Week 38 to 39 – 07/04/10 Bolivia
Villazon
The border town of Villazon had lots more to offer than that of La Quiaca in Argentina. Lots of contraband, sacks of cocoa leaves and the odd restaurant here and there that caters for vegetarians. Unfortunately, we had to spend two whole nights here since we could only book bus tickets for the following day as we did not want to risk a night bus so early into Bolivia, there are many warning signs from the wreckages seen along the highways.
Didn’t really mind staying here for 2 days since we needed to acclimatise as Villazon sits at 3400m and our next stop would be at 4060m. We left the town early in the morning destined for Potosi, the highest city in the world.
Potosi
The bus journey to Potosi seemed to take forever, scheduled for a mere 10 hours, it took around 11 after we stopped in a small village for lunch, well most of the bus excluding Mariana and I that is, as we were not prepared to eat stewed goat, hen, chicken, small children or whatever they were serving with the rice.
The bus journey to Potosi seemed to take forever, scheduled for a mere 10 hours, it took around 11 after we stopped in a small village for lunch, well most of the bus excluding Mariana and I that is, as we were not prepared to eat stewed goat, hen, chicken, small children or whatever they were serving with the rice.
Seeing the countryside was nice and the indigenous village folk are quite cool. All the women were exactly the same clothes wherever you go, shabby old bowler hat, hair in double plats, large pleated skirt, jumper and kitchen apron. Not forgetting the giant blanket turn sack that they carry everything and the kitchen sink in.
Arriving in Potosi was a struggle. At 4060m it is no walk in the park that’s for sure. We arrived quite late since we were on one of the slowest buses in the world, seriously, old men on unicycles were passing us going up hills. We checked into one of the first places we could find in order to get out and have some food, 12 hours on fruit and crisps takes it’s toll. Headed further uphill to a veggie restaurant which was a real struggle and I thought I was going to pass out. The food was great so a just reward for our efforts.
We spent the next few days exploring the sights and eating for England in the many veggie restaurants this town had to offer. One regret was not going to the mines for a tour, but LP made sure of that with the danger and annoyances section warning all asthmatics to stay well clear.
Potosi is a very beautiful city, which has a wealth of history dated back to the 16th century when the silver bullion was underwriting the entire Spanish economy for almost two centuries. Just a shame now that there are still poor Bolivians working the mines in torrid conditions, working for peanuts to make the owners even more rich than they need to be. This is very much the same in all parts of the world where the greed of capitalists societies is seen by other countries as a clear division of power and then persecute their own people and tear down their environment to fill their pockets with all important money, when will they learn?
Sucre
Our trip to Sucre was a mere 4 hours, and upon arrival the pressures of attitude were soon relieved. Sucre was very much the same as Potosi but a 1000 metres lower. We found a small bar for dinner and more or less crashed in our room straight away.
We spent the next few days exploring the sights and eating for England in the many veggie restaurants this town had to offer. One regret was not going to the mines for a tour, but LP made sure of that with the danger and annoyances section warning all asthmatics to stay well clear.
Potosi is a very beautiful city, which has a wealth of history dated back to the 16th century when the silver bullion was underwriting the entire Spanish economy for almost two centuries. Just a shame now that there are still poor Bolivians working the mines in torrid conditions, working for peanuts to make the owners even more rich than they need to be. This is very much the same in all parts of the world where the greed of capitalists societies is seen by other countries as a clear division of power and then persecute their own people and tear down their environment to fill their pockets with all important money, when will they learn?
Sucre
Our trip to Sucre was a mere 4 hours, and upon arrival the pressures of attitude were soon relieved. Sucre was very much the same as Potosi but a 1000 metres lower. We found a small bar for dinner and more or less crashed in our room straight away.
The following day we visited Jurassic Park, well it was a visitor centre with lots of plastic dinosaurs laying around. However, it was opposite a geological fault that had been exposed during the excavation of aggregate for the con crete plant which had exposed a collection of dinosaur foot prints from 25,000 BC measuring up to 1 metre in length. It is the largest collection known in the world but sadly will disappear within the next 10 years due to natural soil erosion.
It town we found a good dutch café to chill, eat and surf the net whilst we waited to catch our overnight bus to La Paz. We agreed not to do this, but had no option since the route did not run a day time bus trip.
La Paz
Believe it or not, we actually managed to get some sleep on the bus after having our dinner that we bought in Sucre. The journey seem to fly by and by 8am we were in the main bus terminal looking for a taxi into town. The strange thing about the bus terminals in South America is that they are always 2 or 3 km out of town. The reason for this you would think is to reduce pollution from all the traffic, well no, it is to generate more income for the taxi drivers, quite shocking but true.
La Paz
Believe it or not, we actually managed to get some sleep on the bus after having our dinner that we bought in Sucre. The journey seem to fly by and by 8am we were in the main bus terminal looking for a taxi into town. The strange thing about the bus terminals in South America is that they are always 2 or 3 km out of town. The reason for this you would think is to reduce pollution from all the traffic, well no, it is to generate more income for the taxi drivers, quite shocking but true.
La Paz is set on a steep valley with buildings everywhere like a crazy maze of concrete. We headed for the backpackers district which lies next to the Witches Market, where you can buy spells, dried lama faeces, varies animal feet and the odd potion here and there. Very strange watching the locals sitting there having their fortune told by a crazy witch doctor who charges only a palm full of cocoa leaves per reading.
Two days is plenty in La Paz, well for us anyway since we have found most cities to be the same all over the world. We left headed for Sorata, a small village about 4 hours away.
Sorata
We thought it might be a good idea to visit a hillside village and do some trekking, but once we arrived we felt like doing not much at all. Our bus journey there took forever and we really didn’t have the energy to go trekking, a glass of wine, dinner and sleep was about all we could muster.
Sorata was nice and remote, only about 20 tourists in town, but only stayed for a night and soon headed off to Copacabana.
Copacabana
Our last town in Bolivia was bliss. Copacabana lies on lake Titicaca at 3900m above sea level. The main food here is trucha (trout) caught fresh from the lake everyday. We chilled for the first day, drinking coffee, beer and even catching a game of premiership football.
Sorata
We thought it might be a good idea to visit a hillside village and do some trekking, but once we arrived we felt like doing not much at all. Our bus journey there took forever and we really didn’t have the energy to go trekking, a glass of wine, dinner and sleep was about all we could muster.
Sorata was nice and remote, only about 20 tourists in town, but only stayed for a night and soon headed off to Copacabana.
Copacabana
Our last town in Bolivia was bliss. Copacabana lies on lake Titicaca at 3900m above sea level. The main food here is trucha (trout) caught fresh from the lake everyday. We chilled for the first day, drinking coffee, beer and even catching a game of premiership football.
The second day we visited the Isla Del Sol, which is about 90 minutes away by a small boat. The day was a real struggle as we set off at 8am after poor breakfast and didn’t really eat much all day even though we trekked about 10km in the midday sun after seeing the Inca ruins (The sun island is supposedly where the Inca gods first got their act together) at the north of the island
The following morning we were off again, this time crossing the border into Peru and onto Puno. Puno didn’t look that appealing when arriving by bus, so we decided to get another ticket and head onto Arequipa.
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