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20th-22ndJuly
We were lucky to get onto a three day trek around the Cordilleras and Managua crater with Condor trekkers, an eco-friendly organisation. The first two days we were with a big group and we hiked down the 'inca trail' which was a pleasant walk, not too steep and some great views. We arrived at a small waterfall where we had a vegetarian lunch (yep the company provides only vegetarian food, and actually both of us loved it all!) James went into the waterfall and I dipped my feet in, it was far too cold. Along the way we saw some remote villagers that only spoke Quechua and I bought a few bracelets from some small, very cute children for girls at home. We finally got to the Maragua crater where we were staying for the night but before we got to our accommodation we went to another waterfall called 'gargantus diablo' it was impressive but not as impressive as the waterfall in Iguazu by the same name. The waterfall was a slight detour from the direction of our accommodation so we left our bags in the capable hands (or so we thought) of Seamus, an American volunteer at Condor Trekkers. When we got back he had some bad news for Eva, a Czech girl, a local dog had peed on her bag. We thought it was hilarious but he felt very guilty so we obviously continued to make him feel bad for the remainder of the trek. James and I got the individual/matrimonial hut all to ourselves as we are doing a longer trek, it was amazing apart from the shower which was freezing and dribbled out of one hole, but it was way more than we were expecting in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia. The evening entertainment was Jon, another volunteer, he was so funny and encouraged us all to think of jokes we knew, some were disgusting but mainly we heard innocent one liners. My favourite was told by a bossy Bolivian girl and then translated to us it goes like this 'What did the head louse say to the bald man? Don't lean forward I'll slide off!' As you can see there were some pretty awful jokes. The highlight was a joke that Jon told in English about Whale blowjobs and seamen, which was pretty funny but he tried to translate it in Spanish and then tried to explain why it was funny, all we heard was blowjob and seamen amidst a lot of Spanish, the Bolivians didn't find it funny at all! Seamus also got us all wetting ourselves with his chat up line that went horribly wrong; it was a 'had to be there' moment. After we had tired ourselves out with laughter we went to bed as we were up early for some more trekking.
In the morning Jon translated a Spanish joke he was told by the Bolivians last night for us and the bossy Bolivian girl interrupted him twice telling him he was telling it wrong, she couldn't speak a word of English so Jon got irate, this made us laugh a lot harder than the joke. We had to say goodbye to the rest of the group, in particular Rio and Hattie who we made friends with and they gave us some helpful advice about Peru. For the next two days it was only Seamus, Mario (Bolivian guide) James and me. We had a really difficult first few hours climbing up and over the crater but we saw some lovely views and Mario let us rest every now and again. We stopped for dinner at a mud hut and gave the children some fruit which they really appreciated and then headed to see dinosaur footprints that are imprinted in the ground. It was really fascinating to see these ancient footprints but Mario had obviously seen them enough before as he fell asleep in the shade snoring away! When Seamus woke him up we had another steep walk and James had started to feel poorly again so lagged behind stopping when necessary. The views were awesome in particular the last two hours but poor James just plodded on, he did so well to finish but he wasn't as bad as in Rinjani. We saw some more Quechua villagers but weren't allowed to take pictures as they believe it steals their soul. Some of the cutest two girls and their little brother asked us for fruit, Seamus gave the girls an apple each and they promised to share, as soon as the apples were in their hands they ran off so happy leaving the little boy looking very upset and forlorn, children are the same everywhere. Do not panic I took pity on him and gave him my last orange and it was totally worth it his little face lit up, so cute.
We got to the last town which was much bigger than we were expecting and had quinoa for tea which is a Bolivian grain, quite similar to couscous. The next day we had to catch the bus from Potolo back to Sucre and Seamus and a local guy entertained us for some of the journey, his mate even asked 'Do you have a sister?' same jokes as us. The trek was really enjoyable, not the second afternoon for James, and it was nice to be able to talk to some more local people and see a more rural Bolivia.
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mum wiper Wow your travels get more and more fascinating but for us mere parents at home, far more scary! Take care! Hope James is ok now? Xxxxx
Mummy Mansfield Poor old James I bet he is missing his home comforts!