Bolivia... Come and Gone !!

Ever since entering Bolivia we have been on the go… We have been planning to blog ever since we got here but found too many good excuses to avoid it! I have to warn you that before you start reading this, it’s pretty long, and probably boring since it’s me, Dawne, having the privilege of updating again….

It all started in Cococabamba. I will always remember this little town as the place where I debated killing David. When we had read about it in the Lonely planet, it sounded lovely…. But it was anything but that! David and I realized that we take for granted all of the beautiful lakes that are within 30km of Calgs. This town was reviewed as having incredible views of Lake Titikaka surrounded by mountains. First off, it was freezing cold, rained and hailed every day, the people were grumpy and hated tourists even though without tourism their town probably wouldn’t exist, it was PACKED because of a festival and we couldn’t find anywhere to sleep, the ATM was not working  and there were no banks open because of the holiday so we couldn’t eat or basically do anything…  Thinking back, hating David probably had something to do with all that! Not to go into too much detail but now that I picture the whole scene we must have looked ridiculous! We walked around town for 2hrs with both our big backpacks, two small ones, an art case and a huge Asian bag filled with presents, yelling at each other at the top of our lungs as we passed all the locals! Felt good though! We ended up finding a dump on the other side of town and camped out for a few nights, watching Dexter in order to come up with clever ways of dealing with each other! Somehow we made it out alive and decided that we had to give Bolivia another chance in La Paz, fitting as it means, peace.

After a long bus ride we booked into Wild Rover, a hostel that we had heard great things about. We had a great night’s sleep and woke up to see our 3 English friends for breakfast. It was such a great surprise seeing our boys! We decided that we were going to take advantage of all that this huge city had to offer and booked a tour for the following morning to go down death road on bicycles.  Not gunna lie, if we had planned this trip a few days earlier I probably would have been really excited but seeing as the majority of my anger towards David had left, I started to get worried about him seeing how his last bike trip went but he assured me he wouldn’t be stupid and take his time down the road. The ride started at an altitude of 4600m. It was freezing cold, snowing and cloudy but pretty cool!

The first part of the ride was on a paved road which was a good way to get used of how to control your bike and what not. David was doing just great! The road continued until you reached a dirt road, this was a little tougher and we had heard horror stories from some individuals we had met at the hostels of hitting a rock and crashing down, so I was on my guard!  About 15km down the road our group stopped for a little lunchtime snack at a shack on the side of the road in order to keep our energy up. We then continued down the track until one of the guide’s stopped us and told us that the group was going to divide into a fast group and a slow group… Guess what David picked? I worried 90% of the rest of the way that he would get his macho head on a refuse to ride sensibly and lose control of the bike..  The road was about 10m across and we were advised that the roads were still in use of local traffic  so we should stay to the left side…  1000m cliff side…. I tried to keep my gaze up! It was incredibly beautiful though, for sure a top 10 scenery on this trip. My favourite part was coming around a corner to a view of 4 massive waterfalls thundering over the cliff above us.

 I stopped with a few of the slow people to take some photos and awe at the view.  Afterwards we continued down around the next corner to be greeted by the fast group. I got off my bike and asked David and our English mates how they were enjoying the view and they told me the only view they had seen was the rocks in front of them as they raced down the hill! They had a blast though so all was good! The trip ended at an altitude of 1200m and it was boiling hot! Perfect way to end the trip, a few bottles of beer and the sun beating down on you.  We then made our way to a little hotel up on the hill for a buffet lunch, swimming in a murky pool and lounging in hammocks. All was great until we piled into the tour van and started to drive away and a Swedish girl on our tour realized she didn’t have her wallet with her passport, all her money and bank cards… Way to go Sweed.  After about 3hrs of searching the wallet was never recovered. We all felt horrible for her... worst end to the day ever!  We were also getting more and more worried about the drive home in the dark… We made it though and decided we should probably buy the girl a few shots.  The altitude in La Paz is crazy and after only 2 drinks David and I were wasted. Sorry mom… It was the altitude though!!! 

Tour #2 was a Pampa’s Jungle Trek in eastern Bolivia heading out of a town called Rurrenabaque. We had two options of getting there, a 30hr bus ride or a 40min flight. Based on our last flight I tried desperately to convince Mel, Digs, Clark and David to get their adventure on and go for a bus ride but somehow they chose to ignore me and book the flight. As soon as I walked into the airport my stomach turned and I was near vomiting. I was scared CRAPLESS! The plane was a 12 seater and you could see directly into the cockpit, pretty knarly dude!

 It was a lot smoother than I had anticipated as well so I could enjoy the mountain view on the way there. The tour started the following morning in an old school Jeep for a 4hr ride to the deep jungle on a bumpy dirt road. There were 8 of us on the tour, our English boys (Mel, Digs & Clark) an Irishman (Kearan) and two Kiwi’s (Paul & Chris) We were really fortunate to have a great group because I think otherwise we would have hated our lives! Not trying to be negative but this tour was death.... by mosquitoes. I have never been more irritated by anything in my life (well maybe David but still) They were everywhere and anywhere and made it incredibly hard to enjoy the trip. The best parts of the tour was when we were in the long canoe motor boat searching for animals because the mossies couldn’t keep up.

 We saw tons of animals though, crocs, turtles, tucans, weird birds, dolphins, ant eaters, howler monkeys and these other tiny cute monkey guys. We were also supposed to see anacondas and went hunting for them on day two through the pampas which is kind of like walking through corn. It was a pain in the ass, wet and there was a chance that we would come across vipers and cobras and oh we didn’t have to worry about the crocs because we were wearing rubber boots and they wouldn’t be able to get through???? It was really funny seeing photos now but in the moment we hated our lives especially since we were told there was only a 5% chance we would see one! Our odds only got better that day when we went Parana fishing to hear that they hadn’t been caught all season! Good news was when we came back to camp we got to eat… except for we were sure that it was secretly a fat camp because they served us the tinniest portions of crap food.  Really though, I would recommend this tour because if you’re put in a good group you can play 500 for countless hours. Oh I almost forgot some of the best parts, there were 2 crocs that lived in our camp, there was a family of bats that slept all day above our bedroom door and Mel and my bed was infested with bed bugs! Haha, best tour ever!

Tour #3: Potosi Mines. By far the best tour I have ever been on. This tour was a culture shock and made me appreciate everything that I have back home. I recommend watching, “The Devil’s Miner” which was filmed in the same mine we visited. Somehow we stumbled across a tour group that was operated by 4 ex-miners that had an incredible passion for the industry. Our guide was hilarious and explained that the only way to make it in the mining industry is to be good humoured and joke around with everyone that you would meet along the way… In light of this he called our group, “The Donkey Fuckers” (again, sorry mom)

  The tour started off in the mining market where we bought dynamite, yes dynamite, soft drinks and coca leaves for the miners. They can work in the mines for up to 30hrs at a time and are unable to eat when they are working as it’s soooo dusty and would get contaminated and make them ill so they chew on coca constantly. We decided to give it a try as well but I but up the coca too small and ended up making a mess of myself. David chewed the coca the entire time though and had a lovely green smile at the end of our tour.  The mine that we went in was approx. 400yrs old and had some of the largest tunnels, which weren’t big at all… we had to crouch 90% of the time.  It was really tough to breath as you got further in, it was sooo dusty and really hot.  The miners were in the search for silver but extracted it in combinations of other minerals which they then had to refine.  The work was hard, David tried to help the miners by moving one bag for them and couldn’t do one more!

 The bags are about 40kg and the miners are moving them all day long. As we were walking our guide stopped a boy that was 16yrs old to ask him a few questions. Our guide translated that the boy had been working in the mine for 2yrs already, he had quit school and worked full time here, when our guide asked why the boy explained that both of his parents had passed away and he had 4 sisters and 8 brothers that he had to help support. We all felt like crying. As tough as their lives are, the miners that we met along the way were so positive and seemed sincerely happy. They had resisted the Spaniards and had maintained their culture, religion and language and were very proud of it. David and I left Potosi having a huge appreciation for these hard working Bolivians and admired them incredibly.

Tour #4: Salt Flats- Theme song of trip: Fleetwood Mac- Tell me lies.  Paul, Chris, David and I decided to go with a more expensive tour agency and we recognized the importance of an English guide, a comfy transportation mode, a clean bed and good food.  The salesman of our tour was incredible and basically told us we would have the time of our lives and all of our deepest desires would be fulfilled. He mentioned that we would probably be the only 4 people in the jeep as we booked the morning of and there was no one else around so we would have lots of room and just really enjoy ourselves. We were pumped. After having breakfast and returning to the agency we met our driver and an Argentinian couple that had arrived out of nowhere.  We later found out that they were from the first tour agency that we had went to, which was a heck of a lot cheaper but they didn’t have an English guide so hey whachagunnado?

Upon arriving at the train graveyard we realized that our guide’s English was a tiny bit in the lacking department… He knew how to say, “OK Mister” haha The train graveyard was neat, trains that were fabricated in the 1800 and abandoned at the site in 1910. We climbed up on them and explored the decomposing rusty engines. Afterwards we headed back into town to pick up the trip’s highlight, the lunch lady. She got to ride shotgun the entire trip so naturally we all hated her.  The rest of the first day was incredible. We visited the Saltflats and were able to sit ontop of the Jeep on the way in. It was AMAZING!  We were lucky that it was wet season because it looked soooo cool with the water ontop of the salt reflecting the mountains and clouds. We took about 1000 photos. 

This was the highlight of our trip and totally worth all of the sweet little lies. That night we made our way to a town in the middle of the desert where we were supposed to be spending the night only to find 30 Jeeps circling the town ahead of us looking for accommodation as well! Our driver was asking little kids on the street where they lived to see if we could spend the night! So organized this tour agency was.  We ended up having to drive for another 2hrs to the next town in hopes of them having room for us.  The hostel ended up exceeding our expectations and David and I even got out our room! Bad news was that on the way there, the last Jeep in our tour group got stuck in the mud and all our our food was in the back. The food wasn’t served until midnight! We decided that it could only get better from here. The next day we woke up to see the scenery of the town around us, we were in the middle of these crazy deserty rock formations and there was half of an airplane right above our hostel, apparently it had been in a bad tornado a few years previous.  Day two we saw more of the crazy rock formations, a green lagoon filled with flamingos and beautiful snow covered mountains. That evening we were lucky to drive in and find accommodation right away. We played tons of cards, ate some delicious food and stayed up until the lights went out, it was lot’s of fun!  Day three we were awoken by 4am in order to get a good glimpse of the sunrise. It was lovely except for I slept through it…  Saw some huge geysers that we were able to walk around on (real safe) then  went to some natural hot springs out in the middle of the desert. It was really cool! Nicest hot springs I have ever been to. Had some breaky and then explored the red and white lagoons. In the end we were really satisfied with everything that we were able to do and see on this tour  and were really lucky that we were a good group with a good sense of humour and ability to deal with the lunch lady!