Time for a long overdue blog session!
I´m writing from Cuzco, Peru but feel that the 12 days spent in Bolivia deserve a story of their own!
We entered Bolivia through Villazon, north of Salta, Argentina and bussed through to Tupiza. It was clear straight away that Bolivia is a different ballgame to Argentina with dust roads and much more hustling on the street. The bus to Tupiza was 13 steps in quality down from the previous one in Argentina but we arrived safely all the same.
We organised our trip of the Bolivian south-west, including Salar de Uyuni, and hung out for a couple of days in Tupiza. Andy and Lizzie managed to track down the local vet school (which was fairly primitive) whilst we all enjoyed some market hunting, a little walking as well as a bit of down time. I tried beef heart in one of the almuerzo´s (set lunches)which was OK but not necessarily one you´d cook on a first date.
The 4wd trek was amazing. We began bright and early one morning with bags tied to the roof in a tarp, all 7 seats loaded and slicks on the Landcruiser. It became fairly evident fairly quickly that the slicks were on not to improve speed through the Bolivian countryside but more likely purely because new tyres would be overly indulgent. We bought a bag of coca on the way out of town and headed for the hills. The altitude at this point was around 3000m and we had escaped any ill-effects to that point. The first day of driving involved quite a bit of climbing though and it wasn´t long before there were a few headaches and shortness of breath on seemingly very simple walks at the different stops.
At the end of day one we had our first bogging experience - and because all the vehicles follow the same track, everyone gets held up by a bogging. There were Bolivians running everywhere digging, packing sticks and stones behind the tyres, people jumping on the sideboards to try and load up wheels with traction - it was an absolute circus! Eventually we managed to get them up and out and make it the remaining 5km to the first night´s camp. The camps along the way were very simple but we had warm enough rooms, light during the nights and the food was great the whole way. I´ll have to put some photos up at some stage because I´d be all day describing the kinds of views we had - primarily a mix of high flats (thus called the altiplano) incredible snow covered mountain peaks and desolate desert. The environment has just been ruthlessly created by the elements without human interference which makes for sometimes breathtaking and other-times fairly bland scenery.
Day two began with a bogging straight up. Fortunately we had begun in the dark and so to add to the previously described circus, there was no light this time! After much nonsense the vehicle was pulled out and we continued on. Day two contained some awesome mountaineering - we had snow through an abandoned mountain village which was spectacular and plenty of mud whilst we climbed upward of 5000m. We had the luxury of being about third in line so knew that the vehicles ahead had made it through, but our friends in the leading vehicle assured us they were absolutely terrified whilst their driver negotiated single lane mud tracks cut into the cliff edges. We saw a few lagoons of various colour and mineral deposits throughout the afternoon before settling in for an early night - it had taken around 14 hours to travel 350km!
Day three was made up of some more lagoons, notably the ´Red Lagoon´which was, surprisingly, red, and contained thousands of flamingoes. As demonstrated here, the Bolivian´s creativeness in naming things is similar in magnitude to their care for good tyres. We were told that flamingoes at the RL are born white but throughout life they turn pink as a result of the waters they inhabit. We weren´t totally convinced by this explanation but let it slide...
We also saw the geysers on day three which were fairly incredible - boiling mud and steaming vents along with a wonderful odour of rotting eggs. We then made tracks for Uyuni. Initially this seemed like a simple task but our wonderful driver Edgar decided that we should continue slowly despite hitting the main road - some kind of problem with one of our wheels (bearings?) had deteriorated and we were being serenaded by screeching metal for around 50% of the afternoon. This was OK, all in the name of safety, right? Well yeah, but then Edgar fell asleep at the wheel which undid all his good work! As we (nearly literally) crawled into Uyuni we came across the lead vehicle sitting at a precarious angle. Brief inspection revealed that the right rear wheel had shorn off the hub - no bolts left...nothing. Our friends later described it as ´feeling like we had a flat tyre, that then flew past our window´! We finally made it into Uyuni, a little frustrated but OK, checked out some abdandoned trains from days-gone-by and headed for bed again.
We finally saw the salt flats on day 4 (on schedule, I should add) which were stunning. The lake was entirely flooded with around 5cm water which was an amazing sight. Again - pictures would tell a much better story but you will have to wait... We took our token assortment of pictures doing funny things and then headed home. Again, this would have been much quicker if driver Edgar had managed to stay awake the whole time but we got there!
Tish and I left Andy and Lizzy at Uyuni that evening to make tracks for La Paz...bring on vehicular farce #1013. We left Uyuni at 8pm loaded up with some food and valium to ensure a sound sleep on the bus, which, true to form, was about as quiet and gentle as an elephant having an epileptic fit. Nevertheless, we drifted to sleep despite a couple of stops (on what should have been a direct bus) and saw the night out. We awoke in the 6am twilight to a stationary and switched-off bus and a growing amount of confusion - we had been due to arrive in La Paz at 8am. A brief chat to a Chilean friend and it seemed that we had made it approximately one hour into our voyage before coming to a flooded stream which a leading bus had become bogged in - we were stuck and still had 11 hours to go! Better still, the bus driver than demanded that we all jump out of the bus to lighten the load so he could cross. Whilst he ploughed/bounced through 100m of stream, he left us to find our own way wading and jumping and running after him whilst he took off down the road. We boarded again and restarted before we heard a ´my friend! my friend!´from one of the back rows. The Bolivians then decided a head count might not be such a bad idea after all and picked up the remaining passengers. The rest of the day was fairly tedious, given that we were supposed to be enjoying La Paz, but we finally made the city limits...which is as far as we got. The bus driver decided that peak hour was simply not worth the trouble so dropped us off in an outer suburb. That was tolerable, just, until all the taxi drivers refused us service on the grounds of central La Paz being too far! We then had to hitchhike into town which is where our good luck turned up - a full cama (1st class) bus that was empty pulled up and the driver gave us the 20 minute ride in for free.
Andy and Lizzie arrived the following morning (on time) so we went for a look around the witch´s markets. If you like preserved llama foetuses, then you´re gonna love La Paz. They are supposed to bring good luck if buried under the house, but they weren´t bringing me anything but nausea.
We signed up for the mountain biking down the World´s Most Dangerous Road the following day. It was cold and raining up the top but grew increasingly warm and dry toward the bottom of the 60km ride. Despite the rain and fog we still had some great views and the ride was hilarious - Tish and I both managed to find the dirt once in the ride. Thankfully we crashed in places where we did find the dirt and not thin air - there were some amazing drop offs. To give an idea, the road is a one way dirt road which at the narrowest is 3.2m wide. The ride was a heap of fun and we finished off with a visit through a bit of an animal sanctuary, some lunch and a few beers - most pleasant!
La Paz was an amazing city to look at and there seems like there´s a whole heap to do there, but we were starting to look to get to Cuzco so we left La Paz for another time and headed to Copacabana. On arrival there we headed straight for Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun) on Lake Titicaca for a bit of Incan culture. It´s around a 1.5 hour boat ride out to the island which was fairly scenic but extremely slow. The Island was beautiful with steep banks and panoramic views. The steep banks made for equally difficult hiking but after securing a hostel for the night we headed out for dinner with a view which was amazing, with a storm making its way across our view over the Lake.
We hiked up and back the island the following day. This was a fairly challenging 16km given the altitude and terrain but was awesome. The Puma Rock (the supposed birthplace of the Sun) was completely underwhelming and I think we probably would have walked straight past it had it not been pointed out to us but the ruins at the northern end of the island were really interesting and quite extensive. As opposed to the morning walk along the ridgeline of the island, the return walk was further toward the coast and went through a view villages which was pretty cool - I preferred the latter walk. After a brief argument with our hostel in Spanglish about accommodation we had reserved for that night we decided to head back to Copacabana rather than stay another night. Another boat ride later and we were back on the mainland and ready to book ways to Cuzco.
We had a heads up from a Yank that there was a strike at the Bolivian-Peru border preventing bus transport. We booked with a good company who assured us that they had a way around the strike (road block) so we were set and relaxed for the night.
After getting our exit stamps from Bolivia/entry stamps to Peru it was fairly clear that we had been tricked! We were told ´you can get a taxi or motorbike to the bus at the other side of the block, or you can walk but the locals might throw rocks at you´. Awesome. We decided to walk (naturally) which turned out to be a 6km trek - bags and all this time. Thankfully we had dry weather, a flat and good track and packs not roller-bags!
Following this debacle we decided to skip Puno (from which we had thought about doing a homestay on another island on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca) and head straight for Cuzco. We jagged last minute tickets for Cuzco and made it by that night.
So that rounds up our Bolivian experience - at times tedious but funny on reflection, with plenty of straight-up enjoyment for the most part.
We´ve been in Cuzco for a week now but that, my friends, will have to wait for another time.
