1) Potosí, the mountain that eats people and 2) Sucre: chocolate town and 3) Brazil i am coming

Hola amigos

Yat great to hear from you i will defenedly catch up with you in Buenos Aires in october

Hrabba, kodak Galleri hljomar vel. Myndirnar fra Peru eru greinilega ennta laestar inni i ibud foreldra Sondru i Hollandi. Rek a eftir teim. Taer eiga svo ad koma a undan Boliviu. Geturdu athugad hvort diskarnir tveir Bolivia2 seu ekki tveir mismunandi diskar, og hvort helmingur se merktur Maju, tad er israelska vinkona min, vid tokum myndir til skiptis. Hennar afrit skemmdist svo hun verdur anaegd ef min kopia inniheldur hennar.

Hafdis: takk fyrir skilabodin, myndasida kemur bradum.

Solrun til hamingju med profin, tu ertu otruleg ad hafa getad tetta.

So my followers. Now i am in Sucre, a beatiful city in the middle of Bolivia. The altitude heare is only 2600meters (which is low for me now) the look is tropical here and it is warm. But mostly this is the chocolate city of Bolivia and there is a whole street of chocolates stores! HEAVEN. The rest of the streets is covered with lawyers, believe me i have newer seen so many lawyers offices in one city. From here me and Maya will go to Samaipata, tomorrow probably, and then Santa Cruz for Brazil.

We visited the mines in Potosí. it was a shocking experience. These mines were the foundation of the spanish empire. They forced the indians to work there and the mountain killed thousands each year. Today the workers are the descendants of the enslaved indians. They start working there at around 12 years old. It is illegal to work under 18 in Bolivia but the government doesnt do anything. The mean age at death for the workers is under 45, even today. they all develop Silicosis from the asbestos that covers the mines. Only 1/3 of the indians have insurances, so if they die/get sick they get nothing. They work from 8-24 hours per day and it is a hard work. To live through the day and the 25-50 degrees heat and humid (you cant bring in food cause it will be damaged) they chew enormous amounts of coca, a big part of their sallary. Inside the mines they worship the god Tío. Tío in spanish means the uncle. This names comes from Díos, put when the spanish enslaved the indians this god was banned, so they called him god in Ketschua and Tío in spanish. So how do they worship Tío? Tío looks like a blond red faced devil with horns. They make his images from the minerals in the mine and clay. They have huge statues of him and the first friday every month they come together by the statue drink 96% alchohol, smoke cigaretes and chew the coca . Pure product to insure finding pure minearls (gold silver, zinc coppar and more) At the end of the month they do the same to say thank you. Sometimes they make animal sacrifices.
We stayed in the mines for 3 hours, there is no air, very hot and sometimes you crawl on the floor. Sometimes it was quite scary. We also hadnt eaten much cause both me and Maya have food poisoning, this is the 3 or fourth one in Bolivia.
My friends, take care.
Stella

Salar de Uyuni-part 2

So we continue Day 4: anohter hotspring, this time outside and amazingly beautiful. In the afternoon we all climed an active volcano, around 500meters climb upp to 5200 meters it was still with smoke. Day 5; another time in the Salt desert, then we were all suposed to climb 500 meters up to 5700meters, but some were sick and others lazy so in the end only me and Jenny Climed. It was a really hard hike, steep. But the wiew was just amazing, volcanos, saltplanes and lakes. On the way down we took the wwrong way and ended at the wrong side. We looked at the photos i took in the beginning and from them could see we were in the wrong place. Se then only had 30 min left of light so we had to, completly exhausted after climbing for 3 hours in altitude plus 2 other hikes, run for 20 min across the mountain, i was so tired and cold and hungry, but too tired to eat. Put from somewhere i got the strength to run because it would have beenaround minus 15 degrees to sleep outside, without sleeping bags. So we ran and ran and finally found the car. Thank you God. Day 6 was relaxing, we saw city of stones and a train sementery but then went to Uyuni, a small town for the final night. The next day me and Maya continued to Potosí where we are now. Heare there is a big festival so we are delayed 2 days, tomorrow we will hopefully be able to visit the silver mines and then go to Sucre. Final destination in Bolivia is Santa Cruz which thank god is warm. Then it is Brazil! jibbí beaches, WARMTH, samba and cute men. take care my darlings Stella Mamma og Benni og Agust, til hamingju med flutninginn, hlakka tilad sja ykkur Agust: Eg var lika busud i 8 bekk, tad er leidinlegt en stendur yfirleitt bara yfir i byrjun vetrar. Halli til hamingju med bilinn, rosa flott kaup finnst mer Pabbi og Peta, takk fyrir hjalpina, bid ad heilsa ollum Sandra: veit ad tu ert ad brillera Hrabba og Gummi, flott heimasída, og myndir. Setjid myndirnar endilega a netid, tad munu koma myndir sem ekki eiga ad fara a netid en eg laet ykkur vita. Hvada pakka fengud tid? med myndum fra Peru og kubu asamt gjofum handa ykkur (geisladiskar ma merktir myndir fra Peter og Jeff) eda diska merkta Boliviu? Svo kemur risapakki einhverntimann naestu 2 manudi (skip fra Boliviu) sem tid megid ekki opna, inniheldur jolagjafir, ma ykkar. Er betra ad setja kodak gallery upp eda adra blogsidu? eda setja inn a tessa ( sendi ykkur adgangsnafn og lykilord)

Salar de Uyuni-first part

Hello hello
Me and Maya just came back from a 6 days trip in the Salar de Uyuni, also known as the salt desert. Basically it is an ex lake that has left a lot of beautiful salt formations. In the group there were also: Eyal, Jenny, Offer, Amir and Eddy. The first day was mostly driving down to South Bolivia. Then we had hot springs in the evening. In that evening the driver went to organize some stuff and didnt come back in the evening. A bit frightening. But came back the day after, apparently had some troubles with the papers for the car. The next day we went to the salt dessert and took some great photos. It is an amazaing landscape, everything is white but the mountains are black. 2 of the kids decided to take nude photos, so in the spur of the moment me and Maya also left the group and took some, (will NOT be published)
The third day we climed 1000 meters up to 5500 meters. On the way down MAya got breathing problems and we needed to go down very slowly. Then there was only 45 minutes left of light and we had a lot more to go. We were 3, so i sent Jenny down to alarm the people in the car ( fast walkers plus 2 who couldnt finish) and to tell them to put light on the car for us to see. Then me and Maya continued. Luckily i had watched very well the markings and was pretty sure of the way down, that is in daylight. But then there was darkness and we still werent down. I managed to keep my calm and thought okei, we will go down and from there we should see the light. So off we went, slowly cause it was slippery and after 30min in the dark i saw the light from the car, thank god cause it is COLD in 4500 meters. So we sere save.
Anyway i have to go so i will finish the story in about 2 days when i get to a computer again
Ciao darlings
Gudny
Ps til hamingju Gyda, takk fyrir emailid
PPS til hamingju Lilja eg flyg kannski um Koben svo hvenaer flytjid tid?

The highlands of Bolivia

Hello hello
yesterday i came back from a 4 day jeep trip in the highlands of bolivia. I went with Maya and 5 other isrelians. The wiew was fantastic, in the beginning it reminded me of Iceland, but only magnified by 20 times. The first day we went up to a glacier and saw a huge icecave, really beautiful. Om the way we got delayed because the people in one village decided to make a road block. In Bolivia if you are unhappy about anything you make it clear by making a road block. Very nice.
Anyway we got to the cave and it was beautiful. Then we had to go down with the jeeps because one child that was with us on the way was sick from the altidude.
The next day we hiked in a beautiful walley and saw nice hot springs (not as good as landmannalaugar though) The 3 day we went down from the highlands into the forrest and slept in hot weather outside, it was lovely but i got covered in mosquito bites.
The last day i went with the other group (a familuy from Israel)because my group didnt want to hike. So we walked for 3 hours in the forrest and i saw a beautiful big parrot, he sat on my shoulder and bit me. Nice. We thought that the father and the youngest boy stayed behind in the car but they came after us. Se didnt know so se kept on walking.Then at the end we found out that 2 people were missing, the father and a 10 year old son, somewhere in the forrest of Bolivia. We waited for 2 hours but they didnt show up, very frightening moments. We then decided to drive back to where we started. When we got closer every local Boliviano that lived there stoped us, did you loose a tourist_ they are in the village, very nice of them. So we found them after 3 hours or so. After that we returned to La Paz.

Tomorrow i will go for a 7 day jeep trip in the Salt lakes. I dont know if i will get access to the internet. Take care Stella
PS pabbi eg sendi kolbrunu post nennirdu ad fylgjas med ad yfirdraturinn haekki, hun er med undirskrift fra mommu med abyrgd fyrir 800000 svo tad a ad vera ekkert mal.

La Paz

Hello my friends
Tomorrow i am going on a 4 day jeep trip around the mountains and the high jungles. I am going with Maya, my new traveling partner for hopefully a few weeks, and some of her friends.
I will then come back for couple of days and then go on a trip in south Bolivia.
I just visited the imigracion office to extend my stay in Bolivia and it was absoloutly no problem. countrary to reports.
So i will write more interesting stuff in 4 days
Take care Stella
Ps Sandra er skolinn byrjadur? og hvernig er

The jungle

So my friends
The jungle was fantastic. I went there for a 3 days tour with Annemiek ( Holland) and Maya (israel). The first day Liran, Noa and Amir (all from Israel) stayed with us, then they left because they had an earlier flight to La Paz.
The jungle was unbelievably beautiful, we had a great guide named Elvis (seriously), he knew not only everything about the animals and all the plants, he also knew a lot about the medical plants the indians use which was very interesting. They even have an ant species with long tentacles, you can take off their head and use it to close wounds! We saw wild pigs, monkeys, giant spiders (some poisoned) and lots of birds. The jaguar didnt visit us though, sad.
Then we went to Rurrenbarq and spent a whole day in the hammocks, a hard life. Believe me there is nothing like relaxing for a day in a hammock in hot weather and listen to the birds or some nice music.
Now i am back in La PAz. I stay at a place called the Lobo. I will travel through Bolivia with Maya, she is a great girl and very funny. (also since she is isralian i also get to pay the isralian prize which is like half of the eropean prizes, mwuahh mwuahh)

Takk vinir minir fyrir ad skrifa mer, mer finnst aedi ad fa frettir ad heiman.
Unnur, tad verda vist 2 floskur, fyrir oritskodudu utgafuna.
Hrabba og Gummi, flottar myndir hefdi svooooo viljad vera tarna
Pabbi, ok med skattinn. Takk fyrir hjalpina
Svanhvit, gaman ad fa fretttir af Vogi bid ad heilsa ollum
Agust, skolinn verdur finn. Tad er alltaf svoldid erfitt ad byrja i nyjum skola en eftir sma tima verdur tu buinn ad kynnast ollum
Mamma hringi vidi taekifaeri, bid ad heilsa Benna
Jana takk fyrir skilabodin.

No anacondas but I got bitten in the river

Hola my friends
Just got back yesterday from 3 days in the pampas/savannahs/fenjasvaedi
We didnt find any anacondas, searching for them was a really hard but fun walk for 4 hours in the swamps and in everystep you could expect to step on them, a very comforting thouhgt. but we saw hundreds of alligators, turtles and birds and pink dolphins. We were supposed to swim with the dolphins at one point in the river but they werent around at the time. But i did get bitten in my thigh in the river by something, of course screamed and jumped out. It was just a little bite, maybe a piranna fish though! But it was quite scary at the time cause i could not see in the water.
In my group there was beside me Annemiek and Bjorn (holland) and Lerann, Amir, Noan and Maya, all from Israel and Amar from the USA/Lebanon. So we actually had representatives from all 3 mayor religions in the world, many discussions in the trip were really really interesting.
Today i will spend my time in my hammock and tomorrow i will go for 3 days in the jungle with the same group.
see you guys

Mamma og Benni, til hamingju. Er mjog anaegd fyrir ykkar hond.
Agust, Hagaskoli a ad vera alveg frabaer skoli. Tad er alltaf erfitt ad skipta um skola en tad a eftir ad ganga fint. Knus

Runa, frabaert ad heyra fra ter og hvad allt gengur vel. Er mjog anaegd fyrir tina hond.

Yat, i really recomend the jungle here, it i 15 dollars a day for the trip, 1/3 of the price in Cusco and Manu

Lilja, skila kvedju til slanganna fra ter. Gaman ad heyra i ter

Pabbi, takk fyrir ad stand i tessu med skattinn. Bid ad heilsa olllum.

Sandra i havent heard from you. Are you in Holland? or France ? did you send the package?

Rurrenbarque

well, there is actually an internet in the Amazone jungle.
I just came to Rurrenbarque since my flight was cancelled yesterday because they were examining the airplane. Tomorrow i go to a 3 day tour in the pampas and then couples of days in the jungle
Will write more later
stella

The jungle

Hae pabbi.
Eg send email a tig ut af skattinum, eg borgadi 3oookr rumlega i einkabankanum en tad var reikningur fra fjarsylsu rikisins upp a 995kr sem eg gat ekki greitt (eindagi) eg sendi fyrir spurn til landsbankans um ad millifaera fyrir mig en teir svara ekki. Geturdu hringt i einhvern tjonustufulltrua og latid millifaera? Kolbrun sa lika um ad millifaera visa reikninginn svo geturdu spurt um tad. Geturdu einnig vid taekifaeri talad vid Solveigu hja eurocard vegna pin numers fyrir tad visakort, tad er nefnilega toluvert meira um ran her i Boliviu svo eg fel eurocardid fyrir neydartilvik en man ekki numerid.

Hae Halli , gaman ad vita ad tu fylgist med, vonandi ganga bilamalin vel

My friends, I have arrived in La Paz. The first thing i meet were couple of tourist policemen, that warned me about robberies, gave me the phonenumber of tourist police (loggur serstaklega fyrir turista) and told me to never acept search of "ununiformed policeman" aparantly a common trick for robberers here. This city feels fine though, there are policemen everywhere, at least in my area and i will be careful.
I met my dutch friend Annemiek and fly tomorrow for Rurrenbarque that is in the Bolivian Amazone jungle. Efrain my peruvian friend made me promise not to take the bus since the bus drives "the Death road", the most dangerous road in the world. We will stay there for 10 days and i dont know if i can write emails there or if there is a phone. So i might not write anything until the 13 th of august ( i return to La paz late the 12th)

Svo kaera fjolskylda hafid tad rosa gott a medan. skrifa skilabod vid fyrsta taekifaeri.

Ciao Gudny Stella