Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Surprising Bolivia

30 September, Airbnb Apartment, La Paz, Bolivia

Yesterday's three hour hike ended up being closer to five hours all up and there was a lot of UP. Our ferry left Copacabana at 8:30, taking about two  hours to reach the northern jumping off point in the Isla Del Sol. It was a bit of a dodgy old ferry, but the sea was calm and the water colour blue as blue. As seems to be the norm on any form of transport in South America, we struck up a conversation with a fellow traveller, a Hungarian guy who was having some travel time between careers. We have met some very interesting young people from all over the world and a few oldies as well. Other than the Hungarian guy, we met an American Japanese, a couple of Aussies about our age who we had dinner with, a young French couple who want to migrate to Australia, (we also had dinner with them) a couple of crazy young "gap year" Australians, one of whom reminded us so much of our niece Grace, that we decided to call her that. All this in just a couple of days in Copacabana. But back to the Isla Del Sol  While the island itself was fairly unremarkable, the views from many points along our five hour hike were just fantastic.







You have to hand it to the Bolivians, they have a crafty knack of extracting every possible dollar out of unsuspecting travellers. Every now and then a smiling local, often in traditional dress, would emerge from the scrub, requesting another 10 or 15 Bolivianos ($3-$4.) It was all legit, with tickets bearing the stamp of the Bolivian National Parks.

Copacabana is a very touristy town - a traditional stop on the track many backpackers take through Bolivia. Consequently, prices are highly inflated. The town itself doesn't have much to offer, just one main street lined with restaurants and bars. The one, not to be missed, attraction is the town's cathedral. The building is way out of scale for such a small town. It is a magnificent, brilliant white church with domes covered in ceramic tiles and an altarpiece that would do any European cathedral proud.




Today we were back on the bus for the advertised three hour drive of 155km to La Paz. For the first hour or so it was reasonably clear sailing, with a good road, little traffic and yet another fairly cautious driver. However, after the crossing of Lake Titicaca, the passengers in small ferries and the bus on what looked much like a raft, the wheels started to fall off. Firstly we hit about 10 kms of roadworks, which forced us off onto some extremely rough detours. Them, just as we cleared the roadworks, we hit a roadblock. Apparently this is a normal form of protest in Bolivia. First we saw of it was a line of women in traditional garb, squatting behind rocks laid across the road. Our bus took to the back streets of the village, finally emerging just beyond the other end of the blockade. Police were in attendance, but they were mainly occupied in assisting traffic to find ways around the blockade. Then we hit peak hour La Paz traffic. We had heard that the city was just plain "loco" with traffic, but we didn't expect this. Total chaos. All, up our three hour trip took four and a half hours.

We are finally settled into our apartment in the centre of the city. Shopping done, dinner on the stove, washing machine gurgling and beer in hand, looking out on a spectacular view of the lights of the city.




3 October, La Paz, Bolivia

Oh we do so love a parade in South America! Almost every day of our trip we have seen a parade, complete with full brass bands and, as with the ceremony we happened upon here in La Paz a couple of days back, baton twirling, and often dropping, marching girls. According to our reference point on everything statistical, the CIA Factbook, La Paz has a population os about 1.5 M. In a reversal of normal form, the poorer parts of the city are high on a ridge, some 800m above La Paz proper. El Alto is a sprawling city of poorly-constructed dwellings, serviced by a bare minimum of public services. We drove through El Alto on our way into the city and to us it seemed a lot better than the slums that encircle Lima. Bolivia is the least developed of the South American countries, but you can see that there are some real efforts being made to improve the country. The Socialist government of President Morales is very popular, winning government at the last election by a vote of 66%. One of the most obvious improvements in La Paz is the Teleferico, a cable car system of three lines, described by some as an above-ground subway system. The Teleferico carries thousands of workers to and from the city centre every day. For tourists it is probably the longest and cheapest cablecar ride in the world. A single fare to El Alto is around $0.70 AUD and for this you get some of the most spectacular urban landscape views around.






Traffic in central La Paz is even more loco than we experienced in sprawling Lima. Mini buses and taxis have private vehicles outnumbered at least 10 to one. In peak times four lanes of buses and taxis cram into the marked two lanes of the main streets. Conductors lean from bus doors yelling destinations to potential passengers, horns blare out as buses and taxis stop in the middle of the street to pick up or drop off passengers, pedestrians weave between vehicles that inch into every available space. Sheer chaos, but somehow it all seems to work.

Walking home to our apartment yesterday afternoon, there was a distinct drop in temperature. During the day it can be fairly warm here, but evening always brings a bit of a chill. When we awoke this morning, the mountains and many of the houses across the valley from us had a dusting of snow. It is October, but things are never as they seem in South America. Many high altitude areas receive most of their snowfall in the summer months because that is when there is enough moisture in the air.

This morning we are waiting for our taxi to the airport for a flight to Sucre. It is just 45 minutes by air, but a full day by bus.

4 October, Sucre, Bolivia

Sucre is probably the most attractive city we have visited so far on this trip. Called the White City, it is the administrative capital of Bolivia and the home of Bolivian independence. The main square is surrounded by magnificant colonial buildings and churches that could easily have one thinking one was in a well-preserved Spanish city.








Our arrival yesterday was a little delayed due to snow and ice on the runway at La Paz. The afternoon was cloudy and dull so we didn't really see Sucre at its best.This morning, however. was just perfect. Warm, bright sunshine and, being Sunday, an almost empty city. We took the long climb to La Recoleta, a viewing point high above the city. Again we had the place fairly much to ourselves. The view was great, but an added bonus was the small square, complete with church, that could have come out of a 19th century Spanish town.

Morbid as it might seem, we completed our morning with a visit to the General Cemetery. The Bolivians do look after their dead. Magnificent lawns and gardens surround the elaborate family mausoleums of the very wealthy. The not so well-heeled house their departed loved ones' ashes in small locked cabinets set in long walls in the gardens. A very peaceful place, even for us, the living.





We have been very careful throughout this trip on the very few occasions we have had to take taxis. There are some real horror stories around about muggings and worse, involving dodgy taxis. We have always tried to take cabs that look legit, that is, those with company names and taxi "bubble" signs on the roof. Every second car in the major cities has a simple sticker on their windscreen saying TAXI. Seems the purchase of one of these stickers is enough to get you into the taxi game in South America. Here in Sucre we have seen only one cab with a proper Taxi sign and many hundreds with just a sticker. Oh well, when in Rome... We have to catch a cab out to the bus station tomorrow to pick up our bus to Potosi. Guess we'll have to chance it.

5 October, Potosi, Bolivia

Potosi is a mining town and not always a peaceful one. Industrial strife has led to frequent blockades on the road into the city. There were no blockades today, but we did encounter a minor problem on the road. About an hour into our three hour trip a loud pop signified a blowout, not much of a surprise given the state of the tyres. Under the close supervision of most of the male passengers, the driver soon had the spare on and we were on our way.

On the edge of the city heavy equipment was re-working old gold mining areas using water sluices, much the same as those used on the gold fields of California and Australia in the 19th century. On the edge of the city, the bus stopped amd people started to get off, so naturally we joined them. Only when the bus drove off did we realise that some people had stayed on. Where were we? No idea! We had no option but to grab a cab off the street and and head for our hotel. After seeking directions from several people along the way, our driver finally found our hotel, much to our relief.

All was good in the end though. Turns out our hotel is just around the corner from the bus station for Uyuni, our next stop. Our short foray into the city centre did little to improve our initial impression of the city - grubby, untidy and chaotic. We had to content ourselves with a couple of beers and a fairly horrible chicken and chips dinner from a local cafe.

7 October,  Uyuni, Bolivia

"A little rain must fall," and it  fell on us today. Every trip must have its calamity. It serms to be a rule. We are experienced and cautious travellers, but accidents do happen. Uyuni is very much a frontier town.  Out in the middle of nowhere, perched on the edge of 1200 sq kms of salt flats with deserts all around, the town looks like a 19th century Mexican movie set. But hidden just below the salt flats on the edge of dusty, dry old Uyuni is 100M tonnes of lithium. Yes, just like in the batteries. More than 40% of the world's known reserves are sitting out there waiting for the inevitable lithium boom to hit.

Our journey from Potosi was relatively comfortable and we made excellent time,  even with the usual picking up and dropping off of passengers who simply wave down passing buses. The road was excellent and what was once a six hour nightmare is now a three and a half hour scenic desert drive.

Our disasters began when Paul walked off from an ATM leaving his card behind. He only discovered the loss about an hour later. Back at the bank, the staff were distinctly unhelpful,  until one of the  police guards who spoke a little English came forward. He got the bank staff moving and after a tense half hour or so the card was produced. Seems the ATMs gobble up cards that aren't retrieved. Many thanks to our new best friend, Officer Florres, Polisi National de Bolivia.

Our second drama for the day was the unavailability of places for the salt flats tour tomorrow.  We thought we had booked online, but apparently not! The company, Red Planet, had come highly recommended for these trips, but, so far, we are less than impressed. So now we have a whole day to kill in Uyuni. We have seen the town square, walked the main street several times, the last remaining attraction is the local church.


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