Bolivia Part Two

Hola amigos,

I hope the first installment was pleasant enough. I will now try to accurately portray to you kind people the details of our adventures after we left the quag mire of Potosi and arrived in the eventful city of Sucre.

We arrived in relative peace to a nice wee hostel complete with a courtyard to relax in which was handy because it soon became a bit too dangerous to go outside into the city. It was apparent that we had arrived in Sucre at a time of political unrest resulting in 24hour protests culminating in riots complete with tear gas, tyre fires and many many load bangs which to the untrained ear sounded uncannily like gun-shots. We were repaetedly assured that it was just dynamite being set off, but that did little to comfort us.

At first i have to admit that i was a bit bullish about the whole situtaion and promptly persuaded Maya that we should go and get a closer look as most of the action was coming from the main square. It didn´t take long to realise that the protesters were very serious about their actions and it was a bit scary. For those of you interested, from what i understand, the protests were very much aimed at the recently appointed president, Evo Morales, who is unique as he is the first idiginous chap to take control for years and years. He has been trying to implement plans to redistribute land away from the rich Europeans descendants, back into the hands of the indiginious people. A plan that has understandly irked those currently in possesion of the land.

Welcome back to those who swiftly side stepped the poltical mumbo jumbo.

It sounds daft to say it, but Sucre was and is in fact one of my favourite places so far. Putting the riots aside the city really was pretty cool and i would happily return there for longer in more peacful times. Ultimately we could only stay for three of four nights as the city was to be shut down to disuade further protesters arriving. Shut down in the sense that all water, gas, electricity, would be shut off along with all public transport being suspended and all roads being blocked into and out of the city. It was an action that was sure to anger the protesters and therefore we figured it best to get away before things really kick off.






Check out this crazy man. We saw him whilst wee were sat at a very high point in Sucre, the mirador or viewpoint. It was roughly lunch time and as we sat looking over the city all you could here was a multitude of bangs whether they be gun shots or dynamite they were incredibly loud whatever. This guy must have nerves of steal to calmly sit there with no safety gear. Numpty.





So after four nights we begrudgingly had to leave. I have to admit i was kinda curious to stay and see what would happen. I´m sure there would have been a story in there somewhere but Maya correctly convinced me that it wasn´t a place for tourists to be so we headed onwards and upwards to a cool sounding city, Cochabamba.

Unfortunately Cochabamba has litte going for it than its name. Thats´not to say its horrible it was just distinctly average. It is Bolivia´s second or third largest city behind La Paz and maybe Santa Cruz but has little to offer. It does have the largest statue of christ in the world (apparently), but i´m sure you all know me well enough to know that thats not really what gets me going. We did climb over to 1200 steps to see it first hand (there wasn´t much else to do), and this is what we saw.




I´m the one at the bottom.
















I think we stayed in Cochabamba for just two nights before heading off for what became a weeks relaxation in the small jungle town of Villa Tunari, which is pretty much halfway between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. When we got there we quickly found a decent hotel with its own swimming pool. A luxury we were able to afford due to our stringent efforts to save money in the previous weeks where we frequently only spent 2-3 pounds on a nights accomodation for the both of us. The rooms were always very basic but not too bad and it was made worthwhile to be able to enjoy six nights in a nice hotel, complete with that swimming pool i mentioned earlier.

Villa Tunari was our first real blast of proper sunshine as well as on our travels. It had been warm elsewhere in Bloivia but the altitude always made it a fairly average temperature. With Villa Tunari being only a couple of hundred metres above sea level it was hot hot hot. Muy bueno!!

The first couple of days were spent duly relaxing reading, playing cards (mostly an Isreali game the dutch people taught us called Yanuff), although crib did feature also. The hotel also had a pool table with the tightest pockets i have ever seen so that was interesting to try and master, something i duly managed leaving Maya and our dutch companions sulking in defeat, which was a little confusing as i was typically gracious in defeat.

After two days honing the card skills and perfecting an all over tan (I have latin blood don´t forget) it was agreed we should finally get off our buttocks and do some of the cool stuff we came here for. First on the list was a animal sanctuary that gets girls all gooey over the cutesy animals, although i have to admit i very much enjoyed being tickled and groped by numerous monkeys. There was also a tortoise there who i felt i had a certain rapport with. Here is some eveidence to prove to you I tell no lies.

Eventually we had to say goodbye to the monkeys although Maya is adament we will see them again. Something I am yet to be convinced about. From what i saw volunteering as a guy leads to shifts of very hard manual labour whereas the girls are left to cuddle monkeys all day. I´m not sure i want to pay for the privilidge of busting a gut in jungle heat thank you very much!!

Anyhow the next day we went on a jungle walk which was really good fun. I think Maya has put up some good photos of that already so i won´t put up any of those. It was a really good day spent mostly walking through Jungle rivers dodging snakes and other kinds of scary jungle type creatures. Maya did a very funny thing although it was perhaps understandably unnerving for her. At numerous points along our walk we came across quicksand. Maya got a little stuck in one patch and in her wisdom decided the best way out was to run as fast as she can. Unfortunately running in quicksand is not the solution. She just sank further. He He. We pulled her out in the end and all had a good giggle at her expense He He again.

We also went rafting which was really cool, but doesnt ned much explaining. Eventually we had to leave our luxury and decided to head onto La Paz where we encountered the worlds most dangerous road on mountain bikes. Pretty scary at times but really good fun. La Paz itself was ok, didn´t really go out and see too much of it tho. In total i think we only stayed three nights there as we were a bit short for time and wanted to spend more time around Lake Titicaca than in a big city.

I´ll leave this post here, as i´ve made a resolution to try and keep these a bit shorter and in more bitesize chunks. Clearly i have failed here, but i reckon that once i get up do date it will be easier to explains things in a more engaging manner.

Next time i will probably write about Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu in one. Keep all the spiritual stuff in the one place.

Hope you are all well.
Rob

Bolivia part one

Ay up.

This is the first post of my brand new blog. It may seem a bit strange to begin telling you what we have been up to after over two months of travelling but that is just the the south american way. Things may be a bit late and may not be exactly what you were either anticipating or hoping for but they will always arrive eventually, in some dishevelled form or other.

So we are now in Cusco in Peru which is beautiful to be quite honest. Very touristy but with enough bars and restaurants and old buildings and things to not notice too many over grown americans or australians barking their instructions to the locals. It´s nice to be able to just relax in nice surroundings after a month in Bolivia. That is not to say Bolivia wasn´t incredible, becuase it truly was, but it is just such a contrast and can be quite hard work travelling through it.

I´m not going to go back to day one of our travels and our arrival in Buenos Aires, as quite frankly thats too much effort. But for those of you willing to read more i will attempt to paint you a lovely picture of our expolits through the mountains and valleys of Bolivia not forgetting to mention the odd incidence of burning tyres and tear gas explosions just to keep you nicely perched on the edge of your wee squeaky seats.

Bolivia to date was my favourite country, (I know there has only been two but i´m still allowed to pick favourites). It was such a huge contrast from anything in Europe, everything was different. People, buildings, roads, landscape and most definitely the smell which at times could get slightly over-bearing, but quite often it just turned out to be Maya and another of her little accidents. She always had a smile on her face tho so she must have enjoyed them!!

We started in a really quaint wee town called Tupiza where there were very few tourists and very little to do other than enjoy the sunshine with a cool cold pint of Taquina or Hauri or whatever other rocket fuel, amonia like beer they gladly sell you. Saying that i did go horseriding and managed to complete the task looking like the man from Del Monte much to the amusement of my darling girlfriend. Who by the way had a shetland pony compared to my stallion. The riding itself was very serine and calm as the horses knew the way and just led us through some amazing landscape which mainly consisted of large rocks. You will soon gather that Bolivia is largely dominated by large rocks. There doesn´t appear to be any flat land in the country. Which is kind of why the bus rides similar to that of a day at Alton Towers.

Anyhow i digress. Something i might do frequently. Also be wary that my vocabulary is slipping a little hence the over use of 'incredible' and 'amazing'. I hope this doesn´t become to grating.

Back to the story.....After i leaped off my stallion taking minutes to reach the ground and lazily stepped over Maya´s My Little Pony we set off on an incredible four day adventure culminating in the awe-inspiring Solar de Uyuni, or salt flats to you and me.

We weren´t alone on our expedition as sat in the rickety 4x4 were no other than our Dutch travelling companions for Bolivia, Robert and Rianne, who were typically tall although left the tulips and clogs at home which was a shame. Also there was our driver cum guide, Juan Carlos and his aunty Margerita who was to be our cook for the trip. Although her finest hour probably came when she fully chomped down a huge apple despite having only one tooth. It was a sight we all cheered and will probably never forget. They were both really cool actually and knew the area really well. They had previously lived in one of the tiny isolated villages we passed after a days driving and we might Margerita´s grand-mother, who was in her 90´s. Was nice to see.

The four days were fairly contrasting. The first was pretty much just a case of getting to where we needed to be which meant it was largely spent trundling through the middle of nowhere on dirt track roads with Celine Dion flexing her troat muscles from the CD player. Not nice. The day was still cool tho as we saw some cool wee villages that were truly in the middle of nowhere and were just great to witness first hand.

On the second day things really hotted up, although may sound a little repetitive written down here. It largely consisted of Laguna´s whether they be red or green and just normal water coloured Bolivia has them all and we saw a fair few of them on day two. For me Laguna Verde (aptly named as being indeed a laguna and green) was the most incredible. It´s backdrop of the mountains and just the intenstity of the colours were just from picture postcard. It could have lost a bit of its magic when Juan Carlos told the it is that the water is that colour because its toxic due to porceline and magnesium or some other chemical element . My spanish isn´t quite up to the periodic table just yet. Most of the laguna´s come complete with cool pink flamingo´s which are funny wee creatures but really interesting to watch close up. I liked to watch them run before they take off; they kind of run with the necks pulling their bodies along and their spindly legs struggling under the wait. Very amusing. Other than that there was a really cool hot spring which was nicely deserved after two days in the jeep. The water was incredibly warm and cosy and i didn´t want to get out. We also saw some natural geysers which were cool to see but really stank.

Congratulations to those who are still with me here. This could take a while longer yet....

Day three was pretty much more of the same with similar equally incredible scenery and a few more laguna complete with flamingo´s just incase we hadn´t had our fill. The highlight of day three was definitely seeing a proper real live volcano which was quitely smoking away. The landscape around it was intriguing what with all the dried lava and what-have-u.

After three days came the big finale which thankfully wasn´t staying in a hotel made (supposedly) entirely of salt as that was a bit pish but the salt flats themselves. It´s a bit difficult to explain why they are so cool because they are really just a flat fields of salt, but they are really good fun. Because they are totally flat you can take loads of weird pictures whcih mess with perspective and things. Anyhow we were on them for the sunrise which was nice, although the reflection off the slat is a bit bright. Because they are so flat you can also just about make out the curvature of the earth which is nice, if thats how you get your kicks.

That pretty much sums up the four days which landed us in a crappy place called Uyuni, which is where most people set off from to do tours of the salt flats and hence it is a town which is totally dedicated to tourists which makes it just abit character less and depressing. So we sharply exited their after one night to head for the city of Potosi, which for us was a bad idea as it was grotty. I think i have mentioned to some already that Potosi is disgusting. It is famous for its mines and the atrocious condtions that the workers wotk within. A great reason to be famous i´m sure you´ll agree.

The city and its skankiness was just a testiment to its claim to fame. Men go there to work in the mines, which gives them a life expectancy of roughly ten years after they start working. Soon enough they die and leave families without an income and poverty ensues. The city it self is the highest in the world of its size but has very narrow streets and dirty smog laiden walls. Really wasn´t very nice and on our last night we saw a guy pissing on an elderly crippled tramp much to the hilarity of his mates. Pretty much summed up the place for us.

I think that will do as a first installment. Congratulations again to those of you who managed to stick through it. You´ll get your reward in heaven i´m sure. Please feel free to comment on anything if things aren´t clear or if you have questions then please ask. Doesn´t mean i´ll answer but there´s no harm in trying.

I will try and write more before we set off for Machu Pichu on the 28th. Just for those impatient readers out there i´ll give you a sneak preview of part two which will include tales of mass protests in Sucre complete with riots and tear gas, the mediocrity of Cochabamba and then the cool delights of snakes, monkeys, jungles and rafting in the jungle village of Villa Tunari. Should be a pleasant read even if i do say so myself.

Anyhow I do hope you are all well and that this little installment finds you in fine fettle. I do miss family and friends back there in Britain, but be assured that I am indeed having the time of my life and its nice that i can sit here and drivel on about it to anybody who will listen.

Bye Bye for now
Rob

p.s for those of you who have not noticed we have finally managed to put up some more pictures on Maya´s bebo site so take a look if you can.

Me in a short bed. It was muy frio!!!
The dutchies we travelled Bolivia with. Here we are drinking coca tea to keep the altitude and cold at bay. Was very effective.
Bolivian animals.
Me and Maz sat in a hot spring in the middle of the Bloivian desert. Was very cosy after a day sat travelling in a jeep on unpaved roads.
Me and our tour guide(Juan Carlos) gazing across Laguna Verde, which was aptly named as it was both a laguna and incredibly green. Very beautiful.

Maya munching a maizey snack. Quite what it is we´re not sure but it was very maizey.
Some kids from a remote village doing a funny bum wiggle kinda boogy. Was cool.