Beginnings of Bolivia

Writing this as head into Bolivia from Peru...once again with lots to catch up on.  I think these entries are going to end up being a little blurred, and with the odd hole here and there...but hopefully I should  be able to cover most areas off!

Longing for more...

So, I leave Bolivia with, like many others, a lust for more.  Despite spending a month here and having visited a plethora of varied locations, I definitely feel I could come back here for more:  Rurrenabaque, the jump off point for Amazonian explorations; the easten districts encompassing the richest areas of the company and the laid back dwellings near Saimapata are all places that will demand another visit some day.  One place, in particular, captured my imagination over a thai lunch in La Paz.  It was here we met an Amerircan/German/Italian guy who owned an Organic Farm near to Samaipata called Ginger's Paradise. At the risk of sounding all 'good life', the promise of organic food, lessons is jewellery making, helping in tofu production and digging in on the farm all compounded to make this sound an attractive proposition.  However, given the 20 hour or so travel time from La Paz and our ever impending flight to the States, Ginger's looks like it'll have to wait till next time.

So, what did we do? 

Enough of what we didn't do and on to what we did!  Perhaps it's best to start with an quick conclusion or sum up, if you will. I have come out of this country with a deeper understanding of Bolivian folklore and history, an appreciation of the cultural and political signifiance of the much revered coca leaf, a slightly improved level of Spanish expertise (after some lessons in La Paz) and a brand spanking new addition to my right foot in the form of small star tattoo.  Whilst in this country, I have pondered why there are so many pharmacies, why every shop on any particular road sells exactly the same range of products (surely any business acumen would suggest that a little distinction could only be a good thing?) and why there is so much emphasis (particularly with regards the naming of streets) on dates throughout history.  While the first two points still leave me baffled, the latter is perhaps a more serious one, insofar as highlighting the rocky history of the nation and how significant these milestones dates are for her development (Bolivia is apparently a women by the way).  Bolivia, in particularly, seems to have had a rough time of it over the past centuries, first struggling for independence only to have a sizeable portion of its land taken away by the neighbouring countries of Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.  The losses suffered by the Bolivians included, most significantly, their coastline - something that still ruffles their feathers to this day.    

Really.. what did he do..

Iquique - Sucre

Managed to go off on a tangent again...I do apologise!

The final destination before Bolivia was the unashamedly tacky but super fun beach bum centre of Iquique in northern Chile. Here we relaxed on the beach, partied hard and... that was about it...loads of fun though, if not completely devoid of culture.  Before that we visited San Pedro de Atacama, which was the place for geyser discovery, salt water floating and 2 for 1 pisco sours. We had gone to SPDA (the driest desert in the world) primarily to partake in a 'star tours' session, where we would be taught all about the night sky by a french astronomer. Unfortunately, however, there were too many clouds for the duration of our stay so we were unable to attend - something we were very sad about :(.  We managed to console ourselves with a few cocktails, though, so all was dandy! 

After Iquique, our newly formed gang of 5 (Canadian Chelsea, American Paige, Ozzy Lloyd and Ash and I....latterly known as Gash and The Colonies) trundled across the border to the city of Oruro in Bolivia. The crossing turned out to eventful to say the least.   Firstly, whilst waiting at the bus station, Paige's laptop mysteriously disappeared.  The fact that it had presumably been stolen right from under our noses without us noticing left us all a little unsettled. The second event, the witnessing of the aftermath of a car crash, was even more macabre and we were all a little shaken by seeing two dead bodies on the edge of the road.  The van, that had been transporting what looked like a family, had toppled off the windy road into a cliff face with the surviving members now left waiving for help to passers by.  Another disturbing element to the tale was that no-one seemed to stop, despite the constant gesturing of a mobile phone made one of the men in the group.

Luckily the rest of the journey went a little more smoothly (apart from Paige suffering from a bout of travel sickness and Ash getting locked in the toilet on the bus) and we were welcomed by darkness into Oruro later on that night.  Oruro is an old mining town in central west Bolivia that apparently is the most representative of the 'real Bolivia' among all the destinations that a tourist might visit.  It was very different to other places we had visited so far, with an abundance of Cholitas (women dressed in traditional Bolivian dress), markets everywhere and a generally slightly dirtier and shabbier feel to it.  Oruro had been the choice destination for 2 reasons: firstly, it was here that we planned to catch the train down to Tupiza, where we would start our Salar de Uyuni tour and, secondly, to book our accommodation for the fast approaching carnival. As the home of South America's 2nd most famous carnival destination (after Rio), accommodation in Oruro books up quickly over the festive period (as well as being VERY dear), so we made sure we were all set with the reservations before we headed down south.

The 12 hour or so train journey down to Tupiza was spent celebrating the 27th birthday of Gash and The Colonies member Chelsea.  Pass the parcel, dodgy champagne (read Perry..or maybe Cider), balloons, party games and cake were all part of the order of the day and we wiled away the hours drinking and being merry...like all birthdays should be spent!

We arrived in Tupiza early the next day and spend a couple of days here walking, horse riding and generally enjoying the novel cheapness of Bolivia....as well as laughing at misspellings/ misinterpretations of food items on menus.  Some personal favourites of mine included 'Eggplant to the Iron', 'Pasta to the garlic', 'Mounted Loin' and, of course, the famous 'He/She/ It calls' for Lama (anyone who knows Spanish will get this...for those of you who don't rest assured that this is a very bad and very funny mistake!).

Tupiza was also where we embarked on our 4 day/ 3 night tour of Salar de Uyuni...something that 99.9% of all visitors to Bolivia will take part in...and for good reason.  To write about the beautiful scenery and experiences on this trip would only serve an injustice, so instead I defer to a couple of photographs below:

What with the brilliant scenery and our fabulous guide Santos and cook Fortunada, our trip around these Bolivian highlights turned out to be among the best things we have seen so far...a sentiment that you often hear echoed around South America among the backpacker community.

We finished our trip in Uyuni, a town, like Oruro, that was centred around mining and so a little drab and depressing.  We only had to stay here one night, though, before heading off to the more cosmopolitan and rich city of Sucre. Once the capital of Bolivia, Sucre is now considered the most beautiful city in the country, with white-washed buildings and a buzzing university population.  Lloyd, Ash and I left Chelsea and Paige for a few days to visit this city and I got my man fix spending time with the boys alone.  Ironically, we spent a large proportion of our time in Sucre buying thread and learning how to make friendship bracelets...perhaps I had rubbed off more on the guys than the other way round...

We left Sucre to meet back up with the girls in Oruro again, where we were to done our fancy dress and got involved in Carnival festivities.....

 
Carnival

Dancers in traditional Bolivian dress.

Oruro was to be our location for The Carnival celebrations....a party lasting for 3 days (and beyond).  The 5 of us piled into 2 small hotel rooms and started the party in earnest by becoming ill (well Paige and me at least).  Luckily I had already sourced my fancy dress and so could spend the Friday in bed, preparing for the next 2 days of partying.  By the Saturday I was feeling a lot more chipper and dressing up as a bumble bee only added to the excitement.  

Ash, Chelsea, Paige and Lloyd also dressed up to the nines, including a gold glitter beard, red lipstick and a red wig for Ash..I think everyone (including the scores of Bolivians who stopped to stare) agreed that he looked amazing, in an 'Axyl Rose' on acid kind of way (see pic). 

 

We managed to get seats on an old rickety bench about 3 metres up next to an old flower store and settled down to watch a day of parades through the city.  The procession featured numerous different dance groups from different areas of Bolivia, and representing different elements of Bolivian folklore and history.  One group, for instance, represented the Bolivian culture of growing coco leaves, with the dancers' costumes beautifully embroidered with golden leaves on their backs.  Another group featured dancers wore elaborate white beards, representing the Spanish conquistadores, with other dancers dressed up as African slaves, wearing balls and chains round their ankles.  A bit of research into the history of Bolivia informed me that somewhere between 8 and 10 million African slaves died as a result of poor conditions working the mines in the times - a statistic I found really shocking.
 
Carnival had been a real eye-opener of Bolivian culture and tradition and I am really glad we made the effort to go back to Oruro to experience it.