We had an absolutely amazing time in the Amazon Basin, the pampas tour was incredible and we saw so many different animals and birds - there are about a million photos to prove it! The journey there however was a different story.
We set off on the Tuesday morning in our Jeep that we'd hired, driven by Armando who was the boss of the tour company! Three hours out of La Paz, we hit a roadblock, a glorious Bolivian tradition where the small winding mountain roads are covered with trees, rocks and people stopping all the traffic from passing. Apparently they had been promised a "machine" (digger/strimmer/wheelbarrow?) by the government and they hadn't got it so why not bring the country to a standstill!? Anyway, we retreated to a hotel nearby to wait it out, hoping that Evo would dig deep and sort it out so we could get on the road again. 8pm arrived and Armie told us there'd been no progress and now there were 200 lorries backed up on the side of the mountain! We spent the night to see if it was different in the morning, and the same rice and steak meal for lunch, dinner and then breakfast!
Come the morning, there'd been no change, but Armie had found us a route! Brilliant. The bad news was it was a 10 hour detour to get to just beyond the roadblock. We set off along what appeared to be an even more questionable "road" through clouds and over rivers and up the sides of some of the biggest mountains we've seen so far. A lot of other people were taking this route the other way, which involved reversing round some very scary corners to get out of their way.
After 10 long hours, we were back on track for another 6 towards Rurrenabaque. This was the bumpiest road we'd ever been on, and we were progressing nicely before coming across another roadblock. Disaster had struck! Thankfully, this roadblock wasn't as militant as the other one, and we were able to pay our way through - a pricey £2.
From then on it was plain, bumpy sailing, until 2.30 am at which point the drug squad stopped us, searched our bags (badly) and asked for our passports, all the while shining torches in our faces. No dog, which was wierd, and we weren't smuggling kilos of fine Bolivian prodcue so on we went, finally arriving in Rurrenabaque at 3.30 am. We were up 4 hours later to head out on the tour.
We headed for 3 hours to Santa Rosa, grumpily managing to make the Aussie chap who'd joined our group feel most unwelcome! We saw Toucans, eagles and cows being herded by a team of Bolivian cowboys. Arriving in Santa Rosa, we made our way onto our longboat to take us to the eco-lodge. Within minutes we had seen alligators, caymen and turtles! We then spotted kingfishers, herons, birds of paradise and a family of capybara, or rat-pigs as they were known for the duration of the trip! The long journey in the jeep had already been forgotten, and when we saw the monkeys life couldn't get better!
The ecolodge itself was basic, and there was bat poo on Sara's pillow, but we ignored that and spent some time getting aquainted with the camps resident cayman. We could sit at the foot of the steps and it would be merely metres away, and feed the resident monkeys who hung about at the back of the camp - a favourite part of the trip for me!
Next day we were off into the pampas to see if we could find an Anaconda. We did, well, an Aussie lady did after about 20 minutes, so we were quite happy and lucky it turned out, the roup the next day spent 3 fruitless hours searching in the blistering heat. We quickly got out of the pampas which was a grassy muddy stink bog, and headed back to camp, Sara's one foot soaked thanks to a leaky welly, not that it stopped her spotting everything there was to be seen - the tiniest frog on a leaf didn't escape her eagle eyes! On the way back to the boat parrots flew overhead - everyone was happy.
That afternoon we (I) went swimming with the pink dolphins. It was more a swim near the dolphins, and as the water was muddy you couldn't really see them. It wasn't a highlight of the tour, although the proximity to the alligators was more of a talking point - they were not very far away at all!
That night we went out with our torches looking for the alligators - their eyes shine back. It wasn't that interesting, but the stars above were incredible, and this was coupled with the presence of thousands of fireflies twinkling in the trees. It was a magical moment! Then, Armando (who'd turned up earlier) invited us to a workers party he was throwing up the river, so off we went to spend a few hours with a load of Bolivian people! The two Dnaish girls shone, Sofie reading people's palms (Gypsy granny) and Sandra loving the cows they had there a bit too much, jumping in the pen with them every so often. Sara was tempted in to stroke a cow, before making a hasty exit through the fence when the crazy viking ran into the middle of them!
Next day we spent the morning piranha fishing and feeling a bit worse for wear. Sara caught a red piranha, the agressive ones (I'd swam in that water!), although it just grabbed onto the meat and didn't let go rather than getting hooked! It fell on the floor of the boat to the sound of girly squeals! All I managed to catch were catfish and what appeared to be the smallest fish ever caught by any man. Our guide had a good laugh at my expense.
Then it was back to Santa Rosa for the journey back to Rurrenebaque where Armando (who was driving us again) popped a tire on the jeep - the curse of the Team England/Denmark again! We arrived back to find out that the roadblocks were still going on, and we would have to fly back to La Paz. We stumped up the cash, and had a farewell dinner with our new Aussie chum (the initial hostility had all been forgotten!).
Next day, we headed to the airline office to get the bus to the airport, only to find it had already left. They told us not to worry, they'd get us a taxi. 6 motorbikes turned up, and bags on backs, we hopped on and whizzed to the airport. It was a field. There was a man with a pistol firing it to scare the animals off the "runway" (flattest bit of the field). Our plane arrived - a 19 seater twin propellered beast.
40 minutes later we were back in La Paz, wondering why we hadn't flown both ways!
Tuesday came and we said goodbye to our chums - we were off to Buenos Aires, on what turned out to be a 55 hour journey. We took the bus and then the train through Bolivia to the border - the train passing through the salt flats at night (we'd sat on the tracks 2 weeks previously!) and thereby being freezing! At the border at 7am, we crossed over into Argentina, not even bothering with an exit stamp from Bolivia, and headed to the bus station. From there we got a 5hour bus to Jujuy, where we changed to a 2 hour bus to Salta. At Salta we were gutted to find out none of the super comfy Cama Superieur buses were leaving until the day after, so we hopped on a Semi Cama to BA - a 22 hour ride. I was shouted at for pooing in the chemical toilet - after 18 hours you've got to do what you've got to do! We arrived in BA about 4pm ish, and got a taxi to the hostel where we hoped we'd meet with Em, Dom and their friends! Success! We even got in the same dorm as them! Last night we headed out for our first taste of Argentinian steak which was brilliant, and now we're off to plan our travels over the next week or two - the question is how far South to go, and whether we want some more glacier action or not!
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolivia. Show all posts
Friday, 7 May 2010
Saturday, 24 April 2010
We're going to the Amazon!
We've been in La Paz a few days now and were planning where to go from here before we meet up with Em and Dom in Buenos Aires on the 6th May, when we met up with a friend from uni, Chris, who suggested a Pampas tour, which is a trip to the Amazon. We've had a look and we're going! We're still traveling with Caroline and Charlotte, two English girls, and Sandra and Sofie from Denmark who are all great. It was thanks to them that we all laughed our way through the vomit bus from hell! So come Tuesday we'll be of to Rurrenabaque from where we head into the Jungle.
La Paz itself is a great city, although very busy and very polluted. We've explored a bit, and were stunned by the view of a snowy capped mountain that you get as you cross over one of the main roads! Yesterday we went to the "Witches" market, where you could by all sorts of "witchy" type stuff, the most obvious being a dried llama foetus which you bury under your patio/front door for all sorts of witchy benefits. These freaky things were of course sold by the ubiquitous traditionally dressed Bolivian women with their bowler hats, plaits and frilly skirts.
Although we didn't buy a dried llama, we did get a load of other bits and bobs, scarves, woolies etc ready for Patagonia. Some of the stuff is lovely and it's all reasonably cheap, so coupled with the fact that a place to stay here is a bargain, we've felt less like backpackers and more like tourists on holiday which has made a change!
Anyway, we're off to pay for our jungle adventure!
La Paz itself is a great city, although very busy and very polluted. We've explored a bit, and were stunned by the view of a snowy capped mountain that you get as you cross over one of the main roads! Yesterday we went to the "Witches" market, where you could by all sorts of "witchy" type stuff, the most obvious being a dried llama foetus which you bury under your patio/front door for all sorts of witchy benefits. These freaky things were of course sold by the ubiquitous traditionally dressed Bolivian women with their bowler hats, plaits and frilly skirts.
Although we didn't buy a dried llama, we did get a load of other bits and bobs, scarves, woolies etc ready for Patagonia. Some of the stuff is lovely and it's all reasonably cheap, so coupled with the fact that a place to stay here is a bargain, we've felt less like backpackers and more like tourists on holiday which has made a change!
Anyway, we're off to pay for our jungle adventure!
Thursday, 22 April 2010
South America so Far
It's been amazing so far and quite the culture shock having come from New Zealand! We arrived into Santiago and spent a few days there trying to get over jetlag and exploring the city. We were stayng really near the University next door to a dance school, so the area had a good feel to it. We also headed up the funicular/cable car up small mountain to get an amazing view of the city and the sunset over the mountains. The city looked quite European although seemed more manic and there were signs of the earthquake, with bits of rubble dotted around along wit some cracks in the pavements and buildings. Having counted about a million Santander banks around town, we headed on to Valparaiso on the coast.
It was a 2 hour journey on an amazing Chilean bus - they're incredible comfortable even on the "classico" which is just a seat, but a very comfy one! We've since taken others that are even better - the long distance ones pretty much put you in a bed! Valparaiso was basically an old port town which had really colourful houses up on the hills. We did a bit of shopping there and donated coins to the football fans - they collect money on the street to pay for the journey to the stadium!
From Valpairaso we headed 7 hours north to La Serena, another town near the coast but very different from where we'd just come from. It was a nice little "churchy" town, with a nice local market and a weird garden/zoo where we saw all sorts of birds - vulture-type things, owls, eagles, chickens, sheep, ostriches. It was pretty strange but we saw some things we've never seen before! In the hostel we met a few people over a beer or two, and have been traveling with two of the girls ever since.
It was a 16 hour journey up to San Pedro de Atacama, a small, really dusty town full of dogs and dog poo in the middle of the Atacama desert. We did a trip to a salt lagoon, where it was impossible to sink - the water was 80% salt, with lithium too which is supposed to relax you. The next day we went to the valley of the moon and the valley of death, two amazing rocky/sandy areas in the desert. We also investigated a tour into Bolivia and booked a trip with a recommended agent.
We then spent 3 days touring the Bolivian highlands, seeing lagoons, flamingos, llamas, vicunas, geysers and live volcanoes before ending at he salt flats, and expanse of white literally as far as the eye could see! The first night was tough - we were told to be ready for altitude sickness, and we spent the night at 4700 metres above sea level, breathing was an effort and the night was absolutely freezing. We survived! The next night was much better, although we stayed in a "salt" hostel, with a salt floor and salt bricks. It was fine, but dried us out completely - our soaking towel was dry the next morning as the salt absorbed all the moisture.
The last day was spent on the salt flats, taking ridiculous pictures and seeing a thousand year old cactus on an island in the middle of the flats. We also got hit by a few spots of rain, which for a place that gets 5cm of rain a year was quite an achievement. The last stop on the tour was the train graveyard. Just a load of rusty old trains covered in graffiti. It was an unspectacular end to what had been a great trip!
The tour ended in Uyuni which on first impressions was a bit of a dump, but it wasn't as bad as first thought, though we were glad to only stay there one night. It was our first encounter with the Bolivian traditional ladies, who wear all sorts of colourful dresses and wear bowler hats perched on t heir heads.
From Uyuni, we endured the "nightmare bus from hell", Bolivian vomit galore from the 2nd minute, and 10 hours with one loo stop, and an old smelly woman who was sat in the isle next to us. She was so old so I stood and gave her my seat, at which point she proceeded to fall asleep on Sara dribbling and smelling unsavoury, and then refusing to move once another seat became available. The road, if you can call it a road, was 7 hours of dirt/sand up and down mountains. The toilet stop was actually a bush, in a place which had toilets but no running water. The last three hours were on a tarmac road which was better, although as the sun went down we drove in complete darkness, with the driver only putting on the lights if there was no-one in front of him. We were still traveling with the girls from La Serena and a couple of Danish girls and an Israeli, just laughing our way through the trauma of the bus ride! As the driver turned the lights off, he put "turn around" the song on which spooked everyone, as we imagined turing around to be face to face with a nutter. The girls we're nervously laughing and then just decided to sing along.
We arrived about 8pm ish in Sucre, the old capital, which is really very nice! We've spent a couple of days here, the first night struggling to find something to eat and having fried chicken in what was basically someone's living room! An "authentic Bolivian experience" we later read.
We've also explored a bit, been up to a view point over the city and seen the main markets, along with the Casa de Libertad, which is where the government used to be, and still is ceremonially. We've found it to be very cheap here, and have had some lovely food in some of the "upmarket" places for less than £5. We've paid more for a bus with a toilet for tonight to La Paz, so wish us luck!
It was a 2 hour journey on an amazing Chilean bus - they're incredible comfortable even on the "classico" which is just a seat, but a very comfy one! We've since taken others that are even better - the long distance ones pretty much put you in a bed! Valparaiso was basically an old port town which had really colourful houses up on the hills. We did a bit of shopping there and donated coins to the football fans - they collect money on the street to pay for the journey to the stadium!
From Valpairaso we headed 7 hours north to La Serena, another town near the coast but very different from where we'd just come from. It was a nice little "churchy" town, with a nice local market and a weird garden/zoo where we saw all sorts of birds - vulture-type things, owls, eagles, chickens, sheep, ostriches. It was pretty strange but we saw some things we've never seen before! In the hostel we met a few people over a beer or two, and have been traveling with two of the girls ever since.
It was a 16 hour journey up to San Pedro de Atacama, a small, really dusty town full of dogs and dog poo in the middle of the Atacama desert. We did a trip to a salt lagoon, where it was impossible to sink - the water was 80% salt, with lithium too which is supposed to relax you. The next day we went to the valley of the moon and the valley of death, two amazing rocky/sandy areas in the desert. We also investigated a tour into Bolivia and booked a trip with a recommended agent.
We then spent 3 days touring the Bolivian highlands, seeing lagoons, flamingos, llamas, vicunas, geysers and live volcanoes before ending at he salt flats, and expanse of white literally as far as the eye could see! The first night was tough - we were told to be ready for altitude sickness, and we spent the night at 4700 metres above sea level, breathing was an effort and the night was absolutely freezing. We survived! The next night was much better, although we stayed in a "salt" hostel, with a salt floor and salt bricks. It was fine, but dried us out completely - our soaking towel was dry the next morning as the salt absorbed all the moisture.
The last day was spent on the salt flats, taking ridiculous pictures and seeing a thousand year old cactus on an island in the middle of the flats. We also got hit by a few spots of rain, which for a place that gets 5cm of rain a year was quite an achievement. The last stop on the tour was the train graveyard. Just a load of rusty old trains covered in graffiti. It was an unspectacular end to what had been a great trip!
The tour ended in Uyuni which on first impressions was a bit of a dump, but it wasn't as bad as first thought, though we were glad to only stay there one night. It was our first encounter with the Bolivian traditional ladies, who wear all sorts of colourful dresses and wear bowler hats perched on t heir heads.
From Uyuni, we endured the "nightmare bus from hell", Bolivian vomit galore from the 2nd minute, and 10 hours with one loo stop, and an old smelly woman who was sat in the isle next to us. She was so old so I stood and gave her my seat, at which point she proceeded to fall asleep on Sara dribbling and smelling unsavoury, and then refusing to move once another seat became available. The road, if you can call it a road, was 7 hours of dirt/sand up and down mountains. The toilet stop was actually a bush, in a place which had toilets but no running water. The last three hours were on a tarmac road which was better, although as the sun went down we drove in complete darkness, with the driver only putting on the lights if there was no-one in front of him. We were still traveling with the girls from La Serena and a couple of Danish girls and an Israeli, just laughing our way through the trauma of the bus ride! As the driver turned the lights off, he put "turn around" the song on which spooked everyone, as we imagined turing around to be face to face with a nutter. The girls we're nervously laughing and then just decided to sing along.
We arrived about 8pm ish in Sucre, the old capital, which is really very nice! We've spent a couple of days here, the first night struggling to find something to eat and having fried chicken in what was basically someone's living room! An "authentic Bolivian experience" we later read.
We've also explored a bit, been up to a view point over the city and seen the main markets, along with the Casa de Libertad, which is where the government used to be, and still is ceremonially. We've found it to be very cheap here, and have had some lovely food in some of the "upmarket" places for less than £5. We've paid more for a bus with a toilet for tonight to La Paz, so wish us luck!
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