Five days down the Amazon River.

  Having spent two surreal weeks in the Amazon, we needed relief from the intense climate and strange David Lynch-esque atmosphere of Iquitos. The only way out was by land or air and the latter wasn't an option seeing as how we had pretty much no money left. By Boat it was apparently a three day bring your own hammock and provisions kind of affair, which sounded quite romantic and it was fairly cheap. We turned up to the port armed with insanely big rucksacks and plastic bags filled with 'fanny' tuna for our packed lunches, and were beckoned onto a huge cargo ship that would be heading to Yurimaguas, the first stop off in Peru outside of the Amazon and somewhere we could catch connect buses from. We found a spot on the lower deck to hang our hammocks and began the long wait, we were five hours early...
Seven hours later there was no movement, however the whole deck was completely rammed with around 200 people bustling around, kids screaming and sh*tting everywhere, people walking in the shit and spreading it all over the ship and not a centimetre between each hammock, not to mention people setting up camp underneath of us and every other spare scrap of floor; we were ready to pass out, it was literal squalor. Peruvian people often seem to have a lack of either care of awareness of other people's space generally but here it was magnified to the extreme as we had women pretty much laying in our hammocks with us, letting their kids swing on them and people actually sneezing and wiping their hands on us. By now we were at breaking point. There was no air and no hope. Just when it couldnt have gotten any worse, everyone started taking down their hammocks and packing up to leave the boat, seemingly all knowing something we didn't. We asked around and found out that there was something wrong with the boat and we had to move to a different one! Disgruntled and close to tears with the humidity and weight of our stupid bags we reluctently climbed up the wooden plank onto the next boat. To our delight however we had been put on the top deck which had plenty of space and cool air flowing through from the open flanks. The delight didn't last long however on the realisation that the boat wouldn't be leaving for another 24 hours! Having no choice we tied up our hammocks and settled down for what would be the longest journey of our lives so far.
Thirty five hours after we had first stepped foot on the boat, there was finally some movement from the engine. You could hear the collective sigh of relief all round as we retreated out of the port and headed down river in the pitch black. This would be an adventure of sorts that was for sure and just to spice things up and keep me on my toes I had cronic food poisoning from some ceviche I had eaten the day before.
The next four days were a rollercoaster of crippling illness (having to pretty much set up camp in one of the only 2 toilet cubicles for the whole deck of people) levelled out by insanely beautiful Amazonian scenery constantly panning past like an episode of David Attenborough right in front of our hammocks. There was a sense of camaraderie from everyone on board, all going through this surreal experience together, sleeping next to complete strangers in such close quarters and sharing all of the amazing sights together. I even had a mini nail salon going for all the little girls and we were pretty much full time baby sitters some days. We met some lovely people and equally some really annoying people who played their terrible music full blast from there phones all night with no care for the whole room of people trying to sleep. In the dead of night was the only time of complete peace and stillness. Everyone was seemingly asleep and the boat silently glided down river with only a torch to guide the way. The stars were incredible at this time, you could see the milkyway so clearly and the sounds of the jungle on both sides of us made it all the more magical. The sunsets and rises were out of this World and the boat kept stopping off to deliver provisions to gorgeous small Amazonian villages the whole time; letting the people on to sell fresh fruit. We felt so lucky and in the end the illness was outweighed by the experience and knowing that it would probably be a long time before we would have the privelage of doing something like this again.

Ayuasca in the Amazon.

Ayuasca is an ancient plant medicine that has been used for thousands of years in the Shipibo Shamanic cultures of the Amazon. It is a combination of two plants that grow in the rainforest, boiled together for hours and used in ceremonies to heal.  How it was discovered is fascinating, there's about a 1 in 10 billion chance of finding that combination amongst the plants of the Amazon but Shaman's claim that the plant itself communicated and revealed its purpose those thousands of years ago and so it lives on.
In Western cultures Ayuasca is wrongly percieved to be a drug, mainly because of the Spanish invasion of South America and the influence of Catholisism condemning anything deemed to be supernatural and inexplainable outside of the bible, as evil. To this day, what with fear mungering and extreme misinformation it is illegal in most parts of the World, demonised and name dropped in the same breath as truly harmful chemical drugs, despite being completely natural with countless scientifically proven medicinal benefits. Latest studies actually show that it remarkably increases the natural amount of serotonen in the body and regrows brain cells. Thankfully there is a strong positive interest in Ayuasca as a healing plant medicine within the credible science world and hopefully eventually society's awareness and attitude towards it will change wth time.
 Lyndon and me have been fascinated by it for some time now and have studied its history and the miracles it has performed. We felt that we really wanted to experience it first hand and in the fitting setting of the Amazon, its home. We did our homework and found a retreat that sounded perfect. It was a non profit organisation called Kapitari, and the price was a fraction of most of the others with a Shaman who dedicated his life to his local community and to a permaculture project that would enrich the lives of so many poor local families in the Amazon. This is where the money would go. Every other one was headed by a cheesy pearly white smiling westerner in white linen, laughing all the way to the bank. The choice was obvious. The Shaman 'Don Lucho' also had a huge and well respected reputation around his part of the Amazon, we couldn't wait to meet him.
After the gluttonous frivolities of Buenos Aires we were hardly ready for the stark contrast of which we were facing. We were to fly to Iquitos, the only city in the World which can only be reached by air or boat, surrounded by Amazon rainforest for miles, to take part in an Ayuasca retreat. The flight took 2 days with 3 stop offs, completely ridiculous but so cheap.
When we finally arrived, we were greeted by the most intense humidity, probably the hottest climate we had felt so far.  The place itself was a beautiful bustling little city crawling with life. All around there were tuc tucs, hustlers, packs of stray dogs and fresh amazonian seafood on the streets (Caimen, Pirahna, enormous misceleanious fish etc). That night we stayed in a room with a fan and appreciated every second of it knowing that we were to spend the next week in a hut deep in the jungle with no relief from the heat or brutal mosquitos.
In the morning we set off to meet the people we would be sharing the experience with at the agreed location of a cafe on the river. From there we made polite introductions and small talk and nervously were led by our facilitator (sort of guide and translator for the Shaman who we had yet to meet) to a tuc tuc which brought us to the boat we would be taking. It was a gorgeous long wooden narrow boat with a woven roof which was essential as by this stage it was hammering it down in true tropical rainforest style.
We left the flooded streets behind and were soon smoothly gliding down the Amazon, aided by a guy powering the engine on the back, there was no backing out now.
A couple of hours later, muddy and soaked from a trek through the jungle, we arrived at the Kapitari camp and were greeted by the Amazonian community living there along with countless chickens and cats. The camp was beautiful, full of huge bamboo structures embellishing the wild rainforest all around and a serene looking lake which I could strangely imagine myself swimming in despite being in the Amazon. Our facilitator held an introductory meeting in which we were all able to meet eachother properly. Everyone was so completely different to one another and there were no hippy dippy cliches there (apart from us perhaps) most people being the exact opposite of who you would expect to see at such a place, which was refreshing.
After our first flavourless but necessary meal of the Ayuasca diet we were shown to our cabins, an array of sparsley situated bamboo huts with a good 5 minute jungle walk in between each. Lyndon and me were seperated (on the Shaman's wish), which devastated us as we had spent every second of the past 4 months in eachothers company. We had such a cob on about this and put up a fight at first but we soon realised the importance of it after the first ceremony. We had to go on separate journeys. My hut was gorgeous and included a hammock which I could sit back in and watch the passing wildlife. There were strange and amazing species of monkeys swinging through the trees in gangs, weird birds and huge insects.
That night, we all met at 7 in the Maloka, a huge round hut used only for ceremonys, one of which we were about to take part in. There was such a nervous energy around which I was contributing massively to. Despite knowing vaguely what to expect in terms of the structure of the ceremony there was no guessing what would happen to each of us individuallly once we had taken the medicine.
Once inside, our facilitator designated us each a mattress forming a huge circle, depending on our energies and how they would work around the room; and a bucket....
Me and Lyndon were as far apart from eachother as was possible with the layout, we mimed goodbyes and kisses and buckled up. When everyone was settled down the lights went out and there was a singular candle illuminating the beams from the centre of the room. Now it was time for the Shaman's entrance. Accompanied by his wife and children, he strolled across the floor of the maloka and greeted us all, bringing with him a profound presence and calming energy. The candlelight highlighted the crevices of age on his kind face and he reminded me of an amazonian version of my grandad. Immediately I felt better.
Don Lucho took his seat to the left of me, surrounded by his ceremonial props and accompanied by his son, who would be his right hand man throughout the ceremony.
His wife and daughter were on the matresses next to me, something I felt happy about for some reason. After about ten minutes of silence and anticipation whilst the Shaman digested his own medicine and began the opening prayers the sound of my name being called awoke me from a zombie daze by the facilitator. I was FIRST.
Trembling but with no time to think any more about it I got to my feet and made my way towards Don Lucho. I knelt before him and watched nervously as he poured a thick black liquid into a what looked like half of a small hollowed out coconut shell and blew tobacco smoke over it whilst murmering a blessing. Half hoping that the blessing would last a lifetime, it wasnt long before it was being presented to me, this was it. I thanked him and took a moment to set my intentions, before necking it as quick as possible. It was horrendously thick and the flavour was beyond anything I could possibly compare it to in writing. Absolutely digusting is the closest desciption. I tried to casually walk back to my bed to swill my mouth out into the bucket, it was more like a run. I felt everyones raw anticipation as I retreated, knowing that they were next. Maybe I had been lucky to be first to avoid this. It took about fifteen pain staking minutes for everyone to go and recieve their cup, throughout which I was simply waiting for something to start happening. After the last person, the Shamon came round and one by one did a tobacco blessing on us, whereby he blew it through my crown ( I could literally feel it gushing through my whole body) and to the left side of my neck and then through my glasped hands before returning them to me and communicating that I was now ready. 'Listo'.
And Listo I was, I lay back and the rainforest orchestra enveloped me. And there it all began.
Throughout the night the Shaman was singing his 'icaros', songs that are truly otherworldy, connected to the exact realm in which you go to and controlling what happens there. In between songs I felt lost and terrified, and then he would begin again and everything was alright. The songs also made you purge, getting rid of whatever your body needs to. Its relentless and painful but you feel so much better as soon as its out. The native people call it 'being well' as opposed to our western culture calling it being sick, your body cleansing itself. Its amazing how well you get to know complete strangers after spending a whole night vomitting and letting literally everything else out in the same room.
What happened to me that night, and every night after was truly remarkable. At this stage I don't know how to put it into writing, it almost doesn't do it justice but I know that its important that at some point I do, for myself and hopefully to inspire others to do the same.
All I can say for now is that this medicine is something that everyone needs to take, to reconnect with everything thats important and to heal absolutely anything and everything of your physical and mental being. I saw miracles happen that week, things that I could never have dreamt of seeing before made possible because of this amazing ancient knowledge and medicine. For example there was a guy who's soul mate and twin brother had committed suicide last year and he was completely lost and destroyed at the beginning of the week. By the end of it, not only had I and a few others actually seen his brother in the maloka but he himself had had a full reunion with him and managed to completely resolve all of the issues that had weighed him down so heavily up until now. He was a new man. That was just one of twelve incredible storys. Most people there had deep issues that needed resolving, Lyndon and me were the only exceptions really and we felt truly humbled by how brave each and every one of those people were and what they had to go through to be healed. Even for us, it was such an ordeal at times, the plant can show you sides of youself and horrors that are unimaginable however they're balanced out by incredible revelations and visuals that seem to repair every cell of your body. The outcome is unbelievable and I can't recommend it enough. Be prepared to vomit & sh*t violently throughout...

Buenos Aires.

We left the bolivian boarder by coach for Buenos aires, bracing ourselves for the 26 hour coach ride.  We waited an extra night to insure a bus with air con, fully riclining chairs and food, which we were so glad we did because we ended up being on the bus for 36 hours! we had heard the boarder crossing could be tough but this was unreal! we were stopped five separate times, each time every one on the bus had to get off, along with all the large luggage from underneath to be individually searched by the dryest most intimidating officers, FIVE SEPERATE TIMES!! and with the 10 hour delay there was no extra food, and all they had was chilli con carne so my veggie morals had to go out the window for the third time this trip.  But it was all worth it because Buenos Aires turned out to be quiet a shock, but a very welcome one.  We had been told it was a large and modern city but we did not expect it to be quite as european and modern as it was.  We assumed it was going to be a modern city by South American standars, after being to La Paz and Lima and were expecting something similar, busy, erratic, run down and filled with a mix of european ex pats and indiginous people, with shops and resturants to suit the needs of both.  What we found though was a city that look and felt like the capital of a rich European country.  Every one there looked European and this is because they generally were, with the vast migration of Europeans over the last 400 years came with them thier tastes in food, drink, art, design, music, culture and so on.  By the time we arrived in Buenos Aires we had been travelling through Peru and Bolivia for three and a half months, and I hate to say it we were so desperate for all the things a big modern european city could offer, and so sick of the things Peru and Bolivia had to offer we fell in love with Buenny straight away.  Buenos aires really is a rich european country, completely seperated culturally from the rest of south america. Back in the days where spain was draining all of the gold out of Peru after distroying the incan empire, in Argentina, the Spainish were making more of a perminant home.  Rather than just looting and pilaging, they massacred and pushed literally all of the indiginous people out of argentina to the point that now, thier are no true south americans there only spainish, french and italian which is obviously horrible, what happened, but for me and jess in felt so good to be in a city where we didn't stand out and get stared at!  When in Bolivia and Peru the thing is, it feels for the most part, to locals you are either another stupid rich westerner and an opportunity to extort or an object of fascination.  This means you are generally hounded, and constantly stared at where ever you go, while you hear kids laughing at you and calling you gringo (derogtory term for white people) it gets exhausting sometimes.  So being in Beunny was like being back in london or some where for a week and it felt amazing.  We spent every day going to art galleries, shows, eating and drinking in amazing resurants, cycling and all the things we love to do at home.  They had everything here, they had ale not watered down lager, they had rich cab sav not sugary ribina sold as wine, they had amazing circus shows with incredible philip glass esc music not strange turbo folk (cross between tradional music and koren electro).
The high lights of the week were : The Cemetery -This was one of the most amazing (architectuarly) and surreal place i have every been.  It is a huge cemetery with hundreds of tiny little buildings all indivdully and uniquely designed, creating an eiry little toy town.  The rich collection of so many different architectural designs and ideas made it a feast for the eyes, and quiet spooky too because you could see into where the coffins were house, knowing the were dead bodies inside some of which were over a hundred years dead, there coffins exposed within reaching distance and covered in cobwebs.
  Cycling: We cycle everywhere in london, in the summer it is one of our favorite things to do, bike from park to park in the sun.  Being able to do this for the first time in nearly four months was amazing, we biked all over the city for hours going through parks, to galleries, antiques markets the cemetery and through the beautiful old town rich with classical and Parisian architecture.  But it all ended in tears when we locked the bikes up for an hour and when we got back there was only one left, and we had to pay £150 pounds for it! That took a huge chunk out of our dwindling budget..
  Thai food:  As we had just got engaged the week before, we had decided to throw caution to the wind with our budget and live it up whilst so many amazing things were on offer. We had incredible meals almost every day but this south east asian meal was the best meal i think i have ever had...... ever! (sorry mum).  It was a closed door restaurant with just people dressed to the 9s us included, finally geting our gladrags on after wearing the same sweaty clothes everyday.  The menu was fixed with just the choice of three mains but four courses in total, so we ordered a couple of cocktails and a bottle of cabernet franc and cheersed to our engagement with the most spectacular food laid on for us (this all after the day the bike got nicked).  so half ways through the meal the tone took a sudden change when i relised that we didnt have the wallet anywhere.  I started to panic and jess could tell, because i had turn white, with the bike going and now this i though it was just the faits against us.  Our civilised facades were slipping. Jess started to panic to we both felt sick, we didnt want to let on becsuae as much as we had dressed up we still looked out of place amoungst the suits and posh dresses, in our traveling cloths.  This went on for around ten miutes untill i realised that was a small handel under the table that gave access to a small thin draw that i had put the wallet into for safe keeping an hour ago! I was so relived and jess didnt know wether to hit me, cry or laugh!
 Fuerza Bruta: We went to see a circus show with a huge budget, and it was incredible! it is had to describe here but youtube it the come to london at the round house.  The best part was a tourt sheet of clear plastic strong enough to support five people jumping around on it while being covered in a layer of water.  This was suspended above our heads with loads of amazing light behind it, I would highly recommend it when they tour in England!          - Lyndon.

The Engagement.

In the same scene as the last we ended up finding quite a deep bit in the steaming lake and got right in as it was like a hot bath. The scenery all around was so surreal, steam billowing from the surface encompassing us in clouds and ice all around the edges, whilst being surrounded by beautiful mountains as far as the eye could see.  As we were laying in this beautiful natural hot bath, we saw some long thin legs through the steamy clouds coming closer and closer, until suddenly a flamingo became visible no more than five feet away from us. We hadn't been able to get closer than 20 feet before now before they would fly away. It was a picture of pure paradise and in this moment I knew it could not be any more of a perfect time to convince Jess that marrying me was a good idea! We had both put all of our money into this trip so I could not afford to buy a gold ring as much as I wanted to. I had gotten a silver one from our low key Pagan glasto wedding last summer, so I rolled around in the hot springs and asked Jess if she would make me the happiest I could be by marrying me (officially this time).  To my absolute delight she agreed.  So I put the silver ring back on her finger and we kissed in this heavenly scene, then a few moments later Jess had noticed that the ring had turn completely gold! it was magical, it stayed that way for three or four hours before changing back. Niether of us know how, but it did!
                                                                                                                           - Lyndon

Salar de Uyuni.

After being stuck in Sucre due to Miner's strikes and road blocks we finally made it down to Uyuni to begin the famous Solar de Uyuni (Salt Flat tour).  We were put in a group of four others who thankfully were another lovely mix, along with a driver who would be our chofer and chef for the next 3 days. The tour began with the part that everyone talks about, the inpenetrable white vast expanses of salt in which all perspective is expelled. It looked truly magical, glistening in the powerful sunlight like snow. We spent hours here, getting sunburnt by the brutal reflection from the salt and taking cheesy photos of ourselves and others looking tiny in comparison to things, it never got old. Next we went to an island which was literally an island surrounded by the salt flats and completely overrun by ginormous cactai and dead coral. Already were were blown away from afar but actually walking around looking out at the scenery being dwarfed by cactai sometimes at least 6 times our size was more surreal and amazing than the flats themselves. The cherry on the cake here was the addition of eagles and condors circling the island. That night we drove under a carpet of crystal clear stars to the place we would be sleeping, a hostal completely made of salt, outside of which we played with a glow in the dark frisby and finally had a UFO sighting that delighted us.
At the crack of dawn we sped off to a place with four huge volcanos, at the foot of which was a stunning landscape of waves and curves of solidified lava from thousands of years ago. As if the inanimate lava Ocean wasn't surreal enough, it was dotted with the strangest living organisms, green velvet looking blobs that only closest resembled coral however inside they were wooden, looked like seventies furniture. There were also strange hairy brown tufts everywhere, its the closest we'll ever come to being on Mars. Next we entered the beautiful dreamscape of the Salvador Dali Desert, apptly named because it literally looks as if you've entered his paintings. There were multicoloured mountains seemingly oosing and dripping reds, greens, and purples into the sandy golden desert below. Just to top it off we saw a majestic Cayote up close as we were leaving. Our next stop was a collection of huge natural rock formations that were truly breathtaking in the midst of the arid desertscape, the most amazing being the Rock Tree, literally the exact shape of a tree with veins, roots and a powerful energy when you touched it.
A trail of lagoons was how we spent the rest of the day, visiting green, red, blue and and white ones, all equally as stunning as the next and most of them accompanied by a huge volcano in the background. Its sounds bad to say but we were almost desensitised to beautiful sights by this stage. If I had to choose the most beautiful however it would be a lagoon surrounded by salt and snow capped mountains but also lush grassy pastures and the classic volcano centered in the background. It was completely filled with pink flamingo's which made it such a spectacular scene, one we will never forget.
On the last day we got up at 4am and headed to a place with natural Geizer's. I had no idea what to expect but it turned out to be one of the most amazing sights of the whole trip. On arriving, half asleep and absolutely freezing as we were around 5000 feet up, an overwhelming eggy stench filled my nostrils. I put it down to being Lyndon's usual morning bowel purge however  as we edged closer to the scene it started to make sense. Huge towering blasts of sulphuric gas were billowing from the ground, some of them so fast and loud it was intimidating. Others were slowly emerging from open wounds in the ground inside which whitish grey lava was bubbling and making beautiful paisley patterns. I had never seen anything like it, we stood in complete awe of the place getting slightly light headed on the eggy fumes, but no more so than from lyndon's, he got a taste of his own medicine. We could have happily spent all day here but the driver hurried us back into the car after about half an hour of hopping through the mini volcanos, we were so reluctent to leave.
Our last stop was the hot springs, something we hadn't been too excited about as we had been to a few before and they always just ended up being pretty much a jacuzzi full of fresh 18 year olds trying to pull. This one was much the same plus we were annoyeed that they were charging for it and we had no towels. The rest of our group had to get to the Chillean border in a hurry so the driver arranged to take them and come back for us in a couple of hours. We decided to swerve the natural jacuzzi and went for a walk around the huge lake which was covered in ice. You could barely see through the hazy mist of steam that was emitting from it and as the lake was heating up from the slowly rising sun the ice was melting on the surface. We took our shoes off and walked through it, testing the ice and loving it when it cracked and hot water pulled us down. Visible through the mist, in the distance were the surreal and delicate sillhouettes of flamingos. We had to try and get close to them without letting them know we were there, the slightest movement from a distance could see the back of a whole flock. We crept, alomost crawling in the shallow hot water, making sure the mist covered us the whole time. This was a photographers wet dream, the flamingos had no idea we were there and they were edging closer all the while. I managed to get some snaps on my film camera, hands trembling as I had to blindly change the film whilst balancing on one knee. It was magical, we felt like we'd been transported to some heavenly plane. The peace didn't last however because the melevolence took over and we couldnt help ourselves chasing them to see how hilariously they ran, it was worth it.

Sucre.

Sucre was a stop off point before getting to the Salt flats, however we were also interested in seeing Bolivia's official capital and sampling the famous chocolate. We found a comfortable and cheap hostal to set up camp for a few days and recover from our 6 weeks of work. This was R&R hybernation time but we also managed to see a hilarious concert by a Bolivian guy called Eddie Navia - a national treasure. He didn't disappoint, brandishing his chorango and head to toe in white linen he performed alongside cheesy belly dancers and entertained us all night.

La Paz.

La Paz was amazing, and really erratic, exciting and culturally diverse city with gorgeous old american dodge and ford trucks used as public transport.  The city had a really distinct feel to it unlike any other city we had been.  As you arrive you see the crazy shape of the city, it is surrounded by snow capped mountains in and large hills. Houses are built up right to the top of these hills, and the city flows down the sides, where the rich live and the main metropolitan part is. We quickly got out of the bus station and made a B line for the artisan area with loads of hostels.  This area was fronted by a beautiful grand old catherdal and large public space in front where all day there would be amazing street performers putting on different acts.  We walked up the hill from here with our heavy bags through cobble paved roads dotted with run down but beautiful old buildings and bussling with street traders. There were hundreds of litte artisan shops selling everything from really cheap touristy tack to gorgeous antique furniture and fabrics.  We found a cheap and basic hostel, But the area was perfect. Our hostel was right next to the witch's market, a crazy street filled with stall after stall filled with the most bizarre stuff you could imagine.  Perplexed at first me and Jess wondered around trying to work out what they were selling.  There were countless dead lama babies and foetuses hanging from the ceiling in each shop.  Bottles of Pachamama (mother earth) wine and hundreds of thick colourful potions lined the shelves, offering solutions to all of lifes problems .  There were large sweets all in different shapes such as love hearts, dollar bills, work ties and boyfriends or girlfriends for burying and praying to Pachamama that they come to life.  We later learnt that the dead lamas were used as an offering to pachamama before building a house, and if you dont conduct a ceromoney using one you are not insured to have workers on your building site, so no one will build your house.  We also found out it is commonly believed that for large constructions a larger offering is required, a human sacrifice! It is said that a drunken homeless person with no family is picked up from the street and burried in the foundations of all big sky scrapers in bolivia.  A ceromoney is conducted with all of the builders there present, they wont start work without seeing this as they believe pachamama will smote them down on the site if a sufficient sacrifice is not made!  This is not proven but its wildly believed to be true.
The thing that we were enjoying the most was late night drinking and dining, La Paz really is a metro city brimming with expats, we had the best Turkish/ Arabic food we have ever had here even better than back in london.  We also did a walking tour and found out why the chollitas (traditional women with the small hats and puffy skirts) all wear tiny little fancy hats.  Apparently the Italian community here all wore hats like these, and thought they could sell them to the Bolivian men here.  Because the men were so short here they assumed that they would have small heads, which it turns out they do not.  Hundreds of these hats had already been shipped out so they decided to lie to the bolivian women by saying these hats were all the rage in Europe. They completely bought it as they had no way of finding out whether this was the case or not and so to this day women all over Bolivia are still wearing them.        - Lyndon.