Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
I am in Bolivia now after a circuitous journey from Buenos Aires via Salta and San Pedro de Atacama.
I had a nice time back in Salta for a few days and met up with Barry, Pete and Shane, some Irish lads I met in BsAs. Took them out for my 3rd visit to La Casona del Molino and Macondo on Balcarse on my last night. Heres a tip for you dont go out drinking pisco sours until 3 am then get a bus at 7am up to altitude!
The border control with Chile was at 4400 odd meters above sea level and I thought my head was going to explode. It wasn't helped by the people fainting and throwing up around me so actually I did quite well. The woman next to me was travelling with husband and 6 kids, 5 of which had horrendous travel/altitude sickness, at one point I thought the boy in front of me was dying. The conductor even started administering oxygen as we went over the pass.
Anyway I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama feeling pretty rough and not having any idea where my hostel was - I had reserved using a phone
number given to me by two Aussie girls who I thought would also be on my bus but it turns out there are 2 buses to San Pedro both leaving Salta at 7am on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays (er.. why?). Of course mine was the slowest and no-one on the other bus had altitude problems. Anyway I had omited to ask what the hostel was called or what the address was.
San Pedro is a wierd little town in the middle of the desert with a very laid back artistic hippy feel and it was nice to hang out and not do much for a few days apart from a bit of horseriding. I met a nice bunch of people in the hostel and we had an impromptu BBQ inside the little chimnea in the hostel courtyard and an Argentinian guy - Ezequiel , read spanish poerty to us while we huddled under my sleeping bag.
In San Pedro I booked onto a 3 day, 4x4 trip across the desert and into Bolivia and got put in a group with the loud group on the back of the bus who all seemed to know each other. They turned out to
be a really nice group luckily - Luciano from Brasil, Lucia from Madrid but living in BsAs (and spoke fluent Portugese), Puresa, Rita and Teresa from Lisbon. So by the end of the trip I had picked up plenty of Portugese and had become mother to a new set of friends.
The trip itself was fantastic and we passed through some amazing scenery with our (very quiet) young driver called Marcos. The first night we stayed in a pretty basic refugio at 4200m although it wasnt as cold as I had expected, I think the previous week had been down to -25 degrees and so I went over prepared with hot water bottles and extra sleeping bag etc but ended up throwing it all out of bed because I was too hot. The second night was more luxurios with a six bed room and ensuite bathroom although no hot water.
OK, so Marcos played the same 2 tapes over and over (then mysteriously produced an MP3 player and tape conection for the stereo in the last few hours of the trip!) but we didnt break down once, and the food was pretty good (I was still pretty popular with my
stash of chocolate and wine!) I just wish we could have spent more time in a few of the places.
Anyway I arrived safe and sound in Bolivia after 3 days in the desert. No sign of any transport problems and had no issues crossing the border either so all good.
It is a different world here though and we all had to readust our time scale to fit into Bolivia time. The first town we reached, Uyuni, is a drop off point for all the people who crossed the desert in jeeps and they all seem to be in a big hurry to get the next bus out (and there were lots of stressed out people wandering around because the buses and trains are already full - ha ha). As usual I am going at a more relaxed pace so I got myself a single room in a hotel with hot water for only 2 pounds a night and booked a bus to Potosi the next morning.
I am in Potosi now at 4070m above sea level and had to walk about half an hour up a huge hill to get to my hostel - generally I have not
walked anywhere with my bag singe the Torres del Paine park, I have just taken taxis but I have been told not to trust taxis too much if I'm on my own in Bolivia so I had to slog it. Now I have a bit of a headache but not half as bad as the border crossing I did to San Pedro so I must be aclimatising. La Paz should be a breeze.
Its the aniversary of Bolivian independance on Monday so they are having a big party here tonight and tomorrow, lots of bands and marching at the moment.
Am definitely liking it here so far - but the rest of the Gringos seem to be having a hard time, I keep seeing people getting upset with the bus companies, toilet facilities etc. But actually its no worse than Africa (in fact, so far, its a bit better).
I booked my bus to Potosi with an agency which said it would leave at 9:30 but when I arrived at 9 they changed my seat and told me to sit in the agency next door. Anyway I think there were not enough people for 2 buses so the two agencies
were combining passengers and so the bus actually was leaving at 10. It wasnt a problem at all and I can speak enough spanish now to work it out and ask the right questions but everyone else was a bit testy and you can see the staff of the bus agency just ignoring them because they are kicking up a fuss! One lot did have tickets for seat numbers 44 and 45 when there were only 40 seats on the bus though which was amusing.
It seems to get you much further if you are very polite, smile a lot and go through some niceties first. I think I am also very mentally prepared for Bolivia, I'm not sure what all these other people are expecting exactly?
The only thing I'm going to find frustrating I think is not being able to go wandering round alone at night etc. I am currently in an internet cafe but will have to go and find somewhere to eat (probably alone because its only 7pm and too early for most people) then get back to the hostel before it gets late. Hope I find some more people in the hostel tomorrow so I
can go out with a crowd.
http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_4s5.html
Advertisement
Tot: 0.113s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 15; qc: 82; dbt: 0.081s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb