I woke up to a lot of whatsApp messages. I’m not that popular! :) something must have happened….
It had. Gabon had shut its borders. There had been a coup after the elections and in a few hours time I’d receive an email that my trip was cancelled. I had three weeks to play with before I had to ship my belongings from Muscat to home and i definitely wasn’t going to waste that time. I did a few quick searches on skyscanner and I was heading to South America! I could visit Guyana, Suriname and Haiti (new countries) and also head into Bolivia and Paraguay which I’d wandered into unofficially nearly 20 years ago but in order to feel my personal goal was complete, I felt I should get the passport stamps. Plus I really wanted to go to the Uyuni Salt flats and get the photos with the dinosaur and beer bottles! (Such a child! Lol).
On the way, I stopped in Qatar to see friends, a quick WhatsApp to Ellie, “hey, can I come stay tomorrow night? Shall we go party?” Followed quickly by a response “yep, will message the group” and the first steps to the trip were complete! The rest would be done day by day. I love travelling South America but it had probably been 10 years since I was last there…. I hope my Spanish is still passable!
Qatar was fun! A little culture, seeing Ellie and her family and a fun night out before the 15 hours to Miami followed by 9 hours to La Paz. When I’d arrived at Ellies place, she’d joked about the coat strapped onto my backpack…
Arriving in La Paz, the coat was quickly worn and the gloves and beanie were dug out the bag. I knew La Paz was high (3625 above sea level) but did it really have to be this cold?! I checked into my hotel, grateful to ditch the bag and headed straight out. I probably should have showered but hey, I didn’t know anyone in this city so whatever!
I wanted to see what the options were for the day, a city tour perhaps and I wanted to get bus tickets down to Uyuni. First stop however had to be the highest Irish ☘️ pub in the world - the Lucky Llama.
It may have only been 10am in La Paz but my body was telling me it was a lot later. Breakfast with a beer seemed a great way to start the trip - that was until karma bit me on the ass and the dehydrated altitude headache kicked in. I ordered a coca tea to compensate!
La Paz was by no means a flat city. It is one of the highest cities in the world and built on a hilltop - the altitude really does take getting used to. Walking a flight of stairs leaves you breathless, and you feel the oxygen drain out of your muscles with every movement. You breathe more heavily and notice you’ve slowed to pigeon steps, or have even had to stop to breathe. It’s a very strange feeling when you know you’re pretty fit!
La Paz is the city of our lady’s peace. Bolivia is a predominantly Roman Catholic country although the religion is complimented by their beliefs in Mother Earth and her importance. For example, before you take your first swig of beer, you must pour some on the ground as a sign of gratitude to Mother Earth. In the UK, we would say that’s wasted beer, but the concept seemed to make a lot of sense and I gave it some thought. The churches, have the usual saints carved into them, but also the Pachamama. A women, often with her legs open holding a snake symbolising a woman fertility and Mother Earth. Nature also plays a huge part in their beliefs. The condor is the symbol of safe travel, and I now carry a condor amulet in my bag. Surrounding the Irish bar, is the witches market. To be a witch doctor, you must either be born into it, or train extensively to become one (at least 15 years experience).
Here you will find the amulets and a lot of natural medicines. Hanging outside the stalls are llama fetus ’ which are used in their rituals. We heard different things from different guides. Either the llamas had labour induced early to fulfil the demand for these fetus’ for rituals, the altitude means a lot of premature births, either way, they seemed to be in high demand. It reminded me of the voodoo fetish markets in Togo and Benin, but there it was monkeys and ….. instead of llamas.
Unbeknown to me I had also arrived on the annual pedestrian day - one day a year all vehicles are banned from La Paz. Not a car in sight. This definitely made wandering around easier - no fear of crossing the road! However it was initially a little disconcerting that such a huge city was virtually desolate. Was I even meant to be out and about?
After booking a guide for the afternoon, I popped back to the hotel, set my alarm for 2.45pm and crashed for an hour or so. The phone rang at 2.30pm. “Tus guia es abajo”. I think I heard. But basically my guide was early and I was still in bed! I quickly dressed in everything I brought with me (for warmth) and headed out. We had to walk quite a way to collect the car and was told there were 4 others joining us. The car had two spare seats (after me the driver and the guide) clearly this was going to be interesting. We collected the others and the guide and one of the guys got in the boot! Haha!
Our first stop was Moon Valley, (Vallee de la Luna) an area of clay and coral, that made for an interesting landscape. The area was discovered in xxx and was now a protected area. Walking up and down around the structures was making me sweat, especially as I was wearing A LOT of layers.
The views were spectacular and you could see the highest golf course in the world across the way. The scenery very much reminded me of the MoonValley in Iran - how could there be such similar phenomena half way round the world from each other!
Afterwards, we drove to the cable car station and got in the first of four cable cars above the city. We boarded our own car and started to head higher - higher than we already were!).
The spiralling city was quite overwhelming, building everywhere and anywhere there was space to build. Continuing until the only thing in the way were steep mountain faces of the many 6,000m peaks that surrounded La Paz. We climbed higher and summitted in to El Alto.
Another large Bolivian City that had just about merged with La Paz. However El Alto had a very different vibe. As we walked through the cable car station, we stumbled across the wrestling (famous in Bolivia) and used the entertainment to catch our breath and learn about this cultural experience.
We continued on the cable cars admiring the differences between El Alto and La Paz. El Alto was flatter, the building were different. The poor had the same ramshackle single story constructions in both La Paz and El Alto, but the rich of El Alto had, I don’t even know how to explain this, building with transformer designed frontages. Optimus prime was everywhere… this decor cost (so I was told!) in excess of USD1m and had to be replaced every few years because they became unsafe with he pressure of the altitude. Seemed insane to spend that kind of money repeatedly, but hey, no one understands why I travel so much, so I can’t really judge!!
We wondered around the old town of La Paz, the churches, theatre, government buildings and down the old streets into the early evening before wandering back up to the witches market to finish a fabulous 5 hour city tour. I liked La Paz, but man, was I tired, breathless and had a headache! Time to find take-out and head to bed.
The next morning I wandered around and went to get bus tickets to Uyuni. I’d heard there were overnight buses that left around 9pm and this would work perfectly for me. I walked slowly up to the bus station and everywhere were companies selling bus tickets. How to know which one to choose?! I ended up going with “Titicaca Bolivia” mainly because the buses were bright orange so I figured I’d be able to identify it easily! I bought bus tickets and booked on a day tour of the salt flats with Perla de Bolivia and a return overnight bus the night after. That would save on hotels and I can sleep anywhere so there was no issue with two overnights in a row! Now to work out today! Again I wandered to theLucky Llama and ordered breakfast and a beer!
Whilst I waited I practised my Spanish with Jorge (the bar tender) and found a tour of El Alto. The day before we’d been told how dangerous El Alto was. I was going to see for myself! I had a few hours so I headed to the Coca museum which wasn’t open yesterday. I had only walked down the street but I was really struggling - like a slow developing debilitating headache - not a migraine, but more an intense pressure. I got to the museum and the owner gave me some coca candy to help with the altitude. He also gave me a book to read with the English translation of the museum which was useful, although I tried to use my Spanish as much as possible. I learned a lot around the history of coca and the leaves and the cocaine trade, and the origins of the Geneva Convention.
Coca leaves are a cultural heritage in both Bolivia and Colombia. And although they are the main source of the narcotic Cocaine, they have many other uses as well, including relieving altitude sickness. This is managed through either chewing the leaves (not for me!) and also drinking cows tea (I have found to be very effective!).
The coca leaf is however listed on the UN list of Single Convention on Narcotic drugs, 1961, although this has been rejected by a number of countries, where the coca leaf is a traditional form of medication or national tradition. It can no longer be sold and it has decimated to GDP of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru but its inclusion under the Geneva Convention. This along with the diminished river mining industry has left a previously strong economy far weaker than expected given the resources of the country.
I finished the museum and went to the Coca cafe where without ordering the owner brought me some coca tea. He clearly knew what was needed to make me feel better and I was extremely grateful. Two cups of coca tea and I was feeling back to normal. I was very relieved.
It was then time to head to meet my guide to see El Alto. I think he was actually a little scared h we got the cable car over to El Alto, where we picked up local wheels in the form of a taxi driver and we spent an hour driving round. El Alto is the poorer sister to La Paz and has a larger population for the reason. The city is run by syndicates, groups of people that have gotten together to help each other survive and effectively the money keeps circulating amongst the same group of people. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There is also a massive celebration culture. The rich who build homes, build a home that works for them. The ground floor will be a ship where they sell products. The first floor will be an area to hold parties, the remaining floors they will rent out like a hotel or a hostel or long term rental to others. The roof of the building contains the families home. This can be a multi story home and is where the family live. The remaining part of the building will always be earning the family money - problem is, you have to have money to make money…. Some of these families are now so rich that they opt for the transformers (or another design) frontage. When you attend an (often multi day) party (of which there are over 200 reasons to celebrate excluding birthdays), you have to bring alcohol (usually beer) and the amount you bring shows how close you are to the host. Everyone’s contribution is written down (almost like going to an Asian wedding). You have to contribute in figures of two. 2 boxes, 8 boxes, 16 boxes, but not an odd number of boxes. Odd numbers are bad. It is better to be married - two people are luckier than one person (an unmarried person) and the people of El Alto tend to be married from the age of 14 but not older than 25. If your spouse dies, you don’t remarry. You are still considered married. Also the concept of divorce is moot. If you decide you no longer want to be together, you just stay together but have separate bedrooms. Being divorced, a single person is bad, unlucky - you don’t do it. My guide admitted there was potentially an alcohol problem in Bolivia!
There is also a lot of street art in El Alto and the building built by the government are painted with designs relating to the culture. There is an area with a number of beautifully decorated buildings that was originally built to house people that had lost their homes due to landslides, but now you got to live there if you were a friend of the government. The designs contained the pachamama, animals, and symbols. They were bright coloured and lively design and definitely stood out in El Alto.
We then wandered the steeets seeing the various building owned by the rich with their impressive decor and got to head inside one to the first floor to see the areas in which they party! The rooms had high ceilings and multiple levels to ensure as many people as possible could attend events!
Eventually the sun was starting to set and it was time to get back to La Paz! I had an overnight bus to catch and I needed some food before embarking on the 10 hour sleepathon! The cable car back to La Paz, is quite breathtaking as well as you soar high above the buildings, the cemetery and the various districts of La Paz. In Bolivia if you finish a house and paint it, you have to pay tax on it, so there are a lot of unfinished buildings!
All fed and watered I boarded the bright orange bus just before 9pm and was sound asleep before being rudely woken up to pay the 2.50Bls bus departure tax. Back to sleep it was and as if by magic, I was getting off the bus in Uyuni, wrapping my coat even tighter around me and heading for the nearest restaurant that was open and serving breakfast to keep warm until my trip to the salt flats commenced at 10am. I ate and was applying for jobs despite my whole body shivering in the cold restaurant (for some reason the door has to remain open. 🥶
I met at the tour companies office and got chatting to some of the other customers. It was a very mixed group of guys and girls and ages. I was not the oldest, to my surprise, given that Bolivia is a country that people visit in the early stages of their travels. For some people this was their first time abroad. For others they were further on in their travel adventures, but everyone was super excited for the upcoming adventure. Everyone was super friendly and either doing the 1 day tour (as I was) or the 3 day tour. We were split into two groups and then across two cars. For those doing the one day tour, we would return to the office after sunset and get the overnight bus back to La Paz, the rest would carry on to near the Chilean border before turning back and returning to Uyuni.
Uyuni was a small town built for the salt flats tourism and had many restaurants and hostels. The town was generally around freezing most of the time although the sun was harsh and there were a lot of red faced tourists.
The drive to the train graveyard was short and we wandered round the rusting engines and train carriages. The train used to run from Potosi, where the silver mines were carrying people and silver to the coast, however with the dwindling industry, the train is no longer open to passengers and is purely there to transport cargo around. This does make a fun day trip though and is just as cool as the tank graveyard in Asmara, Eritrea which is visited earlier in the year.
After the graveyard, we headed to town and we’re walked through the production of Salt or “Sal” in Spanish. How the salt is mined, cleaned and ground down and how the iodine is added to prevent sickness in humans from pure salt intake and then bagged and delivered to stores around. Bolivia.
Lunch was beef steak, avocado, feta and salad and was delicious. This was also in a house made of Salt, which was pretty cool. Each brick was a salt brick and you could see the layers as they had formed over a long period of time.
I was nearly ready for a nap before it was announced it was time to hit the salt flats! This was the highlight of the day and our guide had promised some great perspective shots. I’d seen these advertised but you never know how good the guide will actually be at taking photos. I came prepared with a beer bottle, Pringles box and a dinosaur! No, to be fair, I bought the beer to drink at sunset, the Pringles to eat on the bus and the dinosaur for the photos, but luckily that meant I was well prepared!
My group were really nice, Natalie and Jay, a couple Canada (Natalie was Australian) and Steve a British guy. We all chatted from the moment we got in the 4x4 and had a great laugh for the whole day. A group travelling along side us had two Brazilian guys and a Mexican guy so we had great fun all day. We also kept bumping into the group doing the three day trip as well which was fun!
The salt flats are an area of 10,582 km squared and have a rainy and dry season. It was currently dry season meaning that you couldn’t see the reflections of the sky on the salt but you could visit Isla Incahuasi - the island of giant cacti - you can’t visit in rainy season. Our first stop however, was the monument to the car race that used to come across the salt flats, but due to concerns around ruining the Salt Lake, the race has been permanently stopped.
Another 30 minute drive and we stopped, and our guide got the dinosaur toy out the car and added a bottle of wine to the beer, Pringles and boots collection. He told us where and how to stand.
the dinosaur pose (being scared)
Running away from the dinosaur
Standing on a wine bottle
Sitting in a Pringles box
Yoga on the beer bottle cap
Dancing out of a Pringles box (a big group) and not so great as a photo not a video!!
The tightrope (bootlace) between two hiking boots
It was super fun and we laughed a lot as we attempted to balance in place, feeling totally foolish, with no clue whatsoever how the photos would turn out but we did indeed have a great photographer!
After this we headed for cactus island and hiked around - again constantly out of breath hiking up, feeling totally pathetic at not being able to breathe and realising that despite the land being so flat, you were still at an incredible altitude. It was hard to comprehend how you could be so high above sea level!
The cacti grow about 1 m per year, so some have been growing for 4-500 years. Luckily I didn’t manage to sit on one like it did in Eritrea! Really didn’t need that experience repeated and thankfully I’d learned my lesson to keep a distance!
Sunset was approaching an we needed to be heading off - we still had our beers to drink while the sun went down over the hexagonally designed salt plains which apparently form as the water evaporates. We drove the the edge of the salt before turning around to watch the sun disappear whilst drinking red wine (a nice touch by the guide!).
What an incredible day! We wandered the town until we found a restaurant for dinner before heading to the bus station for the long ride back to La Paz. I was luckily to wake up a little earlier than planned and heard the driver shouting that he had stopped at the airport! I took the opportunity to jump out and head to check in for my flight later that morning! Off to Paraguay for me, but will definitely be back to see more of Bolivia! Until then…
Comments