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Published: April 20th 2008
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It had to happen - at some point we would succumb to the dreaded tummy lurgy which South America is so famed for and boy has it happened. Arguably, during our stay in Bolivia of two weeks, we were the victims of Bolivian water, and all that it has to offer, a number of times - quite a feat for a landlocked country, but maybe that´s the problem!! Don´t worry we won´t go into huge details....
First stop was Copacabana, on the other side of Lake Titicaca to Puno - relaxed would be an understatement, you had to practically serve yourself. We stayed in a hostel on the hill called La Cupula which was simple and lovely (and cheap!) but curbed our planned two nights to one after our walk round the sites lasted 37 minutes. In addition, this being Bolivia´s nearest idea of a beach, we were surprised at the rather pungent odour being emitted from the water´s edge - blocked drains? Just drains?
The bus journey to La Paz was nothing short of spectacular - mountains, lake, snow, volcanoes, up and down - at one point we all disembarked and watched as our bus (with our ruck
sacks on top) was loaded on to a "raft" to cross the lake - the front half of the raft promptly sank about 2 metres , we accompanied it in a clapped out old tug and weren´t quite sure if the bus had a better chance of making it than us!!
La Paz itself is kind of bonkers... it has an incredible energy and you really get the feeling that the LaPazengers (?) like to party. It has a wonderful back drop, Mount Illumini i think, and is frenetic with people and activity. Unfortunately we were in a very hot room and didn´t sleep at all on our first night which rather marred our allocated "siteseeing day" however we managed a good walk around, visited the contemporary art museum, ate some sushi, bought some stuff and i had the best massage ever for about a fiver... The following day we left early for our flight to Sucre (La Paz airport serves the best hot chocolate ever, you get a glass of hot milk and a big slab of chocolate and then just put the two together - hey presto... delicioso) surrounded by the ubiquitous middle aged French tour group,
they are everywhere in South America it seems... or is it just that their voices carry?
Sucre was so gorgeous, whitewashed, colonial, warm, friendly - it is a place you really feel you can stay in. Our hotel was amazing, it was previously the spanish consulate and had a really classy feel.. Unfortunately our trip in Sucre was spoilt slightly by two "water related" events; 1. Nige got a stomach bug and had to stay in bed for a day and a half which was really horrid for him. 2. We took our clothes to the laundrette as usual and asked her to wash Nige´s new alpaca jumper but pointed out to her that it shouldn´t be tumble dried - yes, yes she said she never tumble dries wool. We went to pick it up the next day and guess what... it had become a "crop" jumper and ended just before Nige´s belly button - attractive - and she had also ripped it in the process. As you can imagine her response was just "read the terms and conditions, it is not my responsibility". Ho hum, what a bummer. Still we managed to buy Nige a nice new jumper
for a couple of quid which is very shiny... On the plus side i met the lovely Kiera from Dublin - unusually as we were both getting our legs waxed (not in the waiting room, actually in the same room at the same time) and she introduced us to all her lovely spanish lesson mates and we ended up partying quite hard for a couple of nights (nige managed to recover enough for the second night). We also found Sucre tennis club and spent a great couple of hours comparing the standard of a Bolivian Tennis Club to Putney´s and debating whether we should try and twin with them...
We moved on to Potosi (Quickly as our cab driver seemed to be in some kind of race) but only stayed one night there, our hostel was a complete dump and we were anxious to move on to the Salar de Uyuni circuit. Meanwhile i spoke to my brother just after he had completed the London Marathon in 3 hours 50 minutes and felt incredibly proud - well done Alex!!
The Salar de Uyuni (salt flat) circuit was sensationally beautiful, mesmerising and different - four days of great white
plains of brilliant salt dazzling to the eye, islands of giant cactus, huge rainbow coloured volcanoes, lakes of vibrant green and red, dozens of flamingos strutting about, ice cream coloured geysers belching and bubbling hot air and mud. There was a sense of isolation we have never quite experienced - no phones, minimum electricity, no heating or hot water most of the time, despite nightime temperatures shooting well below zero. It was a wonderful few days but, and unfortunately there is a but, our puny western bodies just couldn´t cope with something in the Bolivian water - we had two nights of 2 hours sleep max and on the last day terrrible stomach aches and fever. Sadly Nige got it much worse than me and is still ill in bed - tonight will be his third night but he has seen a doctor, who shook his head and simply said "Bolivia", then dispensed some antibiotics. We are staying in a great place in San Pedro de Atacama (Chile)and they are looking after him really well - chicken soup, flasks of coca tea and a lot of sympathy.
So there it is, our Bolivian adventure - fabulous but stomach turning
at the same time.
We plan to catch a bus to Salta in Argentina on Sunday - only 12 hours - but won´t be going until Nige is fit and well again.
Lots of love to you all.
Louise and Nige. xx
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