Adios Bolivia, we'll miss you

After our "needs improvement" transportation methods, we arrived in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where we experienced warmth for the first time in almost a week.  The temperature was a huge factor in our decision to go to Cochabamba in the first place, since there are a lot more popular places to go than that (like Potosi - the world's highest city -- would have gone, but was looking forward to feeling like a normal human after our 4 day altitudinous (sure it's a word) excursion).  Anyway, it was a great decision in the end because the weather certainly did not disappoint and as an added bonus, we met some of the nicest people in town we could have asked for.   The people there were just really lovely and we ended up staying 2 nights.  

Day 1 was really only a late afternoon because of our arrival time, and we had high hopes for day 2.  We made a nice little sightseeing agenda and set out for the day.  Annoyingly - and not for the last time on our trip - I fell a little ill during the day, so our dreams of cycling around the laguna were shot.  I blamed most of my illnesses throughout the trip on the altitude, but this time may or may not be because of our horrendous trek through a never-ending market.  I mean it - this market had no way out.  Talk about good marketing!  Here's what happened.  We were actually trying to get to said laguna and the map revealed that the best way was through the market we had heard was pretty great.  Great!  2 birds with 1 stone.  So, we make our way to the market and yes, it's huge - and it would have been pretty great too had it not been crammed with millions of people (that is not an exaggeration), was not 1000 degrees (also not an exaggeration), and had no apparent exit.  We walked through expecting to be able to get out at the end closer to the laguna, and quite honestly, the lack of a crowd near the end should have tipped us off.  Instead, we were so overjoyed when the crowd started to dissipate that we picked up our step, excited to get to the laguna.  Lo and behold, the reason those smart people fizzled out was because the "end" where we had walked for 30 minutes in the cramped sauna was not a point of relief!  It was a point of "Oh sh*t, we have to backtrack this entire thing.  *$(*#&^@&#!!!"  So, we sucked it up, backtracked, and when we got out, we were literally off the map we had.  Taxi time.  

The afternoon was much better - a good veggie lunch followed by a trip up the teleferico to see an aerial view of the city and stand next to a GIANT statue of Jesus.  Check out how small the people are next to this statue.  You can see it from any point on the ground.

The next morning we took a bus to La Paz, where we only stayed a night.  The city was actually much nicer than I envisioned.  On the bus ride there, a lady was doing a roll call by name to make sure everyone was accounted for.  Cait and I were seats 29 and 30, and those numbers also turned out to be our names.  Basically, she took one look at the name Caitlin and made a wise decision that 29 was easier to say.  My name is pretty difficult for people to pronounce too, so I became 30.  After us, she went right back to the easy names.  We couldn't stop laughing.  

After La Paz, our next and last stop in beautiful Bolivia was Lake Titicaca (means "Puma Stone"), which borders both Bolivia and Peru.  We arrived in a town called Copacabana just in time for lunch and the afternoon boat out to Isla del Sol, where it was recommended to us by our friend Melissa to stay for a full day.  Oops - the (painfully slow) boat took 1.5 hours and the return (painfully slow) boat was to leave 1.5 hours after that.  However, in our short time there, we did a fair bit of climbing and had a "formal" tour.  That formal is in quotes because our tour guide was way more interested in talking on his cell than talking to us.  Nevertheless, it was absolutely gorgeous and if you ever go there, try to take Melissa's advice (and now ours) and be there longer than 1.5 hours!  

After an amazing *included* breakfast at the Copacabana hotel the next morning, we boarded a bus to Puno, which would mark our cross over into Peru and our goodbye to Bolivia!  It's pretty surreal to walk across a border like that and fortunately at this one, US citizens aren't charged a reciprocal fee for a visa.  Bienvenidos!

More on the wonderful world of Peru in my next post.

Crossing the Border: Hola Boliva

We were told we needed a photocopy of our passport, a passport photo and $135 US dollars in order to be allowed into Bolivia. So before leaving BsAs we got passport photos and photocopies of our passport, but figured we could get the $135 US eventually from an ATM. Well, of course, we didn’t think to do it until we needed to cross the border. So we walked towards the border with our heavy backpacks and when we arrived 20 minutes later we were told that we needed to go to the bank and get money because there was no way to get US dollars at the border. So Amy and I trekked back into La Quiaca and asked a few people about where the bank was and finally got there. We were delighted to see that the ATM dispensed US dollars, but we were terribly disappointed to find out that they had no US dollars to dispense. So we got AR pesos and hoped that Bolivia would accept them. We were told Bolivia would accept just about any type of currency, which by the way is true, except for…you guessed it… the border! Conveniently, there was a casa de cambio right at the border so for a very poor exchange rate Amy and I were able to get the long awaited US dollars! We later learned that we were the only travelers that did not have US money on them and of course all of the other travelers were not from the US!
So finally, we made it to the bus station in Villazon, Bolivia. We were hoping to go to Uyuni for a tour that Melissa recommended, but there were no busses going there from Villazon so we went to Tupiza instead. We knew we could catch a tour from there too, but we knew zero details about this place. So we purchased our bus tickets for $2 and then had about 6 hours to kill before we set off for Tupiza. Since we had our heavy packs with us we basically sat in the main plaza all day and eventually wondered into a restaurant for some lunch. The plates were ridiculously cheap so Amy and I didn’t think that they would be big, boy were we mistaken! They were huge and I could not finish it, but don’t worry the women next to me had a Ziploc bag and took my leftovers home with her. This was our first real clue to how poor Bolivia was. While I was a bit shocked that she took the leftovers right off my plate, it felt good knowing that the food wasn’t going to waste.

The meal I shared with my new Bolivian friends in Villazon.

So the bus was hanging on by a thread and I really have no idea how it was still in operation, but nevertheless we boarded it. At first we were the only tourists on the bus, but eventually 3 other tourists got on. We got to talking and it turned out they wanted to do the same tour that we did, so we were relieved that we had some other travelers to go with. While sitting there, a guy posed as a person working for the bus asked to see our tickets, he then put our bags in the compartment above us. For Amy and I this wasn’t a big deal because our bags were huge and mine was bright orange, but for the people we were soon to be traveling with, this turned out to be a HUGE mistake. They handed the man their day packs with all their important things in it (cash, passports, credit cards, etc) and next thing they knew their packs were gone. This apparently is big scam in Bolivia, there is some sort of partnership where the one guy pushes the bags towards the back of the bus and somehow someone either (a) walks off the bus with them or (b) throws them out the window to their partner. Needless to say, they got off the bus and found the police, they asked me (ME) to translate to the police officer which I did. However, when I got back on the bus I realized I only used the first person in past tense to describe the events. So I successfully used the past tense, but I basically told the policeman that I robbed them. Fortunately, he got the gist of what I was trying to say and told me “tienen cuidado,” which meant they should have taken better care! The officer wasn’t too sympathetic to say the least. Obviously, we bid adios to our new friends. Fortunately, during this whole robbery debacle, two other tourists came on the bus: Nadja and Jay. Nadja and Jay are traveling for an entire year and had already seen so much in India, Asia and Australia. We were very lucky to run into them because they were extremely accustomed to traveling and even had a guidebook. So for the first time on the trip we were able to look at a book and figure out how we were going to accomplish our journey! Also, they knew of a great tour that left from Tupiza and ended in Uyuni, Bolivia, which was perfect for us! The four of us had a great time together in Bolivia.
We used Hotel Torre tours and signed up for a four day tour- the four of us along with a driver and cook set out for a journey around Bolivia. We saw so many incredible landscapes and sights that I cannot even use the right words to describe them so I will just post a lot of pictures. On the last day we ended up at the Salt Flats where we were able to take a lot of really fun shots. We should also let you know that the accommodations were very rustic. There was no shower, no hot water, no heat and the food made all of sick at one point or another. However, with that said, I would do the tour again because the people were great, the sights were beautiful, and I will remember this experience forever.

Shots from the tour:

Flamingos- there were so many flamingos on the tour. They were so pretty, but a little camera shy, so we could not get too many close up shots.

Maria, Nadja, Amy, Henry and Jay up at 4855. One of the highest altitude spots visited. Fortunately, none of us got altitude sickness too badly, but we definitely experienced headaches and nauseas.

Jumping in front of the rock tree in the middle of a Bolivian desert.

More photos:
The jeep that we pretty much lived out for the first four days and Henry.

Me in front of the Geysers which were at 5000 meters. The highest place we were.

Me and Amy in front of the Laguna Colorados. As you can see the Laguna is red- this is where the flamingos get their beautiful color from!

Shots from the Salt Flats. We have a bunch more of these, just let me know if you want to see and I will email them!

After the four day tour we arrived in Uyuni, Bolivia. Amy got a great tip from the guidebook and saw that there was a 1:45AM train that left Uyuni and arrived in Oruro, Bolivia at 8:30AM, where we knew we could catch a bus to Cochabamba, which was our next destination. We asked around and we were told that the 1:45AM train was safe. We got a hostel directly across the street so there were no problems getting there. Well there was one problem, the train was pitch black and had been in operation for about 100 years. At one point when we were trying to find our seats, I stepped on the train and it jerked as if it was about to take off, I had visions of Amy running to catch the train as I looked on. Fortunately, we both ended up on board and Amy had a small flashlight that I took from her and started flashing in other passengers’ faces until I eventually found our two empty seats- as you can imagine I made a lot of friends. So 9 hours later we arrived at Oruro and found a bus to Cochabamba. Like most busses in Bolivia this one was overbooked and Amy basically had a Bolivian woman in traditional dress sit on her lap for the entire 4 hours ride. Finally, after 2 more bus rides, 5 more hostels, one train ride and jeep tour we made to beautiful sunny Cochabamba!