Bolivia!!

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Firstly, apologies for the lengthy silence but I have been in bolivia for the past three weeks and internet speeds are not the best by any stretch of the imagination!

This is going to be a lengthy entry, just to warn you all in advance.

Crossing the border - after our very heavy night out in salta we had to wait around all day feeling worse than rough until midnight when we got the seven hour bus up to la quiacha a border town with Bolivia. Unfortunately by this point we had still not managed to shake off our israeli follower, but had been joined by a lovely dutch girl hanneke. When we got to the border it was freezing, dark and dusty, we decided (again in our infinite wisdom) to walk to the border and into the bolivian town of villazon. This idea, as with many of our ´great´ideas was an absolute error - this was our first time at altitude and it was HARD HARD work walking with huge backpack on. We also had to queue for hours with many other travellers at the border to get into bolivia but we made a few friends and caught up with andrew and chrissy from el bolson. Absolutely exhausted we got onto the bus to tupiza, a dilapidated old chinese bus and passed out for the duration of the journey through exhaustion. Our mammouth 34 hour bus journey on argentina dust roads had definitely prepared us for bolivian travel - its been alot better than expected but highly entertaining!

Tupiza.
After the success of our Bariloche horse riding, harry was willing to sign herself up for some more. Both me and hanneke were experienced riders, but harry threw herself in the deep end and actually didnt let herself down at all apart from a few minor steering issues mid gallop! For seven hours the three of us and our guide rode through some of the most unusual and spectacular scenery I have ever seen. There was no denying after seven hours in a makeshift saddle comprising of a frame and padding that we were more than a little sore and stiff.
Tupiza itself turned out to be an gem of a place, the friendliest place I have been, full of adorable children who smile and say óla to everyone with no expectations of money or sweets. Being such a small town there were some serious dramas acquiring money, but I wont bog you down with the details, needless to say it involved alot of queuing, alot of system failure and then finally success! The beautiful thing about Bolivianos though was that we were rich, we could afford hotels! A massive excitement after months of dorm beds. It was truly heaven to be able have our own space and in my case my own space to empty my backpack and spread its contents around the room. I definitely made myself at home, but I am not so sure that tidy harry was quite so amused. Our main reason for stopping in Tupiza was to arrange our four day salt flat tour, with 8 of us we decided to go in a convoy of two jeeps with the appropriate staff, it turned out to be a brilliant idea travelling this trip with people we already knew and loved as being stuck 24/7 in a jeep with people you detest must be touture. We kitted ourselves out with warm alpaca clothing from the black market which turned out far greater value and more entertaining than the tourist shops. You could buy anything you could imagine in the maze of stalls - from bicycles, cameras, food and drinks of all varieties, to natural indigenous medicines with our first sighting of the legendary dried llama feotuses, every kind of clothing, and stalls pilled high with second hand shoes - when we were in sucre we passed the rubbish dump and noticed that people were pulling shoes out of the rubbish putting them into big piles where another group would clean them, i imagine such shoes as these! They definitely know the meaning of recycling here. Further jubilation ensued when we managed to purchase 3 bottles of wine, and 3 bottles of rum for the trip for less than 20 pounds, you have got to love Bolivia!!


Salt flats tour -tupiza to uyuni.
The eight of us - me, harry and hanneke, plus two americans we met in el bolson, and their friends susan, john and silvia set off on our tour. First day we spent driving through the spectacular mountain scenery around tupiza to get to national park, crazy mountain roads and spectacular views, that night we also got to spend in a local village where we were the only foreigners. The houses were made out of mud bricks, and the roof out of carboard boxes and grasses. One key thing about the salt flats is the altitude - none of us really knew how we were going to manage but we drank loads of coca tea, which is actually delicious with sugar - whether it helped or not who knows! We also attempted to chew the leaves with limited success to start with, by the final day i had got the hang of it...chew them lightly before putting them into the corner of your mouth and leave them there, occasionally a bitter fluid is released. They dont have much affect really other than numbing your mouth, and making you feel awake.
Our first night at altitude we also decided it would be a great idea to crack open the rum! Hilarious how drunk you get and how quickly, there are some very funny photos to prove the point! We then all snuggled on the ground and star gazed. I have never in my life seen some many stars, nor so many shooting stars. It was like being in a planetarium, totally awe-inspiring, and made us all feel very small and insignificant. Our first nights sleep was entertaining, getting into our sleeping bags, turning in our sleep resulted in us being out of breath. Amazingly out of the eight of us not one of us got sick from the altitude or had to take the medication, great result and made the tour run really smoothly. we only had one illness among the group and that was Susan on the second day, who thanks to her boyfriend ended up with the name ´cowpat sally´! The next few days we spent exploring high altitude deserts with unusual rock formations reminisent of dali paintings and at time what I would imagine mars appears like. We saw coloured lakes, volcanoes, Llamas, and pink flamingoes all under a brilliant blue sky. By the final day we reached the salt flats for sunrise, beautiful watching the huge white expanse of salt turn from pink, to orange to white. Most of the day was spent playing with the perspective photos, suprisingly time consuming yet entertaining, we spent ages trying to take pictures so it appears as though we were standing on each others hands, drinking out of massive bottles, sitting on sunglasses, or a group standing on flipflops. Eventually our guides decided to get involved and got out a stove, saucepans and we all stood inside. It was a great trip that cannot really be described by words, if any of you get the chance to go to bolivia the salt flats are an absolute must visit!

Potosi
We finished our tour in uyuni, a pretty drab, depressing little town that purely survives on tourism and the salt industry. There is nothing of excitement or interest to report so we booked ourselves onto a bus out of there as soon as possible to Potosi. Now the bus we ended up on was an experience and a half, and totally what I imagined Bolivian buses to be. It was an old chinese bus, apparently Bolivian bus companies buy old decrepid buses from other countries in asia and russia and bodge them into functioning. This bus was no exception - the ultimate bodge job where the roof was tied on with rope and the poor quechua lady who was sat infront of me seat was broken so every time we went up a steap incline (very often!) she ended up lying in my lap! After 7 hours of bumping, twisting, jolting, no toilet breaks we reached Potosi. At 4000metres above sea level Potosi is the highest city in the world, and as a consequence is a pretty surreal place with a very dark history. Now in an attempt to avoid having to pee into a bottle or some other horrific reality on the non toilet bus, I hadnt drunken or eaten anything for the duration of the bus journey, the result was learning a very important lesson. Arriving at that high altitude dehydrated and with low blood sugar resulted in my feeling what I imagine altitude sickness feels like, faint, sick, panicked and unable to breath, it was actually a very scary experience and I feel very sorry for anyone who suffers from it. I was shortly rescued through dutiful care from harry and a bucket load of sugar and back on the road to my normal self!
Now the main reason that backpackers visit Potosi is to go down the infamous silver mines in Cerro Rico a peak that towers above Potosi. This mountain is the central point of Potosi´s horrendous history, in colonial times the mines accounted for estimates of 8 million deaths, many of them slaves. Initially I had massive reservations about these mines, which are still functioning and still dangerous, being used as a tourist attraction. That issue coupled with my claustrophobia meant that I didnt go down the mines myself but harry, hanneke and john did. On their return they all seemed fairly shocked by just how dangerous, small, and hard the conditions the miners work in really are, I think it was a very eye opening experience but they seemed to enjoy that they brought some small pleasure in the form of gifts to the miners to ease their horrendous existance. Even without the mining experience, Potosi was a really eye opener into the actions of the Spanish colonial rule. Having studied the Christianisation of South America at university it was really fascinating for me to see evidence first hand. We visited a convent where the brutal methods of Spanish attempts to convert the indigenous people to Chrisitanity, and also how fundamentalist and harsh Christianity became for the Spanish population. The lives of the nuns in those times were incredibly extreme. Potosi was also the site of our first witness of marching bands - Bolivians absolutely love them, any excuse to parade through the streets to marching music is grabbed with both hands. We were just sat eating dinner, and groups of children passed carring lantens, lead by a band of wind instruments of mixed ability, followed by a plethora of gunshots. All very strange, and we never really figured out the occasion!

Sucre
After a few days in Potosi we departed to the constitutional capital of Bolivia Sucre; in typical Bolivian form nothing is simple here. While the government sits in La Paz, the supreme court is still in Sucre as such the official capital is Sucre, while the functioning capital is La Paz. Sucre sits at a lower altitude than any of the previous places we had visited and as such has a lovely balmy climate - exactly what the doctor ordered after I had contracted a cold in Uyuni. Sucre was in many ways the biggest suprise in Bolivia, all colonial white washed buildings, suited more to Spain or Italy than the image of Bolivia. We throughly enjoyed exploring the winding streets, churches, sitting on balconies watching the sunset over the main square and marvelling at views of the city. It was an absolutely stunning place. We were still travelling as a group of six at this point and most of the group decided that it would be really nice to do a trek in the mountains around Sucre, the idea sounded pretty beautiful and romantic to be honest so I was persuaded by the idea despite being heavily full of cold. While the scenery was amazing, and some of the caves filled with inca drawings fascinating it was pretty hellish walking at altitude while ill, both me and hanneke struggled. Many of you may not realise that the Inca trail that links with Machu Picchu in Peru travels the whole way through Bolvia via Tiwanaku near La Paz to Sucre, so part of the walk included an insane near vertical climb up some original inca trail - climbing from 2000 metres to 3700 metres in 5 kilometres. In other words, insane! I have to admit that both me and hanneke chickened out at this point as we both felt very rough, I have also discovered that I only like trekking if their is a goal lying for me at the end - be it a lake, glacier or ruins.
While Hanneke, Susan and John decided to spend one afternoon on a balcony in the sun drinking beer, Harry and I decided that so far our attempts to be ´cultural´ in South America had so far fallen pretty flat and we would rectify the situation, avoid the temptation of the bar, and visit some of the beautiful religious buildings in Sucre. We met a girl who showed us around a stunning whitewashed convent with a phenomenal view of the city from its undulating rooftops. We had a fascinating conversation about modern day Bolivia with her, I say ´we´by that I mean harry and her spoke in spanish and she translated majority of it. It was a fascinating talk, in the west we have got terribly excited that an indigenous leader was elected in the early noughties, the reality has been somewhat different, with rural people coerced into voting for MAS (party) at the risk of loosing their land. Talking with her definitely put a slightly different perspective on the many MAS flags, paintings, and slogans spread all over rural villages and roadsides.

Sorata
With some time to spare before Sarah Lou was to join us in La Paz we decided to follow the rest of our group to Sorata, a small town in Cordelleria Real mountain range four hours north of la paz, for some relaxation and reguvination before hitting party central that is la paz. Now we had to travel from Sucre to La Paz by bus to then get a micro to Sucre. We were immensely impressed with ourselves for finding a first class bus with fulling reclining seats for the journey for the costly price of 12.50 pounds! Our excitement, however, was shortlived as the bus broke down twenty minutes outside of Sucre for an hour and a half before mysteriously just starting up again! Great we thought, only nope they then decided to crank the heating up to full blast which resulted in us getting as naked as we decently could before repeatedly going down to tell the driver we were slowly suffocating, the locals on the bus didnt seem to care, fuly wrapped up in blankets and coats - they must have some unique temperature gage! Thankfully the bus driver headed our pleas and the remainder of our journey was inicident free. Arriving in La Paz we got our first glimpses of the incredible situation of the city in the middle of a crater, like Rio it is a stunning location. We didnt hang around in La Paz but got ourselves to the bustling cemetary district to catch a micro to Sorata, not before some breakfast on the street from a lovely Aymaran lady, who told us all about the local cultures and not to be scared of the ´shoe-shine´boys, who while balaclava wearing were harmless because they only covered their faces because they were ashamed of their profession, nice to know as I would have definitely been taken aback the first time I came across one. Now micros are incredibly good entertainment and a brilliant way to emerse yourself in local culture. We started off our journey with a very respectable number inside our small mini bus, before climbing up to El - which was insane. I have never seen so many people, cars, buses or vans vying for the same tiny space. Here we picked up a couple where ensued a very awkward situation for the next few hours - the woman had clearly been beaten by her partner who was sat next to her she sobbed the entire journey, and occasionally screamed when he decided to play with her clearly broken nose. We were at a total loss at what to do, all the locals on the bus were ignoring the situation, and aside from providing her with tissues and sympathetic looks there was not alot we could do. We imagined that the journey there could not be beaten, we were wrong. The return to La Paz was something else. Now most micros take about 12 to 15 people comfortably, we picked up 23, no joke! Harry and I were sat at the back with no windows, the only foreigners in sight, and I had a lady with two children on her lap next to me. The journey was made a hundred times worse by a couple of factors - firstly every time we went over a bump our heads hit the ceiling, secondly all the windows remained shut and indigenous people do not have the same hygiene standards we are accomstomed to so you can imagine the odour! All in all entertainment but we were more than happy when the journey was completed. While in Sorata we did alot of lazy in the sun being munched by sand flies, and one day decided to walk one of the crazy mountain roads to a huge cave, with an underground lake complete with pedaloes! Only in Bolivia! It was alot of surreal crazy fun though. The surroundings of Sorata are absolutely stunning, huge mountains tower over the semi tropical valley, it has a very laid back hippy feel, and a place where you could have a three course meal for just under two pounds! While Bolivia may have some of the most stunning scenery in many ways it is treated in ways we could not imagine, for example of our walk to the cave, we turned a corner to witness a garbage truck just tipping its contents over the edge into this beautiful revegne below, it is completely common as well for people to just through whatever rubbish degradeable or not out of bus windows etc. in places everything is covered in litter.

La Paz
Where to start with La Paz. It is a totally crazy and insane place, busy, bustling, noisy and a bit dirty. The main draws to the place are the witches market and the insane nightlife. Our first day was very productive we hit the markets in a big way! Buying beautiful leather handbags, jewelllery, more jumpers, leg warmers, you name it they have it in alpaca! We also visited the witches market itself, filled with stalls full of all sorts of pots and potions to cover any kind of ailment, plus smal figurenes of gods to ensure certain things such as wealth, love, health. Of course such a visit would not complete without witnessing the dead llama feotuses that are for sale as a offering to pachamama ( mother earth) under the corner stone of new building. Pretty gruesome to western tastes but fascinating all the same.

Now the nightlife. There is a legendary traveller hangout known as Route 36, basically a bar/club, where it is possible to both buy cocaine and consume it openly in the club. Whether you choose to partake or not it is an experience not to be missed. The first three nights we were in La Paz it was closed for some reason or other - rumours abound of police threats, fights and such like. But every night a group of seven or eight of us would bundled into one cab ask to be taken to route 36, told not possible, offered huge quantities of cocaine and taken to another bar. This happened every night, and while it might have been stupid to trust taxi driver recommendations of bars and clubs it generally worked out pretty well and we had some random, hilarious, and good nights out. Finally on Sunday night we managed to make it inside, and were pleasantly suprised to find it not the seedy, grotty bar we had expected but a small mildly seedy nightclub complete with an aeroplane interior as a seating area. Lou was arriving at 5am on monday morning so in our infinite wisdom we decided to go straight from route 36 to the airport fo pick her up. Sitting in the airport waiting for her to arrive was a pretty surreal experience to be honest. The remainder of that day was not too success due to lack of sleep and associated issues, but we managed to get Lou to the markets in the afternoon. As we were staying in Wild Rover, an amazing party hostel, if anyone is going to la paz stay there - I always found myself getting sucked into going out and yet again went out for the fifth night in a row, harry had ´died´by this point.

Perhaps the craziest and most exciting thing we did in la paz was cycling down the ´world´s most dangerous road´. I can assure any of you who have seen the top gear episode where they drove up the road that the depiction is entirely staged, and incorrect, it is not that bad! The road is considerably less dangerous now that a new road has been built and most of the traffic takes that road, but in its hay day 250 - 300 people died yearly on the road. The road travels from La Paz to Corioco dropping 3000metres, it is a crazy downhill ride on a dirt track, cut into the cliff side with hair pin turns - exhilerating, and adreneline pumping. We started off on beautiful tarmaced road with huge sweaping turns in order for us to get used to our bikes and practice the techniques we had been taught. As soon as we hit the gravel Lou went flying off and trashed her ankle, a very nerve-wrecking experience especially with the impending Inca trail. Luckily it was just a sprain and she was able to cycle the final part of the road after difficultest and most dangerous section. While you were cycling down along the cliff edge I was so concentrated on the road itself that I didnt really notice the huge drop to my left. So long as your attention never drifted, you didnt push yourself too far, and followed the rules the chances of you coming to an untimely death were hugely decreased! It was an incredible experience, and if any of you are in la paz you must do it!

The final episode of my stay in La Paz was significantly less amusing. The night I returned from the death road, I suddenly got very ill. I initially assumed it was food poisoning but after being in bed for two days with no improvement the doctor was called and laboratory tests concluded that I had a parasite and a white blood cell count of 18.5 apparently the highest he had ever seen - yes I am proud!! So I was hospitalised for three days given intrevenous fluids and antibiotics, and slept alot. I think the whole experience was alot worse for the girls, as I was pretty out of it and although incredibly emotional took it in my stride. I gained a bit more confidence with my spanish on the plus side, as I was forced to communicate with the nurses whereas before I would just shy away from talking. A huge stress with the whole episode was the major issue of our inca trail, you have to book in months in advance it is non-tranferable and by the time I was in hospital it was under a week away and in a different country! In order for us to get to Cusco in time we had to leave La Paz on the tuesday morning, it was very very touch and go as to whether I would make it, not for health reasons but for insurance reasons!! In fact by the time the girls left the hostel I still had not been discharged but with about ten minutes to spare I made it to the bus station and onwards to Peru. Unfortunately due to my illness we didnt have enough time to visit Lake Titicaca, but I guess with travelling for so long these things are inevitable.


Well folks that pretty much sums up my six weeks in Bolivia, I have invariably missed out some key information but that will just have to wait until I get home. It never ceases to amaze me how football crazy latinos really are as I am sat here in the internet cafe, the noise in punctuated by football commentary, every so once and a while there is a huge shout of goooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll!! Silence is a rare and precious occasion, I have a feeling home is going to feel very quiet!

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Photos

salt flats tour
Rum + altitude = mess

Comments

[sarah]

good news
glad you are better take care, new horsey to try when you get home x