Advertisement
We arrive on the Bolivian side of Desaguadero where there are rows of buses with drivers trying to get us to board them. We had a bit of hesitation though because our packs would have been tied precariously on top with a huge pile of sacks. So we ended up getting a taxi with a nice looking driver and a Peruvian couple. They were going to La Paz to buy supplies for a shop and they pointed things out to us on the way, like the Tiahuanaco site which we had decided was too much hassle to stop at (We were not feeling very patient towards ancient ruins by this time), and they helped us get our bearing when we had passed through El Alto La Paz down a steep zig zag with crazy drivers and into the main city of La Paz.
We walked for ages through the bustling markets streets and found the hotel we had chosen from the guide book, but the one next door actually looked better so we stayed there. They had a kitchen and let us wash our clothes in their laundry tub. We had one urgent thing to do in La Paz so
we walked around the city looking for the British airways office to cancel the flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires so we could go by land. Then on their direction had to look for the Qantas office. Finally we found Qantas, were hoping for an Aussie travel agent but the Bolivian lady was very helpful and a minute later had it all sorted. Seemed way too easy after all the time spent trying to find the place. Got a hamburger for lunch with chips for about $1.50 NZ and went to the coca museum, where we found out that coca cola company is still allowed to import coca into the U.S and imported 400kg in 1995. It also said they still use the leaves for flavour in coca cola but it doesn't seem to say that on the bottle. Not sure about that. We wandered into what we thought was an Arabic food place for tea but was actually a Swiss fondue restaurant that had only been open two days. We chatted to the Swiss owner and his Bolivian girlfriend for ages, had a caiparina, and an alpaca and beef fondue. So good to have good meat again. We unfortunately
had forgotten to bring enough money so embarrassingly had to go back to the hotel and get money out from the cash machine. The next day we just spent looking around the city, wandering around its street markets, and trying out a range of restaurants, including a yummy ice cream shop and a restaurant full of gaudy but amazing wood carvings.
We decided to leave the next day as time was pressing. We had already sorted out the best place for breakfast when the hotel receptionist warned us that all the buses were on strike and there were no buses out of La Paz. We skipped breakfast and rushed with our big back packs up to the bus terminal to check it out for ourselves. The terminal was deserted. There was one lady in the information booth luckily who said that there were two smaller buses running from outside the terminal to Cochabamba and Oruru. From there we might be able to get a bus to Sucre. So we rushed onto the bus to Oruru which looked like the most direct route to Sucre and took our chances with our bags tied on the roof.
Oruru was the
Dining in style La Paz
All the walls in this place were covered in gaudy but amazing wood carvings.most desolate town I have seen. In places every second house, or sometimes whole rows of houses and 5 story apartments were abandoned and crumbling. Stray dogs and piles of rubbish every where. At the bus terminal we tried to get a bus to Sucre, but apparently even when there is no strike buses don´t go directly to Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia, but we would have to get a bus first to Potosi then 3 hours back up north to Sucre. Even worse for us we found out that the bus would get to Potosi at 2am and because of the strike we would have to catch one of the small buses that leaves from out side of the terminal. There was a lady and her son also going to Sucre and they were keen to show us the way. Aside from the less than ideal midnight changeover, going three hours back in the direction we had come from when we had limited time seemed a waste. We asked about tickets for Tupiza which is further south and in the direction we wanted to go. Yeah sure they said, but you still catch the same bus to Potosi
first. Two Bolivain women were also going to Tupiza and were keen to have company. This almost sounded ok untill we found out that we would have to get off the bus at a toll booth and wait for a truck. In Bolivia a common means of transport is in the back of trucks squashed between sacks of maize and other produce.
Everyone was keen to look after us and giving us heaps of advice (especially a young boy who happily told us we should not wait in the dark by our selves because, then he drew his finger across his neck, not very comforting but we had no intent on doing that anyway). We decided that the best option was to stay on the bus in Potosi. At two in the morning there weren´t any hostels open and most of the passengers waited out the early morning hours sleeping in the bus. The bus driver locked it all up and curled up in a seat as well. Potosi is almost 4000m and we had only been prepared for the sunny morning in La Paz so even with our down jackets that was a very cold night. As soon
as it got light we collected our luggage, got the bus driver to stop a real taxi for us, and went straight to the first hostel in the book. It was closed. So we puffed our way up and round the empty streets getting colder and colder each time we took a wrong turn. Finally found the next place. It was expensive for Bolivian standard but we weren't in a position to pick and choose. It has the best hot showers ever and central heating. They almost tried to charge us for two nights in stead of one when we left the hotel again in search of breakfast after our awesome hot showers. Potosi came alive when the sun came up and it got a bit warmer. There was some sort of an event on where all the schools march formation around the town to trumpets and drums. It was a nice town and didn't have too much of the mining town feel about it that we had expected. The town was packed.
As the strike was still on we decided to keep moving whenever we got the chance and the next morning got up at six to take
advantage of whatever safe looking transport there might be. Both the taxi driver and hotel receptionist assured us there would be no buses to Tupiza. We could take a taxi though for only 250. OK that sounded like a good deal. 250 Bolivianos is NZ$50 .Steven was just about to get money out of the cash machine to pay for it when the driver told us that was 250 American dollars! No thanks. Quite a different story. We got him to take us to the bus terminal for 5 Bolivianos just in case. As soon as we got there two guys rushed up to us shouting Tupiza, Tupiza! They have this strange habit of shouting at bus terminals here, you could be the only one in the terminal in front of a row of bus companys all going the same place with that destination adveritsed on big bill boards, but they still shout over and over again the name of the destination as if the loudest wins. Maybe that is just how it works here.
Anyway because all the main buses were still on strike and we had no idea if there would be another bus we caught this
one and again loaded our back packs on top. We got on the bus at 7:00am as they had said it was leaving right now, it left about 8:30. We grabbed some yummy deep fried bread things for breaky. There were cool views of the mines as we drove out of the city. About two hours into the journey there was a big commotion and the bus stopped and reversed for ages up the dusty shingle road. A bag had fallen off. Luckily someone had spotted it and it got picked up. Ours were still on there. We stopped for lunch in a tiny town with public toilets that were padlocked up. Lunch didn't look too healthy, especially after seeing the state of the restaurants toilets, so we opted for crackers and popcorn from the dairy down the road. We were counting on being there at about 4pm and getting a late lunch.
About 10 minutes down the road the bus stopped and every got off. There was an International car rally on. All the locals thought it was great and as the cars all stopped to refuel they were swarmed by local kids and young guys. Apparently the
road was closed until all the cars had come through.
Steven didn't seem to mind so much. He met an Aussie guy driving a Ford Falcon Ute as a support vehicle, for a 1971 Ford Falcon and talked to him for the next 4 hours that we waited there. I met a Peruvian girl who was travelling through to Buenos Aires to study theatre. At one stage she had all the kids in a circle around her admiring her bracelets and necklaces, and listening to her CD player. They weren´t very impressed by my one lonely bracelet. We got to Tupiza around 7pm and it was already dark.
The city looked only vaguely like our guide book map so we wandered in a few different directions before being noticed by a young boy who offered to give us directions. He took us to a hotel that he recommended, it wasn't the one we had picked but were happy just to have somewhere to relax. We left our packs and went in search breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one meal. Funny how the the town seemed a lot less hostile now that we weren´t carrying our big packs round
in circles looking for somewhere to stay the night. The next few days we just hung out in Tupiza, it was a good town for relaxing. The central square was nice and had a great feeling. Lots of trees and some sculptures and the people all seemed happy. Actually even the dogs seemed happy. We climbed the local ´hill with Jesus in top´, and watched the sun set on the most awesome range of coloured mountains where we met some school boys who were throwing stones at girls. They stopped for a while to ask where we were from and one of them climbed up on top of Jesus wanting me to photograph him. We found a GREAT ice cream Sunday shop which we visited more than once. We looked into booking a tour to the Uyuni salt flats because we thought we could do short tours from here. Alas the shortest tour we could realistically do was 4 days. We met another couple also pushed for time and tried to work out a custom tour with them and a driver, but for many reasons it didn't really work. In the end it was worth the time we spent relaxing
and getting to know Tupiza.
The people in our hostel were really lovely and we ended up doing a tour in a Landcruiser which took us in to the awesome wild west country that surrounds Tupiza and up to 4200 meters (tupiza is only 2600m) where we could see clearly the purple, red, orange and blue hills that surround the city. It was very cool, we drove past cactuses and tall standing rocks and were expecting Roadrunner and Coyote to run infront of us any minute. This town is near the place where Butch Cassidy and Sundacnce kid were killed. Our guide was great, it was just him and us and a flash looking Landcruiser. In the afternoon I got a pan flute lesson. After one false start, (I arrived at the tutors house but they guy from the hostel who drove me there saw that my tutor was drinking with his friends and suggested we come back later) I ended up getting a different tutor, much better probably. He was a local school teacher and taught me a local song brilliantly, as I imagine I would have been a difficult student. It was great and I got the
hang of that song but it made me realize my lack of musical ear and inability in keeping time.
The bus to Villazon on the Argentine border left at the ridiculous time of 4am. By the time we got to Villazon at 7:30am there was ice all over the inside of the windows and we were two blocks of ice ourselves. We walked across the bridge into Argentina, through customs, and into the slightly less chilly town of La Quiaca as the sun was began to shine and everything seemed to get better. We got the first bus to Salta and that was the end of our brief stay in Bolivia.
We had been pretty nervous about being in Bolivia because we had heard some stories about missing travellers, (well actually just one story told over and over again). So we were extra careful and always double checked our taxis and avoided bad situations (like waiting at a toll booth at 2 in the morning). In the end we only got a good feeling from Bolivia. The locals were friendlier than most had been so far in South America and seemed less money hungry. People went out of
their way to help us even though they knew they would get nothing out of it. We didn't really feel any affects of altitude although we were above 3000 metres a lot, but we did both find it a challenging place to travel and our lack of energy could have been because of the altitude or just how many all night bus rides we had.However because of the people it was still a good experience.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0285s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Janet
non-member comment
Sounds like a great place to visit and to come out of all in one piece