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Somewhere on the way to CochabambaAlong the way you hear one or two scare stories about certain places/countries and sure enough Bolivia is one of the places that keeps cropping up. I had heard that there were death defying roads, rubbish buses (prone to breaking down)..fleeces that Reevesie would be proud of and (worryingly) fake police/taxi drivers who had robbed and even killed tourists in the past...... but if you're wondering 'could it be any more dangerous than a night out in Swindon?' then my friends you are not alone.....so read on as this ginger went behind enemy lines to find out.....
Anyway before you worry on my behalf (hmmmm) I'd also heard that the place was cheap and that they sold dried baby llamas at the markets so I knew it couldn't all be 'bad' (RIP Michael Jackson). Armed with all these thoughts (and the stomach parasites that I was still playing host to) I was certainly curious as to what I'd find as I boarded my flight to La Paz (yeah it IS in Bolivia, I hadn't bottled it already)..
La Paz As I rocked up at the airport there it was (no, not the BK outside)....just....'Bolivia'......the airport lounge
was small and looked like something from the 60s.....and the guy at security seemed pretty uninterested as we filed thro the scanner thingy...which incidentally I doubted actaully worked.. The place certainly had an 'old' and 'couldn't care less' feel to it.
I somehow avoided the BK (yeah I know), maybe it's cos I got intercepted by a cabbie offering to take me to the city for $5 before I could reach the entrance. Anyway as the city was a good 10km away I figured this was a good price, even if he wasn't named after the airport, plus I was sure I could find another BK in town later if required.
More facts for you....you lucky people.....La Paz is the highest city in the world at nearly 4km above sea level (ok 'fact' - singular). As we approached the city it looked like a sea of terracotta lining the sides of the valley...a very big valley.. But as we got closer it wasn't like the terracotta rooves of Dubrovnik's old town, nah....more 'redbrick' of La Paz's very own and very large sprawling favela. It was impressive nonetheless but unlikely that you'd see Judith Chalmers doing a holiday program
Church
La Paz here.
In the city and my immediate impressions were good: the place seemed busy, a little bit crazy, full of cool markets and lots of friendly people.....what else could I ask for? Well maybe temperatures above zero at night would've been a nice start...or a hotel room with a heater perhaps......anyway it wasn't all bad, especially when that night I found out that I could see 3 footy games in the next day and a half. Result.
It was then a case of finding somewhere to eat that the food wouldn't make many recovering intestines any worse. On reflection I felt that Bolivia wasn't the best destination for this. Anyway, I went for their equivalent of KFC knowing that at least they would have fried all the bacteria out of it...not something you'd get points for on Masterchef but it suited me under the circumstances. When I rocked up I was pleasantly surprised that you also get a side order of fried banana pieces with your chips (Taylor take note). It was novel but I didnt finish them, nor did I think it would catch on. Especially as they wouldn't prob count towards your 5 a day.
One good thing about these places in Bolivia is that you could order the big meals then carry some out and give the extra to the many beggars on the street. A good deed for the day then. Altho one did refuse the fried bananas on one occasion....hmmmm beggars.....choosers....... maybe not in Bolivia then.....
Let there be Football As I turned up at the Hernando Siles stadium to watch the two back to back games I was (pleasantly) surprised that it only cost 75p per game....especially as games down Whaddon Road worked out twenty times more expensive.....and at CTFC they didn't have people walking round the stands selling crisps (or they didn't last time I was there), which was a nice touch.
La Paz vs Wilstermann The stadium wasn't full for the first game, although I did sit close to the team drummer in a fetching red/blue lycra suit with mask (him, not me u pervs) for a better atmosphere. There was also a commentator chap nearby so it was kind of like one of the equivalent of one of the Skysports panel over my left shoulder again, great value for 75p
altho I couldn't understand what he was saying..... The first game ended 2-2, but the home side should really have won. Anyway it wasn't long before...
The Strongest vs Real Potosi Yeah soon enough the second lot of teams came out (not like that) for the next game. The home side in this game had more support, and bizarrely some cheerleaders. Perhaps even more bizarrely however was the fact that masked drummer stayed and drummed in unison with the drummer from the new home team (or maybe he just stayed for the cheerleaders). This game was a bit dull and ended 0-0 but was still 75p well spent. Not just cos of the cheerleaders.....having said that......
Bolivar vs Aurora Next day saw another game, what seemed to be the most supported team in La Paz - Bolivar. Ended up being a good game and a lesson in counter attacking football as the homeside came out in the 2nd half lucky for the score to be 0-0 and then ran riot scoring 3 goals on the break, 3-0, all 3 pts. Happy days.
Heading East, slowly... With such little
The masked drummer
La Paz vs Wilstermann time I would have to save the salt flats til another time but one thing I wanted to do was volunteer at the Inti Warra Yassi Animal Sanctuary in a town called Villa Tunari (VT). But getting there would be tricky....as would getting anywhere in Bolivia...
To get there I had two choices. Firstly, get a bus to Santa Cruz and ask the driver to drop me off at VT. Hmmm ok. An 11 hr journey, if the bus didn't break down or fall off a cliff.. Or secondly take a bus to Cochabamba (7-8hrs) and then get a minibus to VT (3 hrs). I opted for the latter with a night in the big Coch.
The first bus from La Paz didn't make it out of the terminal tho, so as we moved to another bus I hoped that that was the 'breaking down bit' out of the way. It took an age to get out of La Paz and then the next town (altho prob still technically La Paz such is it's size) was a sea of buses and minibuses all trying to fill up before moving on. Chaos. S l o w chaos.
Four
hours in we stopped at a wild west style town in the middle of nowhere with a restaurant of sorts. It had a weird feel to it and the kid that brought my food over looked like one of the kids in 'Deliverance'. I barely touched the soup.. Soon enough (a lie) I was in Cochabamba.. It was a dive so I got my head down for the night before hunting out the minibus terminal the next day.
The minibus terminal, turned out to be not so much of a terminal as a stretch of road where buses waited til they filled up... altho the official line from the vendors was that 'their bus' would be leaving in '10 mins'. As buses take longer/go slower I waited for a minibus....I found one but it had no takers and needed 7 before it would leave. I waited and watched the activities going on as people walked up and down selling sweets, drinks, jelly, ice cream....it was interesting to see. But not for 1.5 hours tho....
By this stage I was bored and no closer to finding a minibus that was going.....I decided to give it 15 mins before calling
A village..
Somewhere between La Paz and Cochabamba it a day.....but in that time the minibus filled and I got in.....bit like the end of the A-team when everything falls into place against the odds...
The sh*te roads continued but luckily for us the journey only took 3 hrs. Partly cos there were no stops, partly cos the driver was going pretty fast, and partly cos he wasn't phased by overtaking on blind corners. There were pretty good views along the way (not out of the front window on the overtaking parts) and then even better as the road dropped down and there was a distinct rainforest feel to the place with the trees under a thick layer of cloud. As I got dropped off by the side of the road the driver took the opportunity to have a waz up the back of the van...which was nice....so too was the fact that I was far enough away to avoid the splashback...
I soon found the sanctuary but the first 6 places I tried to get accommodation were booked. Luckily the 7th hostel proved lucky (not like that) and I checked in.
Inti Warra Yassi Animal Sanctuary The place was set
Tasty fingers
Comunidad Isla Warri Yassi up by Juan (Bol) in 1992 orginally for poor or orphaned chidren then expanded to become an animal refuge as well. It is run by many volunteers who look after monkeys, birds, wild cats (pumas/jaguars) and some other evil looking ferret/raccoon type things. The latter seemed to be pretty viscious, and as I joined the tour (for new volunteers) one person had to join us part way thro cos she'd been bitten by one of the buggers and had to have stitches..
The place was impressive it had to be said (that's why I did) and had various sections depending on the stages that the monkeys were in, starting at quarantine etc. And it was organised that the volunteers worked in certain areas with certain duties. Due to the nature of the wild cats the only people allowed to see them were the volunteers assigned to them and they had to commit to a month to the park for this role. So it was a shame to not see them (the cats not their volunteers).
The minimum time for volunteering was 2 weeks, but as I didn't have this long to give so my contribution was going to
be along the lines of marketing/fund raising ideas/cartoons (and allowing them to bolster their ginger quota) like the previous volunteer places I had been. After some discussions with the the staff and volunteers that night I went away to come up with some ideas to help improve funding for the place in addition to what comes from the volunteers.
The next day I ran these ideas via the volunteer co ordinator Matt (Eng). We chatted for a good while and I was pleased that some ideas could be taken on board straight away whilst others were more long term ones. The latter would need to be implemented via their UK charity, such are the complications with Bolivian way of doing things....if it was anything like their transport I was in agreement.
As I was flying on the Monday I wanted to leave enough time to get back to La Paz so would leave on the Friday, just in case. I had hoped to meet one of the founders on the morning I left but she didn't show up (this is Bolivia afterall) so I headed for the mini bus to do the 2 day trip back to La
Parrots
Comunidad Isla Warri Yassi Paz. Oh joy.
Heading west, yeah still slowly This minibus filled quicker this time (30 mins) and along with my Bolivian passengers we set off..3 hrs later came Cochabamba before my bus to LP the next day.
For the trip to La Paz I went for the best class available (there wasn't much choice) and paid my 3 pounds for the 7-8 hr journey. The bus was pretty full and all around me were ladies sharing their seats with the daughters (aged 5-8) plus the people in the aisle. A bit cramped then. But it was ok cos we had the latest blockbuster films on the telly (yaaa, just kidding). In all fairness it actually seemed longer than my 24 hr bus journey in Brazil.
Time for another game This time Bolivar vs Wilstermann, a 0-0. It was a poor show esp as I bought a scarf beforehand. Felt bit fleeced even if it was only 1 pound.
Anyway, next day woud include a night stopover in Santiago on my way back to sunny Rio for the final chapter.......and......wait for it....... the final blog (relief all round)...
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Bec
non-member comment
Can't believe you travelled on buses that were that full and i moan about no air con! Like i keep saying i do hope one of those monkeys is in your bcak pack and heading his way back to the UK with you they are so cute. Speak soon B