January

January passed by very quickly. I cannot believe that it is now February! On New Years Eve the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales announced that he was going to reinstate the gas subsidies, and that the gasolinazo and rise in gas prices would end and things would be back to normal. The next day prices for transportation dropped back to what they were before everything happened and the riots and roadblocks were ended. This meant that I was able to continue with my travel plans for January. I was on a break from the after school program because it was summer vacation for our students, so it was a perfect time to get to travel and have a break from work.

I left on January 4th with two of the other Salters, Vicencia and Becca. We took a 17 hour bus ride from Santa Cruz to Sucre. Sucre is one of the capitals in Bolivia. The other is La Paz. Sucre is a very old city in Bolivia with a lot of history and it is the place where indepence was first declared. All of the buildings in Sucre are white and it has a very different feel from Santa Cruz. From Sucre, we traveled to Potosi which is the highest city in the world. We took some tablets so that we would not be affected by the altitude. Potosi is a city that has grown because of the mines and the silver, tin, and other minerals that have come out of the cerro rico, the mountain that looms over the city. We went on a tour of the mines and it was very eye opening. The workers there still use hammer, chisels, and dynamite to get to the veins of minerals in the mountain. It was a very intense tour that involved going to 4 levels of the mines and crawling, and walking through many tunnels. We were given head lamps, boots, jackets, and pants and were lead by an ex-miner.

After Potosi we took an overnight bus to the Salar de Uyuni. This is the second largest salt flat in the world. It was incredible to be able to see this place. It is white salt as far as you can see. There are also different rock formations and a volcano. I enjoyed this day immensely. We also visited a hotel made entirely out of salt...the walls, floor, chairs, tables, beds. etc. Everything was made out of salt! We only visited there and did not spend the night because we took another night bus back to Potosi. From Potosi we returned to Sucre to spend some time relaxing a bit and enjoying this beautiful city.

Some things that I really enjoyed about this trip:

• Being in the mountains. Sucre and Potosi are both in highlands of Bolivia and the landscapes are beatufiul.
• The weather in the highlands was a nice change from the heat of Santa Cruz. It was cooler during the days and cold in the evenings. I ended up purchasing a coat, a sweater, a hat, a scarf, and gloves! I haven't used any of these since being back in Santa Cruz, but they will come in hand in June when it is winter here. :)
• Seeing real llamas outside my window when we were driving along. I have not seen any llamas in Santa Cruz and we were super excited to see them in the highlands!
• Staying at a fabulous hostel in Potosi called the Koala Den and getting hot chocolate for breakfast in the mornings
• Celebrating with pizza in Sucre after our "survival and arrival" on the bus trip back from Potosi. Our bus overheated and broke down for about an hour and we were worried we wouldn't make it back.
• Getting to see dinosaur footprints at a place outside of Sucre (some of you know how much I love dinosaurs!)
• Going to a show of traditional bolivian dances by a group called Origenes and getting pulled up on stage at the end to dance with the cast. What? I don't know how to dance!
  
• Getting to hang out and laugh with Becca and V. during our trip
• The chance to travel and experience a change of pace. It was great to see some other parts of Bolivia.
  

We arrived back from our trip on the 15th of January. And then it was back to work on Monday. However this was a week of workshops and the MCC Focus Weekend. It was really good to be back with the other teachers again and I also really enjoyed the Focus Weekend with the other MCCers. The last week of January was spent at the Biblioteca, but we did not have any students yet because school didn't start until February 1st and so we spent our time cleaning and getting things ready for when the students would start. Now the kids are back at the Biblioteca and we are back to work again!