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
No comments:
Post a Comment