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Published: March 18th 2007
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The Border
We got off the bus in Argentina just before the border and walked the few hundred metres to get to Bolivia, scoffing down all our fruit and vegies on the way. We went into immigration, a tiny building with no furniture and a dusty floor, signed some forms, had our passports stamped, and then proceeded into Bolivia with exactly zero bag checks.
Tupiza
We slipped into the last 3 seats on the bus, a bus with seats that were either stuck straight up at a back breaking angle or reclined whether you wanted them to or not. A quick glance up at the piece of metal stuck across the air vents revealed that the air conditioning would not be working any time soon and after spending a considerable amount of time trying to open the windows resigned ourselves to a long hot stuffy journey. None the less, I was glad not to be one of the 20 people standing in the aisle of the bus on the 3 hour bumpy ride on a dirt track to Tupiza.
Salt Flats tour
After a great sleep in a private room with a private bathroom for less than $5 each
we set off on a tour of the Bolivian outback. We stocked up on water, biscuits and toilet paper and loaded 8 of us into a Landcruiser. We spent most of the next 4 days driving through desolate landscape - brown dirt, treeless mountains, rocky outcrops, occassionaly stumbing upon some of the most spectacular lakes I've ever seen. We passed through small towns, with buildings made out of mud, the same colour as the land. No matter how tiny the town they always had a football pitch (which we would drive over on our way through the town). I, suffering from extreme altitude sickness at the height of 5000 metres, usually managed to get only a few photos of each place before collapsing in a heap on the ground next to the car. We arrived at the Salt Flats on the 3rd night and stayed in a hotel made completely out of salt, the walls, the table that we ate dinner at and even the beds that we slept in. We woke up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise over the salt flats. We were rewarded with two similtaneous sunrises - a result of the hypnotic
reflection of the sun rising in the reflection of the water on the plain. We then drove into the 5cm deep water reflecting the sky beneath us, making it feel like we were flying through the sky.
Uyuni
The tour finished in this small isolated town, surrounded by several hundred kilometres of nothingness. One of the guys who was on our tour was really sick so we took him to a hospital. After a half hour consultation with the nurses he was told that they couldn't help him and he would have to see a doctor. So we went to another hospital and were greeted by a dog sitting in the waiting room. This hospital was also unstaffed but a quick phone call and a drive out to the doctors house brought him to our friend's aid. He was given the necessary drugs to sort out his kidney infection and we chatted briefly to the doctor afterwards. The only doctor in town had plans to go out and get drunk that night. Mental note to self - don't get sick on a Saturday night in Uyuni.
Potosi
At one of the highest points in Bolivia, this was where
we felt the lowest. Sick and tired from altitude and sleeping in a bed with a dip in the middle meant that even getting out bed in the morning was a struggle. Had the option of going on a tour of the underground mines (the main tourist attraction in town) but decided to do ourselves a favour and just get to lower ground. Discovered that there was a country wide bus strike going on so set about negotiating a taxi ride to get to the nearest Sucre. After spending about 20 minutes talking to about 5 different taxi drivers and deliberating over which one was the least likely to kidnap us and steal all our possesions, we settled on the cheapest one. He turned out to be lovely, chatting to us in Spanish for the whole 2 hour drive, even stopping in to visit his family on the way.
Sucre
Found a great hostel, luckily as this was to be our home for the next week, due to the continuing bus strikes. Apparently they are the norm for Bolivia. Went to every sight in Sucre, a lovely small city with many white buildings. Took a few Spanish classes for
something to do once we had visited everything. And eventually booked ourselves a flight to La Paz otherwise we could see that we were never gonna leave that place. At the airport, after I'd checked in my luggage I realised that I still had my pocket knife in my handbag. I asked if I could check it into my pack but I was told just to pop it into the pocket of my "pantalones" because there was no security anyway. Gee did we feel safe on that flight. At least I could defend myself against terrorists with my trusty little pocket knife.
La Paz
From the airport in La Paz, a taxi into town cost about $20. So we opted for the $1 local bus and loaded our packs up on top of the van. We were entertained by a guy hanging out of the window shouting "un boliviano, un boliviano" (one dollar, one dollar) over and over and so quickly that it sounded more like a constant stream of "unbolviunbolviunbolvi" all the way down the street to try and drum up more business. If it looked like someone wanted to hop on, the bus would come to a
screaming halt, pull over to the side of the road, load everyone on and scream off again before they even had a chance to sit down. Welcome to La Paz public transport.
We booked ourselves onto a trip for a cycle down the World's Most Dangerous Road, for the following day, as you do. This involved an adrenaline pumping and thoroughly enjoyable day of riding a slightly dodgy bike down a single lane, unsealed track carved into the side of a mountain with a drop of a couple of hundred metres to one side. This track we also shared with trucks coming from both directions. Blind corners were patrolled by people, sometimes children, holding a green flag if it was safe to go or a red flag if not. A lot of faith is put in these people, sometimes with fatal consequences. We made it to the bottom, put on our tshirts that said we had survived the road and lived to tell the tale. Well we hadn't counted on the trip back up the road. We wound up stuck in a traffic jam for about 3 hours behind a truck carrying around 20 people on the back that had nearly driven off the edge. They had to unload all the people, the cargo, dig a hole under one of the wheels and then have another truck pull it back over the edge of the cliff. Then we had to wait for all the vehicles (at least 30) jammed uphill from the truck to reverse back up the road into overtaking lanes for us to get up the hill. Our tour guides didn't seem at all phased. All in a days work.
Copacabana/Lake Titicaca
A bit of a drive on a bus, hop off the bus and onto a boat, meet the bus on the other side of the river and wait 2 hours in a park for it to get fixed, back on the bus and on to Copacabana. Our hostel here was the bargain of a century. For $1.50 we got a room on the fourth floor of an apartment with a huge balcony over looking Lake Titicaca. In fact we had the entire 50+ room apartment to ourselves and it even had hot water! This lake, the highest navigable lake in the world, is so big that it looks like an ocean.
Caught a ferry over to Isla del Sol, an island where the Inca's believe the sun was born. Walked around the island checking out the ruins, the views, the coke stand in the middle of nowhere, passing people walking with their donkeys along the way. Stayed in another cheap place over looking the lake. Ah paradise! Got a ferry back just in time to catch the bus to Peru.
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