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Published: January 27th 2009
Bus travel is of an extremely different standard to that in Argentina, definately not helped by the state of the roads. Very few roads are sealed here and when the ripio - dirt road - gets too muddy or corregated it appears many drivers just go cross country and make new ones. Unfortuantely we didn't time it ride for the smoother train rides, so bus it was.
Villazon to Uyuni, a mere 350km, took 11 hours. We climbed an enormous mountain pass that made us glad we weren't attempting it on bikes, endured another very close electrical storm and then had to wait while the bus driver built up the courage to cross the thick choc milk coloured raging fords. Uyuni was in mad street night market mode when we arived, we found out public transport for 3 days will practically halt because of a mysterious referendum so we decided to organise a bus out while we could. We had a day to make our way on bikes to an immense lake of slushy salt - Salaar de Uyuni, and then that night jumped on yet another bus to La Paz. Unfortuantely it was no bus for sleeping as there
was often air between me and the seat from the relentless corregations and lack of suspension, which our driver attampted to fix with a sledge hammer to no avail. We arrived in La Paz for Alesita- the festival of abundance, where you give the wee god Ekeko minature things of what you hope for in the following year. The streets were a mad crush of markets and people buying all manner of miniture objects, from sacks of beans and baskets of veges, to cars, houses, drivers licences and passports, but most tellingly wads of small fake US$ or bolivianos.
The day afterwards was the referendum for a new constitution here in Bolivia, a huge deal giving rights to the indigenous people of this land. To decrease the chance of people not voting, people were not allowed to work for the day, all public transport was halted and it was illegal to drink alcohol for two days. The military were out in force, apparently with the power to arrest people in groups of more than three if there is a chance of riots. This was a great day to be in La Paz as no-one has cars here so the
streets that are normally so busy with crazy taxis and buses were instead a place for kids on their bikes, games of soccer, and people just generally chilling.
We had lunch with our new boss and his wife, and feel excited about what the future holds. Alaistar is a dynamic kinda guy, always has heaps going on. This year he has plans to make his business more green so we talked for a bit about a few ideas. One massive issue here (and there are a few) is the water. The city's water pipes and sewer system were laid in the same trench, which is all well and good until they started leaking. Tap water here is not suitable for drinking so everybody buys bottled water - that´s alot of bottles. Bolivia doesn´t have resources to tackle waste issues, so it´s up to the private sector to find solutions.
La Paz is definately appealing, hussle and bussle, markets galore and some great sounding food choices to explore. Much more enticing than the dusty, depressing, rubbish-strewn towns we had visited so far in bolivia. But of course the whole way through the altiplano I have not been able to
take my eye's off the cholitas / indigneous woman in gathered skirts, beautiful bright colour cloth filled with all sorts of treasure over their shoulders, two plaits and some version of a bowler hat, usually selling some thing or other. They are also very short, as we wandered through the crowds on Sat I felt tall as I could see over the sea of heads, Phil is giant and continuously hits his head on things. As we rest up and try get over this nasty cold we are struggling to shake because of the altitude, we definately feel like we're gonna like it here!
We put up a few more photos from the last few days in Argentina. We're starting work part time tomorrow so we´ll post again once we´ve had a taste of Gravity.
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Sandi
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Hi guys! Loving your blog! Sounds like an amazing ride. Hope the work is enjoyable when you get settled into it. Lots of love Sandi, Mac and Henry XXX