BoliviYAAAAA!

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So in San Pedro de Atacama, I was at the hostel, and in mixed Portuguese-Spanish, I was like I want to go see the salt flats in Bolivia. And the hostel guy told me that the only way to cross the Bolivian border is to buy a seat in a jeep. So I was like okay, how long does it take? And he said the shortest is 2 days. So it was 165 dollars, with all transport, meals, and accomodation included. LITTLE DID I KNOW THIS WOULD BE THE COOLEST THREE (yes three) DAYS OF MY LIFE.

First of all, the Bolivian border is just a shack in the middle of the mountains, with a volcano visibly erupting in the distance. The bathroom is a rusted out old hippy van. In Bolivia, they hate Americans. So they took my passport (apparently only Americans need a visa oops forgot to check that one out) and gave it to the driver of the jeep. The driver of the jeep turned out to be this really tiny cool dude named Gregory. I was in the jeep with 2 Australian 30ish couples. So we´re just driving through the Bolivian desert. There are no roads, no people, no other cars, youre just driving.

Then we come to this beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere. And then another beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere, except this one is turquoise. And then ANOTHER beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere which is RED. Did I mention that each lake was filled with thousands of Flamingos just chilling? Each time we got to stop and take pictures.

Then, we drive up to this place and Gregorys like oh here´s the volcano. And its literally a volcano smoking and steaming 2 feet in front of you. I even stuck my head in it! It smelled really awful, like sulfur. So we´are just driving and driving and every hour stopping at something brand new and really cool! And everything seems like a Salvador Dali painting. There´s even a desert named the Salvador Dali desert. It´s craycray. So we stop at this little pueblo (literally made out of pueblo as in mud and dirt bricks) right next to the red lake and stay there. And the hostel is run by this little (4 feet tall) lady who wears a bowler hat. I later found out that the Quechua native Bolivians and Peruvians wear bowler hats which is really quite amusing if you try to picture it. There is great food. Bolivians are really awesome at making soup. But there is no running water and the bathroom reminded me of Africa a lot. So we are driving for days in the desert and I had no idea it was going to be like this and it was just so cool looking at all the cool mountains, and the occasional llamas. Actually one time we stopped, and there were llamas chilling drinking some water and these little Bolivian kids running around. I tried to pet a llama, who then tried to spit at me (but missed) and the kids just started cracking up, which was one of the funniest things I´ve ever experienced.


Then we got to the salt flats. THESE ARE INCREDIBLE EVERYONE MUST GO THERE. We watched the sun rise over the salt flats, which was so beautiful. Then, we climbed an island that is in the middle of the salt flats and you can see out over it between 900-year old cacti. SO FREAKING COOL. So basically this was the coolest 3 days of my life and I saw the most incredible vastness ever.

Then we got to the town of Uyuni which is right next to the salt flats. The Australian guys in my jeep were both in the Australian army, and one got really quiet when we got into the town of Uyuni and later he said that he was getting flashbacks from Afghanistan. That´s how crazy, old, dusty, and "undeveloped" Uyuni was. We also went to a Train Cemetery, which was actually really cool. It had the trains that used to transport silver from the Potosi mines (whats up world history).

But Uyuni was not very friendly, and kind of creepy, so I took the first bus to La Paz. I found it really ironic that the only places I could go from Uyuni were La Paz and Santa Cruz. So La Paz was cool, I got in at 5:30 in the morning, and me and this Australian girl I met waited for the sun to rise so we could go find a hostel. Later that day (after I slept some!) I asked for a map but the hostel didn´t have one, so I walked out promising myself I would remember how to get back. Big mistake. Of course I got lost, but I tried not to worry about it and that worked out well actually because I ran into some people I met in Chile! They had a map (thank god) and I had lunch with them and then went home after booking my DEATH ROAD BIKE the next day.

That is right. I BIKED DEATH ROAD. I even have a shirt now that says so. When you travel, if you do something gnarly enough you get a free shirt. I even tried to get an ¨"I survived the worlds most dangerous Vindaloo" shirt but that didn´t work out. Anyway. So I biked the World´s Most Dangerous Road. We ate breakfast at 7am, then drove to the starting point. It was in total 64 km, and we did it downhill and it was total 3600m decline. It was kind of scary. I thought it was just a hyped up thing, but it was actually really dangerous. They build a newer semi safer road but some buses and cars still use the old one. So I was biking down towards the end and all of the sudden this HUGE BUS with people sitting in the top of it like you see on postcards comes around the corner and I didn´t have time to break but I wouldve gone off if I went straight so I turned my bike into the mountain and fell on purpose. So basically I was a little rattled after that but everything was okay.

THEN a truck comes past when we were on a water break and the guy in the truck tells our guide, in spanish, "Hey a girl fell off up ahead" NO BIG DEAL. The guides played it down but like told us to be safe of course. But anyway, it was really really fun and now I even have a tshirt that says I did something awesome!

So the interesting thing about La Paz is how un westernized it was compared to Sao Paulo, Santiago, and Buenos Aires. I was really surprised actually. It reminded me a lot of Africa. The traditional women wear these big long skirts, hand sewn aprons, two braids down their back, and bowler hats. When their braids are connected behind their back, it means theyre married. It was really interesting to see this traditional apparel. Anyway, yesterday morning I left on a bus for Lima Peru. We all had to walk across the Peru-Bolivia border (on the Bolivia side, they were confused because my visa said 90 days. On the Peru side, we had to wait for 30 minutes because the power went out). I was finally on the bus towards Lima when the lady next to me on the bus gets a phone call and tells me that apparently an hour after we crossed, Bolivia shut all its borders due to some political problems. Içm still trying to figure out what these problems were, but thankfully Içm alive and well in Lima! I´´m actually really really stoked because for the first time in MONTHS I have a room to myself. I have a bathroom to myself. I have a TV TO MYSELF!!!! And its only $14!! I´m beyond stoked to be just by myself and do what I want for tonight. Because tomorrow I leave for Ecuador! I start my volunteering on Sunday and I can´t wait!

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Photos

SD desert
Salvador Dali

Comments

[angela]

Cool
Cates, I'm proud of you! Love U Angela