Bolivia

We arrived in Santa Cruz early in the morning and as it was May Day everything was shut, so we got straight in a taxi to Samaipata, a small town about 2 hours drive away. Getting a taxi may sound a bit extravagant but it cost less than 2 pounds each and saved waiting all day for a bus. The area I am in now is very different from the rest of Bolivia that I have seen so far, its a very green area and looks very tropical, which is a big change from the cold,dry areas I have seen so far.

We arrived in Samaipata for lunch and had a look round the town. After speaking to a Dutch guy who lived there we followed his recommendation to go to the zoo. It wasn´t so much a zoo, but more of an animal sanctuary in the back garden of someone's house, but it was an amazing place. There were 3 different types of monkeys, most of which were just free to run around and climb on you. We also got to feed some of the caged monkeys. They also had a sloth, some parrots, toucans, deer, a wild cat and various other things. Luckily we had arrived at feeding time, so walked round with the volunteers while they fed the animals.

The next day we went to see el fuerte, a pre-Colombian fort that was about 10km from the town. It was in a spectacular location, on top of a hill in the middle of the valley, so you could see for miles all around. The main feature of the fort was a huge rock, about 200m long that had various different carvings covering it and no one really knows the significance of it. The fort had also been taken over by the Incas and then the Spanish so had a really interesting history. And then we had a nice walk back into town.

On the 4th May there was a referendum in the area to vote for independence, we had been warned to try and leave by then as strikes and riots were predicted, so we cut short our stay in Samaipata and went back to Santa Cruz on the 3rd to get a bus out of there. But just 15 minutes before the bus was due to leave it was cancelled because of road blocks. After desperatly tring to get a bus to anywhere we realised we were stuck and would have to stay a couple of nights. So after finding a hostel we went to the only place open for dinner, an Irish bar. Here things went from bad to worse as we found out that alcohol was banned 24 hours before an election. So we had dinner and an early night.

The next morning we went for a walk around the town, and found there were none of the riots predicted, apart from a few people sitting in the main square the place was dead and absolutly everything was shut. But then on the way back to the hotel we went round a corner as a few cars came round the opposite corner. One car was surrounded and lots of guys got out with big sticks and started attacking it and a few people around, so we decided it was time to turn around and walk the other way back to the hotel, where we watched the incident for a whilewhile playing scrabble. Couldn´t work out what had happened, one car had been smashed up, the others were gone, a crowd of reporters were around, and empty ballot boxes were being taken out of the car. Quite a crowd developed and a police van turned up but it was told to leave by people in the crowd, so they just did. Later on a lot more armed police and riot police turned up with tear gas, and eventually got rid of the crowds. Saw something about it on the bews later, but still don´t know what really happened.

In the evening the result of the vote was announced, so there was a big party in the main square just down the road from our hotel. A lot of firecrackers, fireworks, flag waving, and music. Luckily for us the Irish bar over looking the square opened again and we were finally able to get something to eat and drink while watching the celebrations.

The next day there weren´t any buses until the evening so we were stuck in the city for another day. We ended up going to the zoo, which was actually quite good, as it was all animals and birds found in Bolivia and Peru.

In the evening we got the overnight bus to Trinidad, where we then took 2 flights to Rurrenabaque. The flights were good, the smallest plane I have ever been in, only 19 seats. Had good views over the rainforest during the flight. The landing was quite exciting, just a muddy strip of land cleared in the forest, but by the end of all te travelling and waiting around we were just happy to have finally arrived.

I arrived in Sucre late afternoon, so just had time to have a quick walk round the centre before it got dark and it seemed like a really nice city. And it was, I ended up staying longer than I planned.

The next day I explored more of the city and went to a really interesting museum about indigenous art from the area. It was all about how the traditional designs and techniques had been forgotten but in the last few decades there had been a big effort to revive the traditions. In the evening I went to the main Gringo cafe to watch the film-documentry about the mines in Potosi, after having been there a few days ago it was really interesting hear about the mines from the point of view of 2 boys that had to work there.
The next day I went on a trip to a cement works just outside of town where there are thousands of dinosaur footprints in a cliff face. Can´t decide whether I believe they are real or not, despite our guides insistence that thay had been verified by a team of Swiss paleontologists. But I started to have my doubts when the guide described one of the dinosaurs as being a similar species to the Loch Ness monster, and I really don´t think he was joking. On the tour I met a nice couple from London and an Irish guy and spent the rest of the day with them. I was suppossed to be catching a bus that evening but was persuaded to stay and travel with the English couple the next day.
In the morning I went to the museum of Bolivian history, basically they have been in a lot of wars and lost all of them, so the country is about half the size it used to be. We went to a nice cafe over looking the city for lunch, before having to get the bus in the evening. As usual in Bolivia, at the bus station there was chaos and we ended up being delayed leaving for over an hour because of some pricing scam. But we did eventually arrive in Santa Cruz the next morning.

The bus from Uyuni to Potosi took most of the day, its not very far but I am yet to see a proper road in Bolivia. So I arrived in Potosi late in the afternoon and found another really nice hostel to stay in, which for some reason was called the Koala Den even though I can´t imagine many places where koalas are less likely to live than Potosi. Despite Potosi being even higher than Uyuni, it wasn´t actually anywhere near as cold and the hostel even had heating in the evening, so it was a very comfortable place to stay.

The next day I went on a tour of the mines. After getting all the clothes, helmet and torch we went to the market to buy gifts for the miners. This included drinks, coca leaves and dynamite, so it was a bit strange being able to buy dynamite on the street for just over one pound. Then we drove up to the mine just outside of the city. We spent a couple of hours in the mine and that was enough for me, can´t imagine what its like to work there for 10 hours a day. The first part of the mine was OK, but the deeper we went the narrower and hotter the passages got so at times we were having to lie down and crawl through small gaps. At over 4000m and with all the dust in the air at times it was difficult to breath.

We stopped and chatted to one miner for a bit who had been working in the dark for 3 hours alone, they turn off their tourches to save money on batteries. Although it actually seemed to be a relativly well paid job the working conditions are really bad, but there aren¨t many other kinds of jobs in the area. We were told that about 40 miners die in the tunnels each year and they also have a shorter life expectancy than normal because of lung disease caused by working in the mines.
After visiting the mine we went outside and made a few explosives of our own to see the size of the explosion they made.

In the evening I went with a few people from the hostel to see a Pink Floyd tribute band playing in the citys theatre. It seemed to be a big event for the locals and the band werfe actually quite good.

I got the overnight bus from Salta to the Bolivian border where I had no problems crossing over. Immediatle there was a lot of obvious differences between the 2 countires. Bolivia is noticeably a lot poorer, less westernised and less developed than Argentina. But it was easy enough to find a bus to Tupiza, my first stop in Bolivia. I had heard a lot of stories about the poor transport in Bolivia, so was expecting the worst but so far it hasn´t been too bad, not the same luxury you get in Argentina nad Chile though.

I arrived in Tupiza early afternoon and found a nice hostel to stay in. Again after what I had heard from other people I was suprised by how nice the hostel was, it actually had one of the most comfortable beds that I have had for a long time. The claim of having hot showers was a bit of an exaggeration though. I spent the rest of the day looking round the town and getting organised for the next few days.

The next day I did a horse trek through the gorges and canyons in the surrounding countryside. This was really good, just like being in the wild west, riding through the dessert past cacti. THe horse riding I have done before has only been walking so doing a lot of trotting and cantering was good fun, but the next day I was feeling a bit sore when I started a 4 day Jeep trip to Uyuni. In the morning I met the guide and the other people I would be going with. It was a bit of a strange mix of people, the guide who didn´t speak a word of English, a guy from Russia, a guy from Australia, and a Japenese girl who didn´t speak that much English and no Spanish, but somehow it actually worked quite well. The first day was a lot of driving up to the altiplano, some good views but there wasn´t really much of anything there. We passed a few small villages which were basically a few mud huts and llamas. The people living there made the people I saw in Mongolia look very wealthy. Its amazing that they can live in these places, at high altitude with land and temperatures that are too poor to enable any kind of agriculture except a few llamas. Our first nights accomodation was basic but again better than I had expected, we even had flushing toilets and lights so i don´t know what everyone else was complaining about. And I finally got to use all the cold weather clothes that I have been carrying around in +30'C for months.

The next day we had to be up at 4.30am to leave by 5.00am. But there was a really nice sunrise as we drove up to one of the highest points of the trip at about 5000m. Most of the day was spent driving through a national park on the border of Chile, where we passed through so amazing landscapes, different coloured lakes with flamingoes, and volcanoes. We had to stop for n early lunch at a miners village for some repairs to our Jeep, are driver blammed the damage on the bad roads, but I think it was more to do with how fast he was driving on the bad roads. In the afternoon we went to a really nice hot springs for a swim, a perfect temperature, not too hot or to cold and in a really nice place. Then we drove up to around 5000m again to see some geysers before dropping down again to Laguna Colorada where we spent the the next night. The Laguna was one of the highlights of the trip, as we got to see a lot more flamingos close up and all the different colours in the water at sunset was incredible.

The third day wasn´t such a long drive and we had a few interesting stops. We went through the dessert, past interesting rock formations and more lagunas before reaching the Salar de Uyuni, the highlight of the trip. We stayed the night in a hostel by the side of the salt flat that was made entirely of salt, including all the beds and furniture. So had a good night there before another early start to see sunrise on the salt flat. it was worth getting up early for as it was one of the best parts of the trip. Only when the sun was up could you really appreciate the scale of the place. As far as you could see there was just salt. We stopped for breakfast at an island made of coral and covered in cacti before carrying on across the salt flat. We stopped a few more times, including one stop at a museum where there were salt sculptures and an area where people are allowed to mine the salt. Then we arrived at Uyuni in the early afternoon.

Theres not really much to do in Uyuni but I stayed one night before getting the bus to Potosi the next day. The only tourist attraction there was a very strange museum with a collection of mummies and deformed skulls, without really any information about them at all.