FIRE IN THE DANCEHALL

So...where did I leave off? Sort of rushed from my last day in the jungle...to give a bit more detail my last day in the jungle we went to the community of San Miguel. This is where I tried chocolate fruit and the seeds that chocolate is made from...it doesn´t really taste like anything but the fruit is good! I also helped make fresh sugar cane juice with this old machine, and then later drank the sugar cane juice with lemon in it. I also ate grapefruit off the tree, I tried to catch them but only succeeded in catching the one and dropping the other two. Whatever...it´s really hard trying to catch falling grapefruit. The community was really intereting to see, they have a lot of volunteers there and part of me wished that I did my internship in a place like that instead...mostly just because it´s just so far removed and really different from what I know in Canada. I mean...Lima is different, but anything I want from Canada I can most likely find it in Lima as well (except for Vietnamese noodles dear noodles I miss you!).

Following the community visit, Eric, our tour guide made my sister and I rings from wild mango seeds. It´s pretty cool how he makes them...takes a lot of time, I don´t think I would have the patience. Hahaha. I kept saying ¨listo¨ while I was sanding...and he would just say back to me...¨that´s not listo¨.Hahaha. Around this time it began to rain really hard...I guess it wouldn´t have been an experience in the rainforest with it actually raining. Our flight was cancelled, and then it wasn´t cancelled...and we ended up boarding the bus maybe 2 minutes before it left for the airport. On the plane we met a nice Israeli guy named Ron. When we landed in La Paz we shared a taxi with Ron and ended up meeting him, and 2 of his friends that he met in Peru for dinner...and then later playing pool and cards in an all Israeli hostal. It wasn´t sort of a weird feeling to be the only Asians amongst all these Israelis but fun nonetheless.

The next day we left for Uyuni and our Salar de Uyuni trip. The overnight bus was hell and on our way to Uyuni this truck drove by our bus and totally collided in the side of it and took off the side, the side mirror and even broke the front window completely! Poor bus drivers had to drive with a broken window the rest of the time. Eventually they caught up to the truck driver and ended up surrounding him and kicking him...drawing all the locals of this tiny community out. It was really bizarre...not exactly the best way to solve anything I don´t think. But I guess things like insurance don´t exist here. We finally managed to make our way to Uyuni and left for our tour in a timely fashion, after being rudely denied use of bathroom at 2 hostals even though we offered to pay (the public baño was closed).

We ended up being on a tour with 2 older German gentleman and a German couple, it´s too bad that we didn´t get a younger tour group, it might have been more fun. But it was still good. We made our way to the train cemetery...which was interesting, but not that interesting. It was the Salt Lake that still marks my 3 days in Salar de Uyuni. It just seems so alien....stretches and stretches of white salt, and little cones of salt. The Isla de Pescado just sits in the middle of the Salt Lake...rocky and rull of cacti in this landscape that is seemingly barren in resources other than salt. My sister and I took some pretty good shots at the Salt Lake. Afterwards we made our way to the hostal...which was, as they said on the itinerary very basic. Although at this hostal it has been one of the warmer showers I have been able to take in Bolivia so far....they aren´t very common here in Bolivia.

Dinner rolled around the corner and everybody was sitting in the dining area, adjacent to the 2 kitchens. There were 3 tour groups in total, making it I believe 18 foreigners in total, 3 tour guide and 3 cooks. Everybody is just enjoying dinner when all the sudden I hear this ¨boom¨ and this guy comes flying out of the second kitchen, fear on his face and I see from the kitchen the orange glow of fire. It was a gas fire, one of the tubes of the propane tank had leaked. Everybody got out of the dining hall fast...in the chaos I lost my sandal, my keys and my flashlight (all were found later). It was pretty scary because there were 2 propane tanks in the kitchen. My sister and I ended up running into somebody´s property, they ended up being very nice and telling us to come behind the brick wall with them because it was safer. It was pretty scary looking over the wall and into the window of the dining hall and just seeing this orange glow. Eventually they got the fire out, one local girl was burned but not too seriously (as people told me at least). Our cook and the older German gentleman escaped through the window in the other kitchen. Oi vay...small noises are still freaking me out now. I am just glad that things didn´t get worse and that nobody was seriously hurt.

The next day we went to 3 lagunas and the National Park Reserve as well as the stone tree. The landscape in this area is just so strange...I feel like I am on alien land all the time. Flamingos in this seemingly desert area...ostriches...llamas...vicunas. So bizarre. The sun in Salar is wicked and the car gets unbearably hot...I spent a lot of the time with my scarf over my head looking like a really cool person. That night we spent the night in some pretty sketch accomodation...dorm style rooms don´t bother me, but I would at least like clean sheets (or seemingly clean). When I peeled back my sandy feeling sheets, I found a dirty old snot rag in my bed. Lovely.

The next day we had an early wake up call at 4;30, went to the geysers and the hot springs. I just dipped my feet in the hot springs, but at one point I wanted to get a better photo so I started walking...then slipped then ended up getting most of my pants wet. This wouldn´t be such a big deal usually, but Salar de Uyuni is bitterly cold in the morning and night. I was literally a popsicle until my pants dried. I think because of the many temperature change, I came down with a fever on our last day in Salar.

Oi! Anyway...have to cut this entry short again. My hour is nearly up! Hasta luego amigos!