Latina America

Tupiza is a little city in the south of Bolivia and there would not be much to see or do if it was not for the spectacular surroundings. The first day after the Uyuni-tour, we did not do much as we still had to deal with all the impressions of the last days. So, I went to a cyber café to update my blog and read my e-mails a bit and guess who I met there? Sabine and Jochem, the Dutch couple we did the Inca Trail with! What a nice coincidence that was.
Anyway, next day, Julie, the girl from Quebec, and me went on a two-day horse-tour, guided by José. I had Rosario, a beautiful horse, to my disposition and I have to say I found out horseriding is not really my cup of tea! We rode through gorgeous landscapes, picknicked in a beautiful place and saw amazing little villages but when horses trot or gallop they are really uncomfortable! I had not imagined horseriding being so intense and tiring, so I was very happy when we arrived back in Tupiza on the second day.

Luckily, the landscapes made up very much for the horseriding and we felt like we were in an old Western, without weapons though.

¡Hasta pronto!

The seven-hour-busdrive from Potosí to Uyuni takes you through a magnificent landscape full of llamas, so it is worthwile to stay awake. In Uyuni, there is nothing much to see, but it is a starting point for a trip around the amazing Salar de Uyuni.
We took the four-day-trip around the Salar.
On Thursday in the morning, we took of in a big Toyota 4WD. We, that is Benjamín, the driver, Himez, the cook, Eunise, their niece, Silvia, Alejandre and Rodrigo, three Brasileros and than Françoise from the south of France, Julie from Quebec and me. First, we visited a train cemetery, which was quite picturesque. Then, we entered the real Salar which is just amazing, words nore pictures can describe it, you just have to see it with your own eyes.

It is an enormous stretch of salt and everywhere you can see is just white from the salt, blue from the sky and some mountains in the background. It is like nothing I had ever seen before and definetely one of the heights of the trip so far. Then, appearing from nowhere, there is this big island, Isla Pescado, with huge cactuses on it, over ten metres high I would estimate, amazing. We had a beautiful alpaca and rice lunch there. Then, we drove out of the actual Salar, visited some caves and an archeological museum and went to sleep in a little village.

The second day took us to some gorgeous lagunas with thousands of flamingos in them and to the arbol de piedra. The landscape was still amazing. At night, when we arrived at our sleeping place, we took a very nice walk through the strong wind up to a lagoon with unbelievable colours and hundreds of flamingos, beautiful!

The little pink dots you can see in the left of the picture are all flamingos!

The third day, we got up very very early to see the geishers, amazing, bubbling and steam-producing hot holes in the ground. By the way, in Spanish a word exists for getting up very early: madrugar. After the geishers, we took a wonderful dip in the hot springs just next to a laguna and then we had breakfast. Next was a visit to the beautiful Laguna Verde and most of the rest of the day, we were driving. The landscape was so gorgeous that our eyes were actually very tired at night from watching all day long. We spent the night in a lovely little village, very far away from all the other tourists and played some hackey-sack with the very talented local children at night.

The fourth day, we drove almost all day, apart from a lunch break in a very small village with some drunk men and beautiful little children, and a lot of picture- and pee-brakes. As far as the landscape is concerned, this was probably the most rewarding day. In the afternoon, we were very high up on a mountain, it felt like being in an airplane, the view was so cool! The shapes and colours of those rock formations! The nearer we got to Tupiza, the more beautiful it all got. Unfortunately, to every fairy-tale comes an end and so we got to Tupiza and had to say goodbye to Benjamín, Himez and Eunise. Muchas gracias otra vez, amigos.

Moido

Potosí with its silver mines used to be the richest city of the world at some point. The Spaniards dug up so much silver that they could have built a silver bridge from Potosí to Madrid and still have silver left to carry over it. It is a lovely little city with loads of interesting colonial buildings and a relaxed atmosphere.
Most of the people visiting take a tour to the mines, where miners are still operating in terrible working conditions. The tour around the mine was a bit shocking. The heat and the lack of oxygen the miners have to work in is just crazy. Most of the miners only survive twenty to twenty-five years working in the mine! Another striking fact about Bolivia by the way is that the age people are allowed to retire is more than the average life expentancy! Anyway, I felt a lot like a stupid tourist when I had to jump out of the way again when a two-ton-cart pulled by four young lads was roaring by or when miners had to stop their work for a bit to let us pass by. But the travel agency assured us that part of what we were paying went to the miners, so that was quite good.

The Koala Den, the hostel I was staying in, was wonderful. You pay about 2.5 euros for a dorm, breakfast included. There is a tv-room with a DVD-collection, a sitting room with travel guides from all around Latin-America, a book exchange and a kitchen.

Ciao!

Sucre is the Cusco of Bolivia as well as the actual capital. It is a nice city to spend a few days with beautiful buildings, parcs and squares. Locals give it nicknames like the Athens of America and the White City. A very nice hostal is Villa Plata in Calle Arce. I had a very small room, just under the roof, where I spent the entire Saturday between bed and toilet, I do not know weather it was from the Jugo the bananas I had the other day at the market, or the 6 bs (0.6 euros) almuerzo (lunch) in a local restaurant or the chicken in sweet and sour in the lovely local Chifa or even the water. Anyway, on Sunday I was completely recovered and could go on exploring the city again.
Another recommendation in Sucre is the Joyride Café, owned by a Dutch guy. It is very touristic but the vegatarian pasta I had there was delicious and the tacos and pique macho I saw passing by looked very good. Another thing on the menu: kroketten (the Dutch kroketten, vleeskroketten in Flemmish). There were some newspaper articles at the wall about Evo Morales visiting the café and stating that it is not only a gringo place!

The only anoying thing in Sucre was that I was followed by a bunch of ten, twelve little children, the ones that shine your shoes. I picked them up at the main square. First there was one and then soon, all the others came. I was just reading a bit on a bench and said politely that I did not needed my shoes polished when they asked. But they just kept on insisting, so after a while, I stood up and left. I walked all around the city and into a post office, but they just kept on following me. Then, I went to a cyber café for almost two hours and they just walked in there as well and started playing games. When I left the cyber café, there was only a few left and I got rid of those last ones by hiding behind a car!

Peace out!

After two days of waiting at the airport and finding out our TAM-flight (that is Transporte Aero Militar) flight to Rurre, as locals call it, was canceled because of the rain in Rurre, we finally took of. The flight was very nice and so different from all the horor stories I had read about it. Arriving in Rurre after a week in La Paz was like arriving in a different world. The heat and humidity are ever present and the quietness and naturaleza all around make Rurre a very nice little village. The day we arrived, there was a strike, so we had to walk into Rurre, which gave us a very good impression. I took a bed in a dormitory in Hospedaje Oriental, a lovely hostal with a big garden with hamocks for relaxing in it and trees from which you can pluck very tasty mangos and bananas.
Next day we, five Aussies, Rachel and Ruth, two lovely girls I had met and hung out with the day before, and Catherine, Chris and Jackie, left for a three-day-tour in las pampas. It was beautiful! The jeep annex boat trip to get to our base-camp were lovely. The wildlife and sun were there to keep us company, although it is raining season and there is supposed to be less wildlife to spot in this period.

The camp was lovely and so were our guide Jimmy and our cook . The second day we went horseback riding, in the rain, in the morning, swimming with pink dolphins in the afternoon and looking for lagardos (aligators) at night. The third day, we took boat and jeep back to Rurre and drove through the magnificent landscape of the pampas again with tucans, monkeys, dolphins, aligators, turtles, sloths, several bird species I had never seen before amd loads of mozzies in it, it was just beautiful!

At night, we had a few beers with our guide Jimmy and several other tourists in the Moskkito Bar, where you can have very good trucha (trout) as well. Next day, we left for a two-day selva (jungle) tour in Parque Nacional Madidi, again by boat. Walking, eating and sleeping under a shelter in the jungle was cool and again, I had the lovely company of Rachel and Ruth and our guide Eric and his girlfriend Reina. Although the pampas tour was better, the selva-tour was still very enjoyable, but maybe a bit too short.

The flight back into La Paz was only a few hours late and we arrived well after dark.

Que les vaya bien, amigos!