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.