Bolivia

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Well, who would have thought it possible, i have finally left Argentina on the 12 Feb 2007. The country tht has been my home for the last three months,where i have met amazing people, danced in great clubs, partied and seen some really incredible facets of nature. I guess that when you are travelling there is something of a risk of getting too used to a place, be it a country, sity or evenhostel and not wanting to leave. Argentina was comforatable to a degree for me. And hence the three month sojurn. But yes, all the journey goes on, and on 9 Feb i found mysef after a cramped 4 hour bus ride being refused entry into bolivia....apparently south africans need a visa to enter and being a friday i had to wait until monday to get one....A VISA??? south africa did nothing to bolivia...heck we dont even know it exists...(i did not say this at the border) but not even smiling charmingly at the border police helped...so i sed goodbye to my buddies who continued on and turned back to argentina...where i was confronted with a 2 hour line (with my 25kg backpack (i am not sure how it is still so heavy wheni have bought nothing andi am sure i have given away half the stuff i btrought with me))....i guess argentina and i now officially have a bitter sweet love affair.

Yavi and Little Yavi

So here i am walking in La Quiaca, the northern most town on Argentina, looking for a place to stay the weekend when i meet to Portenos (people from Buenos Aires) who tell me they are staying in Yavi, a little village a few kms away and really charmin. SO i go. i dont have a pic of the guy, but he had one green eye and one brwon eye...incredibble and really hard to stop lookin at it...grin.

Yavi is incredibly peaceful and serene ...and who would have thought but i ate the most delish pizza ever in this two street town (OK Eli makes the best pizza in the world, but i have still to taste hers...so for now ...grin)

and if u go down the main road of Yavi from the south of course, and at the second intersection you turn right and walk 4km...u get to Yavi Chicco (little Yavi). highly recommend it. absolutely nothing to do and there was an international folk music festival there on the day i went. really interesting.

Oh and in the middle of all of this, i started experiencing altitude sickness. not a nice way to pass a weekend.

Anyhow, got my visa and walked across to Bolivia.

A different country

So if there is one seat on a bus, how many people will you sell it to?? I ask this apparently silly question cos on my first bus in Bolivia, i sat in seat 19. Seat 20 was sold to three people. Yes the same seat. so these people shared the seat in turns for 4 hours. Of scoursei offered them to sit in mine but they refused.
Anyhow we all the four of us and some other people from the bus passed a few lovely days in Tupiza, while we decided where in BOlivia we wanted to go to.

I decided to go to Oruro, to meet Eli again and bcos it was the carnval there...best best in Bolivia and apparently the second best in South America. So i buy my ticket, and find out on the bus that i paid alot more than the Bolivian sittin next to me. Eli ses i should see it as helpin the country buti still feel ripped off. pout. never mind i will get over it or used to it. not sure.

Who needs a drum or brakes??

Face this one is for you....

so i take the bus from Tupiza to Oruro and travel through some amazingly beautiful mountain scenery and pass through some arb villages on the way when after a few hours we stop. hmmmm i need a piss anyhow so thats good.and then i see the driver and his staff changing the tyre ...a flat tyre...usual. and then they take out the inner tyre as well....shame how inconvenient a flat in the inner tyre. and then they take a hammer and bang at the drum which falls out in two piecs...and of course the brake shoes as well and of course they move it of the road and put back all the tyres...yes they were not flat....and beckon us to get back on the bus.
In the middle of nowhere i have no choice, so i get on and sit very quietly praying while we continue our journey to Oruro.

I did not see much of the carnival...i was altitude sick....but have included some pics of what i did see.

Bolivia is an incredibly beautiful country. amazingly varied from east to west north to south. You have the Andes, the Amazon, rivers, lakes, volcanoes, salt flats, geysers, ternal baths....i am awestruck.
NOw if only my visa allowes me more than 30days to explore i think i would be here longer than 3months...grin.
That being said, and keepin in mind that this is home for me for know, i ave to be truthful and say that this is an incredibley difficult country to travel in. well not incrdibly difficult tha tis such anexageration...jes so different. bus reservations are still paper based, people inshops dont sell youstuff if they dont feel like it, and i find ht people i bit unfriendly actually. i amnot sure what it is but something here is wierd. that being sed, i still love it...i think the country grows on you after two weeks, or you jes learn to ignore the things you dont like...grin not sure.

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Comments

[Elisabetta]

I am absolutely agree with you my friend. Bolivia has the most amazing landscapes I have ever seen in my life. But Bolivian people....not easy to deal with. My friend Barbi said in here we learn the patience... bah! they pissed me off sometimes but I am coming back there because the country worth it.. At the moment I am in Argentina (again..) I am waiting for you darling ....