lepszym stanie niz w potosi. bieluskie koscioly stojace w cieniu palm. mniej ludzi w tradycyjnych ciuszkach, wiecj bladych twarzy. zaskakujaco malo lysiejacych facetow = nawet mamy taka zabawe kto ich wypatrzy wiecej.z aspecjalnie nie jest to przystojny narod. z kobietami juz lepiej, dzieci tez przesliczne, nie wiadomo kiedy zamieniaja sie w niezbyt urodziwych panow.
ruszamy za miasto zobaczyc miejsce gdzie odkryli slady dinozaurow. niesamowite odciski dinozaurzych lap na pionowej scianie! dzieki ruchom tektonicznym z poziomych odciskow zrobila sie pionowa sciana. calkiem wow. dorobili do tego cos jak lunapark wiec robimy sobie zdjecia z replikami dinozaurow i wracamy do miasta przez droge miedzy zapierajacymi dech w piersiach gorami i przez ulice gdzie naprawiaja wielkie ciezarowy. dosc czesto tu spotykamy specjalistyczne ulice i dzielnice np. ulica fryzjerow, owocow, pieluch itp.
jedziemy tez na ryneczek do tarambuco i przechadzamy sie wsrod tlumu handlarzy i nawalu turystow. mozna kupic tradycyje ciuszki, swiniaka, zielsko i chinski bubel. raj dla oka, ale nie za bardzo mozna porobic fajen zdjcia bo tzreba sie tajniaczyc.
tak sie rozpisawszy na malo wazne tematy, czas przesc do rzeczy ktora chyba bedzie mi sie kojazyla z sucre najbardziej = stragany z jedzeniem!!! dawno tak sie nie objadlam pysznosciami ktore kosztuja grosze, doslownie grosze. mamy juz swoja ulubiona pania od sokow, obiadow, sniadan i api = napoju z czerwonej kukurydzy z domieszka cynamonow i gozdzikow. wpadam prawie po drodze co prawda na pana niosacego polowke swiniaka, ale mozna to wytlumaczyc moim podekscytowaniem kolejnym posilkiem.
najkolorowszy to market gdzie mozna kupic wszystko, sprzedawcy nawoluja i tak sie dzien za dniem przetacza. jeszcze troche i mnie z tad nie wytocza.

*mine tour in potosi

as the drivers´ strike in bolivia continues, im joining a tour to visit the mines. we get to wear protective clothing and helmets amd are taken first to the miners´ market to but gifts forthe miners and then to the mines. some of the guys we meet underground are merly teenagers and they spend from 8 to 12 hours a day underground. the miners are divided into 3 classes : 1st class, who are kind of bosses = they decide where to dig and buy dynamite. to become one you need a few years of expierience and quite a lot of money coz you need to pay to other premier class miners so they accept you. 2nd class miners are the guys who work underground, follow the tin veins and do the digging (the mines started with the silver extraction, but i dont think there is any left at this stage). the 3rd class miners are the ones who transport the leftover material. they make between 60 and 80 bolivianos (6 to 8 euro!) a day. after 10 to 15 years of working in the mines they most likely die from the lung diseases. when a miner dies, sometimes his wife comes to work in the mines, but we havent met any women underground, JUST working overground with the transport. they all chew coca leves to cheat hunger and exhaustion. for explosions and as a sacrifice to Tio (uncle) they use 96% alcohol, which they also drink (i had a sip and it burnt down to my throat). Tio is an idol,kind of god they worship and ask for protection and good diging. we are told that it was the spanish who wanted to introduce God to the miners but the miners couldnt or didnt want to learn who to pronounce Dio so they made up their own version =Tio. we are told that during the colonial times 8mln indigenious people and slaves brought from africa died underground. an interesting but a horrid day.
i met 2 guys from israeland the us and we hung out for the rest of the day. we might go to sucre together when the strike finishes. meanwhile we go to their hostel for a bottle of local beer and a shower (as they have hot water and we dont and it is just across the road)

*potosi - kierowcy chca jezdzic po pijaku

dotrzec do potosi bylo calkiem latwo, wydostac sie z tamtad juz trudniej. agnieszce dokucza wysokosc (ciagle jestesmy na ponad 4 km) wiec ja udaje sie na miasto z misja zdobycia biletow do sucre i lisci koki. z koka nie ma probelmu kazda babuszka na ulicy i na rynku sprzedaje koke, gorzej z biletami. jade minibusikiem za miasto, bo tam jest stacja autobusow. do busika wciska sie dwa razy wiecej ludzi niz jest miejsc. jedziemy po nowej dzielnicy ktora wydaje sie byc jednym wielkim placem budowy. zadnego gringo tu nie uswiadczysz. moze juz wszyscy wiedza o tym o czym ja mam sie za chwiel dowiedziec. stacja zamkieta, ludzie koczuja z wielkim tobolami przed. pan policjant mowi mi ze jest strajk kierowcow. moze skonczy sie manana. a moze nie. wiec wracam z niczym. ide na miasto moze cos sie wywiem. pani w biurze podrozy mowi ze to wszystko wina prezydenta, bo wprowadzil nowe prawo zakazujace jazdy po piajku. kierowcom sie to nie podoba, no bo ja to tak maja prowadzic po trzezwemu? potem rozmawiam z chlopakami ktorzy namowili taksowkarza zeby ich zawiozl do sucre i nawet troche ujechali ale jak ludzie zobaczyli ze taksowkarz bojkotuje strajk to zaczeli biec za samochodem i walic wen. taksowkarz nie mial wyjscia jak wysadzic pasarzerow.
coz robic, szwedam sie po miasteczku, podziwam kolnialna architekture (co prawda w oplakanym stanie) i zapisuje sie na wyjazd do kopalni na jutro.

* and we are kids again :)

we got up early to drive to salar de uyuni, which is a salt flat , a leftover from a prehistoric lake minchin. when we got to the salar it was raining like crazy, which meant that the salar was like a huge lake or sea. nothing to do with a magic landscape where the ground reflects the sky and you can see salty hexagons. you should have seen our faces... we were all close to crying thinking that we wouldn t be able to see the magic thing so long waited for. but then we drove closer to the centre of the salar, the sun came out and the water got absorbed by the salty ground and the perfect refelection of the sky and clouds appeared. we were so craizily happy and started running around barefoot and taking more and more silly photos. we were all 5 years old agian :) we got our true salar experience :)
our group is really cool and the night before we were joking that we are all in a kind of limbo, not really knowing what to do with our lives, so it seems that south america is the place to come and think what to do with yourselves. so we keep thinking:)
once we got to uyuni , it turned out that the only atm in town is broken and it would be fixed manana. it turned our later that the same answer had been given for the past feew days.... but we managed to got some money from the bank place (kind of) and sam and paula invited us for drinks so all finished well. showers in uyuni imited to 3-minutes-standing in a lukewarm water.
we spent a day wandering around markets and street sellers where all ladies wear two long black plaits and fancy hats and huge coulourful skirts. the are shier here and i feel shy to take photos. they dont seem to enjoy being captured on the memory cards. from a lady at the market we buy some roasted (or maybe dried) beans which i think is like a snack here and she tells us that we have very nice teeth at the same time showing here well used jaw . tomorrow wa are going to potosi.

*ochy i achy i wowy nad boliwijskim krajobrazem

przez ostatnie dwa dni glownie zajmowalismy sie wzdychaniem i zachwytami nad boliwijskim krajobrazem jadac autem terenowym przez poludnie boliwi.
laguny, jeziora, gory, gejzery, skalne twory, cos co wyglada jak rodem z obrazow
Daliego flamingi i vincunie (cos jak llamy) - nisamowita mikstura kolorow i form. jestesmy z bardzo fajna grupa 12 osob i mamy kierowcow ktorzy maja po jednej KASECIE z boliwianska muzyka i tylko zmieniaja strony.... czasem sie wymianiaja na kasety :)
jestemysm na ponad 4000 mnpm i niektorych (age miedzy innymi) dopadla choroba wysokosciowa. bola ich glowy i slabo im. mi w sumie tylko troche brakuje tchu. i serce chwilami wali jak oszalale. w nocy spimy w czyms jak bunkier pustynny, jest zimno i nie ma prysznica wiec sie opatulamy we wszystko co mamy i idziemy spac. wszyscy spia jakos dziwnie, mi sie spi ze mam denge, samowi ze jest zonaty z victoria beckham a paula wstaje po tabletki na glowe.
na granicy boliwijskiej pan w mundurze pokazuje mi plakat z evo moralezem i z duma mowi ´to nasz prezydent¨ wiec sie pytam czy go popiera a on mi z usmiechem pelnym zlotych zebow odpowiada ze tak. pierwszy prezydent wybrany z lokalnej ludnosci. w boliwii 60% ludnosci to lokalni ( w sensie ze nie najezcy ani imigranci z europy).
cos dochodzi do nas o trzesieniu ziemi w chile ale nie ma netu ani telefonow ani zasiegu wiec nie wiemy za wiele ani nie mozemy nikomu dac znac ze jestemsmy cali. jeden chlopak od nas z grupy byl z santiago i znalazl gdzies telefon i dzieka Bogu jego rodzina jest cala. jutro jedziemy na solniska:)