The Ugliest Dog & the Most Beautiful of Places

Before I noticed how beautiful the Valley de los Condores was I saw how ugly Monster was.

He is scary, isn’t he?! Actually on the photo he looks kind of cute and vulnerable in his nakedness. I called him Monster and R called him Salami. Well, for all his ugliness Salami was full of love. He welcomed us to the compound with so much happiness and such frantic waving of his tail that there was no way we could ignore him. His bare body was shivering in the cold air as if begging for love. Hmmm, could I snuggle him or not? Maybe not… But later in the evening we were sure to give him the most of our dinner leftovers, not out of pity of course.

Where was Salami’s home? It was an hour away from Tarija in a small village called Rosilla. We came here to do a two day hike up the mountains to see condors but honestly once we arrived we didn’t want to leave this paradise. Not only we were welcomed like family, but we were surrounded by animals begging for our affection. Here I found something I have been missing for a while, the sweet purring of a cat ~

 

The kids did their best to keep up with their studies surrounded by this multitude of adorable animals (after a while even Salami appeared cute with his constant unconditional excitement towards us the strangers). Kids, dogs, cats, cows and all were in a state of loving affection. One hand for writing and one hand for petting. Not much was achieved on the school front but in the matter of minutes after arriving the four of us felt completely at home. Speaking of home, we were given the top floor of this beautiful house looking over the mountains ~

 

I immediately fell in love with the place, the beautiful landscaping and the style of the architecture. The use of adobe bricks over a stone base is somewhat typical for this part of Bolivia and subconsciously I started scheming how to reproduce it back home. There is a change happening in my brain these days. I am slowly starting to think about work again as I feel the trip somewhat wrapping up. Cautiously I am getting excited about starting to design again.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of new skills that require mastering, like milking a cow for example. I am embarrassed to admit I could barely squeeze a trickle from the cow’s thingies. (Help! What is it called in English? Tits?) The kids didn’t do much better either but they were more persistent. The poor cow had to muster all her patience in dealing with the clumsy gringos pulling on her tits.

The people in charge of the Valle de Los Condores and all the volunteers were lovely. They blabbered to us in Spanish till we understood every sentence, treated us with the local specialty ambrosia (a mixture of freshly squeezed milk, cinnamon sugar and singani, a brandy distilled from white Muscat of Alexandria grapes considered the national liquor of Bolivia). They fed us amazing dinner made even better with local wines and served us breakfast with home made cheese, granola with yogurt .

The next morning we started climbing the impossibly steep hill facing the valley.

It took us three hours to reach the top – a perfect perch from which to watch the condors. There were so many of them cruising the sky! Observing these amazing birds swoop down from the sky in perfect arches left us all speechless. At one point we lost count, stopped taking photos and just savored the moment in absolute silence.

After we had our fill we climbed further up till we reached the camping meadow.

There is nothing that excites B more than checking out new camping gear. The only way to get them out of the cozy tent was to make a fire of course.

How did our Bolivian guide start the fire with wet wood in the drizzling weather? He lit a a piece of old tire. It worked like magic. In a flash we had a healthy fire that barely warmed our freezing bodies. We were close to 3.000 m above see level and it was bloody cold, especially with the sun hiding behind the wet fog.

The guides cooked the best spaghetti soup with vegetables and gave us a patient lesson in Spanish naming everything in sight. We were repeating like parrots hoping that most of the information will stay in.

The morning woke us up with fog even thicker and wetter than the day before. Getting off the mountain was like swimming through a mysterious fairy tale vision enveloped in white smoke. ‘The condors are sleeping’, our guide told us, ‘As they can’t see in the fog’. ‘Something like a snow day for them!’, the kids declared. As we descended slowly down towards the village the fog opened up to reveal the familiar soft landscape of green grasses. The mountains remained behind us covered with its puffy blanket.

A delicious feast was waiting for us at the house.

As if this amazing experience wasn’t enough after feeding us and letting us bathe our sweet hosts loaded us on a van and took us to see the biggest cactus in the area. Giant it was! The kids appeared like little dots next to it.

We were sad to say good bye to our new friends. After a year on the road the four of us know exactly what fills our hearts on the road. It is places just like the Valle de Los Condores that bring us closer to new cultures in a homey and genuine way, especially when they encompass a multitude of programs that benefit the local community not just visitors like us.

Finding spots like this tucked away with love from the tourist industry and all its organized superficiality is truly a blessing.

~ M