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Published: August 6th 2007
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All Bar One, Coroico
Like back home but full of downhill mountain bikers not estate agents on a Friday afternoon. Nice ray of light, thanks God We have seen some diversity on this trip - but the place we found ourselves in after our 64km descent from La Paz was like a different world, not a nearby town.
We had dropped from half the height of Everest - where the landscape was jagged and bleak with warm days and wintery nights - to a mere 1,000 feet where the subtropical climate allowed orange groves, banana, coca and coffee plantations to turn the landscape green and lush.
We had planned to take a trek out of Coroico further down into the valley, but when we realised our hotel had a pool AND for the first time since Melbourne (almost 3 months ago) we could actually wear nothing but swimwear and sunglasses we made a joint decision
"let´s sit on our arses for three days and do nothing"
....and what a wise choice it turned out to be! Hotel Esmerelda is German owned (bad) but sits just above Coroico looking out over some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen (good). It also has a pool, sauna, cheap bottle of house wine and rooms with bathroom and balcony all for only a tenner (good,
Hanging out !! in the heat
something we didnt expect to get the chance to do in Bolivia good, good etc..)
I had been excited to have a wander around the dense cloud forest that surrounds Coroico because the "Bill Oddie" within me had been keen to see some of the amazing birdlife - but after 24 hours of "sitting on my arse" I had seen 2 varieties of Hummingbird, a small black bird with a 50cm bright yellow tail (? answers on a postcard) and scores of 3m wing spanned Condors that soared directly above me as I lay by the pool burning my big bald head. (Note: I also realised that trying to photograph a hummingbird is right up there with completing a rubic´s cube and understanding spanish irregular verbs).
The town of Coroico has very little to offer other than its setting so we decided to camp out at the hotel and fill our faces on the "all you can eat" buffets, remembering an old trick from my family holidays as a child which involved stealing bread rolls, cheese and pieces of cake from the breakfast buffet to be eaten as a "free lunch" by the pool (are you reading this Mum and Aunty Linda).
We actually rarely ventured into the pool
Bolivia or Bermuda ???
The heat, the smell of suntan lotion and bug spray made us think we were somewhere altogether more tropical. (me once, Carla just a toe) as it was bloody freezing but the sun loungers and hammocks got plenty of use as we sunned our pale bodies in the shadow of snow capped mountains and banana trees - an altogether bizarre but very enjoyable experience.
La Paz (again)
We returned to La Paz in a very cramped mini van, a journey that took almost as long uphill with an engine as it did did downhill on a moutain bike. We started in daylight, disappeared into a cloud and then emerged into twilight still able to see jagged mountain tops underneath a millon crystal clear stars, before dropping back into La Paz as it began to light up for the night- another spectacular sight and all this to the soundtrack of a Bolivian radio station playing a mid 90´s dance classic megamix (Mr Vain, My Gettaway, No limits etc)
Returning to La Paz and our friendly hotel made me realise how much I liked the place. It´s busy, smelly and a little dirty with very little to actually see - but something drew me to the place and I left with quite an affection for Bolivia´s
La Paz
a maze of cobbled streets and market stalls with a suprisingly high population of very well spoken english gap year-ers called Edward and Arabella capital city.
Some La Paz facts
It MAY be the most "cobbled" capital city in the World.
It IS the highest capital city in the World (3636m above sea level)
It has no shops meaning all food, toiletries etc must be bought from stalls on the pavement
Everyone of these stalls is run by a fat woman in a bowler hat
If your transaction with one of these fat women requires change she will reach beneath her apron, jumper and then ample (and not ample in a good way) bossom and hand you some warm coins.
Oruro
We were the only gringos aboard our 50 seater bus from La Paz to Oruro. I counted approximately 10, making it 20% fat women in bowler hat ratio who all spent the entire journey eating massive sugar puffs (well that´s what they taste like although each ´puff´is the size of an adult´s thumb).
I had been planning a power nap until they turned on the 1 TV screen for the whole bus and played ´Big Trouble in Little China´- dubbed in Spanish - at 100 decibels through a speaker directly
This is as close as I got
The weather and scenery were fantastic, but the water was freezing. above our heads (great film, surely Kurt Russell´s finest moment?)
We were stopping in Oruro for one night before our train the next day and thank god it was only one night. The place is a dump and from the moment we stepped off the bus we couldn´t wait to get out of there the following day. We had nowhere booked and ended up at a small unfinished place run by identical twin brothers - although one always smiled the other never did making telling them apart easy.
That night as we tried to find a half decent place to get some food we took in Oruro´s must-see sights, which didn´t take long as there aren´t any!!! although a little boy nearly wee´d on Carla´s foot as we crossed a road near the main street, but apart from that nothing happened and after spending 3 hours on the internet the following day we boarded our train out of Dumpsville and headed south to the mining town of Uyuni.
Uyuni
Apart from the few unusual modes of transport such as speedboats and elephants, trains are my favourite way of crossing long distances and the second class
Latin American lingerie
Both proudly displaying our thermal "underwear" in Uyuni. carriage for our 7 hour journey south was warm and comfortable and once we got out of Oruro the piles of rubbish stopped and we started to pass the edge of Lake Poopo (I think the Bolivian Government insists that every lake must have a silly name).
We have been on a few spectacular train journeys since leaving the UK but have never before looked out of the window and seen hundreds of Pink Flamingoes!!!! but half an hour into our trip to Uyuni that's exactly what we saw wading and flying alongside our train - a stark contrast to the dirt and dust of Oruro only 30 minutes earlier.
Uyuni is set in Bolivia´s highest and flattest region and as we arrived in darkness the temperature outside was freezing!! by far the coldest of our whole trip and a sure sign of things to come over the next few days as we head out on a tour of Bolivia´s salt flats and coloured lagoons.
That night we booked into a cheap hostel and slept in our hats, jumpers and gloves.... a mere three days since we had been sat sunning ourselves by the pool in Coroico.
The Wicked Witch of Uyuni
Uyuni has one more "sight" than Ororo, and this is it !!! Peace
MandC
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winn et Linda
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Our training came in useful
Linda and I have just read the blog and are so proud of our budget plans for free lunches....glad you remembered, and how useful has it been!!! you may laugh but on the other side of the world sneeking free lunch is good.... well done we are proud of you, hope the weather is not too cold, keep up with the long johns, and the silly hats which look great, take care and thanks for the e-mail it was great. love winn et linda ( make sure you put it in your pocket) anything free. you never know love linda and mum xxx