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Published: October 26th 2023
Thursday, Oct 12
I’m solo now. Dick has gone back to the States and I’m carrying on with my South American adventure. The flight to La Pas is with Avianca a particularly no frills airline, you don’t even get offered a glass of water, and are actually required to purchase a bottle of water. Having said all of this, the flight is short and I was able to upgrade to get more legroom for US $50. I’m in La Paz at 2.15am local time feeling a little light headed because of the altitude as the airport sits at 4,062 meters (13,326 ft). It has been known for passengers to just pass out when arriving from sea level, however I’ve been at altitude in Bogota and also, everyone else on my flight seems ok. Customs is a little trickier than normal and everyone is scanned along with their luggage on entry. My taxi driver is waiting with a “Kevin Pyne” sign and I’m in the Hotel Rosario at 3.00am
Friday, Oct 13
My first impressions of La Paz are that it is a noisy, dusty city with major traffic issues and a smog problem. i see a lot of people
wearing masks and it’s probably due to air quality rather than Covid.
The hotel is very central, Hotel Rosario, a low key street frontage but very nice inside. And within easy walk to several points of interest. My first stop is the Basilica of St Francis in the square that shares its name Plaza San Fransisco. The church was founded in 1549, but the current building opened in 1885 and I don’t know whether any original structure was integrated into the present building. I did go inside and a mass was being held, after which I took a couple of pictures, but was admonished by a security guard. I apologised profusely and stepped back into the sunlight of the square.
My next stop is the Witches Market in town, I later find the real Witches Market is on the mesa overlooking La Paz, El Alto which sits at over 4000 meters. I’ll come to El Alto later….
Back to the hotel to escape the afternoon sun, then around 4 pm I’m on the streets again to discover and ride the cable car system around and across the city of La Paz. This is the most extensive cable
car transit system in the world with over 20km of cable cars that provide transportation to various parts of the city. The cable car system has various colors and interconnecting between colors is very easy. Each leg is 3 Bolivianos, or 3 Bob. I purchase A Tarjeta (pronounced Tarheta) and pre load money to begin my cable car journey. Great views of the city and its surrounds.
In the afternoon I chat with an English lady (Kate from Lancashire) who is travelling solo and heading out to the Salar de Uyuni the next morning. She tells me of a Peru Rail train that runs between Cusco and Puno that is quite up-market and takes around 10 hours. My interest is piqued and purchased ticket for the bus from La Paz to Cococabana and Puno to Cusco suddenly takes an abrupt U-turn. I’ll just skip the Puno to Cusco leg and take the luxury train…A little searching online and I have an e-ticket….
Saturday, 14 Oct.
Time to wash clothes, so I drop my laundry in at a Lavendaria close to the hotel with the promise I can pick it up at 7.30pm.
Then, my
tourist goal for the day is to go to the “valley of the moon”. Back on the cable car and on to the Green line to the last Station followed by a 25Bob taxi road and I’m at the entrance to the valley of the moon, I hand over 15Bob and I’m in…. The mountains around La Paz are mainly clay mixed with various minerals and over time the Valley of the Moon has been shaped by erosion both by wind and rain giving a crater like appearance. It‘s interesting but is it a “Must” my view is probably not.
7.30pm I’m waiting at the Lavendaria along with 5 other people to pick up my washing. Over the next hour, several of us become firm friends and finally at 8.30 the lady arrives with our laundry.
Sunday, 15 Oct.
I hang at the hotel for the morning before going to watch Fiji play England at rugby in the local English pub with Kate. I’m the only one in the place rooting for Fiji, close but no banana. My highlight of the day is a red-cap walking tour with guide Max, to the cemetery and onwards on the
cable car to El Alto. Max explains the relationship between death and family. I’m not going to try and explain it, however the indigenous Aymara believe death is just the beginning of new life in a parallel existence and family are always with you.
As the day progresses we visit the largest flea mark in South America and along the way visit the Witches Market. This is the real thing, lots of stalls with hanging foetuses of llamas, pigs and dogs along with herbs and other stuff. I ask about how are the foetuses acquired, and am answered “supposedly through natural means such as miscarriages”. The foetus is then burned on a wood bbq along with various herbs to bring about the required result.
Onward and upward, our group makes our way through streets of stalls to our final event of the day. And if you haven’t guessed it it’s, Cholita Wrestling, yes Bolivian Aymara woman with the big skirts and bowler hats. On entering the Hall there are several rows of plastic chairs all around the ring all occupied by tourists. The local Bolivians are in the grandstand in tiered concrete seating. It’s an absolute
gas, loud music, and then the Cholita women come out and walk and dance the outside of the ring all the time playing to the crowd. As they walk around the ring someone is dragged out for a dance and the honoured person obliges with great enthusiasm. Then finally the music hits crescendo and the referee makes his way towards the ring doing a little dance. The referee is obviously biased to one of the women and from that time it’s all on. This is the whacky world of wrestling Bolivian style and as the night goes on it gets more bizarre, I left after around 90 minutes, and ran in to one of the group on the salt flats who told me towards the end of the night there was even a werewolf running around the stadium. Discrimination and domestic violence have been commonplace against indigenous women in Bolivia and this is one way they have found to build confidence and show they are able to do anything as good as their men folk. The wrestling experience is around 2 hours and to be honest it’s an experience you can only find in Bolivia.
I take a taxi
back to the hotel and run into Lancashire Kate, who has returned from the flats, so we make plans to share a taxi to the airport the following morning. She is off to Argentina via Santa Cruz, while I head to Uyuni for three nights. I’m amazed at how many young women are travelling around South America on their own, I take off my rather salty hat to them all.
Monday, 16 Oct. to Wednesday, 18 Oct.
Up early for the 6.15am taxi and it’s goodbye to Kate At the airport. My flight to Uyuni boards at 7.40 and I’m in the air hoping that I am being picked up at the other end. And in fact I am, there’s a driver holding up a sign for “Kevin Pyne and Malcolm Sanders”. I attempt to tell him No Sanders, but it takes a while before he believes me. I had informed the tour company and received acknowledgment, but obviously they were hoping for a miraculous visitation. The taxi drops me off at a small shop frontage for the tour company and I’m introduced to my fellow adventurers, a Scottish couple and a young German girl. I’m around 40
years older than all of them, but I’m welcomed.. Then, the tour guide arrives and introduces himself in English as “Speedy Gonzales”. our trust group of four are off on a fantastic adventure, first to Salar de Uyuni and then into the Bolivian desert for 3 days and 2 nights. The salt pan is around 10
There’s a total of six persons in our Toyota 4WD, a driver, Gonzales, Rachel and David, Seline and yours truly. The first is the train graveyard right outside of Uyuni, we get about 45 mins to clamber on the trains and take photos. Then we’re off to the salt pans. It isn’t long before I realise our driver takes ever dust cloud in the distance as a challenge to chase it down and pass it. Yes, it’s dirt roads until we return to Uyuni. We’re now on the salt pans and 10,582 sq kilometres of salt, about the size of the big island of Hawaii. It’s lunchtime, so we stop with no one in sight and Gonzales and our driver setup a picnic table for us all to have lunch. After lunch we travel a little more and meet up with a bike
rental truck. Sun glasses on, we stop and mount bikes for a little pedal across the flats to a restaurant that we can see in the far distance. It’s fun and exercise at the same time. The wind is blowing and as we get closer to the restaurant we see flags blowing in the wind, visitors to the Salar have brought their own countries flags and planted them in the salt outside of the restaurant. I particularly like the one from New Zealand. Gonzales is a wonderful guide and is full of explanations about the flats, the excavating of minerals and lots of other stuff.
Each stop on the Salar we encounter multitudes of 4WD vehicles from tour companies doing 1, 2 or 3 day tours. I won’t bore you with each stop, but towards the end of the day it’s time to take a number of those famous photographs that everyone who visits the Salar does. The hotel for the night is a Salt hotel on the edge of the pan, very comfortable and the food is good. At breakfast the following morning I chat with a very nice British/French family who are travelling through South America with
their own 4WD vehicle and 2 Children under the age of ten. What an experience, but very brave, I think.
The following morning sees our vehicle heading towards the volcanoes and Lagunas to see the flamingoes. Our driver is still chasing down every dust cloud he can see and passing vehicles at crazy speeds. From Gonzales we hear all kinds of information along with his views on the world order of things. Gonzales is totally making my trip memorable, a great guy, with a great sense of humour, however he is so off on his ideas on Covid and War and Peace. But to be honest, a fantastic guide with excellent English and nothing is too much trouble for him. The desert is amazing with multitudes of color, Vicuñas sightings, and of course the 3 kinds of Flamingoes in the Lagunas. We are constantly at altitudes of over 4500 meters, and on the way to volcanic mud pools and geysers ( a sort of mini Rotorua at elevation) we reach 4915 meters. We follow Gonzales as he trips between the mud pools and the boiling water, I don’t think Osh (Occupational Health and Safety) in New Zealand would be
too happy. We started our 4 WD trip with nice gentle Peruvian music, but after one day this has been replaced by Gonzales, Rock and Country selection. We are all enjoying his music even the driver.
Fortunately, I have not experienced altitude sickness on this trip, however the altitude is definitely a factor when walking or trying to do anything at all.
At the end of day 2 we spend the night in what is termed a Shelter, no showers, and a four bed dorm room. Not my style at all and to be honest I only manage about 2 1/2 hours sleep before we have to get up, eat breakfast and head towards the Chilean border to drop David and Rachel off. Along the way theres time to stop at a Laguna and to view I desert rock formations. It’s a lot colder than the previous 2 days and there is even a sprinkling of snow on several of the volcanoes. A group photo is a must before reaching the border and time for me to get a photo under the Chile sign, then it’s goodbye to David and Rachel. A 500km plus drive back to UyunI
with our driver still chasing and overtaking every dust cloud in front of us, but we manage a llama stop and lunch along the way….
Overnight in a Salt Hotel in Uyuni, then back to La Paz the following morning on Air Boliviana. I run into a young English girl from London who speaks excellent Spanish. She recounts a story about Air Boliviana and a lady who is transporting her cat in the hold. The cat turns up dead and when asked about compensation, rather than offering money the airline offers the lady a medium so she can communicate with the cat in the afterlife.
Anyway, Elise and I share a taxi from El Alto into downtown LaPaz. She too has also been out on the Salt Flats. However, due to a political March we are unable to take the taxi all the way to our respective hotels and have to walk a few blocks.
Thursday, 19 Oct.
Just hang around the hotel all day and relax ready for the next part of the journey.
Friday, 20 Oct.
I’m leaving La Paz on Bolivia Hop and making my way to Puno, my original ticket
is from La Paz to Cusco, however I am now taking the luxury train from Puno to Cusco. Bolivia Hop pulls up at 6.30 outside Hotel Rosario, and of course the Guide is waiting for the elusive Malcolm Sanders, I explain that he is no longer…..(Malc decided to skip the trip and stay in Fiji). The first stop is Cocacabana, Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca where we stop and have lunch. This is followed by a boat trip to the Isle del Sol where there is an Inca temple and a 5 km hike, half of it up hill at 3800 meters altitude, I arrive at the apex huffing and puffing. There’s a great group on the bus, notables being a Brazilian with an Irish accent and a French man, Pierre who is constantly taking photos with everyone he meets including llamas….
The border crossing is easy, check out of Bolivia, walk 50 meters and check in to Peru.. Bolivia hop is left on the Bolivian side and now everyone gets onto Peru Hop, this is followed by a 3 hour bus ride to Puno. We arrive in Puno at 8.45 and immediately there’s thunder, lightning and
it pisses down. And overnight in Puno….. Next we are in Peru.
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Ed
non-member comment
Hi Kev, I do enjoy reading your blogs. You sure move at a pace around South America. What's the food like? Have a safe trip. Ed