Hi Peeps,
Last time I was in the middle of Bolivia in Santa Cruz. From there I got a bus to the border with Brazil and crossed over to see the Pantanal (large wet area!). Then to La Paz (the highest capital city in the world at 3,600m), followed by Corioco, Lake Titicaca, then into Peru to Puno and then Cusco, the capital of the old Inca Empire and the start of the Inca trail to Machu Piccu.
The lows first because I´m sure that you find them more entertaining !
Remember that bus to Santa Cruz, Bolivia which arrived 74 huors late - well things didnt get much better after that. After only 1 night in a normal bed it was back to the bus for a 19 hour journey to the Brazilian border - unfortunately the bus was pre war (pre any war you would care to mention) and it was not only late leaving it broke down within half an hour and we
waited 1.5 hours for them to fix it. The ´road´ if that be the correct name was sometimes rubble, sometimes sand and at other times just plain bad. It didn´t help that I was feeling really ill with Parasitic diahorrea (although I didnt know what it was for another week+). To say it was uncomfortable was an understatement and with breakdowns punctures etc it arrived 11 hours
late (total 30 hours). Actually it never arrived at the destination - Just to cap it all the road was blockaded (by taxi drivers it seems ) a few miles short of the destination - so we had to .... take a taxi !!! the rest of the way at our own expense ! Cos we got there so late the border was closed and we had to stay in Bolivia another night.
- After that I had to traverse the whole length of the country agan but decided there was no way I was going to go by bus and flew to La Paz for US$150 - and who said Bolivia was a cheap country?
- My travelling schedule being completely screwed up by the strikes and of course the football! What a silly time to be travelling without much time......
- Having to get up at stupid times to go and watch the football. In the early stages in Bolivia it ran from 2.30am to 9.30am and later on in Peru, 1.30am to 8.30am. I have got used to hauling myself out of bed at ridiculous times of the night after 2 or 3 hours sleep and immediately
immersing myself in a beer. I do not necessarily think this is a habit I will keep up now the footy is over ! (I did miss a few matches by oversleeping - but I missed more by not being able find a TV showing it in the towns I was staying in - caught all the biggies though!)
The floating islands in Puno, Peru - The Uros people have lived on island made of reeds for over 1,000 years. They still live their today and still practice their traditional skills of fishing, bird catching and maintaining the islands so they dont sink. However most of the time they sell stuff to the tourists who turn up to see them. Proabbly the most touristy place I have been anywhere. They now have solar panels, TVs etc and stay there cos (according to the tour guide) they have an easy life. Tourism has changed so much about their way of life - but hopefully for the better. Although I have my doubts. These people are now just a tourist attraction ...... but
as I was told by another traveller ..... ´there is a reason for that !´
And just a few highs
- The Pantanal in Brazil. If I ignore the angony of the journey and the wasted week I spent getting there (from Sucre it took almost exactly 7 days) and the expense of the flight back to La Paz, then I can be positive about the experience. I spent 4 night in a hammock (surprisingly comfortable) and the days spotting alligators (over 2m long), capybarras (the worlds largest
rodent - at 80cm long they looked like extremely large guinea pigs), deer, howler monkeys, a large anteater and birds (Macaws/parrots, herons, black vultures, toucans (yes the ones from the old Guinness ads), and the 1.5m wingspan Jabiru stork).
Also went pirhana fishing (although I was slightly hesitant about wading into the water to fish) and caught two, each 30 cm long. Ate them for lunch - very tasty but a lot of bones.
The most dangerous road in the world! - About 1 truck every 2 weeks falls off this narrow ledge carved into the mountain down a 300m+ vertical drop.
So the best thing is to go down it by bike! OK maybe not the best idea ever but its nearly all downhill - imagine going 63km and dropping 3,500m in height at speeds of up to of 60kph. Just try and keep an eye out for trucks coming the other way as there is no room to pass them on most of the road.
The prison in La Paz. This may be one of the worlds oddest tourism attractions but guided tours (by a New Yorker imprisoned for drug smuggling) are available. The prison is a whole series of little communities where prisoners have to buy or rent their own cells (top penthouse cost $15,000 to buy). Whether they get to live in a 5* part, a 3* part or a no star part entirely depends on how much money they have. To occupy themselves and to earn money there are hundreds of businesses inside from shoe shine, fresh veg stalls to restaurants - for prisoners who do not want to eat the prison food with possible sedatives etc in it. And of course the 3 things that keep a prison running - drugs, sex and alcohol are all available. You can have a woman stay over for $4 a night (note : this does not include the cost of the woman) so many prisoners have their girlfriends/wives stay over. And one more oddity - once sentanced the prisoners must pay a $4 entrance fee to the prison - if they can´t they have to work for 30 days in the kitchens (not a nice place).
England v Argentina - Whilst it must have been fantastic to watch it in London it was altogether a different experience getting up at 2.15am and spending all night watching the football in a La Paz bar. I knew I was in SAmerica but I didn´t expect everyone in the bar to be supporting Argentina (I mean how many people in England wanted Germany to win the final just because they are European !?). But there I was, 7.30am in the morning the bar was full of 300 pro Argentine supporters and 3 England fans. I´m pleased to say I made more noise than the 300 put together! - and only got a few dirty looks - and we won!!
Five minutes after the finish I was out on the La Paz streets where it was if nothing had happened. Did we really win or had I been dreaming .......
Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca - the Incas believe that this is where the sun was born. There is a rock at one end of the island with a orange patch where it was actually born - and it has a lovely big smile! How nice is that!
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (MP) - There is actually a stone trail (mainly stairs) that the Incas built for the several hundred people a day who undertake the 4 day trial - now that is far sighted eco-tourism! OK so maybe they actually built it for important Incas to undertake pilgrimages to MP - either way it is still there today as are many of the Inca built earthquake proof buildings despite a huge number of earthquakes in the area (all the Spanish colonial stuff regularly falls down). Actually the Incas are hardly an ancient civilisation - they existed for a few hundred years but are only really important from 1430 (when they started to expand their
empire) to 1532 when the Spanish arrived. MP was built from 1450 to 1532 when building of the incomplete structure was stopped in favour of fighting the Spanish (in a few years the Spanish won but it is thought never found MP).
It actually wasn´t too difficult to do the trail although we had to climb to 4,200m above sea level at one point - it really is a case of the top seeming further away after every step due to the altitude. The worst part was actually having to get up at 2.45am on the final morning to trek the 3 hours mainly on the dark to see the sun rise on MP. Worth getting up for though. MP itself is not the most wonderful collection of buildings however -some (badly restored) nice close fitting Inca stonework of course - but it is the very spectacular setting amongst near vertical peaks and deep valleys and the views from above which make it easily worthwhile.
Anyway off to see the Nasca Lines, Lima and then into Ecuador for a few days in the Galapagos (if I can afford it) before heading home in just a few weeks.........
Love
Pete
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 June 2002
Saturday, 25 May 2002
Where 18 Santa Cruz, Bolivia - What makes a Bus 74 hours Late
Hi Peeps,
I wasnt going to write to you so soon but so much stuff has 'appenened since I last wrote (and the email here is very cheap - only $0.5 (35pence) an hour)........
From Salta in Argentina we decided to hitch over Chile across the Andes (see later) to San Pedro de Attacama from where I did a 3 day tour by 4wd through the mostly deserted but spectacular area of SW Bolivia arriving in Uyuni and then moving on by bus to Potosi, Sucre and now Santa Cruz.
First of all I must tell you (and remind myself) that despite what I am about to write, Bolivia is a massively interesting country with loads of natural wonders and coming from Brasil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, represents a huge cultural high. It really is a 3rd world country
for the most part and that implies poverty and unpredictability - and so getting massively pissed off is just the real cost of travel.
Lows
- A 16 hour coach journey from Sucre to Santa Cruz in a reasonable coach along mainly dirt roads doesnt sound too much of a challenge - especially if you can sleep through most of it. We left Monday at 5pm and were due to arrive in SC at 9am Tuesday. However I woke up at 6am Tuesday to find that we were in a traffic jam (unusual in the middle of nowhere). Once it got
light I walked to the front of the queue to find out what the problem was only to find a whole load of locals (mainly of native indian descent) with big sticks, grinning through their remaining teeth at a bridge piled with cut down trees. It was a protest by the locals against something which we later found out was energy prices and infrastructure (I think). So we retired to the local village and had stale rolls and minging cheese breakfast waiting for a solution or the police or army to arrive to sort the situation out and reopen the road. We heard loads of rumours and times when the road would be open again but no-one actually knew anything. We played
football with the locals. Then we had lunch plus more rumours. Then Dinner with beer and rumours. We resigned ourselves to sleeping in the coach a 2nd night with rumours thrown in. Breakfast - bread and cheese with rumours and hope. More hope with lunch (all lunches and dinners consisted of a small amount of chicken with a potato and loads of dry rice). Resignation with Dinner and rumours with beer as we settled in for a 3rd night in the coach.
Woke up to distinct rumours of hope (or do I mean hopeless rumours) of an end and had lunch with heightened rumours that the road would be open at 2pm. We went back to the front line to face a huge number (500 plus) demonstators with sticks, dynamite and a couple of guns (although I'm not sure they had any ammo) and witnessed a few clashes with the truck drivers as they advanced at 3pm. Hope faded as it always did and as if to add credence to the bonfires (to keep warm) a few fireworks (sticks of dynamite) were let off. The coach driver would not go back to the village as he didnt have enough fuel and so we tried to find some dinner amongst the people on the roadside. Somewhat embarressingly now (although joyfully at the time) the only place we could find with any food was a women standing next to the soup kitchen (which had run out of food) with stale bread and some onion and tomato cut up to put inside it. We were reduced to eating stale free handouts from the locals not because we had no money but because there was simply no other food. We settled in for our fourth night. I hope you are getting bored and thinking that you have better things to do at this point cos than you will know something of how we felt (there were a few gringos (foreigners) on the bus so at least I wasnt alone). Then suddenly just after midnight we were off and running - the bridge (one of the smallest I have ever seen) had been cleared and we were soon racing the other buses down the road. I next woke at 4am to find us going round another roadblock and then stopping. At 6.30am everyone was getting off in the semi darkness and starting to walk. We followed without knowing what wass happening and walked a short distance then were made to pass through various blockades in single file. Then herded like cattle into trucks with all our luggage and driven for about 10 mins to another roadblock where we got out. Then to complete our refugee status we started walking down the road. Ive never felt like a refugee before but this was it. Hundreds of people , mainly locals, with all their luggage walking down a road (through beautiful scenery it must be said but it was hardly noticed), not knowing where we were going other than assuming we were being shoved in the direction of Santa Cruz (there are no other roads in this part of the world so it is difficult to get lost). We all walked for about 2 hours and eventually got beyond all the roadblocks and grabbed a taxi for the 5 of us which took us to the next village where we got a bus to Santa Cruz. We arrived on the 5th day of our journey, 74 hours (over 3 days) late. That was Friday morning and the bad news is because I am so short of time I have to risk getting stuck again by getting on a bus for (HOPEFULLY ONLY)19 hours on Saturday night - to Brazil.
The really bad news is that I have to come all the way back again a few days later - I hope The Pantanal (Brazilian wetlands) is worth it!
- Crossing the Andes from Argentina into Chile was not as simple as it first appeared either. As there were no buses for a few days we (an american girl and I) decided to hitch. This involved taking two buses to start with for about 4 hours and then standing by the side of the road
waiting for traffic going our way - unfortunately there was none. So we then got on another 3 hour local bus to a small village 3,500m up in the Andes where we had to spend the night. There was only one place to stay and when we went into the local ´restaurant´ we were told they had no food whatsoever - luckily there was another one down the road. In the morning we got up early and asked round all the trucks waiting to goo across the border if we could have a lift. However oddly enough their ´company policy´ said that they could only take women and not men ...... and so no one would oblige in taking both of us despite them having plenty of room. We had just about given up hope and were about to catch the local bus back down the mountain when after 4.5 hours a guy with a large truck with ´Toxico´ and ´Corrosivo´ on it (I wonder what they meant) said he would take us although because it was a dangerous load he had to go slow and it would take us 9 hours. So 9 hours later after going up to 5,000m we made it to Chile. That was the first time, and the last time, I will be hitching in SAm.
-
Must be time for some HIGHS
- The landscape around South Western Bolivia was astounding. Huge coloured lakes, white, green and red and I don´t mean slightly tinted either, with chalk, arsenic and algae in respectively, two of them had flamingos in despite the fact that the water is nearly freezing due to the high altitude (we are in the tropics here). The boiling mud field at 5,000m was a bit spectacular especially as it was snowing when we were there - yes in the tropics....... and I thought I had left all that stuff behind in Patagonia....
- The local villages, remote (apart from 4wd tours!) were really interesting. The locals depended almost entirely on llama and sheep farming and hence the village was awash with llamas wandering around looking down their noses at us - they do tend to look the most pretentious of animals - but kindda cute at the same time. The local women are very short and wide
around the hips they seem to go from being girls of 10 years old to women with 2 kids wrapped around them in a single step. The older women wear traditional blankets, brightly coloured skirts and of course bowler hats!
The men just wear ´western´ clothing.
- Not all Bolivia is 3rd world. I went to a nightclub in Santa Cruz (to celebrate not spending another night on the bus) and found the most trendy spot I have seen for a long time. Mime artists, stilt dancers and a whole row of huge beds (although people only danced on them). And the prices ....
I could have been in London!!
High or Low?
- I went to Potosi which claims to be the highest town in the world at over 4,000m. The town is full of superb colonial architecture as it was once the largest and richest place in South America due to the silver mine there. The mine in just a single mountain which overlooks the town with a total of 250km of tunnels in it and it is still mined today. We went up to the mine and found that the conditions were appalling. Imagine an English mine a couple of hundred year ago - really cramped tunnels we had to crouch to walk along, scramble under the dubious looking wooden beam supports and crawl up and down levels through tiny holes. With the only light coming from our traditional flame lamps (the are no gases to ignite down there) we could see asbestos flaking out of the walls (most miners live short lives due to lung problems and they wear no masks of any kind) as well as the occasional silver seam. The men worked in the most cramped spaces ´drilling´ holes 60cm deep in hard rock (takes 2-3 hours) with a hammer and chisel so they could dynamite the next 50kg of rock. All day they chew coca leaves (legal here) from which cocaine is derived, to stave off hunger and pain.
Supposedly no-one under 14 years old is allowed to work in the mine but no one really seemed interested in enforcing it.
We bought the miners coca leaves , 96 degree spirit and dynamite at the local market plus some dynamite for ourselves just so we could have an explosion. Once the fuse was lit (we were 70m away) we all lined up with cameras to capture the moment ....we waited as the fuse burned .... waited and waited ..... BOOOM we all jumped about 15cms in the air and none of us
got a shot. A few seconds late an Israeli girl staggered over and claimed we were trying to blow her up!!!
We were ´lucky´ enough to be ther on one of 3 days a year when the sacrafice llamas to bring them good luck (very supersdtitious lot these miners). First they stuff coca leaves downs its mouth then a cup of 96 degree spirit, then hold it down (it is still alive) and with what looked lke a vegatable knife slit its throat half way through. Blood spurted everywhere despite their best attempts to catch it in a bowl so they could splash all the mine entrances and machinery with it. Eventually it stoppped moving and then with 15 minutes they had skinned and gutted it and were ready to BBQ it. We had to leave before the feast unfortunately.
Anyway if you made it to here by reading it all - well done. If you just skipped to the last paragraph as usual then go back to the beginning !
Hopefully more good news next time................
Love
Pete
I wasnt going to write to you so soon but so much stuff has 'appenened since I last wrote (and the email here is very cheap - only $0.5 (35pence) an hour)........
From Salta in Argentina we decided to hitch over Chile across the Andes (see later) to San Pedro de Attacama from where I did a 3 day tour by 4wd through the mostly deserted but spectacular area of SW Bolivia arriving in Uyuni and then moving on by bus to Potosi, Sucre and now Santa Cruz.
First of all I must tell you (and remind myself) that despite what I am about to write, Bolivia is a massively interesting country with loads of natural wonders and coming from Brasil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, represents a huge cultural high. It really is a 3rd world country
for the most part and that implies poverty and unpredictability - and so getting massively pissed off is just the real cost of travel.
Lows
- A 16 hour coach journey from Sucre to Santa Cruz in a reasonable coach along mainly dirt roads doesnt sound too much of a challenge - especially if you can sleep through most of it. We left Monday at 5pm and were due to arrive in SC at 9am Tuesday. However I woke up at 6am Tuesday to find that we were in a traffic jam (unusual in the middle of nowhere). Once it got
light I walked to the front of the queue to find out what the problem was only to find a whole load of locals (mainly of native indian descent) with big sticks, grinning through their remaining teeth at a bridge piled with cut down trees. It was a protest by the locals against something which we later found out was energy prices and infrastructure (I think). So we retired to the local village and had stale rolls and minging cheese breakfast waiting for a solution or the police or army to arrive to sort the situation out and reopen the road. We heard loads of rumours and times when the road would be open again but no-one actually knew anything. We played
football with the locals. Then we had lunch plus more rumours. Then Dinner with beer and rumours. We resigned ourselves to sleeping in the coach a 2nd night with rumours thrown in. Breakfast - bread and cheese with rumours and hope. More hope with lunch (all lunches and dinners consisted of a small amount of chicken with a potato and loads of dry rice). Resignation with Dinner and rumours with beer as we settled in for a 3rd night in the coach.
Woke up to distinct rumours of hope (or do I mean hopeless rumours) of an end and had lunch with heightened rumours that the road would be open at 2pm. We went back to the front line to face a huge number (500 plus) demonstators with sticks, dynamite and a couple of guns (although I'm not sure they had any ammo) and witnessed a few clashes with the truck drivers as they advanced at 3pm. Hope faded as it always did and as if to add credence to the bonfires (to keep warm) a few fireworks (sticks of dynamite) were let off. The coach driver would not go back to the village as he didnt have enough fuel and so we tried to find some dinner amongst the people on the roadside. Somewhat embarressingly now (although joyfully at the time) the only place we could find with any food was a women standing next to the soup kitchen (which had run out of food) with stale bread and some onion and tomato cut up to put inside it. We were reduced to eating stale free handouts from the locals not because we had no money but because there was simply no other food. We settled in for our fourth night. I hope you are getting bored and thinking that you have better things to do at this point cos than you will know something of how we felt (there were a few gringos (foreigners) on the bus so at least I wasnt alone). Then suddenly just after midnight we were off and running - the bridge (one of the smallest I have ever seen) had been cleared and we were soon racing the other buses down the road. I next woke at 4am to find us going round another roadblock and then stopping. At 6.30am everyone was getting off in the semi darkness and starting to walk. We followed without knowing what wass happening and walked a short distance then were made to pass through various blockades in single file. Then herded like cattle into trucks with all our luggage and driven for about 10 mins to another roadblock where we got out. Then to complete our refugee status we started walking down the road. Ive never felt like a refugee before but this was it. Hundreds of people , mainly locals, with all their luggage walking down a road (through beautiful scenery it must be said but it was hardly noticed), not knowing where we were going other than assuming we were being shoved in the direction of Santa Cruz (there are no other roads in this part of the world so it is difficult to get lost). We all walked for about 2 hours and eventually got beyond all the roadblocks and grabbed a taxi for the 5 of us which took us to the next village where we got a bus to Santa Cruz. We arrived on the 5th day of our journey, 74 hours (over 3 days) late. That was Friday morning and the bad news is because I am so short of time I have to risk getting stuck again by getting on a bus for (HOPEFULLY ONLY)19 hours on Saturday night - to Brazil.
The really bad news is that I have to come all the way back again a few days later - I hope The Pantanal (Brazilian wetlands) is worth it!
- Crossing the Andes from Argentina into Chile was not as simple as it first appeared either. As there were no buses for a few days we (an american girl and I) decided to hitch. This involved taking two buses to start with for about 4 hours and then standing by the side of the road
waiting for traffic going our way - unfortunately there was none. So we then got on another 3 hour local bus to a small village 3,500m up in the Andes where we had to spend the night. There was only one place to stay and when we went into the local ´restaurant´ we were told they had no food whatsoever - luckily there was another one down the road. In the morning we got up early and asked round all the trucks waiting to goo across the border if we could have a lift. However oddly enough their ´company policy´ said that they could only take women and not men ...... and so no one would oblige in taking both of us despite them having plenty of room. We had just about given up hope and were about to catch the local bus back down the mountain when after 4.5 hours a guy with a large truck with ´Toxico´ and ´Corrosivo´ on it (I wonder what they meant) said he would take us although because it was a dangerous load he had to go slow and it would take us 9 hours. So 9 hours later after going up to 5,000m we made it to Chile. That was the first time, and the last time, I will be hitching in SAm.
-
Must be time for some HIGHS
- The landscape around South Western Bolivia was astounding. Huge coloured lakes, white, green and red and I don´t mean slightly tinted either, with chalk, arsenic and algae in respectively, two of them had flamingos in despite the fact that the water is nearly freezing due to the high altitude (we are in the tropics here). The boiling mud field at 5,000m was a bit spectacular especially as it was snowing when we were there - yes in the tropics....... and I thought I had left all that stuff behind in Patagonia....
- The local villages, remote (apart from 4wd tours!) were really interesting. The locals depended almost entirely on llama and sheep farming and hence the village was awash with llamas wandering around looking down their noses at us - they do tend to look the most pretentious of animals - but kindda cute at the same time. The local women are very short and wide
around the hips they seem to go from being girls of 10 years old to women with 2 kids wrapped around them in a single step. The older women wear traditional blankets, brightly coloured skirts and of course bowler hats!
The men just wear ´western´ clothing.
- Not all Bolivia is 3rd world. I went to a nightclub in Santa Cruz (to celebrate not spending another night on the bus) and found the most trendy spot I have seen for a long time. Mime artists, stilt dancers and a whole row of huge beds (although people only danced on them). And the prices ....
I could have been in London!!
High or Low?
- I went to Potosi which claims to be the highest town in the world at over 4,000m. The town is full of superb colonial architecture as it was once the largest and richest place in South America due to the silver mine there. The mine in just a single mountain which overlooks the town with a total of 250km of tunnels in it and it is still mined today. We went up to the mine and found that the conditions were appalling. Imagine an English mine a couple of hundred year ago - really cramped tunnels we had to crouch to walk along, scramble under the dubious looking wooden beam supports and crawl up and down levels through tiny holes. With the only light coming from our traditional flame lamps (the are no gases to ignite down there) we could see asbestos flaking out of the walls (most miners live short lives due to lung problems and they wear no masks of any kind) as well as the occasional silver seam. The men worked in the most cramped spaces ´drilling´ holes 60cm deep in hard rock (takes 2-3 hours) with a hammer and chisel so they could dynamite the next 50kg of rock. All day they chew coca leaves (legal here) from which cocaine is derived, to stave off hunger and pain.
Supposedly no-one under 14 years old is allowed to work in the mine but no one really seemed interested in enforcing it.
We bought the miners coca leaves , 96 degree spirit and dynamite at the local market plus some dynamite for ourselves just so we could have an explosion. Once the fuse was lit (we were 70m away) we all lined up with cameras to capture the moment ....we waited as the fuse burned .... waited and waited ..... BOOOM we all jumped about 15cms in the air and none of us
got a shot. A few seconds late an Israeli girl staggered over and claimed we were trying to blow her up!!!
We were ´lucky´ enough to be ther on one of 3 days a year when the sacrafice llamas to bring them good luck (very supersdtitious lot these miners). First they stuff coca leaves downs its mouth then a cup of 96 degree spirit, then hold it down (it is still alive) and with what looked lke a vegatable knife slit its throat half way through. Blood spurted everywhere despite their best attempts to catch it in a bowl so they could splash all the mine entrances and machinery with it. Eventually it stoppped moving and then with 15 minutes they had skinned and gutted it and were ready to BBQ it. We had to leave before the feast unfortunately.
Anyway if you made it to here by reading it all - well done. If you just skipped to the last paragraph as usual then go back to the beginning !
Hopefully more good news next time................
Love
Pete
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