Bolivia

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We have had our heads down for the last week, doing some serious distance covering. We came from the bottom of Chile where we cheated with a flight to Santiago, but have been taking the land route ever since and have found ourselves in La Paz, Bolivia. I would not recommend this last section of the trip to everyone, as it has involved numerous long bus trips, some up to 24 hours in duration, but the pay off has been eye opening and awe inspiring.

If bunk beds, extremely unclean toilets, early curfews, doing as you are told, eating what you are given, lack of shower for days, and being bumped around in the back of a four wheel drive like a milkshake over very rocky terrain are not your thing, then you might just want to browse through the photos, and stick away from Southern Bolivia. On the other hand, if you can put up with all that, on the smell of an oily rag you will see steaming glaciers, thermal springs in remote destinations, a massive salt lake, flamingos and lamas galore, and lagoons with stunning reflections of some of the the most bleak and interesting landscapes on earth.

The trip started in San Pedro (Chile) with a company called Colque (who were fine if anyone is researching this trip), and took us across the desert for three days and two nights into Uyuni (Bolivia), where we were able to get a bus to La Paz. The salt plains are something else, it is hard to imagine such a huge lake completely covered in a thin layer of salt, and airy to drive over it for miles without seeing anything or anyone else. I kept thinking such a heavy vehicle could so easily fall through to the water below, but they do this everyday so it is obviously not a problem!

As we entered the first town in rural Bolivia, the sight of Mary Poppins waving her umbrella (see photo) as she herded alpacas was a bit of a culture shock. Bolivia is completely different from any other country we have travelled to in South America, and although people had warned us, sometimes seeing is believing. The first thing that surprised us was the people. They all dress in traditional clothes and the the women wear very long plaits and bowler hats. There is a lot of poverty here, however they seem to get by with a good diet of meat and vegetables. We are yet to taste the lamas, but as soon as Callum recovers from his small stomach upset, we will no doubt get into a true Bolivian meal. I will never forget my first glimpse of La Paz out of the window of the bus this morning, it took my breath away and certainly compares with cities like Rio and San Francisco.

We are here for a few days now to acclimatise. La Paz is the highest capital in the world at 3600m above sea level. No problems with the altitude so far thankfully. This also means getting the washing up to date, and being stationary for more than a few hours!

Highlight: The salt plains and lagunas of Uyuni
Lowlight: Sitting in the back of the van for a 6 hour stretch
Best Munch: Bolivian Soup (what ever vegies they can get their hands on in a tasty broth)
Best Gulp: Bottled water.....wine not worth mentioning
Rate: 8/10
Interesting Fact: Bolivia has a third world trifector combining a very high infant mortality rate (58 babies in 1000), very high birth rate ( 3.3 per female), and a very low female literacy rate (77%).

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Comments

[Johan]

Awesome
Great pics! We plan to do this trip next year!

[Nick n Jo]

Cool pics and happy travelling
Hey guys, going a bit backwards in the blog comments here, hehe, but just checking the Bolivian update before we head that way and were wondering about the wine bottle and glasses with you in it picture. Thats really good. How did you do it? Hope youre both cool and the Inca Trail lived up to expectations. Hopefully see you both soon. Nick n Jo