Arrival in Bolivia !

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I arrived in Bolivia in the middle of the night. Since I was flying in in La Paz (4000m) from Bogota, I did not suffer too much from the effects of the altitude. I usually use the first days in a new country to arrange few things, such as sending a DVD back home with my pictures, buying a local SIM-card and getting to know the local currency and the price level. I had been told that arriving in Bolivia is like going back in time, but the center of La Paz seemed rather modern. Finding good accommodation in La Paz ended up being a difficult exercise. The first 2 nights we stayed at the "Wild Rovers backpacker's hostel". What a mistake ! You could hear the music from the bar until 2.30am in many of the rooms fand the "party people" staying in this hostel were amongst the most unrespectful I had met. They were shouting in the corridors in the middle of the night, switched the light on and rearrange their luggage when others are sleeping in the dorm room, etc. You would probably be better off if you sleep during the day in this hostel... Since La Paz was going to be my base for discovering the west of Bolivia, I decided to go to "Arthy's Guesthouse" after having visited 3 other hostels. Only a little bit more expensive, but so much worth it ! After few lazy days and a trip to Tiwanaku I moved to Copacabana, a touristy town at the Titicaca lake.

Copacabana was the perfect place to discover the Titicaca lake and Isla del Sol. I had already visited the lake on the Peruvian side, but the Bolivian side was very different. Tourism was less developed and everything seemed much more authentic. I spent 3 nights on the north side of the Island ! Although this cannot be considered as a sea, this was the beach I had enjoyed the most until then. The weather conditions were perfect (good temperatures and sunny during the day and fresh at night), no mosquitoes, deserted most of the day and a large beach with no pollution ! The perfect place to stay for few days to allow my leg (that got hurt in Colombia) to recover and to do some easy hikes. I could easily have spent a week on the island, but left due to timing constraints after few days.

In order to go from Copacabana to Sorata, I went back to La Paz. I had been told by the locals that this was not needed, but a friend had experienced that the alternative might end up taking even more time. He had to get out of the bus in no man's land and catch another bus there, but all those buses were full. After 2 hours waiting in the rain, an old lady offered him accommodation in her house for the night. I on the other hand preferred spending 2 more hours in the bus rather than the rain and I spent the night in my hostel in La Paz rather than in the house of the old lady :-) I had heard that Sorata was a hiking paradise. We went to the San Pedro Cave and did a one-day trekking to a laguna, although the weather was not exactly tempting. I wanted to hike the Mapiri-trail as well but my leg was still far from strong enough for this hard 7-day trekking carrying all my luggage and food. Hopefully more luck next time.

I went back to La Paz and from there overnight to Uyuni, where I immediately embarked on a 3-day tour Salars de Uyuni. The views are amazing, the salt hostel very beautiful, but we all thought we spent a lot of time in the jeep to travel between the sites. I heard later that in the 5-day tour, there are much more extra activities (such as nice hikes) and that the participants could decide to large extent what to do. Probably I should have done the 5-day trip as well.

After some hesitation, I decided to visit the mines of Potosí. Since I was short on time, some running was involved but this was definitely worth it. Spending half a day under the ground with the miners was an unforgettable experience. Still today, people are working in very difficult conditions. Difficult to believe that "los Conquistadores" forced locals to work for 3 consecutive months under the ground without seeing the daylight ! They also tried to use African slaves, but they all died after few days. I only carried one back of stones over a distance of 20 meters and felt very bad. The dust, the lack of fresh air, the narrow passages and the heavy work make this work almost inhuman. We had the opportunity not only to work with the miners, but also to relax some time with them. They told us that they do this work because the salary is significantly higher than other jobs in Bolivia, although the life expectancy is only about 40 years old. They are very critical for the policy of the extreme left-wing president Evo Morales. "He can explain it very well but is actually only filling his own pockets". Since he is in the office, tourism (which is one of the main sources of income for Potosí and for Bolivia in general) is decreasing. He has made it obligatory for Americans to buy a visa when entering in the country "because Bolivians also need a visa to enter into the USA". Fortunately enough, he did not consider the consequences for his own people when taking his decision. Some time ago, he was shouting out that he would throw all the American volunteers in prison, although many organisations were doing a lot of good work. Of course they all left the country, except the ones living in Santa Cruz because the population there would have protected the tourists/volunteers. He is filling up his own pockets and of his fellows, but is not making the required investments in infrastructure (such as decent roads). He has made it impossible for non-Bolivians to sell any Bolivian product, which results in complex and corrupt structures to bypass his law and a decrease in foreign investments. He is doing positive things as well esp. with regard to education, but something does seem to be wrong with this ideology in the world of today. Best example is probably his big example Hugo Chavez who solved the problem of the lack of doctors in Venezuela by reducing the duration of the education from 7 to 3 years (not sure on the exact numbers). Today they do have a lot of "doctors" but probably not the kind you and I would want to visit. Maybe we should all subscribe to their ideology? With this kind of logic, I am sure this would allow us to solve all the major issues of our time.

From Potosí back for few days to Sucre, a very beautiful city. When I was going to leave together with a friend to Samaipata, we had bought our bus tickets up front. The bus could not leave though because there was a strike. A strike in Bolivia can last for few days and the strikers do not allow any transport via a specific road. The government lets this happen and waits until it is over. Sometimes, this takes up to a month. We asked our money back for the bus instead of changing the date, because we were expecting the worst, but this did not go without discussion. The boy who had sold us the ticket had had put a lower price on the ticket than what we had actually paid (and put the difference in his own pocket) and he was not there anymore at the time we asked for our reimbursement. After discussing for 5 minutes with the guy at that time in the office, I changed my strategy. I started talking loud so that all the local bystanders could hear the discussion while my friend left to "look for the police". I told him I did not care about their internal policies but that I had paid 70 and that I wanted all of it back. If the other boy had taken the money, that was not my problem. I was not going to leave without the full amount I had paid and would involve the police if not receiving it straight away. While *enjoying* the extra attention, the guy gave me the money in a very discrete way. He passed me the money while was talking to one of the locals without watching me. This is were we started using the word "unboliviable". Bolivia is a very nice country with a lot of things to offer to tourists for very competitive prices, but things often do not work out as planned. Another person phrased it this way: "in Bolivia everything is possible, but nothing is for sure". This is indeed the perfect summary. If you ask somebody a question, they always answer yes while their face clearly expresses that they do not have a clue. Not easy to get used to this for a European mind !

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