Travelling like a Rasta!

So Im sitting here writing this blog whilst everyone in the hostal is asleep as I have drunk too much Yerba Mate this evening and found out after a good 6 cups of it that it contains caffeine looool, so what better time to write a blog till now?

Travelling is such an amazing experiance and I am enjoying more or less every single minute of it, I am writing this blog from Cordoba, Argentina which is a place I have absolutely fallen in love with and Rach has as well, for what reason? I couldnt tell you, but we just love it here. We´re staying at a hostal called Baluch hostal and its the best hostal we´ve stayed at all year and is not the most expensive one either. Im not going to bore you with a day to day account of what Ive done since  my last blog as you´ll get bored sh*t less lol. So I´ll write the main things which Ive done so far.....

DEATH ROAD
Death Road is one of my favourite things Ive done travelling, its in La Paz, Bolivia and was absolutely AWESOME!!!! Basically its called death road as it is or should I say WAS THE worlds most dangerous road when it was inuse due to the amount of deaths etc due to the seriously bad conditions of the road which was literally dirt and the huge drops and sharp turns. In 2006 the bolivian goverment built a new road so the death road is now out of use for cars and is just a place for travellers on the search of an Adrenaline rush which summed up me and Rach. We went with a really proffesional company called Xtreme Downhill and were kitted up in this black and orange biking gear, gloves, elbow pads, knee pads and full face helmet, I felt immensly cool in that get up and could totally imagine myself walking around Edgware station in it haha. You start off at 4,300 something meters high up the mountain on the in use road, before switching on the dirt road which we rode for around 40 kilometeres if Im right, we ended up at 1000 something meteres high and in the jungle. The bike ride is NOT a joke, you seriously have to keep every ounce of concentration in your body on the road, one wrong turn and your off the side of the road into the deep depths of the bolivian jungle. There were a few times when I lost slight control of my bike due to riding over a huge rock or something but thankfully got my control back again. I spent the whole ride f´ing and blinding and praying to God not to let me die and I made it down safely but not only safely, first... YHHHH BUDDY haha. Me and Rach have a really cool t-shirt for completing the ride which is now my bed time t-shirt.

POTOSI MINES

The Potosi mine tour was a very random yet interesting tour, which yet again is not one to be taken lightly. We went with a company called Real Deal (which I strongly recommend if your planning to do the mine tours) which is run by ex potosi miners who can all speak very good english incase you don´t know any spanish. We literally had to sign a declaration signing away any responsabilty to the company incase we get injured or die in the mines, that was a very reassuring thing to do just before we done it. Anyways the tour starts off going to a miners market where you can buy gifts for the miners which we´ll pass who´ll be working whilst we are inside the mines. Do you want to guess what I bought for 15 bolivianos (1 pound 50)? DYNAMITE!!! Potosi is probably the only place in the whole of south america where you can buy dynamite not only very cheaply but also so easily. We also bought some home made fags and coca leaves which the miners chew day in day out whilst working (many of them refuse to work without it) as it stops hunger pains and keeps you energized whilst working. We then headed off to a factory where they seperate all the minerals which are mined, and we saw pure gold!! I was so tempted to just shove it in the pockets of my gringa trousers haha. Then it was off to the mines, the mines were no joke, we had to climb on hands and knees, bend our backs at angles they should never be bent at and climb down extremely dangerous ladders as we passed through the levels of the mines. The most crazy thing was that the mines are all still in use and it is a source of income for the majority of the men of Potosi, we even saw a 17 year old boy working within the mines but heard stories from our Guide that he started working in the mines at the age of 7!!!!!!!!!! It is apparently illegal to work in the mines until the age of 18 but there has never been anyone to impose these laws there. The miners worship a weird devil like statue within the mines which we saw, they drink to this statue which actually has devil horns and leave offereings to it like coca leaves, fags and alcohol. Every week in June they sacrifice a llama at the beginning of the mining tunnel and spread its blood around it and bury its organs at the beginning as its meant to keep them safe in the mines apparently. I didnt quite understand it but the tradition has been going on for years so wasn´t about to question it. The mining tour was seriously interesting but a huge eye opener as to how much risk the miners take to put food on their table and to essentially keep their children in education as many wouldn´t even dream of having their children work in the mines like them.


SALAR DE UYUNI, UYUNI, BOLVIA
The Salt flats of Uyuni are normally done on a 3 day tour but due to the most random fall of snow a week or 2 before much of the normal route was closed off as there were still 2 jeeps lost in the snow somewhere, its the most snow that had fallen in decades and had even covered the desert of chile! Instead we done a day tour of the Salar and it was beautiful, we randomly bumped into 5 of the other Project Trust Peru girls whilst we were there so got a lot of pictures together, even more randomley two of the girls on our tour were Project Trust volunteers from Chile! Project trust really is taking over the world!!! The salt flats are the biggest in the world stretching for god knows how many killometres, it was very cool and yes I did lick the floor to test it all wasn´t a big white lie and it was extremely salty. I got some really cool photos that day which I will upload at some point when I can be bothered. The actual town of Uyuni I hated, it was just horrible and I got food poisening which meant I was throwing up the whole 10 hour train journey to Villazon (Bolivian border town to Argentina).

SALTA

Salta was a pretty town but our time spent there was made what it is by the fact we spent it with the 5 other Peru Project Trust girls who we met up with in Uyuni, we all stayed at the same hostal so it was a very fun time, we didnt actually do an awful lot there, we had a taste of argentinian night life which wasnt all that great as the busiest club started playing rock music and the bar man mixed our beer with some mint liqour which felt like a chore to drink as it was such a horrible concoxtion. We got a cable car up this mountain and got a really nice view of Salta but the absolute most immense thing we done in Salta was go out for STEEEEEEAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!! Ive never eaten so much meat in my life and I swear to god I was suffering from meat sweats by the end of the meal haha. We ordered shoulder meat, stomach meat and rib meat which each came with a huge serving and we were all stuffed by the end with enough meat to take home in a doggy bag for a breakfast sandwhich! The whole time I was eating the steak I was thinking about my Dad and how much he would have absolutely loved this, don´t worry dear father I ate enough for the both of us lol.


CORDOBA
Cordoba as I have said there isn´t a huge amount to do here but the vibe of the city is really nice, I would be happy enough to spend my whole time here in Argentina in this exact hostal. We went to the Che Guaverea museum here which is basically his old family vacation house which has been converted into a museum. If you don´t know who he is, bow your head in shame and type him into google, I´m not going to leave a huge paragraph explaining his life to you guys, sorry.

THE REST OF TRAVELLING
Tomorrow or really I should say today in about 2 hours, me and rach will be taking a 6 hour bus to Rosario which funnily enough counts as a short bus journey for us, from there we will stay 4 days or something before heading off to Buenos Aires to explore there. From Buenos Aires we are taking a crazy 3 day bus back to Lima, that will be fun.. NART! When we bought the bus ticket in Lima the ticket seemed unbelievably expensive but after seeing how expensive buses are here in Argentina it looks like we may have even potentially SAVED money going with Cruz del Sur.

I honestly do love travelling, I dont like living out of a suitcase but I enjoy the fact we see something new everyday and meet some really amazing people. I hate how expensive travelling is, travelling on a budget is very hard in Argentina as everything is so expensive, me and Rach have literally succumbed to spending around $2 on a meal MAX, so general just spend our time eating sandwhiches or pasta as luckily enough the hostals in Argentina have kitchens so we dont have to spend our money in expensive resteraunts. We have also had to change our original plans of going to Iguazu falls as to go there would cost $200 just for a bus itself not including enterance fees or hostal stays whilst we are there, and seeing as though we were only planning on spending 3 days there and my depleating bank balance we decided not to go there and try and stretch our money further elsewhere which seems like a very good idea, We´ve seen so much already we would just be spoiling ourselves going to see Iguazu falls.

Travelling has made me into a Rasta man, with my jamaica flag gringa trousers and my newly bought Mate cup which I will now be proudly taking with me everywhere like a typical argentinian. I must tell you all when I return to the UK I will be doing the same thing but it is NOT drugs, it looks like a bong but its only tea which you drink with a metal straw loool.

Im gonna end this long blog now and the next one I write should be in Buenos Aires. 25 days till Im home eeeek, thats just another whole blog in itself my thoughts and feelings on that, so I´ll give it a rest there haha.

Take care, god bless, peace love and harmony and all that jazz
Simply signed, simply compas
Tan xxxxxxxxxx