Bolivian Bus Adventures

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Hi,

So we finally arrived in Bolivia after all the hassle. We flew into La Paz which is at about 3,600m and immediately noticed the effects of this - e.g. out of breath and tired after just walking up 10 stairs. We got over this pretty quickly and have now seen a bit of Bolivia, here are our highlights:

La Paz

• One of the few cities we have visited with an immature tourism industry so nobody hassling us and probably 90%!S(MISSING)panish speaking only
  
• The local women - Choquitas - still wear their traditional clothing and weird bowler hats
  
• We have been sleeping A LOT and getting tired easily. When we went to bed early one night we were lucky enough to catch a Sex and the City marathon on TV !?!
  
• The city is poor and services very basic but an unexpected gem was the Museum of Contempary Art which would be at home in any European city

Rest of Bolivia
Before listing our highlights for the Rest of Bolivia we have continued our run of bad luck with transportation. We took an overnight bus from La Paz to the South of Bolivia and a UNESCO site, The Salt Plains of Uyuni. It's the world's largest salt flat and can be seen from space.

Bus story #1
Our overnight luxury bus runs from about 8:30pm to 7:00am next day. The tricky thing about getting to Uyuni is that there are no sealed roads. So leaving La Paz, we very quickly go from sealed, partally sealed, gravel, dirt, to no road at all .. So it came to be that at about 6:30am we were driving around in a desert following some rough tracks when - we think - our bus driver took a wrong turn and got the bus stuck in sand. Everybody bailed out and we waited for 1 1/2 hours while the driver and random Bolivian assistants couldn't get the bus unstuck. By this stage another bus was passing by (on the actual road/track 200m away) and all the Bolivian passengers took their bags and headed off to this 2nd bus. The gringos had no idea what was happening but we eventually hurried over to the bus and completed the final 30min of our journey.

Bus story #2
The very next night we were heading straight back to La Paz on another overnight bus (different company). This time we were both sleeping well when we were woken up at about 1am to the bus driver trying to get the bus out of a ditch. After 30min of trying everybody got off the bus. Unfortunately it was 1:30 so the only alternative we had was to get on a random bus going 1/2 way to La Paz. This was our best option so we took it. We were on a local bus with no heating and ended up at a middle-of-nowhere bus depot at 5:00am still 3 hours from La Paz. Our luck caught up with us and we fortunately were able to get almost straight onto a bus direct to La Paz. So we arrive at La Paz after two nights of no sleep, same clothes, etc..

So our other highlights of Bolivia (other than the bus trips) are:
* The vast expanse of the salt pains and the absolute white/brightness of the journey
* Chillin' for a few days on Lake Titicaca at Copacabana - but the sun is harsh here and it's easy to get burnt.
* Our first proper exercise above 4,000M. 4 hours walking across the Isla Del Sol.

Coming Up ...
Were heading into Peru tomorrow (more buses!) to Arequipa, Puno and Cusco before the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Dave & Lisa

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Comments

[AJ]

Wow!
As i'm getting ready for bed and another dreary day at the office i'm feeling quite jealous! (Although i think i will appreciate my own bed and duvet that little bit more tonight). Looks like you're already having an enjoyable and memorable experience and you've only just begun!! I look forward to future updates. xo