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Published: July 12th 2008
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Markets in Tupiza
Typical outfit of a Bolivian woman - hat, plaits, big skirt, apron I´d heard a few things about Bolivia before arriving: the buses are rubbish and never on time, the food's decidedly dodgy and there's a general disregard for time.......forewarned is forearmed!
My first conversation with a Bolivian, the taxi driver, went like this:
'Hola'
'Hola'
'¿De que pais son?'
'Inglaterra'
'Ah, Bobby Charlton!'
Brilliant! A similar conversation with a Thai taxi driver 7 years ago ended with 'Ah, David Beckham!' I think Bolivia are a bit behind the times.
We caught a train to Tupiza which was actually very comfy, just not very speedy. The windows opened all the way down; perhaps not that safe but handy for buying ice creams from the sellers on the platform. The toilet was quite amusing - you could see the track whizzing along below! - and even surprisingly clean, with all the essentials (toilet paper, soap and even hand towels!......the things I've come to appreciate......). The journey took us past the local car wash - a short road down to the river where someone was handwashing a bus.
So, I shall now describe our first meal in Bolivia, rather comical........ (although
in defence of Bolivia, I should say that this only really happened
once)
Enter restaurant, sit down. Wait 10 minutes, get menus. Wait 10 minutes, waitress comes over.
Sarah:Two milanese chicken, 1 beer and 1 coca tea please Waitress: We only have pizza Wait 10 minutes. Beer arrives.
S: Two pizzas please and 1 coca tea Wait 25 minutes.
W: We have no pizzas
S: What food do you have? And 1 coca tea please Wait 10 minutes.
W: We have lasagne
S: One meat lasagne and 1 vegetarian lasagne please. And 1 coca tea Wait 20 minutes. Meat lasagne arrives.
S: And 1 coca tea please. Wait 10 minutes. Vegetarian lasagne arrives. Still no coca tea.
Lasagnes eaten. Ask for bill. Wait 10 minutes. Bill arrives. Coca tea crossed off.
There was a definite difference between the people of Argentina and Chile, and those of Bolivia. The Bolivians are more 'Andean' looking: darker skinned, shorter, definitely not European looking, and wearing traditional rather than Western dress. The women were all dressed in what I would describe as big fairy skirts with aprons, plaits and bizarre bowler-type hats that look like they might fall off if they sneeze too hard, multiple layers of jumpers, thick skin coloured socks underneath their
sandals and often huge brightly coloured bundles of who knows what on their backs. Tupiza itself had a main square (as do all South American cities) and lots of market stalls selling pretty much anything, including giant sacks of coca leaves. If you looked closely you could see little lumps in the cheeks of the Bolivians where their ball of coca leaves was sitting.
We took a horse ride to see some of the rocky desert around Tupiza, and I must say that my entire body was most relieved I chose the 3 hour ride over the 7 hour ride. Next was a 4 day tour to see the salt flats of Uyuni, a highlight of Bolivia, and it wasn't long before you felt like you were in the middle of nowhere. Our driver decided to treat us to his 'English' CD - basically a compilation of all the theme tunes to every western you've ever seen. The best one, I don't know its name, but it's the one that everyone knows and loves, which starts with some eerie whistling - you could just imagine a cowboy disappearing off into the sunset on the deserted horizon.
From memory,
Typical hat of a Bolivian woman
Hmmmm how many bananas do I want? Tupiza itself is about 3500 metres above sea level but the road to Uyuni took us up to 5,000 metres, pretty high, lots of coca tea required. At this altitude I got breathless doing anything that even remotely resembled exercise, lucky I was sat in a car mostly! It was also a little nippy once the sun set: -12 degC at night. And seriously, I think all Bolivians were born in a barn. It's -12degC, you're wearing all your clothes desperately trying to keep warm - SHUT THE DOOR!!!!!!!
The tour took us past rocky gorges, desert, volcanic rock formations, lagunas, flamingoes, hot springs, geysers, and even a ghost village! There was some confusion with the stories regarding the ghostliness of the village. The first story invloved a conflict between the God and the devil worshippers. The God worshippers took their bibles up a nearby hill, the devil worshippers followed, though with some difficulty, then somebody(?) put a silver chain round them which when broken, caused the end of the world and everyone to desert the village. I got the feeling I may have missed some key points in the story. The second story involved the Spanish making the
Incas slaves in the village, then a mysterious woman came and killed half the men and the rest fled. Again, something about the story didn't quite flow. Maybe a devil-worshipping whore destroyed the village? Maybe.
On the last night we stayed in a hostel made entirely of salt. Everything - walls, tables, chairs, beds, all made of salt blocks. The floor - salt. Maybe salt is a good insulator because it was actually quite warm (relative to the other nights). Though still a bit of the barn problem. The following morning was a 5am start to go and see the sunrise over the salt flats. A most excellent plan. In the dark, the salt flats looked like a never-ending expanse of snow. 'Twas a little unnerving though when our driver decided to turn off all his lights, especially in view of the fact that two vehicles collided here only a couple of weeks ago. Unbelievable really when you see the amount of open space.
We watched the sunrise from a small cactus covered island in the middle of the salt (Isla Incahuasi). We were lucky enough to be there at full moon which meant that on one side
of the island we had a view of the rising sun, dazzling over the salt, and on the other side, the subtle pink and orange colours of the setting moon. After breakfast we called by the salt mountains (a slightly misleading name, more like small heaps, where the salt is allowed to dry before going off for processing), then I bought myself an obligatory salt llama. After a couple of hours in Uyuni we caught a delightful local bus to Potosi, which was absolutely rammed full of Bolivian women in their giant skirts with their giant bundles.
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