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Published: January 17th 2011
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When I was a small child growing up there were many places I dreamed of spending Christmas ranging from Lapland to Legoland! Alas, La Paz in Bolivia, as interesting a place as it is, was not one of them. Nevertheless this is precisely where Alexa and I found ourselves spending the 2010 festive period and we were determined to make the most of it. La Paz sits in a "bowl" surrounded by the high mountains of the altiplano and is located at an elevation of 3,660 meters above sea level, making it the world's highest "de facto" capital city. This means that walking upstairs leaves you panting (let alone going for a run), whilst one beer has the effect of about three. With Bolivia also being one of the poorest countries in South America, this meant that the festive drinks flowed and sore heads were in abundance. On Christmas Eve our group went to a rather strange Bolivian style house party where we attempted to eat turkey out of plastic containers with plastic knives and forks, whilst standing and also trying to hold a drink (as a male this sort of multi tasking was alway going to be a challenge!)
On Christmas Day we went for a more traditional turkey dinner at an English pub called Oliver´s Travels. The guy managing the pub was a constant source of entertainment as he was clearly very high on something (and not just the festive cheer) and this meant that the most straightforward task was always going to be too much for him. He seemed destined to have a breakdown at any moment and when our group swapped tables without telling him in order to get more space we thought the moment had finally come. Aside from the festive activities some of our group visited the notorious San Pedro prison where they had to bribe prison officers to let them in and out, and were shown around and guarded by murderers and rapists. Alexa and I were not too keen on the prospect of spending Christmas locked up and therefore were content to bribe a local hotel to allow us up on their roof for an aerial view of the prison (bribes are the local currency in La Paz). Other members of the group also took on the infamous Death Road mountain bike experience which locals actually pray before driving along. Perhaps Alexa
and I are getting old but the prospect of spending Christmas in a Bolivian hospital was about as appealling as spending it in a Bolivian prison. Whilst our Bolivian style Christmas was a memorable one we were both quite relieved when it was all over. Without wanting to sound soppy, we both missed friends and family, not to mention all the English trimmings such as the rubbish on the tv, the movies that you have seen countless times and the cold weather causing havoc to our transport systems. Roll on Christmas 2011!
Our next port of call was Bolivia's official capital, Sucre. In stark contrast to La Paz, and for that matter the rest of Bolivia, Sucre seemed pretty affluent, at least by South American standards. Often referred to as Bolivia's White City, Sucre with its colonial architecture is also a great deal more picturesque than La Paz. All things considered therefore, we were not too disappointed when our tour leader Margherita announced that due to the petrol protests going on around Bolivia it would be too dangerous to leave Sucre until the new year. In addition to exploring the quaint old city and in particular the endless number
of chocolate shops, Alexa and I also found the time to go on a stunning 45km bike ride as well as trying our hand at rock climbing. Because Sucre is situated at a comparatively low altitude we were also able to run off at least some of the Christmas excesses of La Paz. Our daily route involved us running laps of the beautiful 'Love Park' which featured a mini Eiffel Tower. Our last night in Sucre was New Year's Eve and predictably it was a heavy night. We started off in the hotel lobby finishing off our Christmas supply of alcohol before migrating to a bar in the busy main square to see in the new year. It was a great night and certainly a whole lot more enjoyable than the next day's long bus ride to Uyuni, which it must be said was somewhat of an ordeal!
From Uyuni we picked up our jeeps and embarked on a three day adventure into Bolivia's stunning salt flats. Our first stop was the Cemetery of Trains which was a pretty surreal experience. Everywhere we looked there were rusty abandoned trains and broken train tracks. Although they were fun to explore
there was also a sense of sadness at how such grand old machines had fallen into such a state of disrepair. We spent the remainder of our first day exploring the salt flats and it would not be an exaggeration to say that they were among the most spectacular sights of our trip to date. For as far as the eye could see there were gleaming pentagon shaped tiles of salt which were as shiny as they were ragged. The contrast of the perfect white against a cloudless blue sky was truly a sight to behold. Every now and again as we drove through the flats we also passed spectacular oasis like islands of vegetation which had somehow defied the baron climate. When we were not taking in the views we also found time to take some entertaining photos taking advantage of the flawless background. After a night spent in a hotel made entirely of salt we embarked on our second day in the flats. This time the highlights of the day were the beautiful lagoons populated by countless numbers of bright pink flamingos, who from the waist down bared an uncanny resemblence to Alexa! Without a doubt the most
spectacular of these was the Red Lagoon which looked rather sinister with its blood coloured waters. Our last day on the flats began with a visit to the amazing natural steam geysers. One such geyser actually shot steam 30 feet up into the air which provided ideal ammunition for many an enteraining photo! There were also incredible bubbling mud pools which looked like mini volcano craters. After the excitement of the geysers we 'cooled off' in some natural hot springs before making our way to the rather unglamorous Bolivian/Chilean border.
Our first stop in Chile was a delightful (if slightly touristy) little town called San Pedro. From here Alexa and I climbed the amazing Takora volcano which dominates the landscape. At the top we were rewarded with breathtaking views over three different countries, namely Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. To get back to San Pedro we embarked on a downhill high adrenaline biking adventure in which we covered 60km in a little over 45 minutes. Our next port of call in Chile was a beautiful beach resort called La Serena. We spent a couple of days there before moving on to Chile's vibrant capital city, Santiago.
Santiago, like the
rest of Chile, is a great deal more westernised than either Peru or Bolivia. Consequently everything is also significantly more expensive. To put this into context, a glass of wine (which seems as good a scale as any to use in Chile) would be about the same price in Chile as it would be in either the US or the UK, if slightly nicer. Highlights of Santiago included the magnificent fortress at the top of Santa Lucia Hill, a wine tasting tour at a local winery and a visit to the quirky Valparaiso. We also made some rather unwelcome visits to the local police station, the British Embassy, as well as the Argentinian Embassy, having had our passports stolen whilst waiting to catch a nightbus down to the south of Chile. Our tour group consequently had to go on without us and for the first time, we found ourselves on our own in South America. At the time of writing, we have obtained temporary British passports (which technically makes us second class Britsh citizens!) but are waiting for the Argentinian authorities to grant us visas. We have rejoined our group in the stunning Chilean Lake District but will not be
able to follow them into Argentina until our visas come through. Hopefully, this will only be a matter of days and they won't hold the Falklands against us! Tune in next time to find out if we made it out of Chile and into Argentina..........
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