Norway and Helsinki

A nice cafe in Voss (blogger won't let me put this photo down the page in the Voss section)

Friends at Preikstolen

After all of the drama with Norwegian Airlines in New York I finally made it to Oslo, where I attempted to give myself a wet-wipe shower and change my clothes before re-checking my bag for my new connecting flight to Stavanger.

Strangely, this was actually my third visit to Norway for the year, but it was to be by far the most substantial of the visits (the others were mere stopovers that left a short amount of time for sightseeing in Oslo).

Bryne

My first stop in Norway, minus the company of my sister who was leaving New York after me and arriving in Bergen before me, was the town of Bryne in southwest Norway, near Stavanger. When my sister and I were discussing where we would like to travel during her period of annual leave I had just finished travelling around Ethiopia with 2 delightful Norwegian girls, Lene and Veronica. So, despite the enormous expense of going to Norway (without a doubt the most expensive country for tourists in the whole world) I was happy to go provided I could spend a few days visiting Lene and Veronica in the southwest of the country.

My two reasons to visit Bryne, plus a cute guy, plus two cute elephants

When I arrived in Stavanger I was absolutely exhausted and could barely stay awake, let alone make interesting conversation. Luckily, Lene and Veronica were sympathetic and, after greeting me at the airport and forcing me into a child-sized Viking helmet (see below) had a quick dinner with me and then let me sleep. I stayed with Lene’s family and it was such a nice and relaxing place to be after the hustle and bustle of New York City, especially with the hospitality of her lovely mother who even made a gluten-free cake to welcome me (and then re-made it because she thought that the first version was disappointing!).

My best attempt at a smile after my trans-Atlantic ordeal

Veronica showing how it's really done

On my first full day in Bryne, the three of us decided to do a day-trip to a place called Preikstolen, better known by its English name “pulpit rock”. Now, I live in Sydney, a very expensive place to live, but on this day I started to realise how expensive Norway really is, from car ferries that cost over $50 each way, to parking that also cost a fortune (which we managed to wrangle for free thanks to Lene’s small car!). It was worth it though, as we had a fun little hike up to the rock, which was a truly wondrous place even though the weather was cold and wet. We brought Veronica’s dog, Kira, along with us, which added to the fun of the whole thing. Here are some pictures from the hike:

Kira at Preikstolen

Preikstolen

A fine autumn's day in Norway

That evening, after we’d all had a chance to shower, we went over to the apartment where Veronica lives with her charming boyfriend, Lars, and made tacos and then ate them and drank wine. Perfect day!

The following day I accompanied Veronica and Lars to the christening ceremony of Veronica’s baby cousin, which was to be held in a lovely town called Egersund. I had never attended a christening before, and the whole thing was in Norwegian, so I didn’t have much of a clue what was going on. The ceremony was quite long (multiple babies, 8 I think, were christened in the one ceremony) but pretty pleasant because there were many Alexander Skarsgård and Ryan Gosling doppelgangers in the audience, so I had a lovely time people watching. After the christening we attended a celebration, which was a lovely meal of typical Norwegian food (ie, lots of smoked salmon!) overlooking the ocean.

The church where the christening was held

That evening the girls cooked me a gluten-free version of a Norwegian meal called “Kumla”. It was delicious but stodgy, and gave me a terrible tummy ache and then terrible constipation! I don’t understand how there is so little obesity in Norway when this is one of the national dishes, but I’m guessing it’s because food there is so expensive that nobody can actually afford to overeat so the occasional kumla doesn’t do too much harm. We also went to a local beach just before sunset so that I could see what Norwegian beaches are like. It was lovely, but I was wearing a parka, so it’s probably not a place where I would go to sunbathe.

My final day with the girls was spent mostly in Stavanger with Lene (Veronica had to work). I really liked Stavanger, especially these colourful buildings:

Stavanger

We mostly just wandered around town, but made a visit to my favourite shop (Bik Bok) and got wonderful fruit smoothies for lunch.

That evening they dropped me at the airport and I had to say goodbye, which was sad. I’ve had so many sad goodbyes this year and I’ve reached the point where I can do it without crying, but it’s really hard because I’ve met so many lovely people who I’d love to be able to hang out with regularly but realistically cannot hang out with as we live in different hemispheres.

Bergen

From Stavanger/Bryne I flew up to Bergen to reunite with my sister, Alex. Alex had been there for 2 days and had spent much of that time sick in bed in our $80 a night hostel. I promptly caught her same cold, which is still bothering me.

Bergen is a very charming city, but unfortunately many of the more touristy things to do there were closed when we visited as it was late-September and things were closing for the winter.

We met some lovely people in our hostel, the Mansted family. They are also on an epic journey, the epic-ness intensified by the fact that it’s even longer than my trip (2 years) and with 2 children in tow, which would be quite a challenge (their girls were extremely well behaved though, so probably not too hard). I kind of wished my family had done something like this when I was in primary school, I’m sure that it would have been much more educational than sitting in a grammar school classroom. If you’re interested in their journey here’s their blog: http://hungryheads.org/

Other than wandering around Bergen we spent our time there doing a tour of the nearby Hardangerfjord. We did this via a tour package called “Norway in a Nutshell” which is an initiative from the Norwegian tourism authorities to package together public transport and special scenic transport (fjord ferries and the Flåm Railway) to make the country more accessible to tourists. It’s quite well done, but definitely not cheap, with a one-day tour costing in excess of USD 300.  Here are some photos of the incredible Handangerfjord (and surrounds):

Bergen to Oslo via Voss and Flåm

The following 2 days were spent travelling to Oslo, with a stop over in the small town of Voss (famous for its mineral water). During these 2 days I became quite unwell and the whole thing was a bit of a struggle for me, not aided by the fact that the weather was pretty miserable (like the height of Melbourne winter). Again, it was very pretty, so here are some photos:

Voss

Sognefjord

Oslo

Our final day in Norway was spent in Oslo before an evening flight to Helsinki via Stockholm. It was actually a beautiful day, and we made the most of it by wandering around the city and catching a ferry across to Bygdøy where we visited the Viking Ship Museum. Here are some photos from that day:

After our sightseeing had concluded I had USD 8 worth of Norwegian Kroners left with which to buy my lunch. That sort of money does not go far in Oslo, so I went to the Burger King at the train station (it was a late rushed lunch before catching the train to the airport) where I was disappointed to learn that a small French fries cost USD 7, so that was all I could afford.

Helsinki

The following evening we were due to start a tour with Intrepid Travel that would take us from Helsinki to Berlin via the Baltic States. This left us with one day to explore the Finnish capital.

First thing on my agenda there was to catch up with my lovely friends Kaisu and her husband Juha. We met them from brunch with their 2 adorable daughters. It’s strange, but awesome, seeing friends after many years and getting to meet the children that they’re had in the intervening period.

Juha took the children home after brunch and Kaisu gave Alex and I a pretty comprehensive tour of Helsinki before catching the ferry with us to Suomenlinna Island where we spent a couple of hours before heading back to the city, where we got lost in the new university library (a great building) before parting ways and heading to our hotel to attend the first meeting of our new tour group.

Public art catastrophe in Helsinki

Reunion with Kaisu

Next stop: The Baltic States, Warsaw, Berlin, and London.

Hopping around North America

From mid-August through mid-September I spent a month in North America visiting friends. My days were mostly filled with socialising with my friends, which doesn’t make for particularly interesting reading, so in this post I’ll endeavour to mention as many sight-seeing recommendations as I can recall.

Toronto

I spent a few days in Toronto visiting my friend Amanda, a lovely lady who had been my roommate for my tour in Togo/Benin/Burkina Faso. Toronto seems like a great city, although I didn’t get to see much as I was tired after my trip in South America and spent some time simply chilling out, and a lot of time hanging out in Amanda’s neighbourhood, which was a cool place.

A highlight for me was a surprise reunion with my friend Aman who I worked with at the UN in 2008.

The one bit of sightseeing that I did manage was a day trip to Niagara Falls. The falls are about a 3-hour drive from Toronto and are easily reached by public transport (I got there using Megabus). The waterfalls themselves are impressive (although nowhere near as impressive as Iguasu Falls and Angel Falls, both places of which have been absolute highlights to me this year). I was less impressed by the tacky developments around the falls, including multiple casinos and everything else that you could blight a naturally beautiful landscape with.

Niagara Falls

Vancouver Island/Nanaimo

From Toronto I flew to LA and then onto Seattle where I spent a single night in a hostel. From Seattle I caught the Clipper Ferry up to Victoria, Vancouver Island. The purpose of this visit was to see my good old friend Rivers, who I met in Tanzania in 2008. He and his girlfriend, Brittany, met me at the ferry terminus and it was honestly like no time had passed even though we hadn’t seen each other for six years!

I had a fantastic 2 days of choreographed fun during my visit. First, on the way up to Nanaimo, where Rivers lives, we stopped off at a delightful cider orchard and restaurant called Merridale Cidery (http://www.merridalecider.com/). We had a delicious lunch there, complete with gluten free pizza and dessert (J) and a taster-row of ciders.

Next, we stopped at a birthday party for a friend of Rivers. Rivers does geocaching, and is such a veteran that he was even doing it back when we were living in Tanzania, which was back in the early days of geocaching. The party itself was an “event cache”, which means that attending the event counts as a geocache. I had personally never gone geocaching before, although I did once watch my housemate, Sophie, find a geocache in Newtown and I’d heard Rivers talking about it, so I knew the general concept. Basically, a cache (any sort of random object, along with log book) is hidden somewhere and added to the website complete with instructions and coordinates. The aim is to find these geocaches and log your finds, but there are also further aims for serious geocachers, such as being the “first to find” for a new cache. So, we attended the party and whilst we were there somebody mentioned that there was meant to be a geocache somewhere on the very oval that we were standing on, so we decided to find it. Despite the fact that the cache was meant to be “easy” it took a long time for us to find, with a lot of combined experience (plus my zero experience). In the end I found the cache, which was a bit awkward for the veterans who’d been searching with me. Also, when they all snapped out of their geocache-searching-trances they seemed surprised to find not one, but two, young females in their midst. Apparently young females are a rarity amongst the geocaching crowd.

Much to my excitement we not only found the cache but also a huge blackberry bush bursting with juicy, ripe berries. We picked these berries straight from the bush and ate until we were full and covered in berry juice. (and no weed spray, as blackberries are native there)

That afternoon we went “tubing” on a nearby lake. It was a quintessentially Canadian experience. I wish I’d taken some pictures.

That evening we had some amazing BBQed steak on Rivers’ balcony overlooking the water, and then had a bonfire on the beach (totally illegal but worth it). All in all a great day.

The following day Rivers and I drove out to Cathedral Grove Forrest where we checked out the massive trees. It was pretty cool, but hard to really capture photographically, especially as a shitty-amateur photographer like me. Here’s what I did manage:

Big trees

Finally, I tried Tim Horton’s. I don’t actually drink coffee, so I had a hot chocolate instead. It was mediocre, but then most chains are.

Seattle

That evening I caught the Clipper Ferry back to Seattle where I was to visit my friends Sally and Tristan (unfortunately Tristan was stuck at work so I never got to see him, but I did get to meet their delightful baby girl). Whilst in Seattle I stayed with Diane, the mother of my dear friend Lindsey. She had an absolutely beautiful house and it was great to meet some of Lindsey’s family. Unfortunately Lindsey couldn’t be there (she works for the US Airforce as a JAG and is stationed overseas) but it was still nice to meet some of her family even without her there.

After having brunch with Sally I did a tour of the Seattle underground. Seattle was (with a severe lack of foresight) built on a beach, which, unsurprisingly, caused problems when it came to flooding (from the tide) and also removal of sewerage (a problem that intensified with the Industrial Revolution when people started to purchase toilets). These problems were solved using a feat of engineering: the street level was raised by one storey. Rather than physically lifting up the buildings (impossible) the streets were lifted and the (previously) ground levels were left underground for posterity. Nowadays you may do a tour of the underground, which is something that I recommend.

After the underground tour I had a wander around the CBD, especially the Pike Street Market area. Seattle is very nice, a place that I could imagine living, which is not something I often feel in North America. That afternoon I spent several hours at the air and space museum, which I also highly recommend although it’s a bit of a schlep to get to, especially on public transport.

The Seattle Underground

The Museum of Flight and Space

Chico

I spent 3 days with my friends the Stephens family who live in Chico, Northern California. Chico is not the easiest place to get to, and I chose the famed Amtrak as my method of getting there (long distance trains in America). The main problem with Amtrak is that the rails they rely on for their trains are privately owned by freight companies, so if there is any sort of irregularity or delay they have to negotiate with freight trains, which are always prioritised, in order to use the tracks. On the day I took the train this was a bit of a disaster. Despite Seattle being the departure point for the train we didn’t depart until 4 hours after we were scheduled to depart. No information was provided to the passengers on why this was, and we were never told how long the delay would be (they kept saying “another 30 minutes”) so we couldn’t do anything else with our time other than sit around the station. Furthermore, we were delayed by 2 hours in Portland as the train’s electricity system failed, and then another 2 hours somewhere in Oregon as a passenger on the train had an epileptic seizure and needed paramedics to come to take him to hospital, a monumental task requiring the assistance of the fire brigade due to his body habitus.

Chico was lovely and visiting my friends there was well worth the exhausting train journey that ended up lasting 30 hours. Chico is a medium-sized town with a substantial student population and was exactly how I imagined NoCal to be. I met the Stephens in Sierra Leone back when I was there in March. Sean, the son, was nearing the end of his time working in the Peace Corps there and his parents, Anne and Paul, were over there visiting him (for the first time in over a year-and-a-half, so that was a beautiful and emotional reunion). As such, most of my time in Chico was spent reminiscing about Sierra Leone (my favourite country of the trip).

Chico isn’t a particularly exciting destination for tourists (although it was nice to have some time out from typical sightseeing) but I would recommend one thing there to anybody passing through: the Sierra Nevada Brewery. I can’t even drink beer and I loved it!

Memories of Sierra Leone

A photo of me teaching English to the children at John Obey (from the Stephens' photo album)

San Francisco

I didn’t have long in San Francisco. I have been there before so was really only using it as a transit point between Chico and Los Angeles because I couldn’t afford to fly so elected to get a lift to SF with a guy from Craig’s List and then catch a $19 bus down to LA.

The one thing that I did do in SF was visit the mother of my great friend, Christina, who had a box of my stuff at her house. When I planned this trip I desperately wanted to attend Burning Man Festival, and had planned my itinerary around this and even spent over $100 on posting a box full of stuff to Christina (who then lived in SF) in order for me to be able to collect this before the festival. 

Unfortunately, tickets sold out in a matter of minutes and I was in rural Burkina Faso the day that they went on sale, so I had Buckley’s Chance of getting one (even my friend Leslie who I was planning to go with couldn’t get one even though she was in LA and had a much stronger internet connection than me). So, I went to Christina’s mother’s house to collect the box (unfortunately Christina had, in the interim, moved to Wichita, KS, which is extremely hard to get to, so I wasn’t able to see her L).

I also went for a morning walk where I took some photos and experimented with the Polaroid camera that I’d posted to Christina (something that was set to become a fixture for the remainder of my time in North America). Unfortunately I don’t have copies of these photos to add to my blog right now as I posted them back to Australia so you'll have to settle for the crap from my iPhone instead.

The waterfront in San Francisco

Los Angeles

I spent a week in Los Angeles with my friend Leslie and her boyfriend Forest (who is now also my friend!) and had a blast. Highlights for me were going to see live comedy at the Meltdown (http://www.meltcomics.com/blog/category/comedy-show/), and also watching the ongoing silent wars that they were having with their neighbours, including small-penis loud-car guy, and Riff Raff, a probable drug dealer and pimp who would spend his day getting drunk and loudly recounting his sex life (which wasn’t very exciting, and consisted of a lot of missionary position).

I did several great touristy things during the week and Los Angeles has a lot to offer tourists. Here’s what I saw:

• -       The Petersen Automotive Museum (where Forest works)
• -       Disneyland (surprise, surprise)
• -       The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which was superb
• -       The Observatory (which was made more interesting by the loud and very public domestic dispute being had between “Jessica”, her (I’m guessing former) significant other, and their pet dog)
• -       The La Brea Tar Pits (these were more fun back when I was 12)
• -       Santa Monica and Venice Beach
• -       The beach at Long Beach (where my friends were living)
• -       The Getty Museum
• -       The Disney Music Hall

I had originally planned to go camping with Leslie but this didn’t work out and it was fine because LA is huge and varied so I was never bored J

Splash Mountain was more fun than it looks

Las Vegas

I spent a single night in Las Vegas with the intention of saving money as it was much cheaper to take the Greyhound bus from LA to Salt Lake City (my next intended destination) via Vegas than pay for a flight. When Leslie and Forest dropped me at the bus station they wished me luck and said “just be prepared for the sort of people who want to visit Vegas but are too cheap to pay for the flight” – a warning that turned out to be pretty accurate.

My afternoon and night in Vegas weren’t particularly fun as I had a headache, and I also don’t gamble. I spent the afternoon in bed and then dragged myself up in order to attend the Cirque du Soleil show, O, which was great.

The fountain at the Bellagio

Salt Lake City

I went to Salt Lake City to visit my friend Mike, a mate from my tour in Togo/Benin/Burkina Faso. Salt Lake City is a very pleasant city that is inhabited by very pleasant people. It is beautifully located in the middle of the American Rockies.

The first evening that I was there Mike had just returned from Madagascar, so was very jetlagged, but somehow still managed to take me to his family’s country house to see some rural Utah. We had a fine dinner at a country roadhouse, which was really very good. The following day I spent some time looking around the complex at the centre of the LDS church and then going to the State Fair, which was just like in the movies. That afternoon Mike and I drove out to a ski resort (not yet open for the winter) to take the lift up to the top of the mountain and see the view. Unfortunately the lift was closed that afternoon (it’s normally open off season for sightseeing), so we just hiked for a bit, but it was still incredibly beautiful.

The Tabernacle, SLC

Utah State Fair

Ski resort in Utah

Boston

I flew to Boston the next day and spent the following 2 nights there. Whilst in Boston I stayed at the worst hostel of my trip as there are only 2 in town and the other (YHA) one was booked out when I tried to book 1-week before my visit, as were most mid-range hotels.

I spent the morning of my full day in Boston at Harvard University visiting my dear friend Duncan, and attending one of his MBA lectures, which was surprisingly very entertaining. The highlight was this YouTube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFDOI24RRAE) which I recommend checking out (the lecture was on the international trade of bananas). I had lunch at the students’ lunch hall, which was far better quality than anything that I’ve ever eaten at an Australian university. It was great to see Duncan and also to attend a tertiary lecture that was engaging and interactive (something that can’t be said about mass lectures to 300+ students with 100 powerpoint slides for 50 mins).

That afternoon I walked around the city and met some people from my hostel who I had dinner with. I also went to see The Lion King as I managed to buy a last-minute half-price ticket. Fantastic show, a “must see”!

The building from Boston Legal

The Lion King theatre before the show

New York City

My final week in North America was spent in New York City.

I spent the first 3 nights in New York staying with my good friend, Mitch, who has moved from Australia to NYC and works as a corporate attorney. Mitch’s parents were visiting so we had a lovely time exploring the local food and beverage options, which were, unsurprisingly, superb! Highlights were:

• -       Perilla (http://www.perillanyc.com/)
• -       Junoon (a Michelin-starred restaurant: http://www.junoonnyc.com/)
• -       Attending a house party at the house of one of Mitch’s lovely friends
• -       Chelsea Market (http://www.chelseamarket.com/)
• -       A fantastic cocktail bar that I can’t recall the name of (sorry)

After staying with Mitch I was joined by my sister, Alex, my travel buddy for the next month. We stayed in an AirBNB apartment near Chinatown with an eccentric but kind host and her insane pet cat. Alex and I had a fantastic time, the highlights being two Broadway Shows: Matilda and The Book of Mormon, which were both highly entertaining.

I also had a lovely time in NYC catching up with my friends: Mia, Jen, and Susan.

Some tourist things to do in NYC (we skipped some the typical tourist things as we had both been there before with our parents):

• -       Go to the MET! This is a fantastic place and worth spending a lot of time in
• -       Wander idly around Central Park
• -       Check out The Highline
• -       Check out Alice’s Tea Cup for an amazing array of fine teas and desserts (http://alicesteacup.com/)
• -       The Natural History Museum is great
• -       Coney Island (where I went with my friend Jen) is great fun
• -       The Brooklyn Bridge (walk back from Brooklyn to Manhattan)
• -       Anything on Broadway

The museum of natural history

Sister at Alice's Tea Cup

Alice's Tea Cup

Matilda! 

Finally, getting out of New York just wasn’t that easy. I’d booked a flight to Stavanger (to visit my friends) with Norwegian Airlines, a budget airline (which is registered in Ireland to get around Norway’s more stringent employment and safety laws). I really regret booking with them.

First, my flight was delayed by 7.5 hours overnight. Second, they refused to put me up in a hotel despite the fact that the new flight time was 5am and it’s very difficult to get from the main city to JFK Airport at this time without a pre-arranged transfer. Third, they refused to provide me with a letter for my insurance company so that I could get my hotel room reimbursed by insurance. Fourth, when I called customer service the service representative said to me “don’t worry, it’s safe to sleep on the airport floor because there are plenty of security guards so you’re unlikely to get raped”. Fifth, the plane was freezing cold and my gluten-free meal consisted of a single rice cake with no toppings and a carton of reconstituted fruit juice. I say without exaggeration that this airline is one of the worst that I’ve ever flown with, and should be avoided for all long-haul flights.

Next stop: Norway and then Helsinki to Berlin via the Baltic States

La Paz to Buenos Aires

My blog is now ridiculously far behind because I actually gave up on writing it for a couple of months and have just decided to resume it. It’s now 1 November and I will be home in 2.5 weeks’ time, so it’s a bit embarrassing that this post I’m currently writing is about a trip that I took in early August.

I travelled from La Paz to Buenos Aires with G Adventures. On the way to the tour I spent one night in Santiago (after flying back to South America following my 3-week trip-hiatus in Australia). The only thing of note from that night in Santiago was that my smaller toiletries bag (containing my shampoo, face wash and shower gel) was stolen by somebody in my hostel, which was extremely annoying.

Bolivia

Upon arrival in La Paz I had 1 day to explore the city prior to my tour beginning. I chose to spend that day doing the infamous “death road” bike riding tour, which I had decided was safe enough based on the recommendations of my friends who had done it. Unfortunately, the day ended in disaster and, although I survived with nothing but a rather sore bottom from the bike saddle, what happened on this day was a large part of the reason behind my decision to take 3 months to write this blog instalment. A smart friend of mine suggested that I could simply write the blog without talking about that day, but I feel like it played such a monumental role in how I experienced Bolivia that the blog entry would be rather strange if it skipped over it.

Basically, I was expecting to have a fairly thrilling bike riding day and a pretty crazy travel story at the end of it all. Instead I ended up seeing a girl die, which was tragedy enough on its own but compounded by a fragmented and absurd rescue effort.

The only photo that I have from that day (the tour company was taking a bunch of photos that they said they would send around, but never did)

To start from the start: I chose to do the death road with a company called Gravity as it had the best reputation for safety, and safety is something where I definitely don’t want to cut corners when the attraction is called “death road”. Gravity was a good company (by Bolivian standards) and I was very impressed with our two guides, the quality of the bikes, and the instructions that we were given before the ride. Not all companies were as well prepared or safe as Gravity – several groups were riding the road at break-neck speed, rumours abound about the lack of brakes on many companies’ bikes, and some were even drinking alcohol at the top of the death road – so I would definitely recommend Gravity to anybody who insists on doing this activity.

Due to Gravity’s safety standards we ended up being the slowest and last group on the road that day, which suited me just fine. I chose to ride at the back of my group, as I wanted to be extra cautious with my speed, and also wanted to ride with the back guide (our group had 2 guides, one at the front and one at the back, unlike most of the other groups that we saw) both because of the added security of riding with a guide and also because he was sympathetic to my decision to flagrantly violate the road rules by riding on the right-hand side of the road rather than the left-hand side (the side with the sheer drop and no guard rail). Two lovely Irish girls road up back with me and we set our own pace and looked out for each other at all times.

There is no appropriate point in this blog for me to post my Bolivia photos, so I guess I will scatter them through the Bolivia section, even though they are not associated with what I am saying

About halfway down the road a vehicle came rushing back up the road. This was surprising because the road is now closed to regular traffic – as a newer and much safer alternative route has opened – so the road is largely the domain of intrepid/fool-hardy backpacking bike tours. The only vehicles on the road are the vans that drive at the back of cycling groups and the “ambulance” which is jointly owned by all of the cycling tour companies. We knew that the ambulance, the only vehicle that would normally be expected to be heading back up the track at that time of day, was actually in La Paz, as it passed us at the top of the road before we’d even started our descent (it was carrying the first casualty of the day, a man with a broken leg). 

Our guide hailed the van and had a short conversation in Spanish about what was wrong. We were told that there had been a death just around the next corner.

We rode for about one minute and found three extremely distressed travellers from another tour company and the rest of our group. We were told that the last three people in this other group had rounded that corner to discover their friend’s bike hanging off the edge of the cliff. When they went to check out what had happened they saw her body at the bottom of the cliff. It was a very high cliff, I guess somewhere between 150-250m of sheer drop. In my opinion, there was absolutely no way that the girl could have survived that fall, but it was urgent that we get somebody down to the bottom of the cliff to ascertain whether or not she was alive (on the small chance that she had survived the fall and would need urgent help). I also thought that it was important to minimise the trauma that was being inflicted on the people at the top of the cliff, including the dead girl’s boyfriend, and some people in my group who were extremely distressed. Additionally, I thought that this was exactly the sort of situation where the girl’s travel insurance should be immediately notified to see whether they could provide any sort of assistance. Yet, being a tourist with no authority and no grasp of the local language, what I thought didn’t really matter so I just had to stand back a bit and watch as the whole catastrophe unfolded.

Another extremely out-of-place photo

Within about 10 minutes her tour group returned back up the track (they’d finally realised that half of their group was missing) and then panic ensued. All that her company had by way of rescue equipment was a single rope, which wasn’t complemented by any sort of harness, stretcher, or anything else remotely useful. Moreover, there were two other injured people in their tour van, one with a broken clavicle and one with a broken arm. They had been given extremely basic first aid (incorrectly tied slings) and no analgesic; that tour company didn’t even have a full first aid kit!

What followed was three hours of grief, infighting, and poor communication. My memories are fairly fuzzy now (probably a good thing) but I can remember that there were lots of heated discussions between their guides (who insisted on leading the rescue) and our guides (who were providing ALL of the rescue equipment and expertise, other than a single rope of about 50m length). Very little was translated into English, so it was difficult for the tourists to figure out what was going on and whether there was anything that they could do to help.

Knowing that there was not a single doctor, nurse, or allied healthcare worker in the group of people at the top of the cliff (we’d run through this on the bus and I was the only person in our group with any healthcare training), I felt obligated to attempt to help with the rescue effort, considering that I could at least help a little bit based on what I’ve learnt over the past 3 years. I was keen to help the injured riders and provide instructions to the girl’s guides on how to check whether or not she was alive once they had abseiled down the cliff, but I knew that this wouldn’t be possible as this was now the second occasion in which I’ve been in a first-aid situation in Latin America. Based on my prior experience I realised that nobody would take me seriously because 1) I’m a young female, and 2) everybody with a 2-day first aid training course somehow thinks that they are experts on trauma management and refuse to listen to people with the same first aid qualification PLUS years of formal education in healthcare. Because of the horribly helpless way that I felt after I was last in this position two years ago, I chose to mention to my guide that I was happy to help if they needed my help, and then stand back and let that be up to him. As it turned out, the girl’s guides refused to even accept the help of my guides, so I was left standing uselessly at the top of the cliff, thus continuing my pattern of wanting to help in emergency situations but being helpless to do anything useful.

About two hours into these three hours we were told that the guides had reached the girl and that we would be allowed to rescue her if she was alive. If she was dead, we were told, we would have to await the arrival of the bomberos, as moving her body would constitute interference with a corpse. So it was with a mixture of elation (and disbelief on my part) that we all lined up to help when the guides started calling out that they needed people to help pull on the rope that they had attached to her stretcher. Everybody there, a group of around 30 people, stood in a line and spent the next 15-odd minutes slowly hauling her body up the cliff. It was slow because there was no pulley, and we were using five ropes that had been tied together, so had to be very careful with the knots.

At the end of this process we were treated to the horrible sight of her damaged and clearly dead body on the stretcher. To a lot of people (ie, all those who had been doing wishful thinking and acting on faith that she really was alive) this was an awful shock, and several people broke down on the spot. The vast majority of people there had never seen a dead body (so I guess I was lucky that I was more prepared for the sight than them…?!?!) and they just couldn’t handle it. Unsurprisingly, the bomberos finally arrived just at that moment, with them a paramedic who quickly confirmed that she was dead. After that, we got back into our van and made our way back to La Paz (nobody even suggested that we continue the ride).

We were stranded here for many, many hours during our Salt Flats/Altiplano trip

That night I met my tour group. They were elated from doing the death road bike ride themselves (with a company that had taken them down the road before the accident occurred) and were unaware of the tragedy that had befallen the road that day.

The following few days I had a very hard time. Most of my group had been travelling together in Peru for two weeks, and already had friendships, in-jokes, and that level of social-relaxation that comes with familiarity and shared experiences. In contrast, I was a new-comer and had just suffered through an awful experience (one that the others could understand and sympathise with, but nobody could really empathise with) so the presence of happy people was of little comfort to me and actually made me feel a bit worse, so I chose to withdraw a bit throughout the following few days.

During these “dark days” we travelled to Sucre, the actual capital city of Bolivia, a charming town, then Potosi (where you go to see the silver mines) and then onto Uyuni from which we launched our tour of the Salt Flats and the Altiplano, which was yet another unfortunate adventure that I absolutely cannot be bothered to write about here, but if anybody is interested I have written a trip advisor review on that particular experience: http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowUserReviews-g317033-d316550-r222265968-Salar_de_Uyuni-Uyuni_Potosi_Department.html#REVIEWS

This place is called "stinky lake"

Chile

Eventually, we managed to leave Bolivia, which was something that had to be achieved in the dark and on foot at over 4500m elevation. I felt a lot better about a lot of things once we had left the country.  I realised when we were taking photos on the Salt Flats (the funny perspective style photos) that I needed to make more of an effort with the people in my group as I suspected that my grieving was being construed as aloofness, especially when nobody seemed particularly keen for me to be in their group photos on the salt flats. So, I decided “new country, new approach” and from that moment onwards I had a much better experience on my tour.

Our time in Chile was far too brief. It’s a fascinating country with so much to see and do, and I definitely need to go back. Essentially, we had a single day in a town called San Pedro de Atacama, which has so much more to see and do compared to places like Potosi and Uyuni town, so it was a bit frustrating that we spent less time in SPA compared to in those places. We spent our morning cycling to a beautiful lake in the desert:

Next we had lunch at a charming little hippie-café in SPA (including fresh fruit juice, which was something that I desperately felt like I needed after mostly skipping dinners and replacing them with cornflakes during my emo-period in Bolivia). That afternoon we went sand-boarding (I now have eternal appreciation for ski lifts after having to hike a sand dune for each new run). It was awesome fun. Here are photos:

We spent sunset at a place called “the valley of the moon”, which was stunningly beautiful. Again, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:

Argentina

The following morning we boarded an epic all-day bus ride to Salta, Argentina, through the absolutely desolate landscape of the Atacama Desert, the Altiplano, and then the Jujuy region of Argentina. Unfortunately our bus was delayed by about an hour due to this poor lady (who was scheduled to disembark at SPA) having an epileptic fit on the bus. There is really not much that you can do for somebody suffering an epileptic fit, other than try to prevent them from injuring themselves, and people can become quite unwell in the wake of a serious episode. This lady was unable to stand and was dry retching all over the floor, so that’s why it took an hour to get her off the bus (to be sent to the local hospital).

In Salta we spent our day doing a wine tour of the Cafayate region and then going to a restaurant where there is live music and dancing representative of the local region. As a general rule, I hate that sort of thing (especially when it is called a “cultural show”…shudder) but I trusted my awesome guide, Karina’s, judgment and decided to go to the show. It was really a great day, which is unsurprising considering the amount of wine that I drank. Here are some photos:

From Salta we flew to Buenos Aires where I elected to spend just 1.5 days (as I had spent a few days there just a couple of months earlier). I spent some time walking around the city (including some extremely dodgy neighbourhoods by accident) and then met my friend, Ayelen, for dinner (we eventually settled on steak in Palermo, which is always a good choice). I was so pleased to hear that she is planning on spending some time in Australia – can’t wait to have her on my continent J

From Buenos Aires I flew up to Toronto to begin my adventures in North America, but that’s the next blog post.