Oruro and CARNAVAL.....Everybody with few exceptions celebrates Carnaval

Rio is THE place to be for CARNAVAL but if you can't make it to Rio then there is the rest of the South American countries celebrating their own CARNAVALES - with mucho gusto.....the city turns into a parade of party animals!!!  Locals and touists drink copious quantities of cerveza (beer) and throw water bombs at each other and spray artificial snow( this gets tiresome) - most tourists go around in ponchos to protect themselves from attack but still manage to celebrate the whole affair with aplomb!! The parade was amazing...so much colour and energy....it was infectious.....

Isabel Allende writings

My friend introduced me to the author Isabel Allende and here I read:

In The Book of Embraces, Eduardo Galeano has a short story that I love. To me, it is a splendid metaphor of writing:

There was an old and solitary man who spent most of his time in bed. There were rumors that he had a treasure hidden in his house. One day some thieves broke in, they searched everywhere and found a chest in the cellar. They went off with it and when they opened it they found that it was filled with letters. They were the love letters the old man had received all over the course of his long life. The thieves were going to burn the letters, but they talked it over and finally decided to return them. One by one. One a week. Since then, every Monday at noon, the old man would be waiting for the postman to appear. As soon as he saw him, he would start running and the postman, who knew all about it, held the letter ready in his hand. And even St. Peter could hear the beating of that heart, crazed with joy at receiving a message from a woman.

Isn´t that fantastic????  My life has changed just a little because of this encounter....She is an incredible, Chilean writer.....Sometimes, someone says something that just resounds in your soul and you just want more so...

Here´s more...

 I fell in lust. I had been living in chastity for a very long time—two or three weeks as I recall—so I took the initiative. I asked him to tell me about his life. This trick always works, ladies! Ask any man to talk about himself and pretend to listen while you relax and enjoy your meal, and he will end up convinced that you are a smart and sexy gal. In this case, however, I did not have to pretend. Soon I realized I had stumbled upon one of those rare gems that storytellers are always looking for. That man's life was a novel! So I did what any normal Latin American female writer would have done: marry the man to get the story. Well, I didn't marry him right away. It took some fine manipulation.

Lake Titicaca, Uros and Isla del Sol

I just never imagined that Lake Titicaca was so big.  It is the highest lake in the world with an altitude of 3711m and it is huge!!!  We approached it from 2 sides – the first was in Peru at Puno (a non-descript town) and the second was from Copocobana (which sounds exotic but isn't at all) in Bolivia.

From Wikipedia: Lake Titicaca is a lake located in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It sits 3,811 m (12,500 ft) above sea level, making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world.^[2] By volume of water, it is also the largest lake in South America........

A local guide in Peru said that Peruvians say they own more than half the lake and that they own the Titi and Bolivians own the kaka (spanish slang for poo !!) 

First to Puno where we took a boat to Uros – the Floating Islands…..and they are that ...44 floating islands, made of reeds -  it´s pretty touristy but when you see them and how little the people have, you can´t blame them.

The singing welcome was lovely and we were invited into their huts - a family of 5 lives in a hut 4m x 6m with a double bed, made of reeds, a hammock for children and their traditional clothes hung on nails.....that is IT!!!!  Cooking is done as community outside ......brings one down to earth with respect to worldly goods, that´s for sure...

If you feel like a break then Isla del Sol is the place to go - an hour from Copocobana - this is where the Incas believe the Sun God was born.  The peaceful cruise on Lake Titicaca is worth the 25Bvs ( approx $4US!!) alone - just watching the skipper down the back balancing his foot on the steering mechanism of the motor and trying to see where he is going with people standing blocking his view was worth the money alone.....  There are no cars or paved roads on the island so there is nothing to do but rest, walk and enjoy the magnificent scenery of the island...

Things that have amazed me....and Feijoada Recipe

In Sao Paulo at the Metro Station, a fellow comes toward the down escalator in a wheelchair - he then does a 180 degree turn at the top and goes onto the escalator backwards in his wheelchair - only holding on with his hands - I went after him and indicated what big arm muscles he must have - it took him about 10secs to complete the manoeuver -  so amazing...

Today I realised that I was leaving Brazil tonight and still hadn't tasted Feijoadas - a Black bean dish with meat and rice - typical of the area so I saw a sign and asked but they didn't have any so headed back to the hostel a bit disappointed....When I arrived the chef was eating his lunch of Feijoadas and when I asked if I could buy some he raced to the kitchen and just gave me a large plate of them with salad and Manioc - exactly what I was hoping to buy - another example of how when you put it out there, it appears......normally not as quickly as this but it does happen...

Feijoada Recipe for 6 people.

200g beef jerky (lizard, hard cushion)

200g pork ribs

200g salted pig's foot

100g salted pork butt ??

100g salted pig's ear - I´m sure of these ingredients can be changed to suit....

150g pork loin, smoked or salted

100g smoked beef tongue

100g sliced ​​sausage

100g sliced ​​Portuguese sausage

50g diced bacon

1 kg black beans

2 onions, finely chopped

100g minced garlic

6 bay leaves

2 oranges with peel cut in half

How to:

Clean and salt the meat, removing excess fat and veins, hair cleaning and putting them to soak in water for 24 hours, changing the water three to four times during this period.

Boil salted meat in whole pieces for about 20 minutes over high heat, and throw the water out because there is any excess fat. Then place the meat to cook in a definitive way, since the beans, bay leaves and oranges cut in halves, in the following order: beef jerky, foot and ear. Half an hour later put your tongue, tail and ribs, and after half an hour, place the pork, the sausage, the sausage and bacon, taking care to get outside and play during all the cooking, the fat that is rising to the surface.

In a skillet, and brown the onion and garlic in two cups of oil preheated by placing the pot of cooking, along with the latest cooking meats, before removing the orange halves that have fulfilled their mission of helping to cut carnes.Após fat from two hours to get to test the degree of cooking of the meat with a fork, because not all reach the degree of softness at the same time, removing and reserving those already on the spot.

When all the meat and beans are well done, remove and cut the meat into small pieces to serve, return to the pot with the beans and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes over low heat.

Serve with white rice and steamed cabbage and garlic in olive oil, and a beautiful crumbly cassava.

Salar de Uyuni Tour - start Tupiza end Salar de Uyuni - Bolivia

4 Feb 2012


THIS is soooo worth seeing.......


This 4 day/3 night tour from Tupiza is better than the one out of Uyuni because the Salt Desert is so amazing, that it´s good to do this trip and come to the Salt Desert last.


The Salar de Uyuni the the largest salt desert in the world with an area of 12,000km squared.

La Torre Tours- 1200 Bvs (~$180) - Land Cruiser great - belonged to the driver Jhonny -(relatively new) so he was careful driving.

Drivers crazy here - overtake on blind corners across double lines..... So, with cook, Elli on board and a young English couple and a young Dutch girl, and me, we started the large circuitous route.

Beautiful Valleys between snow covered mountains. At times the road was washed out due to the rainy season so we had to drive through rivers, and at times, a narrow edged-cliff road.....with ease, Jhonny took it in his stride.  It reminded me of Africa and driving through some of those muddy roads with the truck tipping over slightly in the unevenness of the road....

Meals great as Elli cooked them the night before - so for our first lunch we had warm chicken schnitzel, pasta and salad - delicious.....and dinner was often 3 courses !!!


Day 2 - Heaps of Lagos (lakes) then geysers shooting hot water and not far from there a hot spring pool to have a swim......just lovely!!

Day 3 Up early to see Lago Colorado - coloured lake filled with flamingoes andto add to the scenery - a few llamas grazing on the surrounding grasss!
The landscape then changed dramatically to almost a desert when we came upon the Arbol de Piedra (looked like a tree out of rock) - one of a huge number of balancing rocks in that area.  Everyone climbed the rocks as this was such an interesting site and a time to stretch our legs....

Then to Uyuni - a poor dilapidated town with so many water problems as there is no drainage so the streets are filled with water in the wet season......


The next morning we were up before the sun so that we could see the sunrise over the Salt Lake and it was a truly spectacular sight......you can't imagine how amazing it is to see this white desert which blends into the sky at times as far as the eye can see.....