Salt Flat Shenannigans

It had to be done! Here are our silly pics on the Salt Flats…

(with suitabley blanked out card details)

and a little vid…

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Potosi to Tupiza

Second taste of Bolivian public transport and a far cry from our previous hellish experience! We purposefully got a day bus and banged and clattered through the high Andes. In sharp contrast to our last bus ride the people were friendly and you could almost say there was a bit of a party on board, aided I dare say by the fact that we mostly all pilfered a couple of bottles of semi alcoholic beverage from an overturned lorry that selfishly held us up for a while on the way. No one seemed to be hurt so there was much rejoicing.

Later, aided still by our pilfered booty, the passengers were less deterred than you might imagine by a four hour delay sitting by the side of the road while the road was mended.

It also allowed the bus to be mended, with scelotape. Slightly more worrying that the steering was also mended with scelotape!

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La Paz to Potosi. Bolivia

(Sorry flitting all over the place at the moment, this post is Bolivia now!)

We’d heard the stories about robberies on this bus. One girl we met in La Paz had to punch a hand away from her bag. It was a night bus and she had to stay up the full 10 hours it takes. As we boarded our bus (we purposefully chose a day bus arriving about 10pm) we were warned no less than three times both on and off the bus by different bus officials to watch our hand luggage

As soon as we sat down on the back seats (we guessed that only having people in front of us was better than having to deal with people behind too) we knew something was wrong. A man came and sat next to Tam and put his bag down on the floor. He struck up a fairly friendly normal conversation in Spanish and eventually asked if we’d like some beer. Beer on a 14 hour bus with no toilet didn’t sound like a good idea so he wasn’t ever going to get anywhere with that line. Tam straight away said “no we have to look after our bags” at which point, with no other words he got up and left us. I’d noticed there were four of them and I couldn’t help but see that they didn’t crack open the beers themselves. Apparently on this trip people can also resort to drugging food and drink.

He’d left his bag on the floor by our seats though, surely a way to excuse himself occasionally as he went to forage. We had our Spanish line ready the next time he came back to tell him it would be better to move his bag and even considered striking before he could and nicking some his stuff but Coca leaves weren’t really worth it

Seeming surrounded by robbers we were getting very proud of our deductive and defensive powers and in some ways treating it like a bit of a game. When darkness came we were ready, but not quite for the blatant cheek of it! The robbers had spread out a bit, one on each double seat in front of our back seat, pretending to be asleep. The others seemed to have given up. As darkness fell a hand emerged from a “sleeping” robber across the floor. As blatant as you like it searched out Tam’s rolled up sleeping bag. What they thought they were going to do with it and how they thought they would move it I have no idea. This happened a couple more times. Each time I just shone a light at them and we could hardly stifle giggles (well it was slightly more explicit than that at the time!). Fortunately that was that and they were obviously only trying it on and taking things easy to grab. Of course it could be a lot more serious. A knife would certainly relieve us of anything they wanted but I guess that’s the same anywhere. The stupid part is, all we could do was protect our stuff and laugh at them. The places we’ve been on these busses are tiny, separated by hundreds of miles of mountains and deserts with only the odd goat herder to be seen. You’re definitely on your own in some of these places.

Titi

Lake Titicaca (there seem to be so many ways to spell this, I’m sticking with this version). Straddling Peru and Bolivia, I’m sure rivalries have been serious in the past. Today though, it seems that the main preoccupation is who has the Titi (titi) and Caca (poo) part.

The lake is famous for it’s floating islands and reed boats. Originally a way to escape Spanish taxes and other colonial tinkering. Now, if it wasn’t for the tourists these islands and way of life would almost certainly not exist anymore. Some might say that the way of life has already gone and what you see is purely for the tourists. Look behind the wonderfully manicured islands and the picture postcard houses on them and you’ll probably find a motor boat rather than a reed boat. How many people actually live on these islands after the tourists go home I have no idea.

We went for a full day trip to the floating islands and Taquile island (you can do half days that only take in the floating islands). This trip from Puno is shamelessly touristy! One look at the harbor will confirm just how popular this trip is with hundreds of boats moored up ready for the morning rush. I think if you go with this in mind, you won’t be disappointed though.

Whatever the reality is, they put on a good show here. Just stepping on the islands is fun, they don’t bob up and down but they’re really springy. We got a little talk about the lake and how the islands and boats are made (out of reeds of course) and then ate some of the reeds. Very nice. Good for the thyroid apparently, so I’ll bare that in mind! We were then shown the inside of one of the houses. I really don’t know if it was used or not. The main thing I wanted to do though was wander and check out the islands. The final part was an optional ride on the reed boat.

The visit to Isla Taquile is probably worth it too just for the views [more]

Tourist spotting over Taquile square

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Move over Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Something I didn’t think I’d find myself doing! St Vincent, just outside Tupiza here in Bolivia is the final resting place of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. So following in their footsteps we strapped on the silly hats and clambered onto our trusty steeds. I’ve never ever been on a horse before. Our guide didn’t speak any English and the instruction consisted of stop go, left and right but it was great fun. We only did three hours into the amazing Tupiza countryside but I might even try it again!

Kath attempted to take a video of me failing to get on the horse but I foiled that plan!

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Arequipa Nunnery

Woops! Totally forgot about this until just now. In Arequipa there’s a town within a town. A huge convent behind a huge wall now mostly open to the public. Only 30 nuns live there now (down from hundreds in the 15th century) and the place is run as a huge museum. The nuns are still there going about their business but you’ll never see them as they live in seclusion just as they have always done. Here’s some pics..

and Arequipa main plaza…

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How to Cross the Peru Border to Bolivia in Style

We’d heard horrible stories of the crossing from Peru to Bolivia at Copacabana and the UK Government travel advice website only reinforced those stories. People left right and center trying to scam you, asking for fees and trying to get passports off you and other really great things.

We’d heard it was possible to book a trip from Puno on the Peru side that included the border crossing and transport right the way to La Paz in Bolivia. We went to a few travel agents and got pretty vague answers and ridiculously cheap prices neither of which filled us with confidence we’d actually get to La Paz.

Then we heard about a “luxury” hydro foil trip that took you to Isla Sol (the birthplace of the Incas), which we really wanted to go to anyway and gave you lunch and dinner and on the way. And basically walked you through the border crossing, holding your hand all the way. We booked this at great expense, but had no regrets at all.

Of course the reality of the border crossing was nothing like the scare stories and website trouble making made out and I think anyone taking just a normal bus trip over the border could easily make it over in one piece! Either the authorities have done a really really good job of cleaning the place up or all the scammers had taken the day off. The closest we got to any trouble was a kid asking to change an Ozzy dollar he’d been given to Peruvian. It’s not that obvious where you should go on either side of the border to get your exit stamp in Peru and entrance stamp in Bolivia, both offices are just mixed in with various shops though and we were glad our guide took care of everything. If you speak Spanish I’d imagine there’d be no problem. If not, then as long as there’s a group of you on the bus and one person knows where to go I’d imagine there’d be no problem too. All the offices are defiantly on the left side of the road going from Peru to Bolivia. You need to go to two offices in Peru; the police and the passport offices and just the immigration office in Bolivia.

Peru – Bolivia border. Bolivian entrance stamp office just to the left through this arch.

Anyway, back to our luxury trip. A short bus ride from the border got us to Copacbana. It wasn’t quite a hydro foil waiting for us but a very nice catamaran at least!

After some sightseeing in Copacabana, the cathedral and market etc we boarded our catamaran bound for the Isla we Sol and then onwards to the northern Bolivian coast where another bus was waiting for us to take us all the way to La Paz.

Isla del Sol was great fun. It did kind of lull us into a false sense of security though and some of the Bolivia we’d encounter later was a far cry from the organised and very pleasant Isla del Sol!

There’s a really good little museum,

some good stuff about the reed boats, we got blessed by a shaman,

rowed a reed boat (well it was a reed catamaran and it had a motor, but apart from that it was completely authentic… honest!)

all in the space of a few hours.

First sight of La Paz…

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All over the place

Sorry these last few posts and a few to come are all over the place. I’ve been in Bolivia for the last few weeks and wireless pretty much doesn’t exist. I’m now in Argentina!

Hi Eial, Pablo & Co! Not going to make it to BA unfortunately, we’re heading down the west side from Salta to Chile. Salta is brilliant!

Salt Hotel

If you lick it, it definitely taste like salt. And if you have a shower remember to take your shoes. I didn’t, and started melting into the salty floor as I traipsed back to the salty room.

We decided to treat ourselves and splashed out 100Bs to stay in the Salt Hotel on the last night of the Salt Flat trip. Embarrassingly, I got it confused with the Ice Hotel at every opportunity but it’s definitely worth the money. It might not look like a shining white fairy tale castle on the outside but inside it’s a strange cool place. Everything except the showers and toilets is made out of salt blocks; the chairs, tables, walls, floors and beds. Don’t pull too hard on the mains sockets though as salt isn’t that great a material for screwing things to!

This isn’t the original Salt Hotel. That is now a crumbling tiny overpriced museum (no entrance fee but you have to buy something from the shop and everything is double what you’d pay at the next stop in the trip just down the road). In the traditional display of international flags outside we were horrified to find there was no British flag! We might send one.

Salty Day 4

The final day and the main event. An early start from our lovely warm Salt Hotel. The aim was to see the sun rise over the Salt Flats. We just made it, and it was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this place.

Then it was on to Fish Island for breakfast. Fish island is right in the middle of the flats and is covered in huge cacti, some over 900 years old. Amazing views of the flats too.

Then it was on to the most serious part of the day; taking silly pictures.. and videos! More on that in a later post, gotta download the pics!

On the way back we passed through the old train cemetery, an eery strange place in the middle of nowhere.