First day in La Paz we decided to go for a wander, had a look around the markets, the central plaza, booked our Death Road and Isla del Sol tours and went for a coffee. Somehow when we were in the coffee shop we saw Helen, one of the 3 Project Trust volunteers working in Bolivia walk past so got chatting to her and organised to go round to their house that evening to see the other guys Jack and Alex. Earlier we'd been in a market where it smelt amazing so we went back there to where this supposed 'restaurant' was. It was a little old lady's kitchen with a little table in the corner where she cooks food for all of the market stall owners. So when we realised it wasn't a restaurant we started to turn around until they asked us if we wanted food, so we said yes and they invited us into the tiny kitchen, sat in the little corner table and had the best and cheapest meal ever. 9 Bolivianos, i.e. 90p for a huge bowl of soup and massive plate of food better than we'd had in any restaurant. That night we went over to visit the Bolivian volunteers and see where they'd been living all year.
The World's Most Dangerous Road
On our second day in Bolivia we decided to go and do the death road. For those that don't know, it's called the death road as it was once named the most dangerous road in the world due to the amount of deaths on it each year. Makes sense really. It's a very narrow track along the edge of a cliff and until recently it was open to the public. Now it has been closed off to cars but is open to tourists to bike down for an adrenalin rush.
 |
| Chilling on the cliff edge. |
This is what we did and it was amaaazing. I can't say I was very fast and I was always the one at the back as we seemed to be in a very speedy group. But, apart from sh***ing myself at the speed I ended up accidently going at times and trying to dodge the biggest rocks in the way which my bike always seemed to head straight towards, it was pretty fun. I was more worried about actually falling off my bike on the road rather than the cliff edge. That was the fun bit. The scariest part was definately the drive back up the road at the end of the day as there was no other way back. It got to one point where the mini bus wheel was about 30cm from the vertical cliff edge and there was a car coming towards us.
 |
| Cliff edge and on-coming car |
Lake Titicaca / Copacabana
Day 3 of Bolivia we did a day tour to Copacabana to see Lake Titicaca from the Bolivian side. We left at around 7am and got a 5 hour bus to Copacabana, a cute little touristy town on the way to Isla del Sol. When we got to the island we did a couple of hours walking up to the top to see the views from the highest point. I can honestly say it was absolutely stunning. The pictures are amazing but are still nothing compared to the real thing.
We didn't end up getting back to La Paz until around 11pm ish when we went straight back to our room in Loki, our hostal. After being in bed for about 5 minutes a drunk guy wandered into our room looking lost until he saw us. Turned out it was Jack (Bolivia PT volunteer) who then proceeded to drag us out of bed for a night out. Can't say we were too objecting. We ended up having a few drinks in Loki then as they'd lived there for a year they took us to a couple of bars not really known about by many tourists. We went to one underground reggae bar where they did amazing fish bowls and we could sit on pillows on the floor in a little cave room. Then they took us to a Bolivian bar where we spent the rest of the night with our drinks being topped up by a group of Bolivians we met and salsaing. I think it's a Bolivian thing that you can never have an empty glass.
I can't say we did much with our Saturday due to slight headaches, but in the afternoon Hannah and her three friends from home, Sophie L, Sophie W and Gabriel turned up after being in Cusco for a week. So we went for a wander into the markets with them, went for a visit to San Pedro prison (if you havent, you all need to read the book Marching Powder about San Pedro. It's amazing and they used to do tours around the prison led by the prisoners. Not anymore). We then bought some food and went back to their hostal where we cooked some tea, had a few drinks and then headed back to Loki for another night. The Bolivian volunteers joined us again and we ended up having a pretty amazing La Paz night out, spending about an hour of it successfully pretending we were Russians and Jack pretending he was all of our Jamaican husband. I can easily say that La Paz provides the best nights out that i've ever been on.
Sucre
Typically after that night we ended up getting up around 2pm, sorting ourselves out by 4pm to go and book our buses down south to Sucre for 8pm. One reason I love Bolivia. Everything is so chilled out and last minute. There's no pre-booking things weeks in advance. Sometimes you just show up and that's that. So we got the bus at 8pm and arrived in Sucre Monday morning, then spent the day wandering the town and just settling in really. Tuesday was an interesting day. For some reason we booked to do a 6 hour round trek to see some ancient paintings. I again for some reason agreed to it, knowing that I hate walking/trekking. It took about double the time that it should have to reach the painting due to me falling off a rock at the start and twisting my ankle (or general unfitness *cough*), Sophie W's asthma and our general need to chat the whole way and 'take in the scenery'. Much to our fellow keen trekkers unamusement. Then when we reached the painting it was average and definately not worth the trek. Then to top it off we had to walk the same route back to the bus which meant mainly uphill walking. So my idea of fun. So after a bit of pressurised walking with the keenos walking behind us and saying 'we're only as fast as the slowest walker', we persuaded them to go off ahead and we'd just walk on behind with the guide and they can meet us on the bus. Worked out so much better as although it was bloody difficult, there was no pressure to go faster than we could. So me and Sophie W walked with Robert our guide and arrived back at the bus around 45 minutes after the others. There were some beautiful views and we had some nice long chats... but I wouldn't be signing up to do it if we went again. That night we decided to play a bit of Ring of Fire on the hostal rooftop and then go see what kind of nightlife Sucre had to offer. Turns out not much but we did find one club. Naños. Sticky floors, prostitutes all over the place and watered down drinks. But saying that, after a while loads of Gringos (white people) started to turn up and we kind of took over the place dancing our Danza Kuduro and Balada Boa. That also turned out to be an amazing night.
 |
| Killer trail. |
The day after, Hannah, Harriet, Rosanna and Sophie L went to a Dinosaur park with supposed real life footprints. Me, Sophie W and Gabriel just spent the day wandering Sucre again and having a pretty nice relaxing day, topping it off with watching 21 Jump Street back at the hostal. We also found Jack again that day who then came over to the hostal for a bit more Ring of Fire.
Potossi Mines
The day after, we got the bus down to Potossi to do the mining tour. The bus that we got there was lets say... fun. There were chickens in the overhead storage and people who didn't have seats in the carriage underneath. Talk about making the most of the space available. The mining tour is one of my Bolivia highlights. I was a bit apprehensive at first as I get a bit claustrophobic. We had to buy the miners 'presents', or not really as it wasn't optional. We got them dynamite, orange juice and 96% whiskey, which we actually had to have 2 shots of before going down into the mines. Funny customs. The mines are still fully functioning and we got told before going down that the only form of security that we're going to have will be our wellies and helmet. They were right. Everytime one of the carts came down the centre carrying out rocks etc we had to dodge to the side as they couldn't lose motion of pushing such a heavy cart. there were giant holes right next to the path so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. The best/worst bit is that they exploded some dynamite whilst we were down there and took us to show the guy lighting it, then gave us 50 seconds to run away. We ran, waited, thought it was a joke and started to relax then the whole place went BOOM. It was so bloody exciting. Maybe slightly dangerous too but we're all safe so whatever.
 |
| In our mining outfits. |
4-Day Salt Flats Tour
We finished the day by booking our Uyuni Salt Flats tour, leaving at 11am the next day. The trip took 5/6 hours so we arrived in Uyuni at around 4pm. The bus journey ended up going quite quickly as Sophie W and I watched Jackass 3.5 on my mini dvd player, then Jeepers Creepers with Gabriel and the Bolivian guy behind him who we put Spanish subtitles on for ha. Uyuni is a cute little town, quite expensive due to it being the only place where you can leave from to do the Salt Flats so there are lots of tourists. We went for a wander to the market and got some Mexican for tea.
The morning we were supposed to set off on our 4 day tour didn't start off too great. None of the 6 bank machines in Uyuni were working so we didn't think we had enough money for all of us to afford the entry fee too the national park or the entrance fee to climb the volcano. After everyone scrounged from everyone and we changed our remaining dollars/soles in the money changing places we JUST had enough for everyone to do everything, apart from climb to the top of the volcano, only half way. The next problem was that the company we booked with said that there was no room in the jeep for an English guide so we would only be getting a solely Spanish speaking driver. A few 'discussions' later, after they'd tried fobbing us off with 30 Bolivianos (£3) back each from the 1000Bs (£100) we'd all paid, we got our English guide and there was plenty of space, even if a bit cosy.
 |
| Our jeep. Rofl. |
The first day consisted of seeing the train cemetery which was amazing. Loads of old trains that used to transport goods too and from Chile. And also going to the actual salt flats where we had llama steak for lunch and then took our salt flat photos.
 |
| Nothing like a bit of nakedness on the flats. |
The flats were amazing. Just miles and miles of salt. After this we went onto our hostal for the night where we had a bit of a sesh outside with the car doors open and music blasting out. Had a good bit of Eminem, Black Eyed Pees and a lot of skanking. Think we might have scared the hostal owners as to what had arrived.
Day 2 was volcano and fish island day so we set off early to start climbing the volcano. None of us could afford the entrance fee to climb past half way so the plan was to just do half, which me and Harriet didn't even do. We got a bit up, then sat and chatted for a couple of hours looking at the view of the salt flats which was stunning. When the guys came back down we went for lunch in the hostal then headed over to fish island. This was a tiny island on the flats absolutely covered in cactus and was apparently shaped like a fish (couldn't see it).
 |
| Harriet, Gabriel, me and Hannah on Fish Island |
That night we stayed in the Salt Hotel which was actually made of salt. The walls, floor, tables etc were all salt. Pretty cool. Literally too. It was bloody freezing.
Day 3 there was a lot of driving so we got up by candle light as it was 5am and the electricity didn't come on until 6.30pm. This meant a pitch black walk to the bathroom which wasn't too fun. We stopped on the salt flats again for breakfast which was the absolute coldest breakfast i've ever had. It was around -10 degrees. As per we went a bit crazy in the jeep rapping along to the driver's Eminem CD. They told us we were their favourite group. Unsurprising really, specially as we'd taken our clothes off on the salt flats. We saw quite a few things that day like a rock shaped like a tree, some more bigger rocks and the national park where we went for a swim in the hot springs, then went on to see some Geezers before heading to the next hostal. As it was the last night we had a bit of a celebration. We got spaghetti bolognese for tea which was an absolute treat, specially as we'd not had it in a year. We also got some drinks in and played quite a few drinking games with a few other groups of people that were there on their last day. This lasted until about 10.30pm when the hostal owners came out to remind us that it was a hostal and not a bar. Oops. Then came the worst nights sleep I've ever had. I was wearing leggings, trackies and peruvian trousers with 2 pairs of socks, a short sleeved top, long sleeved top, hoody and fleece with two hats and a pair of gloves. I've never been so cold in my life. Apparently it was -15 degrees and the hostal had no form of heating, including holes in the walls etc. I think I shivered non-stop from 11pm to 8am. Horrendous.
Day 4 we got a lie in until 9am, came out to an amazing breakfast (compared to the bread we'd had the other days), then set off to our last stop which was the red lake. It was amazing as it had all iced over so we decided to be little kids and play on it until it cracked.
 |
| Twisting on the Red Lake |
We then made the rest of the trip back to Uyuni, then got our night bus back to La Paz. Again, this night was probably as cold as the night before, maybe worse. Especially as I was next to an ice cold window and there was no heating, then we had to change buses at 4am to a very slightly warmer bus. Unsurprisingly I got pretty ill and then spent the next day once we'd arrived in La Paz in my bed. This meant a day of watching Stepbrothers then listening to the rest of the guys chat about their money problems as they'd all nearly run out and still had 3 weeks travelling left. I'd have run out too if I hadn't left early.
The next day, as Harriet, Rosanna and I had done the death road before the other guys arrived, they went to do it and we stayed in La Paz for another day of exploring the city and markets. It was a lovely day until around 8pm when the others arrived back from doing the tour after Gabriel and Hannah had completed the 2litre challenge. That means drinking 2litres of rum and coke in an hour on the bus journey back up the death road. Unfortunately they both succeeded. So our night didn't turn out quite as planned but after Rosanna finally got Gabriel to sleep, we went up to the bar and ended up having a really good night. The police raided all the bars in La Paz that night so at 1am we had to leave, so Jack and I headed out to a club and got salsaing.
The next day wasn't too productive after everyone got up around 2pm again, then just sat around in bed, watching films etc until 6 when we decided it was time to move as we were planning a big final night out due to it being my last night in Bolivia and it was Rosanna's birthday the day after. So we all got dressed up to the nines (or more like fives) and went to this really nice thai restaurant, way classier than anywhere we'd been pretty much all year. We didn't get back from the meal until around 11pm ish when we got 'ready for the night', meaning putting on our most bright and ridiculous clothes, drawing on our faces and then heading over to Jack's house.
 |
| The reason why we're probably on a lot of Bolivian facebooks |
The day after, we chilled around the hostal until around 1.30pm when I had to leave the guys to go and get my bus back to Lima for my flight home. Luckily the bus back didn't take so long this time and I met another British girl, Marie, who had been travelling for two years and was flying home the day before me so we chatted most of the way.
Got back to Ciudad in the afternoon of the 23rd leaving me a day and a half to get packed and spend some quality time with Laura, Micheal, Ryan and Christoph. I mainly just packed, sorted my stuff out and we had a last trip to the market, last pollo a la brasa and watched a couple of films together before leaving with Christoph to the airport on the night of the 24th.
I got into London Heathrow the morning of the 26th and we headed down to Devon for my cousin Katy's wedding. All very surreal. Lots of white people, everyone speaking English, and I don't know what has happened to girl's fashion this year but I never thought that orange faces and shorts that show your arse cheeks would become so popular. Strange. The weirdest thing though is putting toilet paper down the toilet and drinking from taps. I'm slowly getting used to it all again though.
Got to say though, it won't be long before I'm heading back over to South America. My time there has not finished!
No comments:
Post a Comment