Bolivia…I read Marching Powder (a book that you all should read) in Central America and a number of people told me that this was their least favourite place in South America. I think that if you could get rid of all of the dust that insists on going into my eyes that I might like you better. Please also consider the food that you serve and the wine that you make, oh, and the people who serve you should be nicer (a lot nicer).
Our first stop was Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. We completed a long walk (reports were between 9 and 14 km) along the beautiful Isla del Sol.
In all seriousness, I had been looking forward to our first main stop, La Paz, for a while. We spent a lot of time just wandering around the street and getting a feel for the city. If it was not at altitude and extremely hilly, then we would have found this a bit easier. On our last day in the city we did a walking tour all around the prison (the outside only!), the markets, the plazas, the witches market, and other interesting sites in the city. Our guide was very interesting and told us a lot about their 180 odd presidents that they have had over about 200 years. We were also told that their current president has to apologise after each speech, as he tends to insult some group of people with the subject matter of the speech. One instance of this was when his told the Bolivian people that coco-cola makes you go bald and that eating too much chicken makes you gay (disclaimer: I have not verified this fact, only what I have been told). He was later photographed drinking coca-cola and eating chicken.
On our other day in La Paz we decided to mountain bike down the Death Road. For me, this was a very interesting experience. Especially when I was unable to see more than 5 metres in front of me due to the fog. Overall, it was not as dangerous as I thought it might have been in the past. Everyone in our group rode very responsibly, no one fell off or even came close to falling down the sheer cliff on one side of the road. Laurence loved the ride; he really seemed to enjoy going fast, too fast. The views were wonderful; however, you could not look at them while riding down the hill (well…you shouldn’t). We stopped every 10km or so and took photos and talked about the next sections in the road. By the end of the day I was glad that I had done it, but did not feel the need to do it again. I think a few people back home would thoroughly enjoy it. WE did meet a guy later on the trip that had someone in his group fall over the cliff, lucky for him it was only about 20m down and he could be recovered by rope!!
After La Paz we bush camped at Ojo del Inca, a small thermal lake, on the way to Uyuni. This drive was extremely interesting, not because of the beautiful scenery – which there was plenty to see – but because of the striking inhabitants of the town that had put rocks in the middle of the road so that no one could get into the town. Our truck could get past some of the rocks but after a quick chat to the military personal who had hopped off a bus and were walking into town, we discovered that if we went much further we would come to a roadblock and the locals would start throwing rocks at the truck. Instead of allowing this to happen, we snuck into town via a dry riverbed. There was a lot of bumping around and a lot of holding on whilst going down into and along the riverbed, but on the whole it was quite an exciting and enjoyable trip. After the riverbed we traversed across the sand (only getting stuck a couple of times) and through what I can only describe as a rubbish dump (it surrounded the entire town and was a dumping ground for anything that the people did not want – plastic bags even grew on scrubs!!)
As a town, I would not recommend visiting it but as a stepping-stone to getting to the Salt Flats, it was ideal. The Salt Flats were incredible, and we had a lot of fun visiting them. On the way out we went across the sand to try to avoid the protesters, however, on the way back they were there – waiting. We did eventually get through, but that was due to our local guides, perhaps a cash payment, and nothing to do with us.
On our way out of the town we got stuck in a roadblock (a different one – I promise). They were not letting anyone through so we went back to the town. Our tour leaders “paid” the local officials to write a letter giving us the authorisation to pass the roadblock. From what I understand, some of the protesters accepted this and some demanded “payment” of some sort. My understanding is that we give them a LOT of coca leaves and drove as fast as we could to ensure that the road did not close again before we got through.
We spent the next few days driving through the Bolivian Altiplano where we same many llama, alpacas, flamingos, and countless types of birds. It was a stunning drive, but incredibly bumpy and windy through the rough terrain. We said goodbye to Bolivia (the dirt road) and hello to Chile (a paved road) on our second day. We were off to explore what I thought was going to be my favourite country in South America!!!!!
