Bolivia


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South America » Bolivia
October 25th 2007
Published: February 13th 2008
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We entered northern Bolivia alongside the Lake Titicaca coming from Peru. The first town, Copacabana was a gateway to visit some of the Bolivian islands on the lake but we decided to save some time by skipping them (although we only heard good reviews of them). After a lunch break on the lake, and the most disappointing spaghetti carbonara I have ever eaten (and I’ve had bad ones - sometimes I even cook for myself), we bused it onto the capital La Paz.

Boliviaba Perubol a Titicaca to partjan/keresztul jutottunk. Az elso varos Copacabana, mely kapu a to boliviai oldalan talalhato szigetekhez, mint a Nap es Hold szigete, mely az inkak bolcsoje. Mi azonban ugy dontottunk, hogy korabbi tavi turank miatt megtakaritunk nemi idot (bar csak jot hallottunk roluk) es egy bun rossz teszta ebed utan egyenesen La Pazba utazunk.


La Paz’s claim to fame is it’s the highest capital city in the world at 4000m. After a touristy bus ride around the city we can say it’s a pleasant enough city, but a city never-the-less so we booked ourselves a flight to take us up to Rurenabaque.

La Paz nevezetessege, hogy a vilag legmagasabban fekvo fovarosa. (Nemi zavart keltett bennem, hogy Bolivia politikai fovarosa Santa Cruz.) Most akkor hogy is van ez?!) A varos ujabb resze 4000 meteren, a luxus kornyek 3000 meteren, a kozpont 3600 meteren fekszik. Egy par oras buszos verosnezes utan megallapitottuk, hogy egy eleg kellemes varos, de akkor is csak egy varos igy masnap mar repulon ultunk es irany Rurenabaque, az utolso “fejlett” telepules a dzsungel kapujaban.


The flight there is great! First the plane is tiny and you have to walk into it bent at the waist just to fit in (which was a pleasant change to the usual 747). After taking off the plane barely seems to rise giving amazing views of the mountains alongside the plane (not below!). The landscape change was quite dramatic, from snow capped peaks near La Paz to flat lands covered in dense jungle with meandering rivers flowing everywhere. And the airport in Rurenabaque is also comical - just a nicely cut lawn to land on with jungle on either side. So despite only flying for 1 hour, it felt like we had been transported to a completely different world.

A repulo kb 1 ora alatt a hofedte csucsok vilagabol (nappal egeto napsutes, este polar pulcsi) a suru dzsungelbe repit (nappal 40 fok arnyekban, ejjel 30). Mint utolag megtudtuk a buszut az uj, “kenyelmes” uton 16 razos ora a hegyeken keresztul. Mar a repter is erzekelteti micsoda kalandban lesz reszunk. Egy rovid foldut a dszungel kozepen.

We opted to do the 3 day tour of the pampas (wet lowlands) followed by a 2 day tour of the jungle. In retrospect this is definitely a good order as the mosquitoes in the pampas were incredible compared to a near bite free zone in the jungle - so do the worst first! One of the great aspects of the pampas trip is in order to reach them you have to take a boat for 3-4 hours along a river teaming with wildlife from pink dolphins to monkeys to alligators. Arriving at our lodge was a bit of an anticlimax… Firstly we had been naive as to the number of mosquitoes there were up until this point (they don’t bite in the boat). And secondly we had the lodge - the crapiest beds on our trip so far with 30 odd people sleeping together sharing two toilets (with plenty of our friendly mosquitoes to keep you company in there). Oh well - that’s nature!

Ugy dontottunk, hogy 3 napot toltunk a pampan, es 2-ot a dzsungelben. Igy utolag jo valasztas volt, mivel a szunyogok a pampan az elviselhetetlenseg hatarat suroltak, mig a dzsungelben alig talalkoztunk veluk. A pampa tura egy 3-4 oras csonak uttal kezdodik, ami alatt szerencsenk volt latni folyami vagy rozsaszin delfint (sajna nem szereti ha fotozzak, de a hasa tenyleg rozsaszin), aligatort, teknocoket, tobb fajta majmot es ezer madarat. Ugyan ha tul kozel mentel a parthoz megleptek a szunyogok, a folyo kozepe biztonsagosnak tunt. (Mignem az elso tusolasnal kiderult, hogy az alfeled a szek muanyag hurjai kozott tokeletes celpontot kinalt.) Aztan meglattuk hol alszunk. Nem vartunk luxus szallodat, de a 30-40 fos nagyon egyszeru barakkok es a 2 tabori mosdo tele veszett szunyogokkal, alulmulta az elkepzeleseinket. Szo szerint a termeszet lagy olen!


Our first outing was out into the pampas (looking like flooded fields with man high grass) in Wellington boots just slightly shorter than the depth of the water we had to walk in… We were in search of anacondas, which I still find funny as typically we should run the other way. After a whole morning of wet feet the hunt came to an unsuccessful end - never the less it was great fun trying, honest!

Az elso “komoly” programunk, a megerkezest koveto sorozessel egybekotott naplementet leszamitva, az anaconda vadaszat volt. Ez azt jelenti, hogy szuper gumicsizmakban, (ha szerencsed van nem lyukas, mint az enyem) setalsz orakon keresztul a bokaig-terdig ero, tehenszaros vizben allo embermagasagu fuben, anaconda utan kutatva holott ugye inkabb kerulnod kellene oket. Mit mondjak, erdekes volt. Azt nem allithatom, hogy piszkosul elveztem ahogy minden lepesnel aramlott be a gusztustalan szagu es tisztasagu viz, de volt valami varazs a dologban. Sajnos anakondat nem talaltunk, de merges darazsakat se, mint ahogy egy masik csoport. Meg a vezetojuk is jobbnak latta menekulore fogni. Valamit valamiert.


The afternoon’s objective (following some hammock time) was to find and swim with the pink dolphins - hopefully without their alligator friends in the area… We did find them but not for long enough to swim with them.

A delutani program (nemi pihenes es nekem egy alapos tisztalkodas utan) uszas a delfinekkel a folyoban. Abban a folyoban ahol masnap piranhat horgasztunk es 10 meterenkent aligatorokba botlottunk. Szerencsesebbek voltunk, mint az anakondakkal, mert elojottek a delfinek, de ennel kozelebb nem jutottunk hozzajuk. Mire a lelkesek a vizbe merultek, a delfinek tovabb alltak. Ok meg ott maradtak kiteve a szunyogok tamadasainak.


Conveniently for us, even in the middle of no-where they have bars, and that was where we spent the evening watching the sunset and spraying ourselves with repellent.

Szerencsenkre, meg a semmi kozepen is van mindig nehany vallalkozo kedvu, aki lelkesen mer alkoholt a kiszaradt turistaknak es ok csereben nagyon halasak, meg a szunyogokat se banjak.

The last day we spent fishing for piranha, eating them and making our way back to the town. It was a tough few days out there but the nature was great, even worst the bites.

Az utolso napot a mar emlitett piranha horgaszattal kezdtuk. Mindenki fogott valamit es paronkent legalabb 1 piranha is meglett. Andy lassan melegedett be, sikerult neki ketszer is kifognia ugyanazt a mereten alulni halat (konnyu volt azonositani, mert a hatso uszoja serult volt - lehet ezert volt olyan konnyu kifogni?!), de aztan meglett a piranha is. En fogtam 2 piranha meretu nem piranhat, de borzaszto volt latni ahogy a horog beleakadt a masodik szajaba es tobbet nem horgasztam.


The jungle tour also started with several hours of boat bouncing before we reached our lodge for the night. It was great being so remote. It was a pretty relaxing day there, ending with a great tour of the jungle with a local jungle guy. He was a great guide, born in the jungle there and never been any further than Rurenabaque. His favourite past-time seemed to be alligator wrestling - I guess that’s what happens if you don’t have TV to keep you entertained. Having pointed out to us a thousand things we would otherwise have missed, he managed to coax a tarantula out of its home for our viewing/holding pleasure. We both tried it on for size, and were glad he didn’t show us his fangs until after we had held it.

Nemi jo vacsi es pihe-puha agy utan jott a dzsungel tura. Megint egy par ora hajokazas utan ertuk el az ejszakai szallashelyunket. Itt valamivel job volt a “szoba”, de a mosdo hasznalatot ketszer is meggondoltad. Kellemes pihenteto nap volt, mely egy nagyszeru dzsungel setaval vegzodott. A vezetonk a dzsungelben nott fel. 12 eves koraig nem is latott feherember, es sosem jart Rurenabaque tul. Kedvenc idotoltese az aligatorral valo birkozas - valamivel el kell utni az idot, ha nincs TV-d. A seta soran megmutata az erdo sok titkat, pl gyogyszerek, rejtett ivoviz, szappan… Es persze a fo szam, a tarantula pok. Nemi cigifusttol elkabult a szerencsetlen annyira, hogy “biztonsagosan” setaltadhasd a kezeden, fejeden, arcodon ha kivanod. Mindketten kiprobaltuk a kezunkon. Aztan meglattuk a meregfogait!

After a great sleep listening to the sounds of the jungle we went on a trek across rivers, through jungles and up mountains in search of some macaws. We even found some!

Meglepo modon mind itt, mind a pampan remekul aludtunk, mintha a termeszet neszei megnyugtattak volna. Reggeli utan jott a seta. Eloszor atusztunk egy gyors folyasu folyon, majd jott a dzsungel seta hegynek fel a szines macaw-ok (arapapagaj) nyomaban.

After the tour we headed back to La Paz to do the infamous mountain bike ride along ’death road’. This is a cracking ride, with almost all the track being downhill. We lost 3000m in altitude during the course of the ride!!! As well as being a great ride it’s also a beautiful area, but there wasn’t so much time to take the eyes off the road…

A dzsungeltura utan visszarepultunk La Pazba, hogy megtegyuk a hires/hirhedt bicikliturat a “halaluton”. Majdnem vegig hegynek le, 3000 meter szintkulonbseget kuzdesz le 60 km kerekezes alatt. Nemcsak fantasztikus kerekpar elmeny, de a taj sem semi, bar nem nagyon van idod nezelodni…

After another day taking in the sights in La Paz we headed to Salaar de Uyuni in the south of Bolivia. From here we did a 4 day 4WD trip that took us across the most amazing countryside to the border with Argentina. Salaar de Uyuni is a huge salt desert. All you can see there is brilliant white salt on the flat desert and perfect blue sky. It’s unlike anywhere else. We even stayed in a hostel made of salt bricks and slept on beds made of (you guessed it) salt. South of the salt desert was the Coloured Lakes National Park. As you can imagine, this is famous for its coloured lakes! And they were completely amazing, even with pink flamingos to make the perfect scene. We will let the photos do the talking but they definitely don’t do it justice, it’s just too huge.

Egy nap piheno utan egy ejszakai busz (mar hianyzott) “repitett” minket Uyuni varosaba Bolivia deli reszen. Innen egy 4 napos fantasztikus terepjaro turaval ertuk el az argentin hatart. Elso allomas Salaar de Uyuni hatalmas sosivataga, ahol nem latsz mast, mint a hofeher sot es a kek eget. Mivel a so nem melegszik fel es huvosen tart eszre sem veszed mennyire eget a nap mig tul keso nem lesz. Egyedi latvany. Termeszetesen sohotelben szalltunk meg es soagyakon aludtunk. Tovabb haladva delre jott a Szines Tavak Nemzeti Parkja a Kozep-Andokban. Mint a neve is mutatja, ez a park a szines tavairol hires. Lattunk voroset, zoldet, feheret, de van sarga is. Es mindezt a flamingok szazai teszik tokeletesse. Probaltuk fotokon megorizni a latvanyt, de szinte lehetelen a meretek miatt.

We also passed through a volcanic area to bathe in the hot springs and watch the steam and bubbling mud.

A harmadik reggelt hajnal 5-kor, kb 5 fokban kezdtuk 4500 meteren, ahol volt minden ami vulkan. Gozsugar tort elo egy lyukbol, bugyogott a sar a labunk alatt es persze a termeszetes thermal-furdo sem hianyzott.

After our 3 nights in the freezing outback, and in need of a shower, we were ready to cross the border into Argentina.

3 fagyos es tusmentes ejszaka utan testileg kimeulve, de lelkileg feltoltodve alig vartuk a fejlett vilag igeretet, Argentinat.

In Summary, the nature in Bolivia was incredible, in particular the southern part with the salt planes and the coloured lakes. We would not have missed that for anything.

Bolivia is egy fantasztikus orszag es nagyon olcso!!! Nekunk a szivunk csucske kulonosen a deli resz a sosivataggal es az Andok szines, csipkes hegyeivel. Ezt semmiert nem hagytam volna ki.



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