Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 574

For those thinking of doing the death road biking trip, check the end of this blog for helpful (I hope) advice! Well our plans are never quite set in stone are they? Our plans for La Paz have proved no different to any others - We planned 5-10 days of Spanish lessons here, but the fact that I got explosive diahorrea and vomiting from some really bad (well, it was good...) street food put us off that for a couple of days, and then Laura came down with something. Also the altitude here is sickening, and not fun to move around too much, coupled with the fact that La Paz is terribly polluted (something to do with the mountains trapping in all the bad stuff - ask Tim or Lucy about it, they're bound to know)... ... read more

Well the town must´ve known I was coming as there was a huge festival here for my arrival. There was lots of street dancing, drinking, happiness and mercados. What more could I ask for? Well after a while of revelling, I realised it was not for my benefit, but a rather religious affair! It was the Festival of the Virgen de Urkupiña. Basically a huge excuse for the aforementioned street dancing and bands. Groups of dancers and bands from all over Bolivia converged on the small town of Quillacolla, about 12Km from Cochabamba to join in the festivities. They all wore mental costumes, very colourful and some very weird! Most groups danced through the tiny streets for a whole nine hours. This lasted for about 3 whole days. Well the Bolivians have certainly given me a ... read more

its damn green out there... read more

PARQUE MACHIA So today we took a Tourist Day in Villa Tunari. We had a friend visiting with his Mom, he has been quite influential on our study and has been an unbelievable contact so we had a parillada last night and took some time to visit Parque Machia (National Park and Refuge for monkeys, birds, pumas, jaguars, and ocelots) We did not encounter any big cats and the birds were all in cages but the monkeys were a different story. First off, they have various monkey species: spider, capuchin, and howler. On your way in you are reminded by everyone that the monkeys here are little thieves, describing them as curious and cheeky. So they recommend you remove all jewellery, remove anything from your pockets and if you bring in a camera hold onto it ... read more

i should try to keep up to date on these blogs because once again i am writing from memory. Arriving in copacabana was like going back in to the tourist world. after spending so much time in Bolivia where there aren't a lot of tourist, well some backpacker type tourists and tourists in la Paz, copa was a reminder of what i would be seeing in peru. there were a lot of tourists, backpackers and "regular" tourist. i.e. people who are traveling for a few weeks and can afford to stay in nice places. not that i have stayed in bad places, and copa was a cheap place to stay. yo could get a room for about $1.25 per night. i sprung and got a nice one with private bath for $3 a night. i am ... read more