From Humahuaca we caught our last argie bus for a while and crossed the border into Bolivia at a fairly rough place called Villazon. After the colonial elegance of Salta it was quite a culture shock...dusty, smelly and very noisy as hundreds of Bolivians in traditional dress, carrying huge bundles on their backs herded north! After a long queue and some unintelligible spanish our passports were stamped and we were legal.With an hour to kill before our bus out we found ourselves in a local eatery ready for lunch...the plate of the day (infact the only dish on the menu) turned out to be fried chicken with pasta, rice and potatoes. Bit of a taster of what was to come really...the Bolivians just love their carbs!! Our afternoon bus was a 4WD job...just as well given the road was a very rough, muddy track but fortunately for us dry. The journey to Tupiza took us through vast areas of rough agricultural land with people living alongside the track in muddy shacks with very few facilities.
Tupiza was a quiet little town...we checked into a lovely hostel and spent 24 hours watching CNN in bed and eating lentils (as you do!). Our main reason for coming was to join a tour of Bolivias salt flats...and two days later after some not very convincing haggling we found ourselves on the most expensive tour available. "Will the guide speak english?"...we asked nervously. "Of course" replied the sales lady..."but I would not say he is fluent!".
The next morning saw us packed up and eagerly awaiting departure. It was not an auspicious start...our cook and driver arrived over an hour late and when the key was finally turned in the ignition our jeep gave a few rather pathetic bleats and died. Barnaby...our ever cheerful driver...lept from his seat, lifted the bonnet and blew on the ignition cable with almost immediate success...and we were off. "I Barnaby" he informed us once underway and with a big smile managed..."one, two, three, four, five!"...not fluent proved to be a fairly generous description of his skills. Combined with our appalling spanish it made for a very entertaining few days with lots of gesticulating, smilling and nervous laughter on each side! That said Barnaby and Martha (our cook) were absolutely delightful and went to huge lengths to ensure our comfort and share their country.
Day one seemed to be fraught with mechanical issues...the ignition problem recurred each time the car was stationary and we also managed to pick up a strange knocking sound and sustain a flat tyre. At regular intervals Barnaby would slam on the brakes, leap out of the car, don an overrall and crawl under the jeep. Not to be outdone on the man stakes.. Jonny would leap out after him, wave his hands in the air and shout "auto kaput" whilst nodding knowingly! Clearly the Subaru is not quite a forgotten memory! The boys both had a crash course in car maintenance..the pinnacle being fixing the ignition with the lid of a beer can we found on the floor. All of that said, it was a lovely drive through the hills with awesome scenery and lots of wildlife (llamas, vicunas and chinchillas). Accommodation for the first night was a bare stone hut with no electricty or heating...it did however come with its very own dead condor! The bird, which looked to have recently passed on, was massive - wing span approaching 2 metres and ever so slightly wiffy!!
A theme for the tour were freezing cold nights (most sub zero) and enforced 4.30 am departures. At times it felt like boot camp but once snuggled in the warm jeep watching sun come up we realised Barnaby had a point! The first night we lay in bed listening to the rain and after climbing nearly 1000m the next morning it became clear that at altitude this had been a fresh snow fall. In fact we crossed the highest pass in a blizzard...stopping every so often so that Martha could jump out, grab the shovel and clear our way (dressed as she was in the traditional plaits, skirt and open toe sandals!). Even the llamas were covered in snow and watched enviously as we sailed past!
The next couple of days were spent driving through snowy mountains, visiting beautiful lakes, watching huge flocks of flamingoes and listening to Barnabys truly terrible music! We also managed to swim in some thermal pools and visit some puddles of bubbling mud. The beauty and diversity of the scenery is very difficult to describe..needless to say we will bore you all with the photos when we get home!
Day four saw another pre dawn departure...this time for the gem of the tour...the world famous slat flats. They were simply incredible...12,000 square km of salt crust, at points up to 12m thick, left behind by a huge inland sea that dried up. Vast and eerily beautiful at sunrise! We spent the morning taking lots of silly photos of each other using the perspective bending nature of the vast flat horizon...heaps of fun. The salar was definitely one of the highlights so far...we all escaped serious altitude issues and had an unforgettable trip!
Our next stop was a mining town called Potosi...a very poor community built around the Cerro Rocco mountain which has been steadily stripped of all silver and minerals over the last 450 years. The mines are open for tourist tours and to be honest it was a fairly harrowing experience. The work is totally unmechanised...using turn of the century techniques with men dragging huge carts of rubble in and out on rough tracks. The shafts are about 5 foot in height and the mountain has been so extensively and haphazardly worked that collapses and deaths are commonplace. Boys as young as 10 work in the mine and most develop severe respiratory disease within 20-30 years and retire in their 40s as invalids. The men drink 96% proof alcohol and smoke almost continuously underground...not sure health and safety has reached Potosi. The highlight of the tour for the boys was being allowed to buy their own stick of dynamite and blow it up!!
From Potosi we headed to Sucre... a much more affluent city, and historically the countrys capital.We did a lot of recouping after our week on the road but managed to squeeze in some churches and museums. We also had some great meals out including a giant fondue!! The market in Sucre was fascinating...particularly the butchery section where you could buy almost any part of any animal imaginable! The last tourist attraction we visited was a dinosaur theme park...built in a local quarry where excavations revealed rows and rows of fossilised dinosaur footprints. All very jurassic park...and made all the more entertaining by our very over enthusiastic spanish guide who announced "You can call me JC..but I am not Jesus Christ!".
An overnight bus then took us on to La Paz. A sprawling and dirty metropolis, frenetic with activity. Feeling a little homesick(?) we opted for an all english day on arrival...heading to the english pub to watch the England footie match, eat pie and chips and drink beer..before stumbling on for an authentic english curry on the way home!! We managed to stop short of singing "Vindaloo" all the way home...
For the first time during our travels, we decided to split forces in La Paz. Andy and I had met an english lad who recommended a mountain climb to us and we were both keen to give it a go. I think it was the "200m near vertical ice wall at the summit" that put Gilly off!! Turns out it was a very sensible decision.
Our trip was a 3 day effort with the aim to summit a local peak called Huayna Potosi. We set off fairly optimistically, rucksacks laden with climbing gear and chocolate. Our first day was great fun...we met our guide Eulogio at a mountain hut at 4700m and spent the afternoon ice climbing on a nearby glacier. Kitted out with crampons, ice picks and huge lengths of rope he taught us to scale a 30m ice wall, and then abseil down it...awesome! The refuge facilities were extremely basic...essentially sleeping in a large empty barn with sub zero temperatures at night. Fortunately the new sleeping bags were toasty! Day 2 began slightly ominously with Andy complaining of a bad headache...commonly due to the altitude. That said we both enjoyed a beautiful walk up to our second refuge...a tiny hut perched on the edge of a precipitous drop at the edge of the snow field. Shortly after arriving Andy became very nauseous and was sick. Never one to give up on a physical challenge he declined to walk down the mountain and spent the afternoon sipping coca tea in preparation for our summit attempt. We were woken at half past midnight to don our climbing gear and have a speedy breakfast before departure. We set off at 1am and to be honest it was incredibly beautiful. A huge peak of pristine snow with more stars overhead than I have ever seen, and the lights of La Paz twinkling in the valley. It was a fairly tough climb given the altitude and the cold but an incredible experience. Unfortunately the altitude got the better of Andy at 5900m..just 180m short of the summit. Extremely faint and nauseous the only option was to turn back for a long climb down to our sleeping bags. Returning down at dawn afforded us beautiful views across the neighbouring peaks...We have crossed Everest off our "to do in life list" but both loved the challenge (right Andy?).
Hello, quick insert from Jonny and Gilly here. We were not nearly as adventurous as the Shorters and had a far more civilised few days.....
Day 1 alone was spent walking aimlessly around La Paz. On reaching the local park a clown with an audience of thousands (well, maybe hundreds) proceeded to make "Jonny the gringo" the butt of a lot of spanish jokes much to the amusement of the crowd and our bemusement. I am sure he was only being nice. Hmm... We also breezed past the infamous San Pedro Jail much to Jonnys delight. Day 2 was our cultural excursion to the ancient pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku- very interesting but I wont bore you with the details. Day 3 we stepped up the altitiude to a pathetic 5300m climb on a guided hike up Austria peak. Fantastic views and a great walk marred slightly by the altitude induced nausea and fatigue! At least we summited....ha ha ha. Back to Claire now.
Next stop was Copacabana, a very pretty town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It was a stunning spot and perfect for some "r and r". Unfortunately Jonny wasnt well and spent 36 hours in bed! The rest of us had a great day visiting Isla del Sol. After the slowest boat journey in history we enjoyed a beautiful walk across the island...only to arrive at the ferry jetty to find El Presidente had dropped in for lunch! There was a full-on political broadcast in full swing on the beach and we sat and listened to Evo Morales for about half an hour. Fascinating experience as all the locals had turned out in full traditional dress, and after the speeches a full beach party/ BBQ kicked off. Keen to catch a photo we were almost mown down by the president and his entourage, on their way back to their boat...with lots of totty in tow as Gilly noted!
So...after three weeks in Bolivia it was time to move on. We celebrated our last night in La Paz by ordering the largest pizza any of us had ever seen! Measuring 70cm across it was delivered on a roofrack!! Yummy but not sure I will ever eat another pizza to be honest!
Over the last two weeks we have heard tales of transport strikes in Peru with roads blocaded against tourist buses. We decided to play safe and book a flight to Cusco in order to make our inca trail connection on time. After that fingers crossed for our journeys across Peru! Anyway...have failed miserably at keeping it brief so had better dash. Love to all friends and family in the UK and make sure you check out the new photos!
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