Natural Beauty of Argentina

After traveling through Bolivia for the last couple months, I wasn't ready for the sticker shock that awaited me in Argentina. Argentina seems to be out of their financial crisis that saw the downfall of the peso in 2002. Prices for buses and hotels are about 50 to 100% higher than what the Lonely Planet book that is only 6months old states and the prices continue to surge. My budget of spending only $25/day is being blown out of the water.

Despite the exploding budget, I couldn't miss Argentina. Patagonia has been on my top 3 travel list for some time. Therefore, I started my Argentinian journey in the North, but fell ill with bronchitis/pneumonia. The hostel had to call the doctor to come straight to my hostel bed to treat me because I was bedridden for a few days and couldn't seem to get out. The doctor even had my antibiotics delivered directly to my bed. I like the Argentinian health care service. Since dorm life wasn't helping, I upgraded my accommodations to a hotel spa in the vineyards. I used up all my Starwood hotel points for one wonderful night of luxury. After a couple days lounging around the pool, being pampered and treated to a massage, I finally had the strength to enjoy Argentina.

Argentina is known for its natural beauty throughout the country. In the North, the landscape takes on a life of its own with the mountainside taking on familiar shapes with the iron, copper and sulfur in the sand adding an element of color. This particular region is referred to as the Quebrada de Cafayate.





I then headed south to Tafi del Valle, but unfortunately didn't wake up at the right hour to get off the bus and ended up 3 hrs south of where I was suppose to be. I then backtracked back up to Tafi, but somewhat regretted that. There's not a whole lot to do in Tafi, but enjoy the rolling green hills. So, I just chilled, watched the hills roll nowhere, and continued to recover from my illness.

Live Dynamite

Potosi is billed as the highest city in the world. Given that I had trouble breathing in this city at over 4000m, I believe it. Granted, I was a little sick, but upon entering Potosi, I could barely climb up a set of stairs without stopping for more oxygen 1/4 up the way.

Potosi gained its fame as the city that built Spain out of silver. Silver has been mined for centuries here and as a result, millions of miners and slave laborers have died in the mines. Mining continues and although the conditions have improved for miners, they are still not ideal. I took a tour inside the mine and found myself surrounded by asbestos, dust, darkness and claustrophobia. I'm not surprised to find the miners only live to around age 42 because of these harsh working conditions. Thankfully, lots of soda pop, cigarettes and cocoa leaves makes their work slightly more bearable. Mining is hard work. One of the miners let me help him pound a hole into the rock so he could put some dynamite inside. I didn't do much damage to the rock, but more to my body.

Inside each mine, the miners have a shrine to Tio, the devil who they worship to protect them from caving mines. I gave Tio some coca leaves as good luck to ensure that the mine would still be intact while I toured around inside.　The donation worked and I made it out alive albeit a little breathless. I'm sure I took home some asbestos as well inside me.


Outside, the mine, I had the privilege of holding live dynamite. I had the tourist version with the extra long cord. The guides let me and the other tourists hold this ticking time bomb as we all posed for pictures. Thankfully, none of us dropped it while we slightly panicked passing it around. The guide then ran off to throw the dynamite into the river and we all watched as it blew up. Exciting times indeed.

Stan Makes New Friends

Although Stan is quite shy, he has branched out to make new friends along the way. See, I haven't forgotten about dear Stan. In Nicaragua, he met some friendly ancient statues.
In the Bolivian jungle, he tried to play with Mariano the tigrillo, but Mariano was a little over aggressive and pulled him apart. Don't worry, he fits back together easily enough.

The pumas didn't really want to play with him because they were in heat and so he just petted them some.

On the Salt Flats in Bolivia, we played with the perspective and Stan is now taller than me.

At Diabetes Camp, Mary Lizeth warmed up to him and he ended up with a crush on her.

His final friend, is Ba, the cat, who sells shoes in Bolivia. Stan makes friends where ever he goes and people really like to learn about him although they still confuse him with the Chinese finger traps.

Constitutional Reform for Bolivia

Political activism is alive and well in Bolivia. In January, Bolivia held elections to determine whether the constitution should be amendeded. Granted, I've never been a strong political activist, but I enjoyed spending time with Erica who is, during this time. She has even been arrested for charging the senate floor during a protest. We both seemed frustrated though in deciding which side we should support. Bolivia's election was simply to vote yes or no on a number of constitutional amendments as a whole. I would have found it easier to vote on each issue separately, but that apparently is too complicated. In general, the amendments allow Bolivia to follow in Hugo Chavez's footsteps in decentralizion towards socialism and putting more power at the state level. The wealthy tend to favor "no" on the constitution, while the indigenous favor "yes". Granted Evo Morales is of indigenous background and the first Bolivian president with this heritage. He favors the poor and they love him. Many people voting no, voted no simply because they are against Morales. They feel that he is power hungry, not helping the people at all, but just creating alliances with Russia, Venezuela and Cuba for his own good. As much as I am for the indigenous, I would have voted "no" because I'm unclear how this referendum is good for Bolivia in the future.

Some of the amendments put more control of law in the hands of the local rule. This has recently been demonstrated when several hundred local indigenous set fire to the house of an opposition leader. The locals say that due to the constitution amendment, it is in their right to do so and evict people. Mob rule is gaining ground as many against the constitution feared. Although, Morales had hoped to unite the people of Bolivia, his constitution may very well divide it further between the wealthier landowners and the poor indigenous. Landowners are restricted in how much more land they can purchase as they now cap out at a maximum. I'm unclear of how land distribution back to the poor might happen and details are probably still in the works.

Other caveats, natural resources are now at the control of the state and new investments from foreign companies are not happening. In the long run, Bolivia may lose out on these future investments in their country. With the referendum, Morales can now stand for reelection for another year. This could possibly lead to a never ending rule year after year.

Both sides of the "yes" and "no" marched in full force through the streets of Cochabamba where I was at the time. Cochabamba was an interesting place to be because of its strong divide between the two segments. Although against the constitution, I rooted for the indigenous and their belief in having additional rights to support them. I just hope that Morales can find the common ground to reunite the people and really use his power to focus on his country's needs at this time.

After the election, Erica and I partied with the locals in the streets. Erica even made it on national television dancing away with an elder Bolivian man. The camera could not stop focusing on her and I enjoyed watching her on the big screen nearby. Being 6ft tall and blonde, she definitely stood out.

I will be interested to watch Bolivian politics continue to unfold. We don't even have a US ambassador in Bolivia because Morales thought he was conspiring with the CIA against him. Oh well, it's not like it hasn't happened in the past.

Playing with Perspective

Seven years ago, I trekked into Bolivia via bus and discovered a landscape so incredible that it has become one of my top travel highlights. I enjoyed the natural wonder of the blinding white salt flats so much, I decided to return for a second viewing, something I have never done before in my travels.

The Salar de Uyuni covers an expansive 4000 sq. miles of salt land or about 10 billion tons of salt of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted each year. The salt flats are also rich in Lithium and so the Bolivian government is now considering mining for Lithium, an element useful to develop lithium batteries. In the meantime, the salt flats serve as Bolivia's main tourist destination. Because of it's flat, white surface, creating surreal photos is all part of the experience in enjoying the salt flats.

Bolivia's Carnaval

Carnaval Bolivia style is much different than the Brazilian version. There are no sexy women wearing small outfits parading around on floats. And the crowd is different; hundreds of thousands of people are not dancing about in super party mode. I've never been to Carnaval in Brazil, but I have seen the pics. I wasn't in a party mode and so Bolivia's pace was more my style anyway. Bolivia's version seemed much more about the people, all 400,000 of them in attendance with very few tourists, and their traditions.

The Bolivian Carnaval tradition began with the Uru people of Bolivia celebrating their Ito festival, an Andean tradition to celebrate mother earth that later turned into the Virgin Mary due to Christian influence. The Spanish stopped this and the tradition converted into a more Catholic ritual around Lent. The festivities begin a month before Lent, but the real fun starts Thursday before Lent.

On Thursday, the indigenous people of the varying communities parade around the city in their traditional dress and music. This parade literally goes on all day and I could not stop taking photos of all the colors and faces with the scenic Andes mountain background.

On Saturday, the real festivities began. Starting at 7am, a parade of costumed individuals starting with devils dancing with cuddly white bears (not sure how those performers survive the heat in full fuff), musicians rocking out (interestingly only men are in the bands), and single women in short skirts swinging their hips and married women in longer skirts swaying theirs. They come from all over Bolivia and proudly demonstrate their talents. In an unbelievable fashion, the last group doesn't start until 1am including the little kids. There are just that many performers in the parade, 20,000 dancers and 10,000 musicians. The parade snakes its way up and around the streets of Oruro until it comes to the final stop 4km later, the church at the top of the hill, where supposedly in 1789 a mural of the Virgin Mary appeared here in the richest mineshaft and therefore Oruro became the place to be for Carnaval and they worship the Virgin de la Candelaria. At the top, they put on their best performance in front of the church located next to the mineshaft before nearly dying of exhaustion. When the last group ends around 7am, the first group starts all over again. The first day the performers are not suppose to drink out of respect for the Virgin, but the second day, they are all drinking as they mosey along the parade route. They also don't have to wear masks the second day, which isn't as much fun to watch, but they seem in better spirits because of the liquor.

How the women in the parade stop to take bathroom breaks is still a mystery along with how they dance for some 5hrs or more in those heels uphill. I am truly impressed with their stamina. Many of these women look 60, but most women in Bolivia look older than they really are. They are probably 25 in reality and can take these long dance routines.

In between debuts, small children pound unknowing victims with water from water balloons or water guns as well as with spraying foam cream. I try not to make eye contact and look innocent as I walk by them, but invariably, I am hit. Most people wear ponchos during the parade just to avoid this and those carrying weapons are just waiting to be attacked. I participated in this activity in Cochabamba during the elections, but just didn't want to get wet here because it was cold and I really don't like to be wet.

I put my pics in a slideshow format and so those receiving this via a feed or email may need to go to the actual site to view the pics.

The Social Scene and Final Thoughts

Despite the extreme conditions and hard work or maybe because of them, we definitely made sure to have a good time in Santa Maria. Santa Maria is located about 20 miles away and was our refuge for electricity and alcohol. Getting there meant ensuring that we ate our dinner within 15 minutes so that we could catch the 7pmish bus there. I've tried hitching after that time with no luck. Getting back, we usually caught the 10pmish bus or hitched, or I would wake up a taxi guy to take us back.


Overall, I really enjoyed the people I met and the community we created. The long-term volunteers take on further responsibility in organizing the weekly and daily tasks for the other volunteers, monitoring the candy shop, and settling new volunteers in. I was even lucky enough to meet and dance with Juan Carlos, the founder of Inti Wara Yassi. Interestingly enough, he knows Dr. Patricia Blanco with whom I worked on the Bolivian diabetes education. They are both Ashooka Fellows, a prestigious non-profit award from the States. I especially enjoyed meeting the local Bolivian teenagers and they quite appreciated that I spoke Spanish to them since they didn't speak any English. I am amazed that at age 14 or so, they are able to care for these wild animals and appropriately train them.


My cabin, Cochabamba, was mainly for the short-timers. It was the biggest cabin fitting 10 people and the dirtiest especially since the chanchos lived beneath us. We always joked that we wanted to roast the chanchos and Alan 2 even tried to start a "death to chanchos" campaign. I'm not sure that ever fully took off, but it became the running joke of our cabin. At one point, we tried to board up all the undersides of the cabin to ensure that they wouldn't enter. We felt a little bad watching them trying to get back to their house. Somehow, they eventually outsmarted us and made their way back in. In Santa Maria, we danced to lively 80's music and often changed the words of songs to include the chanchos. My favorite was "i want to be a chancho, chancho man..." Yes, we were a little obsessed with these creatures. On my last day, I gathered the cabin and the chanchos up for a final photo below.

One Saturday, we even had a barbecue to raise money to buy new land. Everyone participated in either donating some service or in buying something. It became a night of drunken controversy. I became one of 3 winning bidders to spend a night sleeping with the 3 sister pumas that I work with. However, in the end, Naomi,the manager, who tends to be overly emotional, canceled the whole thing because she felt like no one was happy with the result. She failed to realize that everyone, but she, was happy with the final result. Oh well, Inti Wara Yassi lost out on what would have amounted to about $960, the amount we needed for the deposit on the new land. Instead, we continued the auction on another night and raised about $960 in total with all the other items that included Spanish lessons, a massage, volunteer slave for a day, breakfast for a week, peanut butter, no morning chores for a week, seeing a couple of the jaguars, etc. I ended up buying a jungle facial and spa experience from Laura, from Finland, and Lauren, from France for about $16. We had a great time with it too. They used oatmeal and cucumbers on me and acted extremely professional the entire time calling me "madam". We could not stop laughing throughout, which made it hard for the oatmeal and cucumbers to stay on my face. All in all, I enjoyed my time there, and am still hoping my scar on my cheek from when Inti dragged me through the jungle goes away.


In terms of final thoughts, Inti Wara Yassi provides a very unique experience to care for wild animals and no previous experience is required. I worry though about the psychological and physical damage that can occur when the wild animals decide to lash out on the volunteers. I don't think people realize just how easy this can happen. Given that the training is always done with whichever volunteer is working with the animal at the time, you are never sure if you are being properly trained. I found out the hard way after being yelled at by Naomi that I wasn't properly feeding the pios. Better training is much needed at this organization to ensure better safety for both the animals and the volunteers.

At the moment, it appears to me that Inti Wara Yassi is just collecting cats. There is no long term strategy for release and more efforts could be put forward towards prevention. A lot of work goes into caring for these animals and I think the animals should be used to show the public that buying wild animals from the black market only causes them harm. They are better left in the wild. I am told that the new park that we just raised money for will have more educational efforts. Still, there is no release program. The Bolivian government will not allow them to release a cat into the jungle and so these cats will now need to be cared for until they die, which is probably in about 15 years. How sustainable is this though? Will Inti Wara Yassi be able to buy enough jungle and have enough volunteers to care for these animals indefinitely? I guess time will tell. Overall, I really feel grateful, privileged and honored to have had the opportunity to engage in such an interesting experience with such gorgeous animals. At the same time, I think my time is better spent working with street kids and the poor probably because I put a higher value on people than animals and I don't think the kids will bite me or at least they haven't so far.