Bolivia

---

Before we made it to Bolivia, we stopped at Puno, on lake Titicaca near the border. There is not much in Puno, but its the access point to Lake Titicaca's famous floating islands. While the idea that the locals have been living on these floating islands made of reeds for hundreds of years is very cool, the part we got to see (while interesting for a little while) was quite disappointing. One of the most blatantly touristy things we have done.

Luckily for us, Bolivia was only a few hour bus ride away. It was so nice to get there. The first town after the border is Copacabana and it was great! We stayed a couple of nights, visited Isla del sol where we walked around all day enjoying amazing views over lake Titicaca, enjoyed some great (and cheap) vegetarian food in a cool restaurant which played reggae and dub, and tasted a few of the local beers while watching the sun set over the lake - pretty close to perfect. You could say that Bolivia and us got off on the right foot!

From there it was on to the capital, La Paz. Nice enough city but a big city none the less. Stopped there for 3 or 4 days and got most of our Christmas shopping done. The most organised i´ve been for years!! Our hostel was set admist the witches market, the one stop shop for all your black magic, herbal health, offering plates, san-pedro cacti, dried llama fetasus, dried frogs with glitter on their backs, coca leaf reading etc etc etc which was interesting. They aren´t too big on tourists and frown upon photos so you will have to use your imagination to picture this one.

After a bit of discussion we decided to make our way to the bolivian part of the amazon. We started with the 3 day Choro Track which started at about 4850m and over the 3 days we descended to Coroico at about 1500m. Obviously down hill most of the way so it was cool to see the vegetation change on the way but i wasn´t so impressed about the temperature going up and up. Still we made it and we were the only foreigners we saw the whole way so we had the waterfalls and campsites to ourselves.

The plan from there was to stay a night and maybe 2 in Coroico but that turned into 3, Where we were stayed at this beautiful hostel complex set amongst trees overlooking an amazing valley. It was expensive by Bolivian standards ($15usd) but for that we got an apartment style room with bathroom and kitchen and spent 3 days doing nothing at all, for the first time in a long time.


We needed the rest it turned out because from there was a 15hr bus to Rurrenabaque on a road some affectionately refer to as "the Death Road" because cars and busses have a habit of falling off the edge. It seems a bit dramatic but its not an enjoyable ride by any means but there was some amazing scenery as we descended further into the tropical jungle. We arrived at 6am and by 10, with a few others who met waiting for the bus the previous day, we were in a 4X4 and on our way to the Pampas (low lying wet / grass lands) to find us some animals. And we did.

It took about 3 hours in the 4X4 and 3 more in a boat to reach our home for the following couple of nights but the next day we were well rewarded. About 15min into the boat journey we got stuck in some reeds. The only way to get us out was for someone to get out and tie a rope to a tree so we could pull ourselves through. A young aussie guy was sitting at the front so the guide gave him the rope and told him to jump in. His face was one of the funniest parts of the whole trip. We had just been watching all the gators on the banks so was not having a bar of it. ¨you gotta be jokin, no bloody way am i gettin in there" and then the guide pulled down his pants and pushed him in. He looked like he wanted to cry but we all had a good laugh. We latter learn´t that gators don´t really like people too much so swimming was all good, just had to watch out for Black Camins which were a bit nastier.

It was snake hunting in the morning, which in hindsight seemed a little dogey. Our guide basically let us loose (in gumboots and the boys with sticks) in a big marsh to poke around until we found something. Our guide found the first snake, an anaconda-cobra apparently. It was maybe 2,5 meters long and looked pissed off about being caught. Our guide was telling us about it and told us that it was %20 poisonous. First off, we didn't know there were poisonous snakes there to begin with and secondly. what does %20 poisonous mean? Apparently it means you won´t die when it bites you! Didn´t want to test that out.

Next snake was a boa-constrictor and while it was cool to see it, it stank like you wouldn´t believe, I had it around my neck and was almost gagging (and not because it was strangling me). On the walk back to the boat another guide showed us to where a 5m Black Camin (like a Croc) was lying in the grass. It was dead but had only walked there a couple of days earlier. Amazing to see such a big animal but a bit of a worry if we had been there earlier, Don´t think our gumboots and sticks would have helped much. Carissa would probably only be a small snack for that big fella.

On the way back to camp we stopped to swim with the pink amazonian dolphins who weren´t that interested in us but was really cool for us to see them. We also saw a sloth, more gators than you could count (we even caught and held a 2m / 50kg or 110lbs gator and some babies of about 30cm / 1ft), 2 or 3 kinds of monkeys, some really cool birds, Capybaras (worlds biggest rodents), and some people fished for Piranhas, So overall we couldn´t have asked for much more from our trip.

We raced back to Rurrenabaque so we could catch the flights we had booked for that night only to find all flights we canceled for 2 days so it was back on the bus for the 20 hours return and i have to admit that i was a little hungover from the previous nights excesses. It wasn´t so fun, still, should have known better!!

We were going to go and check out a silver mining town but our new German friend Ralph was off to Uyuni in the south for a salt flat tour (which was our next destination) so we joined him. Another really rough bus ride latter we arived and got on a tour leaving that morning. Our group of six was made up of the 2 of us, a Swidish girl and 3 Germas named Ralph (or Ralf, depending on which one you asked). What are the odds? While our guide was alittle on the quite side we had a great tour. A lot of drivig, getting out and taking a pic and some more driving but the scenery was well worth it. There were salt flats, sand dunes, mountains, coloured lakes, geysers and mud pools all at altitudes up to 5000m. On the last morning we had some time soaking in hot pools at about 5000m. If was soo good but our wet hair froze when we got out. Good times!!

After breakfast it was off to the boarder and the start of a new adventure (In Chile). We said goodbye to two f the ralphs and continued on to Chile with one. Ralf, almost as soon as we entered Chile, commented that it wasn't as nice on this side of the boarder and this seemed to set the tone for the next couple of days.

Chile, why go there??? Who knows! Why not?

1. Its just not as beautiful as Bolivia!
2. Over zealous coustoms officials (My belongings and me got a real going over before being interogated and accused of traficing Cocane. Let go eventually though ;-)
3. Its expensive (bolivia= private room for $7, Chile= $14 for a bit of ground to pitch a tent. Bolivia= bus for 12 hours $5, Chile=12 hours bus $50 but they are much nicer)
4. Its dry and dusty (you can drive for hours and hours and not see a tree. Thats not cool!).
5. They don't bother to tell you about daylight savings time (so we missed our bus -$100 oops)

It all a bit rough i know but, first impressions count so we finally caught our bus to Santiago and then got straight on another to Mendoza, Argentina. Now on our way to patagonia where we will have a few weeks to explore and hike. Should be great!!!

Take care!
Josh and Carissa
Having a bit of trouble posting photos. Will put more on when we have a chance.

---

Photos

reed boat
lake titicaca, bolivia

square monkey
bolivia

going on a snake hunt
gonna find me a big one! And we´re not scared (maybe just a little ;-)

and we got one!
Negro and anaconda

optical illusion
having fun on the salt flats

flamingos on a salt flat?
looked quite striking to have the pink flamingos in such a barren landscape

train grave yard
the train says "such is life" "need an experienced mechanic" "urgently

red lake
salt flats bolivia

tree of stone
salt flats, bolivia

island of fish
I knows its cacti, but thats the direct translation of the name isla de los pescados