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Published: September 9th 2009
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Before arriving in Bolivia we had heard excellent reports from other travelers who had told us that it had been their favorite country throughout their travels in South America. With this in mind, we began our trip with high expectations, and so far have not been disappointed. After arriving in Copacabana and spending a night there, we witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of ‘El virgin de Copocabana,’ which involves locals parking in front of the cathedral, opening up their car bonnets and putting a picture of the Virgin Mary on the engine. They then proceed to spray their car with beer before paying the priest to bless the car so it will have good luck and not break down for the rest of the year. Now, why did I not think of that before?? After a short stay in this busy market town we headed straight for the highest capital in the world - La Paz.
La Paz, at 3500 high, is a great city to spend a few days, although it can definitely leave you feeling a little breathless. I had been told that there was a huge variety of restaurants in the capital city and this was certainly the case
as we ate out every night in a different location experiencing all sorts of worldwide culinary delights including Japanese, French (of course), Swiss, Thai and I think a good English breakfast fitted in somewhere along the way. Aside from eating, we didn’t do much else in the capital city except for going to the Coca museum which was really interesting (did you know Coca Cola used to have cocaine in it?) and going to the witches market to witness the dried llama fetuses hung up for the locals to purchase (they believe it wards off evil spirits if you put it under your house.) The rest of our time in La Paz was spent wandering around and getting a feel for the city alongside booking a trip with ‘Gravity’ to go and do ‘the world’s most dangerous road’ on bicycle up a little further north in Coroico.
We left early morning with the group to arrive in the mountains ready for our trip in a small group with another French guy with his Hungarian girlfriend who we ended up spending a few days with after the trip in Coroico. The bike ride was really fantastic but bloody scary. Basically the
road is called ‘the most dangerous road in the world’ as it has witnessed a huge number of accidents and the thin track winds along the side of the mountains with a 600 metre drop on one side. Our guide warned us that many people have died as they have literally fallen down the cliff and there were a few hair raising moments as it takes about half the trip to really get used to your bike and it wasn’t until the end that I felt confident and was zooming along. It was really fun and well worth it but not for the faint hearted. In fact, Reica (the Hungarian girl in our group) fell off and cut her hip badly and had to have stitches. Fabrice even fell off but didn’t do too much damage. I, surprisingly, managed to stay on.
Most people go straight back to La Paz after the trip but we decided to stay in Coroico which was extremely worth it and so peaceful. For such a cheap price we had our own room with bathroom and a balcony overlooking the valley and swimming pool. We spent a few days relaxing with Maxime and Reica and
some Aussies we met from the bike ride and had a great time. The place we stayed in was run by a French lady and was known to have the best food in Bolivia and indeed we were not disappointed. Steak covered in Roquefort cheese for cheap cheap....Fantastic!
After relaxing enough in Coroico we decided to take the bus up north to Rurrenebaque which is where most people head if they want to explore the Amazonian region in Bolivia. We heard it was the cheapest place to explore the Amazon so headed up there on a 15 hour bus trip (valium required) to the hot and humid town. The bus ride was not only extremely dangerous but probably one of the most uncomfortable trips I have done on my travels due to it being unpaved and a very bumpy ride. At one point during the night it was pitch black and the driver was reversing along a path much like the one on ‘the world’s most dangerous road’ with one man outside calling out, guiding the driver and shouting for the driver to stop when he reached the cliff edge with us all in it, eeeek! These were the reasons
why we took the plane back to La Paz which takes approximately 30 minutes.
Rurrenebaque itself was fairly hot and humid which was different to what we were used to in the high altitude of La Paz. It’s the jumping off point for cheap tours into the pampas so consequently it was quite a touristic, albeit small, village. We spent a night there before heading out on one of these tours into the pampas ourselves which was an absolutely fantastic 3 days. For the majority of time we were on a boat rowing through the river with the trees towering over us on both sides with alligators lurking in the undergrowth. We did all sorts of exciting activities during the 3 days we spent there including swimming with pink dolphins, fishing piranhas and eating them (very tasty), searching for cobras and anacondas and even having an anaconda around my neck at one point!! Sleeping under mosquito nets in the jungle reminded me of my Raleigh days...great fun!
We spent our time recovering from our adventure in La Paz waiting for a new credit card for Fabrice to arrive (but it never did) and after a few days of eating at
different restaurants every night we decided to head on down to Cochabamba to stay with friends. We met Jim and Cristina in Canoa, Ecuador and they kindly let us stay in their beautiful house for a few days where we chilled out by the pool and did a side trip to Villa Tunari where we went to a national park and saw more monkeys, parrots and other wildlife. After a great few days, we carried on towards Sucre; the judicial capital of Bolivia also called ‘The White City.’ It was after a night here, (and after getting rid of Jim’s fake 200 Boliviano bill- thanks Jim!) that we decided to flee and head on down to Uyuni.
Uyuni itself was not the most exciting town but it is the starting point for tours onto the Salar de Uyuni (the huge salt flat.) We went with ‘Oasis tours’ who were great, and spent 3 days exploring the different landscapes including the salar, all the way down towards the Chilean border. We saw lagoons with flamingos, active volcanoes, steaming geysers, caves and many different types of rock formations. The Salar was the most incredible landscape with the vast white expanse making it
possible to attempt trick photography and do some crazy shots. In the photos it even looks like snow as the whiteness was so blinding as it reflected in the sun. The only downside on the trip was the fact that on the first day I got altitude sickness and threw up near the Salar enriching everybody’s experience... but after this I got kind of used to it and felt better for the rest of the trip. On the final day it was a very early start at 5am and due to the fact that we were staying somewhere 4000metres above sea level, it was bloody freezing. We eventually piled into the jeep with blankets on top of us and drove to some hot pools, after a stop over at the geysers. After firmly deciding that I was not going to get changed into my bikini in the freezing cold temperatures, but then changing my mind, we relaxed in the beautiful water while our hair turned to ice. It was after this that we got dropped off and said goodbye to the others in our group and made our way to the next country on the list - CHILE!
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