The Bus Mud Go On

So the trip back from rurre was interesting to say the least. After a promising start, leaving only 20 minutes late, things where going smoothly, a quick stop to put some produce for transporting and we were on our way.

About 2 hours into the journey, we came to a halt, as the rain drenched muddy road had claimed three cars, that needed to be towed out, and caused us a 40 or so minute delay. But once the road was clear we were once again flying. A few hours later, after starting our climb we came across a grounded lorry, we slowly edged passed the lorry, only for the back end of the bus to skid out and clip the wagon. It was only on close inspection we realised the wagon was carrying gas cylinders. Also having dug the wagon out the driver wasn't overly impressed about being pushed further into the mud, and an argument ensued between the bus and wagon driver with allegations being thrown back and forth. Finally the dispute was settled and we were on the road again, stopping briefly for food.

As the night set in we stopped, for what we thought was our evening meal, only to be told the bus would be there for the night as a landslide had happened on the road ahead and it wouldn't be cleared until the morning!

After an uncomfortable sleep, we were rudely awoken around 6:30 by a choqlita singing! Anticipating an 8 o'clock departure we sat tight. When 10:30 came some people decided enough was enough and took a taxi option, we held firm, and finally at 1pm we started to move, only about 5km up the road, and we again hit traffic. I decided to take a walk and see what lay ahead, after 1km i hit a small landslide with some trees teetering, a further 2km down the road I came across a fallen tree, with nobody working to clear the blockage, it wasn't looking promising. En route to the landslide, a makeshift slaughterhouse had been set up, where some pigs killed in the landslide had been gutted and hung from the trees! Finally I reached the obstruction, and hearing different tales, some saying 2-3 hours and the road would be clear others saying 2-3days the only thing for consistent in the stories was nobody knew if the road beneath was damaged!

Upon return to the coach, dark clouds started to develop over head and the first few drops of rain fell and stopped, thankfully! Around 4pm a guy came passed the bus shouting La Paz, he had a bus on the other side of the landslide, we decided it was a risk worth taking. We gathered our belongings and made the 5km or so journey! When crossing the mud Katie lost her shoes on numerous occasions, with locals standing and laughing at these silly foreigners.

We gratefully boarded the bus, and sat and waited for departure, it soon became apparent a lot of people wanted to use the service, fortunately for us we had a seat. The bus started to reverse down the hill until we reached a suitable turning point, and after a multiple point turn we were off an moving forward. Shortly after we reached a small town and the bus stopped offloading a fridge, and allowing more people onto the bus, but into the luggage hold. We set off for caravani at quite some pace, and made reasonable time getting there, allowing the people in the hold time to stretch their legs, and for us to eat our first hot meal in 48hours!

Again everyone was loaded into their relevant travel positions and off we headed towards coroico, on what can be described as the continuation of The Death Road, a series of twists and turns on a narrow stretch of road climbing from 1000m to the heights of 4700m. The uneven surface had the bus rocking and on occasions, gave us the impression that only three wheels where in contact. The first point of interest in this leg of the journey, involved us getting off the via around midnight and walking a 100m or so through puddles, and mud as the bus driver was unsure of what that particular stretch of road has instore. About an hour later we were again asked to get off and walk, this time through a fast flowing stream come river, as we got off the bus we saw a guy slip and drop his torch over the edge of the waterfall. Needless to say we headed as far away from the edge as possible. Once we had crossed the bus followed suit, only to get stuck, after multiple attempts to free the bus, including about 20 of us pulling the bus with a rope,a lorry coming the opposite way was able to tow the bus out!

Thankfully we were left to settle for the night, apart from a Chilean couple on the floor talking and singing till 3am!

We finally arrived in La Paz at 6:30am on Tuesday 44 hours after leaving Rurre on a supposed 18 hour journey!

In the Pampas, the mighty Pampas...

We had the choice of either visitng the Pampas (wetlands of the jungle) or the actual jungle. We decided on the Pampas as the variety of animals to see was much greater.


The adventure started with a 22 hour bus ride to Rurrenabaque (Rurre). It usually (only) takes about 18 hours but due to rainy season and the uncertainty of weather the roads would be drivable, it took longer! The only real story about the journey was that we got stuck for about 50 minutes due to a landslide. however, the return bus journey was much more eventful, it deserves a blog all to itself!! so watch this space!

Rurre itself is very nice and laid back, a million miles away (literally) from La Paz. Our first task was to actually book our tour. We met an extravagent man when we got off the bus promising us discounts and he did not disapoint. we also managed to get a discount off our return bus journey!

8.15 the following morning we arrived at the tour office to begin the trip of 3 days and 2 nights. We needed to make a 3 hour jeep ride to the river, after which our boat (our mode of transport for the next 3 days) and guide, Toto, awaited us. The boat was less than 2 foot wide and wobbled anytime anyone moved. Quite unsettling at first. We slapped on the suncream and moquito repelent. Although the boat ride to the ecolodge should only take 1 hour, Toto took us on a detour to spot birds and monkeys.

Upon arriving in the ecolodge, basic accomodation on stilts on the river shore, we allocated ourselves beds and enjoyed a snack of popcorn, biscuits and cold juice. A quick refresh before heading to the aptly named sunset bar to enjoy a cold beer and the sunset. We returned to the lodge for dinner before heading on our next outing, alligator hunting at night. Quite an experience! We had already got our first glimpse of the gators upclose as one resided right outside the lodge.

So, armed with flashlights and hearts in mouths, we boarded the boat on what seemed to be the longest 2hours ever! Toto managed to spot a baby gator and asked us if we wanted him to catch it and bring it on board. We all agreed through gritted teeth. Unfortunately, it swam off. The next time we spotted it in some bushes, he was unsure was to whether mother was close to baby, so choose not to catch it!

Needless to say, although needing sleep after a hectic day, sleep was not great due to heat and humidity!

Day 2, heat was not something we were too worried about due to a monster downpour starting very early morning and continuing untill 2pm!

Not letting the rain get the better of us, we donned wellies and coats and climbed on board and set off to hunt for anacondas. We travelled for about an hour in the boat (in the pouring rain) before we hit a small island. We climed out the boat and where sent off in different directions (much to our horror) to look for something thats brown, black and yellow. After about 45 minutes of wandering, Toto called us together to go walking as a group. Walking is an understatement. We waded, thigh deep in water, hoping that nothing slithered past our legs. luckily, we were safe. But, on the other hand, we did not any anaconas, no matter now much Toto decided to poke at the holes in trees or hit branches. The boat Beckoned as well as the warmth and dryness of the lodge, so we boarded and headed back for lunch and an postfeed siesta.

Thankfully, the rained cleared up so our afternoon activity, swimming with pink dolphines looked promising. Few where couragious enough to braze the water, but the dolphines kept their distance we did manage to see numerous playing and popping out the water.

Although it was too cloudy to watch the sunset, that did not stop us from stopping at a bar for an improptu beer and a game of football for the boys!

Post dinner involved drinking, music, games and general merriment, thankfully we were not woken at 4.30 the next morning (as we were told we would be) to watch the sunrise to due, yet again, more rain!

So after a relative lie in, we again donned our wet clothes from the day before, and headed out in the boat, for what we thought was Piranha fishing. After an hour and a half of travelling, and again much rain, some of the others in the group broke it to us that we were in fact, only out looking for sloths, and not some magical fishing spot. With this disappointment, we called for Toto to turn the boat around, and head back to the lodge for our last meal, before heading back to terra firma!

The boat ride back to Santa Rosa, took us on the same route as our arrival, but at a much quicker pace.

When the Jeep arrived to take us back to Rurre, we were informed we would have a few extra passengers, who needed to catch a flight. And so the race was on, for us to get back to Rurre in under 3 hours for the guys to catch their plane. We surprisingly made record time, getting the guys to the airport with 5 minutes to spare!

Once back in Rurre after a shower, we headed out to meet the guys from the tour for cocktails and pizza, and general merriment!

UnBoliviable

Having seen the Top Gear special, and read all about "The Death Road" we decided it would be a once in a lifetime experience to cycle down it! After much deliberation over the many tour companies, mainly the free t-shirt design, we chose Pro Downhill, the company offering knee, and elbow pads as well as over clothes, and the best rider to guide ratio we could find!

The day started bright and early with a walk to the cycle cafe, for a hearty breakfast, of hot bread, fruit and coffee. We where picked up from the cafe, in a mini bus along with the 3 others who where on our trip. We headed an hour out, and above La Paz 4,700m, to start our safety brief, before the first 22km of the ride. This took place on a paved road, and allowed us opportunity to get to grips with the bikes! We made a few stops on the way to admire the views, and to pass through the anti-narcotic check point. Before our final stop to pay entrance into the death road!

We loaded back into the bus for an 8km climb on gravel roads, we where all thankful of not having to pedal up the hill! The short drive brought us to the top of the real death road, thankfully for me it was surrounded by cloud, so we could not see down in to the valley from this point! The start of the ride was a little bit shaky but once we got into the swing of things we where flying down the road, following our guide, while he was taking plenty of photos! We made multiple stops on the way down the road, stopping for snacks drinks, and photos at some of the more famous points along the way, including riding through waterfalls!

The only part of the ride that required us to pedal was for about 15 minutes on some flat land, fortunately not uphill! Before a technical final descent to a small town of Yolansita, and to a nice hotel with a swimming pool, for a buffet lunch!

Denver the last

After the mine visit in potosi, we spent a further two days in the city, one day we climbed up an old church spire which afforded us panoramic views of the city and surrounding mountains.

Upon leaving Potosi we headed to Sucre the Judicial capital of Bolivia, the main square had some beautiful architecture and some of the most important buildings in Bolivian history, the liberty house where the Bolivian independence documents where signed over 400 years ago. Whilst in Sucre we visited a dinosaur park, a 300m wall which contained over 5000 fossilised dinosaur footprints, belonging to 4 different types of dinosaur, although now vertical, the wall had once been the floor of a swamp, and it is thought all the fossils on show where preserved from the same day!

After sucre we took an overnight bus to Cochabamba, a nice little city with very few things to do. The main attraction here is a huge statue of Christ, bigger than the one in Rio, however after catching a cable car to the foot of it we realised how tacky it seemed on comparison, in the base of the statue a souvenir shop, and what we thought memorial plaques but on closer inspection we realised they where infact adverts for local businesses. You could also climb up the inside of the statue and view out of the arms, I'm surprised they hadn't put view points outbid the statues eyes and sell it as seeing through the eyes of Jesus!

From Cochabamba we travelled to Oruro, not that there was much there! We visited a mining museum, that was based in am old working mine, it housed equipment that had been used and a number of different Tio's. Oruro host Bolivia's equivalent of carnival, which the town appeared to be getting ready for, cleaning away last years decorations ready for the new ones to be put in place!

Going Underground

Going underground
From Uyuni we travelled to Potosi, the world highest city, with the worlds highest brewery. Unfortunately this was not the reason for our visit.
Potosi was, at one time, the richest city in Bolivia, and the grand buildings, and churches are a testament to that. The vast wealth in the city came about from the silver mines located in the surrounding mountains, these our now a large part of the tourist routes in Bolivia.
So the trip to the mine started with us being geared up in wellies, protective clothing, hard hat and headlamp. We were taken by bus to the miners Market where our guide explained about the different items on sale, and we purchased some ourselves as gifts to the miners. The guide then showed us the procedure for chewing coca leaves, the cigarettes the miners smoke and the 96% proof alcohol they drink, as well as the dynamite!
After a short ride we arrived above the processing plants the minerals mined are sent to, the guide again took the time to explain the process as well as the dangers of the by products, which include high concentration cyanide.
Finally we arrived at the mine, and we where given a few minutes for some photos by the carts and at the entrance to the mine, after a safety briefing we divided into groups of 5/6 and headed into the mine. First point of call was to give thanks to El Tio the miners devil, although catholic men the miners believe God does not enter the mine, so inside the mine they worship El Tio. Each day upon entering the mine they give coca leaves, cigarettes, and alcohol to El Tio in exchange for safety, good mineral, strength and fertility, and we did like wise!
The guide led us into the main shaft of the mine, calling out whenever there was a low part of the ceiling or a cart filled with stone heading our way, at which point, it was a case of dive into the nearest alcove and off the tracks!
The first group of miners we visited involved us climbing up a shaft and through some small gaps on our hands and knees, upon reaching the point of work we were greeted by a large chap called don pedro. he was huge! god only knows how he had gotten through the holes we had crawled through. Don pedro was really friendly posing for pictures, answering questions, and sharing the gifts of alcohol. He explained about the three main minerals found in the rock, zinc, tin, and the occasional streaks of silver. We all had a go at shovelling stone into a wheel barrow before trying to wheel it off!
The next group we came across where about to load one of the carts, which was astonishing to watch, as a slide was opened and a ton of stone filled the awaiting cart, the leader of the cart was a 17 year old who had been working in the mine for 5 years already!
The final group we met, again involved climbing and crawling in small spaces, was led by two brothers, at first they where a little stand offish and held up the miner-gringo divide, but as soon as alcohol and cigarettes where passed around, they opened up and would speak to us in a more friendly manner, I can understand the hostility toasted the tourists as the miners see very little of the money paid for the tour. 10% of what we paid goes to the mine, and that money isn't necessarily fed down to the miners who entertain the tours!
All in all the tour was an amazing experience but it's not something I would rush back to doing in a hurry, it gave us the insight to see the horrendous working conditions that these guys put up with, sometimes for very little money, as each group of miners works as a cooperative, so if the mineral in the area they are mining is poor then so is the amount of money the refineries pay for the product!

Salt flats

Salt flats
Day one

We where picked up from our hostel at 8am and taken to the Chilean border for our exit stamps, this took about 40 minutes, despite our drivers best attempts at queue jumping 16 people!

After another 30 minutes in the mini bus we arrived at the Bolivian border, here we got our entry stamps, and met up with the 4x4's, in which the most part of the next three days where to be spent! After a hearty breakfast of bread, dulce, fruit, yoghurt, coffee, and coca leaf tea we set off to the first attraction, the White lake, here we got our first glimpse of flamingos. Stop number two of the day was the copper saturated, green lake, with impressive mountainous and deserty surroundings! After an hour or so in the car we stopped at the hot springs, and our first days lunch, smash and hot dog sausages! After lunch we made the climb to a mighty 4,800m and went driving through the geyser fields, with photo opportunities galore! We finally made a small descent to 4,200m and here we found the red lake and our first nights accommodation, a residencial with no running water! Highlights of day one include the drivers door swinging open whilst driving, finding the driver had his wife and child with him, meeting a french guy who is cycling around the world, and discovering toilets worse than Glastonbury!

Day two

We Rose to a crisp morning having had a decent nights sleep despite the altitude and we were the first car on the road, only for Habib to realise he had left his hat in the hostel, so our lead was less than it should have been

First point of call today was the rock tree, a piece of volcanic rock that if you squinted and had the sun in your eyes looked remotely like a tree! The drivers wife took up a position in the rear of the car next to katie allowing me to move into the middle of the car for a much smoother journey!

From the rock tree we drove to a number if lagoons, including the ironic deep lagoon, it was only 20-30cm deep, and the aptly named stinky lagoon, due to the high sulphur content, this lagoon is home to the largest population of flamingos in south america.

Our lunch stop on day two came at timely point, the car got a flat tire just as we were pulling into a huge collection of rocks, the scheduled stopping point, but funnily enough the road leading here had been the smoothest we experienced! The six of us found shelter under an overhang and set about watching 3 men, a woman, and child trying to repair the puncture, the jack was in place and the wheel off in a time a F1 pit crew would of been proud of, as was the smoothness of the spare tire! Thankfully they decided against using the slick, and instead replaced the inner tube of the original wheel! All was well and lunch was good, then the health and safety issues started, as the spare wheel wasn't being used Habib lay under the car to reattach it to the van, at the same time, with the car still jacked up, his son and another thought it a good idea to climb into the car! Fortunately no one came to any harm!

After lunch we drive continuously for about 3 hours, onto and across a smaller salt flat than the main one we had come to visit. it was at this point I was thankful to be in the middle of the car, no banging of heads on ceiling, no curved spine from bending, and no knees under my chin. Seeing one of the other cars from our tour group broken down was a welcome sight as it allowed us 10 minutes to stretch our legs!

Once across the flats we stopped in a small town called San juan and the car then sounded like it wasn't going to start! The final leg of today's journey we were told would take an hour, and it was the longest hour in a car ever! driving over mud, sand, grass, pretty much anything other than Tarmac, all that kept us going was the promise of a hot shower and flushing toilets, at the salt hotel! After praying that each corner was the last, we finally made it to the hotel, and everything, including the beds was made from salt or cactus wood! Our hopes and dreams were dashed when we were told that there was no hot water and that there was very little water to shower with, fortunately we had been the first to arrive, and took advantage of the limited resources! Once "clean" and settled we sat about playing cards again, only for a brief interruption of a sand/salt storm brewing in the distance!

Day three

Again another early start, this time before sunrise, and a race across the salts followed, to reach incahuasi island to see the sunrise. As we reached the island the first signs of Dawn were emerging, so a run up to the top of the island was required, we just about made it in time to catch the sunrise! The island itself was quite a sight with an abundance of cacti ranging in sizes, some as big as 12 feet!

We ate a pancake breakfast at the island before speeding out across the salt flats, an our next stop to take the obligatory depth perception photos, with a volcano luming in the background!

Next we saw the salt refining plants, and a stop off in a small village, showed us the manufacturing process, that makes the salt edible, all of which done by hand, and in what looks like someones garage!

The final stop on the tour was in the train cemetery in Uyuni, the start of the first railway system in south America, the cemetery housed trains dating back to the 1800's!

The tour left us in Uyuni a small town that thrives on the tourist industry, from the salt flats. Here we spent the afternoon eating and drinking with the guys from the tour!