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Published: September 23rd 2010
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Dinosaur Footprints
gravity defying dinosaur footprints :P I've been sat thinking I had nothing to update and realised I've actually travelled pretty quickly in the past couple of weeks and had a lot to update on. Oops. Right now I'm in Tarija in the very south of Bolivia WWOOFing (volunteering for free board and breakfast) and living the easy life, taking it slow, drinking fine (super cheap) wine and amazing food.
So first off, leaving La Paz breaking Loki Lie number 4 (OK I'm drinking but I'm leaving tomorrow) I managed to escape and get a night bus to Sucre. Sucre is as beautiful as everyone told me, lovely parks and squares, white buildings, amazing views over the city. I managed to meet up with old uni friend Katie and her boyfriend Glen who were on their round the world travels and left Brazil faster than expected after a nightmare, which worked out well for me 😊 So saying goodbye to new friends of La Paz I got to say hi to old ones and catch up on the 3 years I can hardly believe it's been since we graduated. In Sucre we didn't do much but have a wander around and I went to see the
infamous dinosaur footprints I had been hoping to see. It was pretty impressive still at about 500 yards away and the 'museum' was really well put together and had a great explanation of how South America basically formed with the Andes and the salt flats and it's whole terrain. Geology rocks! (Friends quote).
One thing that seemed to be a common trait for me and my time in Bolivia has been the way people seem to hate me on sight. I'm still not sure why, and I've met plenty of people who have had opposite experiences but also others who have had the same. Restaurants, tour companies, internet cafes, shops etc, anywhere where I'm trying to give them business, they seem to look at me with disdain and hatred and I'm literally having to push my money on them to do business with me, like sell me a bus ticket! And I'm speaking in Spanish. It's a shame because it really has quite an effect on how you feel about a place when you really get the feeling that no-one wants you there and you just want to get the hell out. They really disprove the 'smile and they
have to smile back theory', where instead I'm left standing there grinning like a fool while they look like they're trying to burn me on the spot in front of them (I'm thankful to say that Tarija is completely the opposite and is a contributing factor to my enjoyment here).
We got a bus to Uyuni to do a salt flats and lakes tour during the day after 2 days in Sucre and got to see some of the celebrations for some festival they were having the next day. Uyuni is small and you wonder what people live on without the tourists. There's a lot of them and not many of us. Great markets. Terrible service. By chance we managed to hook up with three other English people and have a full jeep to arrange our tour. So after speaking to a couple of tour agencies, being told the same thing, being told everyone else is lying, knowing that no-one is telling you the truth, I'm tired and had enough and we manage to haggle our way to book our 3 days tour with Reli Tours.
The trip was pretty amazing. The only way I can describe it
is that it does feel like you're in a completely different world. Many times just like a Star Trek episode haha! The salar is endless, the lakes and flamingos were beautiful, it was 'out of this world'. Had a great time. Lots of driving though but liked just watching the world go by and seeing all the changes in terrain and scenery and wondering how amazing it must have been for the first people to discover these places. Our guide was the typical, drunk in the evenings, hungover in the mornings, late every day, and half our jeep got food poisoning. But I reckon that would have been the result no matter who you went with from Uyuni and as all you do is sit in a jeep and watch the world go by and ocassionally get out and take photos, I still really enjoyed it.
Arriving back to Uyuni as the far cheaper option to get to Tupiza, I said goodbye to our group and got the night bus down to Tupiza. It was the worst bus I've ever been on. But so bad I found it funny. Sleep wasn't had. It was freezing. It was bumpy. It
stopped all the time so even if you did get to sleep you'd wake up again anyway and start the whole process again.
Tupiza is another very small town but quite a bit nicer with stuff actually there and a lovely green square and viewpoint. Very sleepy. Katie and Glen were originally going to join me on this point to go horse-riding but ended up going to La Paz, so with nothing else to do there, I booked a horse tour for 5 hours. Again it was amazing. Having never been to cowboy country or the grand canyon, I found it all spectacular and a whole different world. Really did feel like cowboys. It was brilliant. The red soil, the rock formations, middle of nowhere spectacular again. Apparently Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made it all the way down here only to die in the nearby town of San Vincente. Going around on the horse in the desolate countryside, it's a wonder how anything and anyone survives out there. And without modern technology, I really can't imagine how they managed to make their way from America to Bolivia with just horses to get them there without getting incredibly
lost at every turn. Stunning.
So after seeing a lot of breathe-taking countryside, I've made my way across to Tarija which is a completely different world to the rest of Bolivia and I absolutely love it. It's very mediterranean and I keep having to remind myself we actually aren't in Italy and everyone is lovely and welcoming and very kind. I'm here for a while so send me your updates and I'll do a Tarija blog at another date after we've sampled all the local wines and steak we can get our hands on!
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