A monkey stole my camera...

This is a true story. I bump into Lucas Young from the animal sanctuary (Bolivia) here in Arequipa. And he told me that after I left, he was walking to work in the sanctuary as usual when all of a sudden a capuchin monkey leap on him, tore into his daypack, pulled his digital camera out and took off. Lucas was stunned but took chase, however the monkey was gone. He manage to find the camera case in the bush, and just as he was about to give up, another monkey park staff approach to hand him his camera after encountering and frightening the monkey to drop the camera.

Now the most amazing thing is this, he showed me the scratch digital camera and the 9 photos which taken by the monkey!!!!!!!! No shit! I saw it, the photos were a tad blurred, but you can make out pictures of tree branches, leaves, furry fingers, and the sky.

OMG!!! So after nicking the camera the monkey figured out how to turn the damn thing on, and to press firmly on the trigger button to capture those photos. They are so bloody intelligent! They obviously observe the thongs of tourist who visit the sanctuary with their camera and figure how to operate them.

I have had other capuchin monkey experience at the sanctuary too! Such as on my very first day when a monkey manage to enter our locked cage (which doubles as our office) and stole a machete. I had to chase after her and manage to frighten her to drop the machete (whilst she was climbing up the tree). I have also been told that one of the staff have given the monkey a key and a lock to see if they could figure out how to use it. It didn´t take them long. Incredible!

Amended

Here is a reply from Lucas about his stolen camera after reading my blog...

Hey matey, the blog on the stolen camera was pretty spot on, expect it was 11 photos taken by Budi, the monkey.

Lake Titicaca

Karl the hippie!

Allright all! I´ve just spent the last few days on a lake situated at 3,820 metres high (This is Bolivia and EVERYTHING is up high!). The lake is call Lake Titicaca. It is a beautiful freshwater lake which is more than 230 km long, 97 km wide and covers over 9000 sq km. It also sits attractively in front of the Cordillera Real mountain range in Bolivia. The Cordillera Real range includes three 6000 metres peaks all covered in snow.

So me and Karl (this American from San Diego) have been doing a whole lot of trekking. We must have walked over 40 kms in two days. Up and down the mountain we went. And on Sunday night we spent the night on the island call Isle del Sol, also known as Island of the Sun. This is the most sacred place of the Inca people. It is here that they believe their first emperor rose from te rock called Titicaca. But to us it was all about the scenery, whilst the history and ruins are just bonus. Coz I am off to Machu Piccu soon! :)

Strange Ritual on Copacabana

This is the blessing of the car ceremony in the village of Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titikaka. This is the village Priest, and on the car bonnet you see minitual animals and cars place, similar to Chinese belief, as the locals hope to get this in the new year. The only difference is they do not burn it as an offering to their Gods. In this case, this is a mix between the Inka´s God and Christianity. After the "blessing" the people spray Bolivian booze all over the car before drinking the rest! So all in all it is a good little tradition for all participants! :)

Pique a lo Macho

My favorite meal in Bolivia. The Pique a lo Macho is basically chopped up sausage (even better when it is spicy), chopped up beef steak, onions, tomatos and capsicum serve up on a plate of fries.

Muy Rico! (Very delicious!)
amended thanks to my Spanish teacher Nick T... :b

Coca Museum

Taken at the Coca Museum in La Paz. In order for the effects to work, you are meant to stuff a shit load of these - coca leaf, into one corner of your mouth, and suck on it. You are also meant to suck on this activator (on my left hand), which then infuse with the leaf and gets the chemical working. Though after trying this for over an hour in the museum I didn't feel much sensation. And believe me, I chew on HEAPS of leaves! Other backpackers claim that their mouth went numb a little and that some felt a little high, but the only sensation I felt was a dryness in my throat and that I wanted to throw up!

What are the effects the locals feel you wonder? It acts as a bit of a hunger supression (which is why this is so popular with the mine workers as they don't take lunch), it helps with altitude sickness and it gives you more energy to work, or makes you think you got more energy to work. I am not sure how adictive this is but a lot of Bolivians chew on Coca leaves, especially those in the countryside.

The museum had a lot of interesting facts. In fact you should read it online at http://www.cocamuseum.com/main.htm

Zebra Crossing

Hilarious costume in La Paz to patrol the streets and make it safe for pedestrian to cross. They are a God send as traffic in La Paz is MAD. At the same time those mini vans (kinda like a mini bus) you see behind this guy stops anywhere and everywhere, thus making it even more hazardous for pedestrian and other traffic alike. Amazingly, I have yet to witness an accident!

Dirty face after downhill ride!

On Tuesday Carolyn, Andy and I rode down what is known as "The World's Deadliest Road". We did it with B-Side Adventures, a great company whom gave us a fantastic experience.

That's Carolyn, Andy and me at the lunch break spot.

I was a bit nervous the morning of the ride as I only got 4 hours sleep the night before. I was up all night needing the toilet coz I got a dose of diarrhea. All thanks to the llama steak I ate at the "100% Natural Restaurant" the night before. BEWARE!!!

Anyway, the ride on the day was awesome!!! This is a shot of us afterwards. That is me and my face covered in dust. I ate loads of dust as after opting to ride with the "fast" group I was left behind by the others and choke! haha The gravel bit of the ride was scary at parts, as the drop over the side of the cliff was MASSIVE! There were crosses all the way down this road, not surprisingly as the road saw an 100 death annually. Thank God the authorities have since built a "new" road up another mountain for traffic.

The World's Most Dangerous Road

This is it! Officially term the "World's Most Dangerous Road" aka "Death Road".

The following picture was taken at the "official" start of the death road where we were given more instructions on how to handle the scary gravel road.

The road starts higher then Mt Cook, at 4,700 metres and descends to 1,100 metres. Which equates to a MASSIVE 3,600 meters descends! The total length of the bike ride is 65 km long and it took us about 4 hours to get to the bottom. The bike ride was insane and thrilling.

This photo, taken above 4,000 metres to show the trail snaking it's way down the side of the mountain.

This is another view from the top of the mountain ranges unfolding into each other. It is beautiful out here I tell you!

For more wicked and insane pictures of the death road search Google!

Out of there!

I left my job as the bird and snake keeper 3 days early. I did so as I needed to extend my Bolivian visa. It was actually a bit of a relief to have left the aviary as to be honest, I was sick of the birds. Especially the when the macaws crow in unison. That is when you hear Carolyn and or me start swearing at them to shut the f**k up!!! It's hilarious as our friends at the puma site a few meters down could hear us but I tell you what, people that we speak to do feel sorry for us. As the decibel of the crows are LOUD! Especially when you are dealing with 11 macaws.

BUT, we do have our favorite. Both Carolyn and I love Pedro, a blue macaw whom would stick out his tongue at us to let us stroke, and I think he particularly likes Carolyn as he would even lower his head for Carolyn to pet! Unfortunately he is also very possessive, being the only macaw living in a cage alone. He would protect his feeding tray whenever we come to collect it, or would climb onto the door when we attempt to enter to clean his cage. I had to smack him lightly one time with a stick to make him move!

And one thing I must say about the macaws are they are quite intelligent creatures. For example when the monkeys arrive (usually around feeding time) they would yell "al fuera!" which means "go away!", probably coz their previous keepers use to yell it out all the time. A few of them, particularly Watson and Rosa would steal the locks from us when we leave it hanging on their cage. We take 4 of the macaws out for "walks" daily, we would place them on a custom made tree branches to let them walk about. And when they are done they would actually climb down the tree branch and walk their way back to their cages!

As for my snakes, the anaconda has been shedding it's skin for the past 5 days, and I have collected a piece of it for memory. But they are so lovely, I could almost say cute as I really like watching them. For example when I took Maria Lapaz, the boar constructor out for her "walk" the other day, she would slide along until she smells another animal. Such as a big bear call Baloo. It would freeze, stick it's head up in the classic cobra pose, reading to strike. And on Friday I had to teach Gareth, my replacement from the UK, on how to handle the snake, Maria Lapaz would not let him pick her up, due to the presence of Baloo, she coil herself so tightly that we couldn't move her. I tell you it took a lot of coxing and squeezing from my part to make her move so that I could pick her up!

As for the rest of the sanctuary, I must say I did enjoy the company. It's just a pity that most of the people I got on with came later. There were of course Carolyn my aviary partner and her bf Andrew (who is a mirror image of Dave from The Office) from UK, Doctor Phil (whom had a puma originally but twisted his ankle and was made to work at the quarantine instead) from the UK, Lucas from Aussie who works at the monkey Mirador, Sam the nutter Aussie and Fransesa from Chile who works with spider monkeys, Maran the German who works with Gato the puma, Allie from UK who works with the small animals, Daniele who works with Quirky the disabled puma and finally Ximena the local Bolvian whom worked closely with Carolyn and me at the aviary.

Overall working at Inti Wasi has been an interesting experience and one which I will not forget. My advice for potential volunteers are this aren't a democracy so you may not get to work with the animal of your choice, and do check out the rest of the community to see if you would get on with them, watch out for the alpha males (in our case... ISRAELIS!!!!!!!) and ALWAYS wear long sleeves to protect yourself from the savage sand flies!

Me and Maria!

Had to walk my snake today and thought I should get a picture of it. Here is my beautiful boar constructor, it´s name is Marie and it is about 2 meters long. It is one gentle creature and is my favorite animal under my care.

We had to force feed it on Monday as it hasn´t eaten in 2 weeks. But then I found out from a book that boar constructors can go without food for up to a month!

My anaconda however ate like a pig, we fed it 10 pieces of chicken. It is now shedding it´s beautiful skin.

Francisca´s sand flies bite!

Mosquitoes are not the problem out here at the sanctuary. Sand flies are!!!! Check out my Chilean friend Francisca´s back and hands. I took this at lunch time.

Anyone with uncovered body parts are eaten alive by the sand flies. We are not allow to use DEET repellents because of the animals. So the best protection are long sleeve shirts, long pants and socks!

My Spanish classmate

Shelagh is my Spanish classmate. She rocks! Looking at this photo you wouldn´t have guess that she is a 62 years old grandmother, travelling in South America for 6 months on her own. She has 3 kids in their 40´s and 8 grand kids. As part of the 6 months trip in South America she is studying Spanish, working with street kids, saving the turtles in Galapagos Islands.

We were the only 2 students in our Spanish class and we constantly made a nuisance of ourselves to our teacher Elizabeth. It was quite fun to have another person around and to learn with someone else. Last night the class organized salsa class and everyone had fun.

I hope to catch up with Shelagh in Quito in a September as our roads will cross once again!

4 Hostels in 2 weeks!

I have been in Sucre since last Tuesday and I have moved hostels 4 times! The last move was yesterday, after I found a room mate to share an expensive hostel. :)

We thought we´d treat ourselves after staying at crappy hostels for the past week. My room mate is Laird, a 27 Canadian studying Spanish in Sucre like me. And we are staying at the Grand Hostel. As the name implies, it is indeed grand. We walk into 2 beautiful courtyards, filled with statues, water fountain, plants and flowers. Our room overlook the second courtyard. It is HUGE! With 3 beds, 2 of them double size, big mirrors, study table, a huge bathroom and satellite TV. I could lounge in this room all day!

This is definitely the nicest place I have stayed at, and even though it is expensive in Bolivian standards, we are paying 150 Bolivianos for the room. Which comes to USD17.50 between the two of us!

Sucre

I´m still in Sucre, the University city of Bolivia. Yesterday (25th March) there was lots of people out on the streets, marching for Sucre to become the capital of the country. It was loud and lively, with lots of marching bands, plane dropping leaflets, adults letting off bangers and school kids waving the Bolivian and Sucre flags out on the streets.

I am here in Sucre for this week to study Spanish. The routine for the week has been getting up at 7.30am, eat breakfast and take off to my class which starts at 8.10am. The walk to my school is only 7 minutes. After 4 hours of lessons, I would meet up with my new room mate Laird for lunch. Over here in South America lunch is the biggest meal of the day. And our favorite dish is the ¨Menu del Dia¨, meaning menu of the day. And since it is buffet we would stuff ourselves. Afterwards, I´d spend my afternoon doing homework, exploring the neighbourhood, visiting a museum or do some Internet. Finally, I´d meet up with a bunch of people for coffee, followed by dinner. Night time would be spent watching movies and hanging out at the gringo bar call Joy Ride. :)

As for the Spanish lessons so far it is ¨bien¨- well. I still have a long way to go before having a conversation with locals... But I am not too worried about it yet as this is only week 3. I will have more opportunities to practise the lingo!

Tigger Lilly and friends

Tigger lilly wanting to say hi to her putriku with her new friends. Finger puppets purchse from the markets. :)

Each of these puppets cost 2.5 Bolivianos = 40 cents US. In NZ they sell them at Trade Aid for NZD10!

Rubbish worker strike

On Tuesday last week I left Potosi to avoid a miners strike, and arrive in Sucre to see another major strike happening. This time it was the rubbish men. They block off all major roads into the town center with rubbish trucks. They have also dump a pile of rubbish in front of the City Municipal office!

Whilst walking past the Municipal office I saw this cute little doggy hanging around outside.

Not long after, I walk past the Municipal office and saw took a picture of the door... And saw this hanging!

... Such is a dog´s life aye?

Alex the kid

Why do I always end up travelling with French people? Like this fella Alex Taurand. A 23 year old student of Economics whom I met back in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We happen to be on the same route so I ended up sharing a room with him here at Sucre.

But seriously he´s been great! We get on well and he´s been helping me with my Spanish. Yup! Alex studied in Santiago for 6 months so he speaks it fluently. Throughout our stay I´ve been giving him shit about France though, from Green Peace to rugby. :p He is also a brand brasher... in a small way! His entire closet consist of American Apparel, from his undies to his sweater! LOL! But he did point out to me that this brand is not displayed anywhere.

Anyway Alex leaves tomorrow for the border of Paraguay. He will be sorely missed!

Alex also has a blog - It is chilealex.blogspot.com

Cooperative Mine Tour in Potosi

This is a real life TNT you are seeing me holding. In 5 minutes the whole thing would go BOOM! It was lit up and passed around amongst the tourist for posing. This TNT cost 15 Bolivianos all together and is legal to buy anywhere in Potosi. In fact, the number one suicide method is by blowing one self up!

The tour of Potosi´s mine itself was pretty grim. It shows you the harsh working condition face by the miners, some as young as 9 were used, even though the legal age is 18. Luckily we didn´t meet any kids underground. The mine itself is a real working mine, with 4 levels deep. Underground the temperatures can get to 45 degrees. Workers were scurrying past us as we follow our guide inside the shaft. At parts it got very narrow and the fumes were choking. Good thing I wore my Cambodian scarf to help with breathing. Some people freak themselves out and a friend had to be led out after getting too claustrophobic.

Because of the condition underground most often die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 years of entering the mine.

I follow Koala Tours on this and highly recommend them and my guide - Pedro.

Toilets in Bolivia

This is instructions on how to poo found at a hostel from the Bolivian border to Salar de Uyuni. One thing I can say about toilets out here is that despite the fact that the country is the poorest in this region, it is still cleaner and more hygienic then toilets found in Asia. Especially China, Tibet, Nepal and India!

Salar de Uyuni

Here is a 360 degree video taken of the salt flats at Uyuni. Being there blew me away, so watch this and judge for yourself.