Bolivia

[Gareth’s View]
Bolivia is the cheapest country in South America, and you certainly get what you pay for. It was awful. In our five months of travelling, I’ve left every single country wishing that I could stay for at least a few more days (often a few more months). When I crossed the border out of Bolivia and into Peru, I did a little celebratory dance and swore that I’d never return. Given the choice between spending a week in Bognor Regis and a week in Bolivia, I’d take Bognor every time.

We flew from Santiago to Calama in northern Chile, and then caught a bus to San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is the gateway to the Bolivian Salar de Uyuni (Salt Plains), and is a beautiful little town with nice restaurants and a broad range of hotels. We arrived into San Pedro in darkness and we had to hot foot it to Colque Tourismo’s office in order to pay for our three day salt plain tour. Thankfully we made it in time, and the guy in the office was kind enough to offer to book us a hostel to stay in that night. When we eventually found the hostel that he’d booked, we were somewhat disappointed. It was more of a hut than a hostel, and didn’t have the hot water or heating that we’d been promised. We should have realised at this point that our Salt Plain tour might not be as comfortable as we would have liked.



On day 1 of our tour we set out from San Pedro de Atacama in a mini bus, and by the time we reached the Chilean border control thirty minutes later we’d already made friends with two Irish couples (Michael & Cathy and Paul & Gwyneth). We then travelled on through no man’s land for another thirty minutes before reaching the Bolivian border control. The Bolivian border control consisted of a small hut and an abandoned tour bus (which also functioned as the toilet). After the border formalities were completed. Tara &I were squeezed into a Toyota Landcrusier with the two Irish couples and a grumpy looking Bolivian who’s name (I believe) was Sodomy. We quickly learnt that our driver/guide did not speak basic English, as had been promised to us by Colque Tourismo. In fact he didn’t seem to speak much Spanish either, and the only words we ever got out of him were “Vamos Amigos!”. Which roughly translates as “Let’s go people!”.



We spent our first afternoon in the 4X4 visiting Laguna Verde, Laguna Blanco, some geysers and a thermal pool. All of which were unbelievably beautiful, and were only slightly tarnished by our miserable Bolivian driver-guide. We stopped for the night at a hut, and it was here that we first encountered Bolivian hospitality (or lack thereof). Whilst walking around the lake next to hut, the ground gave way beneath me and one of my shoes got caked in a salty/muddy concrete-like substance. We walked back to the hut and asked if we could have some water so that I could clean my shoes, but our request was rudely refused. After much complaining we were eventually given small bowl of freezing cold water, but they wouldn’t give us a brush to clean the shoe with so I was forced to clean it with a dirty sock. Three weeks later my shoe still hasn’t fully recovered from the ordeal. Our unheated hut was at 4400m and we were all starting to feel the effects of Altitude sickness. The sickness had positive and negative aspects. On the plus side it reduced our appetite which was lucky because the food we were given was atrocious. On the downside it also gave us insomnia so we had a long a restless night in our freezing cold hut (it was -20°C outside and it felt even colder inside).



We spent the lion’s share of our second day in the 4X4, with only a few short stops. Most times when we stopped our drive/guide would shout “Vamos Amigos!” at us before we’d had a chance to even take a photo. After short stops at the Valley of the Rocks and the Tree Rock, we arrived in the town of San Cristobal for lunch. The ever-hospitable Bolivians provided us with a lunch of cold soup, dry rice and sliced hot dog. Having spent four hours in a jeep most of us were keen to make use of their bathroom facilities, but our hosts once again refused to oblige and claimed that their house had no toilets. So we drove on with crossed legs until we could locate a “banos naturalle”, which translates as the first rock big enough to crouch behind. Colque Tourismo had promised us that our second night on the salt plains would be luxurious, but once again we were sadly let down. Our accommodation for the night had no running water after 8pm, and the electricity went off at 9pm. There was no heating, and our dinner consisted of boiled rice, boiled potatoes and a pancake. A somewhat dry dinner, I think you’ll agree.



On the third day we finally made it onto the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia’s famous salt plains). This was an amazing experience. As far as the eye can see there is a perfectly flat white landscape with a bright blue sky above it. This distorts your perspective, and items which look close can actually be hundreds of kilometers away. We spent about an hour taking pictures, whilst Sodomy (our driver) got more and more pissed of with us. For the last 10 minutes he sat in the 4X4 revving the engine as a less than subtle reminder that he wanted to move on. When we eventually got into the jeep, Sodomy drove us to an Island in the middle of the salt plains. We didn’t want to visit the island (or pay the entrance fee), which made our driver even more surly than he had been for the past two days. He then refused to let us out of the 4X4 to visit the Salt Hotel (a hotel made out of salt unsurprisingly). Instead he drove us straight back to Uyuni early and terminated our tour two hours early. We were glad of this though because we couldn’t bear to be in his company for another minute. The lakes, plains, valleys and geysers that we’d seen on our three day tour were truly spectacular, but for me our trip was tainted by rude Bolivians.







The town of Uyuni was not particularly pleasant, so after a nice lunch and a beer we decided to try and book ourselves onto a bus to Oruro. This was more difficult than we had expected. There wasn’t any available buses for three days, and the train didn’t roll through Uyuni for another four days. So together with Michael & Cathy, we hired a driver to take us to Oruro. The journey was an experience in itself and for the first four hours we bounced along unsealed roads with an occasional detour through a river. Thankfully our driver was much friendlier than Sodomy, although we suspect his good mood may have been induced by the constant flow of coca leaves that his wife was feeding him throughout the journey. We arrived into Oruro at midnight and discovered that our hotel (the best in town) was surrounded by homeless people and stray dogs. All of whom were hunting for a suitable dinner in the bins outside the hotel.

Tara and I ventured into the city the next morning for a look around. There wasn’t much to see and on several occasions we were followed by dodgy looking young men. We were getting bored of having to always keep a hand on our wallets and an eye on our backpacks, so we decided to venture onwards to La Paz. Michael & Cathy were having a similarly unpleasant time in Oruro, so they joined us on the bus to La Paz as well. The bus was reasonably comfortable, but they’d oversold tickets for the bus so for most of the journey we had a dirty Bolivian man leaning on us. His smell was akin to a damp dog, so we opened the window to get some fresh air. Unfortunately yet another unfriendly Bolivian took offence to this and started shouting at us to close the window. Our Spanish isn’t perfect but we’re fairly sure she didn’t use the words please or thank you.

We spent three nights in La Paz, and saw most of the sites that the city has to offer. The highlight was probably the Coca museum, which gave a great insight into Bolivia’s favourite and most controversial crop. The locals have been chewing this leaf for hundreds of years. For them it is a mild stimulant which also aids digestion and helps to cure altitude sickness. From a western point of view it is the evil raw ingredient of Cocaine. The museum made the valid argument that Cocaine requires three key ingredients. The first of which is the innocent Coca leaf. The other two ingredients are complex substances, that are only created and sold (for a large profit) by large western pharmaceutical companies. So who really is to blame for the ongoing production of Cocaine?



We both enjoyed our time in La Paz, as there is a lot to see and do. Unfortunately we still encountered some typical Bolivian problems, such as the food we ordered in restaurants either didn’t turn up at all or each plate would turn up at 30 minute intervals. Also our hotel made us change rooms every single night, despite the fact that they appeared to have empty rooms each evening. On a more positive note, we did stock up on some good quality Bolivian souvenirs at bargain basement prices.

We said our goodbyes to Michael & Cathy in La Paz having spent a whole week together, and caught a bus to Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titikaka. Copacabana is a beautiful, and our hotel room had stunning views of the lake. On our first afternoon we hiked up Cerro Calvario to see the 14 stations of the cross that rest on this mountain. The summit also affords great views of both Lake Titikaka and the town of Copacabana. On the second day we decided to visit Isla del Sol, an Island in the lake which is just 7km from Copacabana. Foolishly I thought the ferry would take just a few minutes to get to the Island, but this is Bolivia! About seventy of us were crammed onto a boat designed for ten people, and then we crawled over to the Island as slowly as the boat could go without stopping. It took us over two hours to cover the 7km journey to Isla del Sol! We walked the length of the Island from north to south visiting Inca ruins along the way, and we were then subjected to another tortoise-paced boat ride back to Copacabana. We met some friends for dinner that night (David & Victoria – whom we’d first met in Mission Beach, Australia), and unfortunately for them they were subjected to a torrent of complaints about Bolivia. Thankfully we were leaving the next day, but their journey in Bolivia was only just beginning. The restaurant that we’d selected lived up to Bolivian standards so they got their first experience of just how haphazard things are. Of the four meals that we ordered only two turned up. When we complained they quickly microwaved two more dinners. When the plates arrived we asked them if it was normal for the salad on the plate to be hot & soggy. The waitress apologized, but when we asked for a reduction in the price the manager told us, “don’t eat it if you don’t want to pay for it”. Friendly!



I think its fair to say that Bolivia is not my favourite place in the world. People are rude, the buses are slow & overcrowded, boats are so slow that they barely move, and service in general is terrible. We suspect that some of this may be down to the fact that Evo Morales (the Bolivian president) is their first indigenous leader, and he is fighting a battle with the west for control of his country’s natural resources. He is also fighting the west over the role of Coca, which is sacred plant in Peru and considered the root of all drug addition in the west. As such there appears to be considerable disdain for westerners among the Bolivian people. This would certainly go some way to accounting for the Bolivian people’s attitude towards us, but doesn’t really explain why everything else is such a shambles. I won’t be hurrying back to Bolivia, although I am glad I’ve been there. The salt plains of Bolivia are simply stunning and have to be seen to be believed, and Lake Titikaka is indescribably beautiful. Its just a shame that both of them are in Bolivia.

I think the photo below sums up Bolivia for me. Its the first sign that you see as you cross into Peru from Bolivia, and translates as "Peru: A country free from Bird Flu". So what does that say about Bolivia?!?! Thankfully we never actually got the chicken meals that we ordered in the Bolivian restaurants so we should be safe....



[Tara’s View]
To follow.....possibly.

Chile

Our flight from Auckland to Santiago took us across the international date line, which meant Monday lasted nearly forty hours. Most Mondays seemed to last this long when we were chained to our desks in London, so this was nothing new for us. We did, however, have our first real battle with jetlag since our journey began. We only had two days in Santiago and we spent many of our daylight hours sleeping off the jetlag.



We spent our first day in Santiago walking around some of the main sights such as the Plaza des Armas, Mercado Central, Palacio de la Moneda and the Mapocho Railway station. We stayed in a hostel in the Bellavista area of Santiago, which fortunately is also home to the best bars, clubs and restaurants. We ate surprisingly well in Santiago, and the food & drink was far cheaper than we’d expected. Chile is considered to be one of the most expensive countries in South America, but with a good bottle of Chilean wine costing less than ₤2 and a bottle of Havana Rum costing less than ₤5 we felt that it was great value.



When we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed on our second day it was nearly 2pm, so we had to try and make the best use of our remaining time. We then did something that we’re both very ashamed of. We went on an open-top bus tour of Santiago. We’ll be shunned by the backpacker community if they find out, so please keep this information to yourself. As this was our final evening in Santiago we took a cable car up to the top of San Cristobal (a large hill in the centre of the city) and watched the smog-enhanced sunset from the foot of the colossal Virgin statue that stands there. We then caught the funicular railway back down to Bellavista and ate at a superb Chilean restaurant before returning to our hostel with yet another bottle of Chilean red wine. Fortunately for us our hostel was also home to a number of travellers that had already spent a few months in South America, so we were able to pick their brains over a glass of Vino Tinto about the choicest spots to visit.

New Zealand

Whilst in Australia Gaz managed to convince Tara that a Campervan would be the best option for traveling around New Zealand. The weather had been unseasonably mild in southern Australia, and we thought New Zealand would be the same. We were wrong, and Gaz was suddenly very unpopular.

We landed in Christchurch in flip-flops and quickly set about wrapping ourselves in every item of clothing in our backpacks before setting off in search of our hostel. Our hostel’s previous incarnation was a jailhouse, but with a lick of paint and some comfy bunks the owners had successfully turned it into a very comfortable place to stay.




We spent our first afternoon wandering around the city of Christchurch and taking in the main sites before treating ourselves to a gourmet curry in the Two Fat Indians restaurant. On day two in Christchurch we headed out of the city to the excellent Antarctic Centre. The centre acts as the starting point for nearly all Antarctic expeditions. In addition to some informative displays it also houses a colony of blue Penguins and a Antarctic storm simulator (which wasn’t too different from the weather on the streets of Christchurch).



We collected our Campervan from Jucy Rentals on the Wednesday morning, and drove straight to The Warehouse (a discount shop in New Zealand) to stock up on woolly hats, socks and some eye-catching thermal underwear. The first stop on our itinerary was a Gondola just outside of Christchurch. The views from the top were nice, but it probably wasn’t worth the expense for anybody that has travelled in a Gondola before. We then travelled onwards to Mount Cook and eventually arrived at Glentanner campsite in pitch darkness. The stars overhead were amazing that night and it was the brightest Southern Cross that we’d seen in our time in the Southern Hemisphere. We awoke the next morning to discover that we were surrounded by snowcapped mountains. From the campsite we drove the final few kilometres up to Mount Cook and went for a walk in the snow. The Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook has a checkered past in that it has burnt down numerous times in a short period time, so we were glad to see it was still standing when we returned from our walk. We treated ourselves to coffee in the hotel before hitting the road again. The drive from Mount Cook down to Dunedin was breathtaking at every turn, and our journey was regularly interrupted for photo stops.

We arrived in the student town of Dunedin in the late afternoon, and embarked on a short walking tour before checking into our campsite. The next morning we made the short trip over to the Otago Peninsular and spent a few hour hours watching and learning about the rare Royal Albatross that nest there.



From Dunedin we drove over towards Te Anau, stopping enroute at the Elephant Rocks (the setting for several scenes from the recent The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film). On arriving in Te Anau we quickly located the pub and settled down for a few beers, before adjourning to our campsite to cook ourselves dinner. The next morning we set off for Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a stunning Fiord on the western coast of New Zealand. The steep mountains that bank the Fiord create some magnificent scenery, including several large waterfalls, and the waters are teeming with wildlife such as seals & dolphins. Our return journey to Te Anau from Milford Sound also brought some excitement because the diesel gauge on our van dropped far more quickly than it had done on the outbound journey. The diesel indicator light came on about 30km outside of Te Anau and we were forced to coast down the hills in neutral to save fuel. Thankfully our Campervan (who’d been named Lucy) managed to limp into the petrol station under her own steam, though we’re convinced that we drove those last few kms on diesel fumes alone.



From Te Anau we drove onto Queenstown, and as it was Saturday night we decided it would be inappropriate if we didn’t test out a few bars. We’d arrived in Queenstown on the second day of their Winter Festival (a celebration of the start of their ski season), and hence the town was awash with people ready to party. Our first stop was Minus 5, which is a bar constructed entirely from ice. Here Gaz learned the hardway that you shouldn’t lick your glass if it is constructed from ice. The higher levels of Carbon Dioxide in the bar make the alcohol in your drink more effective, and a shot and cocktail in there set us up for a heavy night. In addition to a light head, we also managed to acquire two Aussie girls in the bar and they became our drinking companions for the rest of the night. Our next stop was the Boiler House bar which warmed us up, and also saw the start of the Tequila slammers. We vaguely remember going to a hip-hop bar after that, but the rest of the evening is pretty vague in our memories. Our digital camera contains a number of pictures that we don’t even recall taking, but we look pretty happy in them so the rest of the night must’ve been good too. We also treated ourselves to an argument over a pot noodle, probably our first (and most pointless) barney of the trip so far. Our hangovers the next morning were monumental, and despite our best efforts we didn’t make it onto the ski slopes of Cardrona until gone 2pm. Gaz then managed just one hour of snowboarding before having to retire to the mountain restaurant, and Tara’s time on the piste was even shorter than that. Getting to the slopes had been hard work and we’d discovered that our campervan (Lucy) wasn’t the best vehicle for traversing icy mountain roads. We decided that we should make use of our snowchains on the way down, and (after 45 minutes of swearing) Gaz eventually managed to coax them onto the rear wheels of the van. We made it down the hill safely, and then discovered that taking off the chains was an even muckier and more difficult than putting them on. We decided at that point that we’d make do without them for the rest of our journey around New Zealand.




From Queenstown we drove north up to Wanaka and stopped for lunch. We then drove on up to Franz Josef village via the Haast Pass stopping off at Thunder Creek and Fantail Falls on our way. The Franz Josef village was our base for touring the magnificent Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. These glaciers are unusual in that that they flow very rapidly (well, for a glacier anyway) through rainforests. The last thing you expect to see in the middle of a rainforest is a 14 kilometre mass of moving ice. We walked up to the Fox Glacier unguided in the morning, and in the afternoon we joined a tour of the Franz Josef glacier which took us up onto the ice mass. Climbing the glacier was a fantastic experience, and with the aid of crampons and tough hiking books we navigated up and over the glacier and even through tight crevices in the ice. Our return trip from the Glacier involved crossing an icy cold stream which filled our boots and left us with mild frostbite.



From the glaciers we drove further north to Hamner Springs, with a night’s stopover in the seaside town of Greymouth. Greymouth was a rainy version of Blackpool (with less glamour), and we felt the name was appropriate for this overcast town. Hamner Springs is home to thermal pools, and was a great end to our travels in Lucy. We spent several hours soaking in the hot mineral pools, before indulging in a sauna to dry ourselves off.

We dropped Lucy off in Christchurch the following morning and then made our way to the airport to catch a flight up to Auckland. Initially we thought we’d made a huge mistake by choosing to tour New Zealand’s south island in a campervan during the middle of winter, but it worked out really well. The van gave us the freedom to go where we wanted, when we wanted. We also quickly learnt how to keep ourselves reasonably warm in the van even when the temperatures outside were sub-zero. Furthermore, our van was fitted out with a microwave, fridge and gas hob, which meant we could save ourselves money by not eating out.

In Auckland we decided to go in search of some local culture, and found some in the form of a local comedy club. An extremely drunken kiwi heckler called Errol taught us that the key ingredient in Kiwi culture is alcohol. Its probably inaccurate to describe Errol as a heckler though, because he wasn’t so much abusing the comedians as conducting a slurred interview of them from his spot in the audience. Nobody in the room (including the comedians) was sure if Errol was just drunk or mentally disabled, and eventually they staff had to pretend that the show was over in order to get rid of him.



On our second day in Auckland we ascended the SkyTower (the highest structure in the southern hemisphere) in the morning, and went to a Maori song and dance demonstration at the Auckland museum in the afternoon. We then picked up a rental car and drove up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands that evening, and checked into the wonderfully cosy Mousetrap hostel.

We continued our pursuit of New Zealand wildlife the following morning by going on a dolphin watching cruise in the bay. The dolphins remained elusive though, so we weren’t able to swim with them as planned. We were, however, treated to some beautiful scenery and some angry weather as we island-hopped around the bay. Just north of Paihia is the Waitangi treaty ground. The Waitangi Treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Māori rights to their land and gave Māori the rights of British citizens. A Frenchman had been on the verge of claiming New Zealand for himself, so the British signed the Waitangi treaty in 1840 to spite him.

From the Bay of Islands we headed north to Cape Reinga where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet to generate huge waves and some seriously windy weather. We then drove onwards to the Kauri forest to check out some big trees, and make a visit to the Kauri Museum in Matakohe. This was far more interesting than it sounds on paper, with the highlight being an animatronic tree cutter called Trevor that scared the living bejesus out of Tara when he came to life. From the museum we drove ourselves back to Auckland to catch our flight to Santiago, Chile.



New Zealand was a lot of fun, and despite our initial temperature-related apprehension we really enjoyed touring around in a campervan. Travelling in New Zealand was a little bit too easy though, and we’re looking forward to getting out of our comfort zones again in South America. The language-barrier alone is going to a challenge, as we can’t remember a thing from the 8-week Spanish class that we took before we left.