Raleigh International gives young people between 17 and 25 years old and volunteer staff over 25 years old the chance to live and work on expeditions abroad. Not only do they develop personally and contribute to the country they are working in but they learn to work together with people from different cultures.

Rebecca Riddy signed up as an expedition translator on a Raleigh International expedition in Chile for 3 months. Post Raleigh expedition, Rebecca is travelling in South America. This is the fifth of her 'emails' back home reporting on her experiences. Check out her previous emails sent to us via remote South American Internet Cafes!

Rebecca post Chile: Arriving in Bolivia

27/04/2001

Hello!
Just got to Uyuni, in Bolivia after a fabulous 3 day trip in a 4WD, travelling from San Pedro in the Atacama desert in Chile. There were 7 of us, Be and me, 3 Americans who were a good laugh, and a nice German couple.

The 4WD trip took 3 days from San Pedro in the Atacama Desert in N Chile, over to Uyuni in Boliva. Really spectacular-snowy volcanoes, beautifully-coloured sands, weird volcanic rocks, salt lakes (1 was bright red!) with flamingoes, also llamas, vicunas and other little animals. Chewed on coca leaves for the altitude which took its toll on all of us. The accommodation was very basic and it got pretty cold at night. Bolivia is very different. The women in their bowler hats and big skirts look lovely, and the people have different faces, much more Indian looking.

The last thing we saw today was a huge salt lake. People dig the salt into piles and a lorry comes along and collects it, bloody hard work. There was a hotel made of salt in the middle of the lake too, all quite surreal.

Tonight we are off on a posh train to Tupiza, leaving at 9.25pm it will take 5 hrs, so we´ll arrive in the early hours. A bit of a worry is the strikes which are due to start on 1st May in La Paz. They could well hamper our progress but we´ll carry on and see what happens. The 3 Americans we were on the trip with have decided to get out of Bolivia asap and are going straight up to La Paz and out to Peru. The nice German couple from Hamburg are coming with us on the same train tonight.

Take care
Rebecca

Further information

Raleigh International currently runs eleven expeditions a year. In 2000-2001 expeditions are going to Belize, Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, Ghana, Mongolia and Namibia. The three-month expedition is part of a longer programme involving training weekends and workshops. These workshops concentrate on personal development and global awareness. After an expedition, there is the chance to join Raleigh International support groups all over the world, to continue the Raleigh experience and to help others take part.

You can see updates about Raleigh projects on the Raleigh International website.

© travel-quest.co.uk 2001

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For Raleigh International: http://www.raleigh.org.uk