Bolivia : Over and out.
Good evening from Santiago, Chile! So finally, its been a while but the fingers are now rested and here's another blog almost up to date :-) .
If you haven't checked for a while, you may want to have a look at the photos link as there are a few more now. Almost all of them are now on there, apart from the ones taken in Machu Picchu!
*Breaking news.. I've been robbed :( "Fortunately" not violently and only of my camera, but still annoying, and this means there will be no Machu Picchu, Cuzco or Lima photos. Sorry!*
Live
Right now, hmm.. I'm a mix of things: in pain, emotional, relieved! Most of these are to do with either being robbed or the outcome of my little visit to the hospital yesterday - don't worry, nothing too serious, more about it in the next post!
I do seem to have had it a little rough healthwise in Bolivia and continuing to here. It started with insomnia in Santa Cruz and worked it's way to a dodgy stomach and the suspicion of parasites (urgh!) by Potosi. Combined with this, there was altitude issues of not being able to breathe and headaches, the higher we went. It may sound like torture, but thankfully it didn't inhibit movement for too long.
Sadly, Amanda went home just over two weeks ago, so I am going solo again. It's weird and I miss her lots. Hopefully it won't be for too long though as I am planning to head to Miami in November from Venezuela.
Listen
Where do I start with this, there's been such a lot! I guess probably best by town again.
Tarija
gunshots; explosion; fireworks; a heartbeat; a gurgling stomach; a football being kicked about; the quietness of the town outside of the central market area; infrequent car horns; the sound of dust being blown off a backpack; the bustle of the bus station.
Tupiza
The sound of squeaking wheels on push carts; the click clack of the horses feet; "VAMO, VAMO"; "SHHHH"; a kettle boiling; more stomach noises; a witch's cackle; the horn of a train; Will's exam results; bad Bolivian TV; a toilet about to go into orbit.
Uyuni
Geysers; the sound of a 4x4 engine; the clicking of the driver's tongue amongst other noises as he realises he's lost; a hooved beast; people shouting; death threats; wood in a combustible boiler crackling; the sound of water being collected from a butt; stillness of the salt flats; Shakira's album 50 times over (argghh!).
Potosi / Cochabamba / La Paz
The sound an old man makes walking up and down hills; the crack as the Lonely Planet gets thrown to the floor in disgust; a parade; "por favor, señor"; the popping out of the what seemed like the last Rennie; the fizzing of the emptied contents of a electrolyte rehydrant sachet; another buzzing bus station; the delight at finding another hostel with private bathroom for a bargain price; "Ensalada, Ensalada?"; happiness at the surprise; markets, markets, markets; the lonely taxi ride home; the nice old beggar lady; the ignition of the bus to Cuzco.
Travel
Tarija
After the mammoth taxi ride it was time for a rest and although it was only 7PM, we didn't manage to properly wake up and explore til the next morning. When we did we were pleasantly suprised. Despite being quite large and with a large number of inhabitants, the town was pretty quiet out of the centre. This was a welcome relief after the bustle and insane horn hooting of Santa Cruz. Most activity was centred on the market, which acted like a magnet for all around.
Whilst wandering through the food halls, Amanda decided I was going to be her guinea pig for the meat-tastic food. It started with potatoes, mince meat and peas in sauce, which was pretty good and then moved onto pigs trotters soup. I have to admit, that one had me asking where the bathroom was. I really thought I was going to explode, just like in that Monty Python film! The next day, brought possibly one of the best soups I've had.. chicken soup with french fries and rice in with it. Sounds crazy, but it was delicious. We also sampled the licuados at the market, but once again it just wasn't our favourite deaf Bolivian's (from Santa Cruz) creation, close but no cigar.
On our last day in Tarija we headed to the bus station to buy the ticket we had enquired about the day previous to Tupiza. However, when we got there it seemed like everyone must have been going, because all 3 buses were full. Strange we though for such a little town! After buying our ticket for the next day, we ended up in a grotty little hostel across from the bus station, complete with bubble gum stuck to the sheets. During the night, Amanda swore she either heard/felt a tremor or explosion. Apparently I didn't flicker, obviously still a heavy sleeper then! We didn't do much the next day as we had exhausted Tarija's tiny streets in the days previous, and really were hanging around for the night bus. We chose the cheapest and the bus was of a relevant size, some may say cosy, I would say sardines in a tin. The journey was, as you might say interesting. First our driver saw a rabbit running down the road and in sadistic fashion, chased it down the road and... well I'm sure you can guess the rest, I'll only say I think he'd be having bunny pie for tea. Then we picked up a drunk peasant obviously on his way home after a night down his local that looked more like a shed brewing "something special". He was swaying all over the place, and at one point I had to move his hand away from my leg, which he appeared to be steadying himself with! Eventually he got off in the middle of nowhere, I wonder if he ever did get home that night or spent the night in the lovely roadside ditch? After he'd gone, we stopped again an hour or so later in the middle of nowhere. This time there was no obvious movement until I looked outside. Running down the road out of the darkness were 4 small children with wheelbarrow type wagons. When they got up to the bus, the conductor jumped out and unloaded 4 bags of white powder looking stuff from the bus and into their wagons. Very suspicious. The children then ran back into the darkness and we proceeded down the road.
Tupiza
We arrived in Tupiza at 5 in the morning. After gathering our belongings we headed to a hostel a short walk from the bus station. Unfortunately they didn't have any beds until 8, so we spent three hours huddled on a sofa trying to stop frostbite setting in. After a few hours snooze, we headed out to look around the small town. It was quite an eye opener. There was not many cars around, so people use the road as the footpath. We wandered around and went to visit the market to see about some remedies to our pains and aches of the stomach nature. Unfortunately the witch (in both senses of the word) was none to helpful, she seemed more interested in laughing at us. We escaped the market and headed back to the hostel. Here, we advised the friendly owner that we wanted to take up his offer of an 8 hour horse trek for the bargain price of 8 pounds. It would begin the next morning.
Considering I had never sat on a horse, let alone ridden one in my life, I was both excited and nervous. We left the comfort of the room and headed outside to wait for the horses. They soon appeared, complete with riders and the guide. We were assigned horses, and we ascended. It felt a bit weird to be so high up, but off we went. We first headed down a dusty road alongside the train track and it was here I first learnt of my horses intentions, like a bad supermarket trolley he wanted to go his own way. I just couldn't seem to get him to go the way I wanted, but thankfully Amanda showed me how to "steer" him in the right direction. It wasn't working at first, but as we went on I learnt I just had to keep pulling til he did. We passed a herd of goats guided by their Campesino shepherd. There was one little one right at the very back that seemed to be lost in the bushes; thankfully he found the road and hopefully found his friends! We continued down the road, me becoming a little more confident as we went on, despite my horse showing affection for Amanda's by purposefully running into him every few minutes.
Our first stop was a beautiful red canyon, which you can see the photos of from the link. The trek continued through amazing mountains passes, through rivers and over bridges. At one point I lost a foothold on a stirrup and at the same moment, our guide decided my horse needed to be galloping a little faster unaware of my predicament. So as he was trying to get the horse to go faster with "VAMO, VAMO", I was trying to get him to slow down with "Shhh, Shhh". Luckily I won in the end and both Amanda and the guide laughed as I suceeded! Fortunately I managed the rest of the trek with feet firmly in stirrups. By the time the trek ended, there was not much we could do but lay down as sitting down would just cause too much pain! After a while I managed to recover sufficiently to go and get some coca leaves - yes, yes, the LEGAL raw ingredient of cocaine. This was to be our remedy for the stomach symptoms & after 4 cups we were certainly feeling better.
We spent another day in Tupiza and then at 7PM boarded the train to:
Uyuni
So our first and only Bolivian train journey. It was an interesting one. We really didn't know what to expect from a train in a country like Bolivia. To say we were pleasantly suprised would be an understatement. T.V., blankets, and reclining seats.. you don't even get that in Britain and very cheap too. Our only discomfort was as the train approached Uyuni's altitude, we both had trouble breathing. This was to be my first sign of things to come! We arrived at 1AM and stumbled off the train and into Uyuni's icy cold streets, Lonely Planet in hand, in search of a hostel. Unfortunately, the book's first suggestion was closed for refurbishment and despite some further wandering in search of better, ended up at a rickerty hotel on the main street. We survived there for one night and the next day went in search of a good deal on a Salar (salt flats) trip, our main reason for being in Uyuni. After a bit of haggling by Amanda, we got a good price and were to depart at 3PM to a hotel completely made of salt for our first night of three accomodation.
It was an interesting journey out to say the least! We got into a 4 x 4, with two men from the agency. En route we picked up most of their family, which meant there was now 7 people squashed into spaces for 5. We were now informed that fuel was required, so off we went to a petrol station. On arrival at the petrol station most of the family got out and we sat and waited for a while. Then, without fuel, we headed off into a small village where we pulled into a yard belonging to a little old lady. The two original men jumped out and went off to her shed to obtain fuel. They came back, topped the car up a little and off we went again.... to the petrol station. Once back here, it seemed there was still no fuel and we ended up again at the house of the little old lady. Money was exchanged, more fuel obtained and off we went again, thankfully not to the petrol station this time, but onto the actual salt flats! They glistened white, like a desert of snow and every so often there was a pile of the ubiquitous salt. It was a truly incredible sight. After half an hour of driving on the salt, we arrived at the hotel, which from a distance looked like a little island. We unloaded our things from the jeep and entered the hotel. All we could say was "wow"! Literally everything (bar the toilets) was made from salt and there was no electricity or running water! That may sound like hell to some, but it was to be a great experience We were shown to our room and here we sat staring out the window at the seemingly endless desert of salt complete with "floating" mountains on the horizon. We had our candlelight dinner cooked by our hosts with a spanish couple in front of a huge wood burner that helped to keep the temperature almost bearable. That was bearable compared to the freezing temperatures outside which we had felt when we had gone to photograph sunset. During the night, I again had breathing difficulties due to the altitude, boy did I feel like an old man!
The next day, after getting up early to photograph sunrise and returning to our beds, we arose to the sound of someone trying to get through the door! Fortunately they didn't as I'd barricaded us in with my backpack and this deterred them from trying further. We later fathomed that this had been a member tour group trying to see into a room. We heard why, when we left the room, because many of the tour guides where telling visitors that they couldn't actually stay in the hotel. We would have been rich if we had got money everytime we heard that! Our carriage (well, 4x4) finally arrived an hour late to take us to our next destination.. off the salt flats and an area of mountainous scenery. We were accompanied from now on by an two Japanese, an Israeli, a New Zealander and a woman from Rochdale, who had started their tour a day later.
Across the salt flats we travelled and halted at an island of cactus, which was truly a remarkable sight in this sea of salt. We scrambled to the top for a great view and then down again for some basic lunch of bread, cucumber, tomato and mayonnaise prepared by our guide. Although not gourmet, it sufficed. Following the island of cactus visit, we bid farewell to the salt flats and came upon a small village where we were to stay our second night.
Confusion arised when we arrived at another salt hotel. We (Amanda and I, not the others) were unwelcome guests, unless we were willing to pay a further 5 dollars. This we were not and were then escorted to a building resembling a garage a few streets away. Fortunately inside it had several beds and intermittent electricity. We dumped our stuff and headed back to the hotel where soup and chicken was served up and a merry night was had. Amanda and I then had to head back to our "garage" and upon leaving the proximity of the hotel, heard strange large animal movement noises behind us. We started to walk quickly. The noises where now in front of us. Had our time come? Was this one of the beasts of the Apocalypse? We managed the door to our garage in the pitch darkness and get inside and lock the door. The beast tried to get in, but fortunately a stray dog which was also following us seemed to scare it off. Quite possibly one of the only times in my life, I'm going to be happy a stray dog followed us.
In the next two days, we visited hot springs, geysers, the high Andes where our driver got lost(!), and endured a 15 hour ride back to our base at Uyuni. It was here, on our return things got a little hairy. See, three of the other people I mentioned earlier on our tour, had had their tour cut short because there was no jeep to take them for their final day. Naturally they felt entitled to a refund and we went to the office with them to try and obtain it. Unfortunately the owner had different ideas and after threats of violence (from the New Zealander) and much arguing in spanish by Amanda, we left them to it. We saw the three later and they managed to get their money, but we didn't ask too many questions how!
We managed to get a nicer hostel for the night and the next day left the "tourist hole" town to Potosi.
Potosi / Cochabamba / La Paz
We arrived in "the highest city in the world" (Potosi) at around 8PM. We got off the bus and collected our luggage and headed off to another hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet. It failed again, the hostel was just simply not there. Fortunately we managed to find another one close by and headed out to find some food. This time the Lonely Planet came up trumps as we found a great vegetarian restaurant (the Magic Apple), much to Amanda's delight. The next few days meal times where spent either here, or trying various other (inferior!) eateries.
Potosi was a real struggle at times and we both felt old as we panted up the streets of the hilly town. We also encountered other ill feelings too, but thankfully most were cured by a cup of coca! While Amanda visited a mine, I sorted the surprise in store for La Paz (read on!). She had an interesting time snaking through tiny narrow mine shafts and said I would never have managed the tight spaces, which is very probably true.
After Potosi, it was on to Cochabamba. We spent a few days here re-cooperating here after the cold and altitude of Potosi. The warmth and easy going nature of the town certainly helped! Unfortunately though, apart from wandering around markets there was not a lot else to do. So, 3 days later we decided it was time to hit the capital, La Paz.
Read any sort of advice about La Paz and there will be some sort of warning about safety. We came across none of the problems I read and heard about. Taxis seemed safe, we didn't have any fake bird droppings or spit land on us and no muggings. Perhaps we were just lucky! Again, La Paz is another city short on big sites, so we spent most time musing in Markets for bargains! I did manage to pick up a few new clothes for 20 pounds, so that was useful. The surprise was then revealed on our 3rd day there.. 3 nights in the best hotel in La Paz! It was well worth it, with a gourmet restaurant, swimming pool and health salon. Only the room service let it down slightly, but it didn't stop us having a great time.
Sadly, then on 6th September at 3AM, we had to get up to go to the airport to be in time for Amanda's flight. I was upset to see her go, but hopefully won't be too long til I see her again, as I am planning to be in Miami by some point in November. After Amanda's departure, I made my exit from La Paz to Cusco in Peru a day later on by 12 hour bus.
So, here endeth the Bolivian story.
That's it for now, look for another in the not to distant future for tales of Peru, the journey to Chile and Santiago!
