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Published: December 11th 2010
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Our 2 week whistle-stop tour of Bolivia......
La Paz
We arrived in huge bowl-shaped, frantic La Paz and checked into The Adventure Brew Hostel right by the bus station. Enjoyed their free beer every night policy but at 3660m above sea level, one beer was enough! Wandered around the city and took advantage of the cheap shopping. Browsed the Witches Market, which sold all weird and wonderful potions and good luck charms including disgusting dead dried llama fetuses. So many traditionally dressed locals here, the women wear full skirts and bowler hats and have their hair long and in plaits, even the little old ladies. Excited to find a Brit run Indian curry house (Star of India) but although the food was tasty (Bolivian food is not!), we're sure they made everything with jars of Pataks.
Coroico
Did a day trip to cycle the World's Most Dangerous Road, something almost EVERYONE does here. Went with Gravity, a NZ owned recommended company but expensive! For the first part of our mountain bike ride downhill on the new tarmac road, the weather was awful, cold, wet and foggy. Couldn't see a thing but luckily for us the bad weather
cleared by the time we reached the dangerous part. There is a new route now so not many cars use this road, which is narrow, has a sheer cliff drop on one side and no safety barriers. To Holly's relief, the ride was all downhill past some amazing jungle scenery, mountains and waterfalls and we both really picked up some speed! Rode past many crosses to remember those who've died here (including a few bike riding tourists!). Saw where the Top Gear boys faked their 'nearly falling off the cliff sequence', talk of the town apparently! Great day, not as scary as we thought and we both really enjoyed it. Made it safely to the end and a pretty little town called Coroico. Stopped for lunch at a little animal sanctuary (Senda Verde) and we would have stayed there was it not for an escaped dangerous monkey, which ment we all had to stay indoors and for their bossy and rude volunteers who shouted at us for not shutting a door properly (handbags!). Instead we found a beautiful hostel (Sol y Luna) with lush gardens, butterflies, flowers and swimming pools in Coroico, where we relaxed, sunbathed and walked for a
few days before getting a bus to Sucre.
Sucre
Sucre is Bolivia's most beautiful city and we were impressed. A university city so it was full of modern and trendy young people and not so many indigenous folks, like La Paz. Stayed in a lovely hostel run by an Austrian/Bolivian couple (Casa de la Tronca) and spent a couple of day wandering around the nice clean city, admiring the well kept white buildings and doing a few museums. Unfortunately, we both got a bad case of Boli-belly and had to get some antibiotics. The food in Bolivia is cheap but not great. Saying that, we ate some blinding saltenas (little hot meat pies) and Sucre is the chocolate capital of Bolivia so we stocked up on some bars from one of the many posh choc shops before saying Adios!
Tupiza
Got a very long and tedious bus south from Sucre to Tupiza, via depressing looking mining town Potosi. Arrived in cactus riddled and wild-west looking Tupiza very late at night. This was Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid territory. We'd been recommended a tour of the Salar de Uyuni with a company based in Tupiza so
the next day we got straight in a 4x4 with 2 others (Dutch Jan and American Christina) plus our driver and cook for a 4 day tour. They say you should make sure you like the people you go on tour with as you're with them 24/7, which is true. All day in the car then all night in a shared dorm room. Luckily for us, we all got on like a house on fire and had a right good giggle. Great people!
For the first 3 days we drove through some amazing scenery, weird red rock formations, dry desert, cactus, llamas, vicunas, emus, extinct volcanos and past little indigenous villages made out of mud bricks. It's the kind of landscape you imagine dinosaurs walking around. Our cook, Lupa, constantly provided us with snacks, sweets and nice meals. We went to see some huge lakes populated with thousands of beautiful pink flamingoes. One lake was bright aquamarine with poisonous arsenic and sulphur, one was really red with plankton and algae and many where white with salt and minerals. We saw active Volcano Ollague and some thermal bubbling mud and hot pools.
The highlight of the tour was our
final day when we reached Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flats in the world at over 12000 km sq. We'd stayed the night before in a hotel made out of salt. We got up super early so we could see the sun rise. It had rained during the night and the salt flats first thing in the morning were like a mirror, reflecting the sky. So cool. Stopped for photos and breakfast at Isla de Pescado, a large outcrop of dead coral in the middle of that flats that's now covered with cactus. Spent the rest of the morning taking ''loco fotos'' (crazy photos). Our driver was an expert at doing them so we let him order us about. Dee had bought his skateboard with him so him and Jan had a skate and we got some more good photos. We've since learnt that under the salt is the world's largest supply of lithium, which is increasing in demand and price because of new electric car batteries. We just hope they mine the lithium in a clean and sustainable way and don't ruin the land like they've done in Potosi searching for silver.
Said goodbyes to Jan and
Chris and got the 4x4 back to Tupiza. Had the worst meal we've ever had on our last night in Bolivia (fitting) and got the bus to the Argentine boarder. Two weeks was no way long enough to do Bolivia justice but we did do a lot and took loads of photos (sorry!). It is a bit like Asia (litter, stray dogs and locals using 'street toilet') and is very beautiful, interesting and cheap. We were pleasantly surprised by the buses. Whoever said the buses in Bolivia were bad should go to Nepal!!
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Sophie and Dale
Sophie & Dale
Buses
Nice pictures guys. I must admit that the lovely strait paved road from La Paz to Tupiza was a breeze in the ok coaches but venture of the tourist trail a little and i promise you that all changes. Ill never forget as long as i live the journey from Coroico to Rurrenabaque. Ouch! Dale.