Bolivia in 2 weeks

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It took me quite a long time to send this, because
this is the 3rd time that I write this(computer
problems), but let's hope it will work now: When I got
to Bolivia, one of the first things that I noticed is
that I have 2.5 months left to visit 4 countries. Not
nearly enough, so as much as I don't like it, I had to
start hurry up, and in Bolivia I went only to the
places that I really wanted to see, and didn't have
much resting days.
So I crossed the border to Quijarro, a border town
that doesn't have much beside a train station. I
stayed the night there becuase the train was on
strike, and met there a group of 7 Israelis (2 of them
I met before), and we got on the train together the
next day. After a long train ride we got to Santa
Cruz, that is supposed to be the most advanced city in
Bolivia. We walked around there for a day, saw the old
center, and at the evening I went to the local
synagogue for Shabbat prayer, the first time in a long
time. It was pretty hard to find, in the middle of a
rich neighborhood (in Israeli standarts..), a small
community that is quite disconnected from the rest of
the jewish world, but still survives. The next day me
and another guy from the group (Peleg) decided that we
need to move on, so we got on the long bus to Sucre.
We didn't have enough room for our knees, the bus
broke down a couple of times, but it was really cheap
and was much better than the horror stories I heard
about the bolivian buses. On one of the breakdowns we
met the only other tourist on the bus, a German
reporter called Thomas, that joined us when we reached
Sucre. Sucre is one of Bolivia's 2 capitals, and a
really nice colonial city. The old center has many old
buildings that are all painted in white, the city has
a laid-back vibe, and overall it was a very pleasant
place to spend a day walking around. The next day we
moved on to the next city - Potosi (not a long bus
ride, that I spent quite a lot of playing with a 2
year old girl that sat in front of me). It also has a
nice historic center, but was much less fun to walk
around mainly because of its height - 4000m - every
street is like climbing a mountain... Peleg and Thomas
got some headaches from the height too, I waited until
after the mine tour to get them. The next day we went
on Potosi's main tourist attraction, a tour in the
mines of Cerro Rico that overlooks the city. We went
with our guide to the market to buy some dinamite
(yes...) and coca leaves as presents for the miners
and went to tour one of the mines. We walked around
for a few hours in the mine's narrow tunnels, and saw
the hard and premitive conditions that the miners work
in. After walking around a little, at the afternoon we
took the bus to Uyuni, where we got (after a couple of
breakdowns) at 4am... So after not a lot of sleep we
joined the 2 German girls we briefly met in Potosi to
check agencies for the tour in the place that is the
only reason why tourist come to Uyuni - the Salar de
Uyuni. After finding an agency, at 11am the 5 of us
got into a jeep and started the 3 day tour.
On the first day we drove around the Salar itself - a
huge salt desert - for hours all you see around you is
white. The edges of the Salar are amazing - a mixture
of blue water, white salt and some mountain in the
background - check out the pictures, there are
plenty... At the afternoon we got to San Juan - the
tiny isolated town (that half of it were hostals...)
where we spent the night. We walked around for a
little, saw Llamas and mummies (well, more like
dressed-up skeletons...), ate dinner and on 22:00 the
power was out so we went to sleep... On the second way
we drove around the national park that is located in
Bolivia´s southern border - a nice-looking desert (at
times reminded me and Peleg of Machtesh Ramon, at
times had smooth sand formations - 'Salvador Dally
desert') that has on its edges snow-capped volcanos,
and in the middle of it weird volcanic rock formations
and flamingo-filled lagoons. Again, we ended a day
full of beautiful landscapes in the afternoon in some
deserted hostal (in the national park), where we
passed the time and met some other groups, until
again, at 22&something the lights were out and we were
in bed, waiting to get up extra early to watch the
sunrise from some special place. Of course we didn't
wake up on time (but still very early - 5am!), and the
jeep also had a small breakdown, so we saw the sunrise
from the way, and got to this geiser-filled valley a
little after sunrise (it was still freezing! 6am at
5000m above sea level!), and walked around for a while
around those geisers (hot and somewhat smelly fumes
that come out of the ground) and went back to the jeep
before we froze. Then we basically started out way
back to Uyuni, through some more nice landscapes,
small town in the middle of nowhere and a cemetery for
trains. In Uyuni we had our end-of-tour dinner and
went (without the girls) on bus (actually 2) to La
Paz, and none of them broke down (definately our best
Bolivian bus ride)!
La Paz was mostly arrangements - I spent my first day
there mostly just walking around, figuring out wherè's
what and seeing a little of the city center, and
visiting the local Chabad house (4 cool young guys).
On the second day there we went on a 'tractoronim'
trip in the outskirts of the city, a place that called
Valle de la Luna (moon valley). The view on the way
there and from the couple of lookouts where we stopped
on the way where quite impressive, but most of the
time we focused on enjoying driving the tractoronim,
which was definately a lot of fun. At the afternoon I
looked for a barbershop to braid my hair, and after
mainly wasting my time and getting angry at one place
I got to a nice lady that with the help of her
daughter did me a close-to-the-head braids, so you can
see my new tough haircut in the photos (was taken
almost 2 days later so it was better before...), it's
almost completely ruined by now so it probably won't
last much longer... At night I said goodbye to Peleg,
that moved to the jungles, and we went out to the Hard
Rock Cafe (mostly Israeli crowd, because of its
location under an Israeli hostel, pretty good
atmosphere). The next morning was mostly arrangements
(sent a package home that will probably arrive after
me...), and at the afternoon I went to a charity game
of Marradona and some old Argentinians against the
Bolivian 94' national team with the Bolivian
president. So it was really cool to see Marradona
playing live, the game ended 7:4 to Argentina, and
even though the general level wasn't that high, you
could definately see some of Marradona's old magic
with the ball. At the evening I joined some guys from
the hostel that were drinking, so we already got to
the Hard Rock in a good mood and spent there some of
the night...
The next morning me and Thomas moved on to Copacabana
- a small town on Lake Titicaca. The lake has cristal
clear water and some amazing views. We wanted to spend
the night on Isla del Sol, an island in the lake where
the Inca believed that the sun was born (or something
like that), but ended up staying in Copacabana because
there weren't any more ferries. I was glad for that,
because the town, although quite touristic (like
everywhere in the lake), was small, beautiful and
relaxed. I walked around for a little, saw the small
port, kids playing everywhere and the very impressive
cathedral. Then me, Thomas and Uri (an Israeli we met
on the bus) went up the nearby mountain (for a
mirador). The way up had crosses that represented the
stations at the via doloroza (and some writings that I
suspect as a little antisemitic, but my spanish wasn't
good enough to say for sure), and the view from up
there was magnificent - the town and the lake (I
didn't have more space in my camera, so I had to take
photos with Thomas' - not uploaded). We met there
Lizzy, and Australian couchsurfer I know from BsAs,
and some of her friends, and we stayed to watch the
sunset and after went for dinner. Tomorrow we went
(the big group) to the Isla del Sol - watched some
ruins (not very impressive for somebody that comes
from Israel), walked from its north side to the south
- amazing views of the lake all the way (pictures),
met many locals that tried to sell us things and
almost missed our boat back (in Bolivia whenever you
want something to leave on time it is late, and if you
don't it will be early...). Then me, Thomas and Uri
said goodbye to our new friends, and took the bus to
Puno - a city on the Peruvian side of the lake. I
stayed there just for the night (all I did was to take
out money and to sleep, but on my way to the bank I
saw the city's 2 main squares, and then saw all of the
city from the bus...), and Thomas and Uri went the
next day to the floating islands. I just moved on to
Cuzco, because I wanted to be there for Purim and
because I had enough with islands where everybody try
to sell me stuff. Since then I am in Cuzco (met Thomas
again, and said goodbye again...), it is a beautiful
old (some parts remind me of Jerusalem, some of Ouro
Preto, and some nothing) city, though very touristic.
General impressions - Bolivia didn't seem to me as
backwards as most ppl told me, I never felt that I
have a need that cannot be fulfilled in there because
of lack of development. I actually ate there better
than Brazil, because over there I could afford the
better restaurants... The only thing that really
disturbed me enjoying Bolivia, is that almost every
local that you meet is trying to sell you something
(far from the laid-back south america I got used to),
sometimes in really annoying methods.

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