Blogs from La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 226

Yes, I know it sounds incredibly foolish, and yes, I may be risking life and limb for a good Travelblog entry, but dammit it just sounds so cool! The weather is supposed to be cool and more excitingly, foggy! That´s great, cos I really don´t want to see the gaping chasm to my left when I´m concentrating on avoiding the oncoming trucks and buses that can´t see me. If I live to write another journal, I´ll post some piccies. But I digress, back to where I left off last time. Left the farm in Medoza in search of protein - as great as a fully organic, fruit-and-veg based diet sounds, when you´re doing manual labour, you need something to keep your muscles from disintegrating. First stop after Mendoza was Cordoba. This was only a day visit, ... read more

That's Sucre! We're in La Paz now, but leaving in half an hour for Peru! La Paz doesn't have the best reputation as it's quite dangerous at night, but we've not had any problems. La Paz is the highest city in the world (everything in Bolivia is a highest something!) It's set in the mountains so the view is really cool. Not too much to say, there's a cool witches market that sells llama foetuses to ward off evil spirits. And there's quite a few market stalls...errr that's it. Some of our group cycled on the World's most Dangerous Road but that's not our kind of thing. (She means not her kind of thing! Eric) Had a fabulous Thai dinner last night- yummy! Chicken in spicy peanut sauce. Ok best go, off to Lake Titicaca! Bye ... read more

It’s the 3rd day of the Carnival, no, not Rio, or Salvador, but downtown La Paz, and the energy and excitement and danger are just as full-on. In fact it’s been full-on from Uyuni, thru’ Potosi, Oduro and La Paz…the primary danger being getting soaked as packs of young, and not so young, roam the streets, armed to the teeth with water ‘pistols’, military design, star wars colours and shapes, awfully phallic, giant purple, bulbous headed, red, yellow and green shafts, the pumping action by grown-up boys, sheathed in their plastic condom coveralls, even Siggies greatest critics would have to believe this one! also the water bombs, 12 for 1 Boliviano (about 12 cents) luckily the general aim is shithouse but this also means more potential of getting hit by wild throws! All along the street, ... read more

After visiting Machu Picchu, and Cusco I headed South to Bolivia to explore a country I new very little of. The only thing I knew was that it was land locked after losing several wars to Chile and Peru over the past centuries. I feel bad for Bolivians because after losing so much land over time what they have been left with is very unworkable. In Bolivia if you aren't in the jungle you are in the mountains. Having little to offer the world as far as trade and of course years of corruption the Boliviano has been left very weak. The people of Bolivia are the poorest people I have ever encountered, but the majority are modest, humble, and happy. There are bad people wherever you go but in Bolivia crime seems to be more ... read more

The next morning - or midday … whenever it was, it was hot enough so that the tent, my sleeping-bag, and I became a sweaty bundle of sticky, humid surfaces. Like a fruit roll-up right out of the wrapper that still clings to the cellophane. Sort of. Whatever. The point is that we had been lazing in our tents, waiting for the rain to stop so we wouldn´t have to pack wet gear, and in the mean-time been caught by the soft-lit drowsiness of a warm tent, like Ulysses on a lotus binge… but, as I said, we got driven out of our tents when the vegetable-steamer of nylon became too much Sort of like luke-warm bathwater, except in this case it was Too hot to stay in, two crazy Argentineans to get out. Stretching in ... read more