9 posts tagged “bolivia”
Well, we had to get up at 4.30am this morning, which wouldn't be too difficult except for the fact that there was no electricso we had to pack by candlelight. This resulted in the loosing of my silver bracelet Tony had bought me from Peru, which I was gutted about. We got to the lake just in time to see the sun rise and took a dip in the hot springs for our morning bath.
We then continued to the Green Lake. This was fantastic. It was really beautiful. As the angle of the sun changed, a green carpet swept over the lake. It was quite spectacular, definitely the nicest lake I have ever seen.
After visiting the lake, we went to the border, where we said goodbye to the driver and the falling apart car (which only got two flat tyres along the way. Well one was a slow puncture, so he changed it to the spare, the spare got a puncture, so he changed it back to the origionalone, and just kept pumping it up!)
A bus met us at the border which took us to immigration in Chile. The border was one hut on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere with a barrier, very strange!!!
After we went to immigration, the bus took us to San Pedro, a lovely little town. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to stay here, so hopped on a bus to Antafogasta where we stayed the night in a cheap, tacky hotel. We did find a nice restaurant though, which had the most gorgeous steak and pianist.
Today I started feeling sick,dizzy and of course had an upset stomach... yes another stomach infection!!! Luckily though we had some antibiotics and I took them straight away, but spent most of the day asleep on the bus.
Apparently, we went to see lots of lakes, which were all different colours, including a red lake, a blue lake and a yellow lake. I do not really remember.
We stopped at a place which was deadly cold, going outside was like walking into a snow storm. As everyone sat round the table in sleeping bags, me and a dutch girl were sat in bed. We were both ill and it felt a bit like ahospital, with the men running in and out with soup.
Today we got up at 5am to walk up to the volcano, which was directly behind us. After an hours walking, we realised we weren't going to get to the top, so I came back down and read my book by the Lake. Tony, given a challenge, decided to try to make it to the top..... he did not succeed.
Colin is better today. Yesterday he started with the same stomach infection I had. Luckily we knew what it was and so got some antibiotics straight away, so he is feeling a little better today.
After the long walk we had lunch and then went to Fishermans Island. It was an island in the middle of the salt lake which had lots of Cacti on it. It wa very strange. The driver had the front axel off the car today, trying to repair it... it is not going to last, I'm sure.
What makes it worse is the fact that more people joined the tour today, there was not enough room, so they had to sit on the roof.... I hope it doesn't rain.
I wish I could tell you more about hte places we visited and more about the lake, but the driver, our guide only spoke Spanish, so we didn't understand. For an extra 20 dollars per car, we could have had an English speaking guide.... but we are backpackers and need to save money...
We then went to see a museum, with mummies in it, then we went to some Caves, one which had really strange Stalegtites, which looked very fragile, as if they were made out of porcelin. It was a very dry cave, I expected it to be wet and merky. We went to the cave next door which was a burial site. It consisted of big holes, which were tombs I guess.
We arrived at the hostel, this one had hot showers, although it was a pain in the ar*e trying to make them work. The group bought 5 Litres of wine from the shop and we merrily drank it in candle light... the generator here also turned off at 9.00pm.
Before we booked our Salt Lake tour, we had heard many stories of te Jeeps being in bad repair and constantly breaking down... ok we weren't expecting a new model straight out of the shop, but we definitely wasn't expecting what we got either.
The Jeep was ten years old and had been doing these trips for the entirity of its life everyday. It didn't look too bad but as we took our seats and it set off, the steering wheel started to vibrate vigourously. We didn't hink too much of it until we got out of the car to see a Salt Museum and Tony noticed the wishbone was bent and held together by Gaffa Tape. On further inspection we saw the chassis was cracked... quite a bit.
While we went to look in the museum, the driver was under teh card with a spanner... which after fours days became a farmiliar sight.
We went to the middle of the salt lake, and it was hugely vast. All you could see was white, like snow, in every direction, whith a couple of mountains in the background. And then you would see an old woman with a pick, digging up the salt and loading it into her Jeep to sell.
We arrived at the other side of the lake, where our hostel was for the night.... our Salt Hotel. Salt walls, salt beds, salt tables and salt floor. It was pretty until you realised how cold it was going to get at night and the fact they had no running water at all so no shower.
While we were waiting for the dinner to be cooked, we alked down to the lakes edge and watched the Flamingos. As we walked we discovered loads of Llama carcasses which was gros. We were amused at how they built the walls here. At the side of every wall would be a big hole. The hole came from when they dug out chunks of turf and used them as bricks essentially. Very weird.
After watching the sunset over the lake, we went back to the hostel. The owner came round and turned the lights on in our room. There was no light switch, you had to insert the light bulb.
After dinner we sat chatting to the other people who were on the tour. About 9.00pm without warning, the generator was turned off and we were in darkness. I am glad we bought the candles.
Today we went to visit the silver mines in Potosi. We got geared up, hat, overalls and wellies, and went to the miners market, where we bought dynamite, fuse and detenator as gifts for the miners, which cost 1 pound!!! We also bought them miners cigarettes, which consisted of cinamon, coca leaves, eucalyptus and other things wrapped in writing paper, only 6p for 20. To go with the cigarettes we bought them alcohol, which doesn´t have a name, but is 96% proof, it tasted like white spirit.
We trundled up the mountain and gave our dynamite to some bloke who lit it for us, so we could see the explotion... we have it on video. We then begin our 1 and a half hour walk into the mines. I must admit I wimped out at this point. 10 minutes in and I had to come out again, it was too clostrophobic for me. The miners are really really short, about a foot shorted than Tony, which is saying something. So as you can imagine, most of the tunnels were small, having to nearly crawl through them, so the rest of the account is from Tony.
The tunnels were narrow and incredibly dusty. Most of the miners become ill between 35 - 45 nost only because of the dust but from the natural asbestos down there. The mines are extremely primitive. The miners use hand tools to break out the silver, and dynamite to blow holes in the rock. It is basically a granite mountain. It´s like watching a 1930´s miners film. Once the rock is broken up, it is carried out wither in a sack on the miners back or in wheel barrows, which then go into the cart, which weighs a tonne, and two lads have to push it out of the mine. The workers at the mine get about 3.50 pounds a day for this hard labour. The conditions in the mine are harsh, with no lights, poisonous gasses and the heat to deal with.
The youngest miners are about 8 years old, and they work from 8 -4 and then go to school from 6pm to 9pm. Its a hard life.
We got back from the mines and hopped on another local bus to Uyuni, which took 6 hours and cost about 2 pounds. They threw our luggage on the roof and set off. The buses are scary here. The travel guides tell you not to catch buses at night as the drivers are more likely to fall asleep. We had no option though. I felt like I was on one of those machines which vibrates and helps you loose weight. It was a gravel road for the entire six hours. Only 5% of roads in Bolivia are paved. Constantly the bus was just about avaoiding other buses coming in the other direction, and at one point, we had to reverse back down a hill, so we could get enough run up to get to the top. People tend to get on and off of the bus in the middle of nowhere on the mountainside. I am not sure where they go or come from, because it seems there is nothing but foothills.
The buses were a million times better in Peru, but there you had to give your finger prints before you got on the bus. They then video taped you in your seat. I think this was in case of a crash. If you crashed, they would be able to identify your body more easily.
I forgot to tell you about the women in La Paz. When we were wandereing round, we noticed that it was the women who did all the paving and gardening in the center. You would see women in their traditional dress, with pick axes, digging up the road. It was an unusual site, I´ll tell you that!!!!
Well, we arrived in Uyuni at 1.00am in the morning which sucked as we had no hostel. After KNocking up a guy in a hostel (which we later discovered was just a guest but the guy on duty couldn't be bothered answering the door), we found there was no room at the inn, but eventually found a place. We knocked on the door of a hotel and a young girl answered the door. As we peered in the door, we could also see an old woman in bed who we'd woken up....
We got a room. As Tony put his head down, I said "Mind you don't bang your head on the pillow." I wasn't joking, they were rock hard, as well as the mattress. It was like sleeping on a plank of wod. When we woke up we had a shower, which were only turned on at certain times in the day, the rest of the time, the water was turned off. We then wandered round the town and ended up drinking beer as that is all there was to do.
The town was extremely flat, and beyond the town, there was nothingness... it was completely in the middle of the desert. The town stopped, and desert began. It was really weird.
We went on a mission to buy some candles... seems like an easy task. We tried hardware shops, general convience shops... everywhere but could not find candles. Every shop in Bolivia sells particular things and nothing else, and they also tend to have the same types of shops all bunched together. Just jokingle we said, when we do find a shop which sells candles, we will see loads of shops which sell candles. We turned round, and there it was... candle street, in a back alley in some market, shops upon shops which sold plain white candles.... we bought four.
I forgot to tell you all about the bus ride yesterday. We came to a point where we had to cross the lake. Everybody was told to get off and take the boat across the lake while the bus was taken across the lake on a flat piece of wood. I got off the bus, but Colin and Tony were too slow so the bus ended up setting off with them on it. Fair enough I thought, so I trundled over to the boat and realised I had to pay. Tony had all my money so I had to borrow some money from these English people I collered. Then we had to show our passports. Mine was on the bus with Tony. It took me ages to explain to this Bolivan Policeman in Spanish that my passport was on the bus, which was already crossing the water. After much ado, they let me through and Tony & Colin were merrily waving at me from the bus... grrrr.....
Anyway today we set off from La Paz to La Cumbre, where we got a mountain bike and did gravity assisted mountain biking down the worlds most dangerous road, also known as the death road.
The road starts at 4700m and drops to 1100m in Yolosa, over 76km. They say not to travel on the road when it is raining as it becomes very slippery. Well at the top of the road, it didnt rain, it snowed!!!! And not just a little. I was frozen, but the first part of the road was tarmacked so it wasn´t too bad. After we dropped down a bit, the snow turned into rain, so we were absolutely wet through.
The road then turned into a dirt track. Luckily the rain had stopped by now. This is the bit which is dubbed the world´s most dangerous road. It is all gravel and most off the way is only suitable for one way traffic. This would be fine if the road wasn´t used that much, but this is the only road from La Paz to the North of Bolivia. This means cars buses and 20 ton trucks use this gravel road. Ok, a gravel road which is used by a lot of people. Doesn´t sound enough to warrant the worst road in the world does it? Ok, add to the fact that the road is steep, bending and twisting with sheer drops of 3000m down one side with no barriers. At the top of the road, you can´t see because of cloud and mist. By the time you get to the bottom of the road, you can´t see because of all the dust from the road. Not to mention the waterfalls along the way, which fall onto the road. There is a little traffic control though. People stood at sharp corners, next to the cliff hold a stick with a coloured bag on it. Red means something is coming, green means I don´t think there is anything coming.
This road is notorious for accidents. On the way down we saw many reamins of buses and cars, the last bus crash on the 6th August, killing everyone on it. A Jeep who was going to fast and went over the edge. A bus driver who had been driving for 24 hours and fell asleep at the wheel, plunged to his and everyone on the buses death... these are just a few stories.
The government are buildig a new road but have been building it for years and years. It took them five years to build a 2km tunnel because they started drilling from both sides of the mountain and missed two times... third time lucky they met and created the tunnel. There are 120 bridges on this new road and they say they will get it finnished by next year, but locals are doubtful.
When we got to the bottom, the heat was immense. We went to the next village to a hotel for a shower, and spent an hour sun bathing at the side of a pool. In four hours we had gone from being in heavy snow to pure sunshine.
The scariest bit about the road was getting a lift back up in the Jeep. You somehow noticed more crosses at the side of the road, more sheer drops, more waterfalls and more meeting of traffic. There were so many times we nearly ran into a truck coming round the corner. Then we had to reverse back down the road which was scary in itself. The views were amazing though!!!!
We got back to La Paz at about 8.00pm and fell into bed.
We got a local bus today from Copacobana to La Paz. All the touristic buses were full, but we had to get to La Paz today to keep within our schedule.
This was the most uncomfortable bus in the world, and we were on it for four hours. At first they said there was no space on it when we booked. When we said we would try a different company, they suddenly found us seats. It was quite good until when we were on the bus, discovered three old ladies didn´t have seats and had to sit on the floor of the bus. They didn´t seem to mind though and seemed used to it.
The Bolivian style of dress is very similar to the Peruvian. The main difference though are the hats. The women seem to wear bowler hats which are too small for them, and just seem to perch upon their heads.
We arrived in La Paz and found a hotel for 2.50 a night. It was grim. The lock on the door didn´t even work, so we had to use a padlock which we had brought with us to lock the door to our room. We have learnt not to take for granted that all hotels have hot water. I wouldn´t mind if it was hot here, but in the night it gets so so cold.
We went for a wander and here are a few strange things we saw:
1. A group of typists sat on the street, typing out letters for people who couldn´t read or write
2. Weird looking Bolivian buses... kinda a small version of American school buses, but painted with swirls
3. Lots and lots of street markets, selling everything you could ever imagine
4. llama feteus for sale (they are supposed to bring good luck)
La Paz is a bustling city and it does grow on you after a while. There are a lot of beggers here. We went to look inside a church and when we came out, a little girl started tugged on my coke bottle. I said no, and told her to go away, but she continued pulling at it until I had to hold it in the air so she couldn´t reach it. She then started swinging on my jumper at which point I gave in and gave her the coke.
Today we got the early morning bus to the border. After three hours on the bus, we arrived. We got off the bus, got our exit stamps for Peru, and walked across the border to Bolivia. On our short walk across the border we bumped into an Australian guy who we had met on the boat from Belem to Manaus, in Brazil, which was unexpected. He was telling us how he had been up Machu Picchu yesterday, and the weather was glorious.. I told him to shut up. At least we had a stamp in our passports, saying we had been to Machu Picchu. I am not sure if we were supposed to stamp our passports but I didn´t care... I wanted proof and had no photos. He had also got a stomach infection and was ill for 10 days!!!!!
We entered Bolivia and went to Copacobana... in Bolivia, not Brazil.
We got a gorgeous hotel which looked over Lake Titicaca, all for a cost of 2.50 each a night. It is so cheap here....
We booked a trip, an hour before it began, to the Island of the Sun. This is where the Incas are supposed to have originated from.
The boat took 1 and half hours, but it didn´t matter because the scenery was stunning. This side of the lake was a dark turquoisy blue with mountains surrounding it, some snow capped, some sun capped.
We arrived at the most doddgy looking jetty in the world and got off the boat to find we had to walk up to the top of the mountain on the island to get to where everything was.
This is hard work with the altitude. We walked to the top, avoiding donkeys, sheep and llamas coming down the hill in the opposite direction. By the time we had reached the top where the main village was, it was time to run back down the hill to the boat.
It was beautiful here. It was hot and you could sit with a beer in your hand, watch the villagers and the view of the lake from the mountain top. I wish we had stayed the night, as everybody else had planned, but we went back to Copacobana, passing some more Inca ruins on the way.
