Day 95: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

As soon as we stepped off the absolute most miserable bus we`ve ever taken (and surely will ever take!), we were accosted by several tour agents trying to sell us tours for the salt flats–at 3AM! We hadn`t slept much at all and just wanted to find a hostel that would take us in at such an hour. One agent gave us a card and then gave us directions to a hostel that was just 3 blocks away. We were freezing–it was 28 degrees farenheit we later found out– but since the hostel was so close, we couldn`t justify a taxi. After 5 blocks of nothingness, we turned back to where the bus dropped us (not the station but a side street on the edge of the town) and luckily found one of the last 2 taxis.

At the hostel, we were price gouged but couldn`t argue or find another place since nothing was near and the taxi was gone. We angrily settled into a room without heat and only 2 thin blankets and shivered ourselves to sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 94: Potosi, Bolivia

Would you really trust a man who puts lit dynamite in his mouth and screams wildly through the wad of coca leaves in his cheek? Well, we did and we even paid him! In Potosi, mining is the way of life, the business grandfathers pass to fathers who pass it to their sons and who will continue the tradition with their sons. Many go to work as early as 13 years old even though, technically, Bolivia has anti child labor laws. But when a family is hungry and has many mouths to feed, no law enforcement prevents children from being put to work.

Us in our miner gear

Read the rest of this entry »

Day 93: Potosi, Bolivia

Lin awoke in total darkness, gasping for air. She heard Saben cough. He`s awake too, she thought. With an aching, throbbing head, Lin was just sure her head would explode and/or she would suffocate beneath the weight of 30 pounds (no joke! they were so heavy and thick we could barely lift them off!) of blankets if she went back to sleep. When daylight finally broke after an agonizing night of repeatedly waking up gasping for air, we shared our worries that we would suffocate in our sleep from being in such high altitude under a pile of llama fur blankets.

After a day of struggled breathing and climbing up and down the hill (it`s probably more appropriate to call it what is really is, a mountain!), we hopped a taxi to–the circus! Lin never having been to a proper circus (i.e. not the county fair or Wal-mart), we went all out and even dared to eat some various carny foods. We began with a course of candied apples followed by homemade (who`s home, I never want to find out) potato chips and finished off with the worst hot dogs ever! The circus far exceeded our expectations and was complete with crossdressing, midgets, dancing girls in tiny clothes, and a car running over a man. We had a blast!! Video to come soon.

Circo! Fun for all ages...

Read the rest of this entry »

Day 92: Sucre, Bolivia

“Senorita, shoe shine? Shoe shine?“ The first boy, about 9 years old, called my attention as he ran toward Lin. As she looked up, she saw two more boys following him, all scrambling to be the first one to shine my shoes. She couldn`t help but laugh. The proud owner of only 2 pairs of shoes (and one being flip flips), the shoes in question were my trusty Keen hiking shoes. The first two boys gave up pretty easily after a few “No, gracias amigos“ but the third was bound and determined to show me that her shoes were indeed quite dirty and definitely needed a shine. He took his finger and swiped it across the black rubber toe bump and showed it to Lin. “Mira! Mira! Shoe shine?!“ Stiffling a laugh, she shook her head. “No gracias amigo. Esta bien. Ciao,“ hoping to send him on his way to someone with shoes that are actually able to be shined. The little man stood there in utter disbelief that Lin didn`t also think he shoes needed to be shined. After a few more seconds, he moved along to find another customer. Whew, he was a tough one, Lin thought laughing to herself. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 91: Sucre, Bolivia

People are pack animals. Being in groups provides feelings of safety and security for most people. Unfortunately for us, we don`t really like groups of people. It always creates problems like confusion, power struggles, and frustration. Already we had acquired 4 other travelers and during our one bathroom break from the bus last night, we met and picked up two more travelers also destined for Sucre.

This morning, we left the bus station to find lodging for the night and, in a such a large group, there was bound to be some amount of disagreement. And especially when most people carry a Lonely Planet “bible” instead of actually looking at the world around them. Lin had 3-4 addresses for some decent hostels near the center of town and suggested we head there to begin our search. Since no one else was making any suggestions or objections, we hopped a couple taxis and met up again in the center with little hassle. We are so used to finding everything on our own that we just set out as we usually do without a second thought. The others in our group were uneasy about not knowing for sure where we were going or being able to find the hostels we were looking for “in the book” but came along, however hesitantly. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 90: Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Something happens when you cross the border into Bolivia. Time no longer matters. Every wristwatch, wallclock or public clock is on a different time. And not just but 2-3 minutes but more like 20-30 minutes. No one ever knows quite what time it is and that really makes it tough to set a time to meet up with people. Last night at dinner, we discovered that the Peruvian guys and the Danish girls we met yesterday are also heading to Sucre. Since we are all heading there we decided to just buy our bus tickets and travel together. We planned to meet in the square at 11AM and we waited for half an hour. Just as we had gotten up to leave, we saw them crossing the square. They were surprised to find out that we thought they we late by half an hour and said they had even left 5 minutes early from their hostel. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 89: Santa Cruz, Bolivia

As soon as you cross the border from Brazil, you immediately see the differences. Gone are the supermarkets, the nice roads, the diversity of the people, ideas of what constitutes “clean.“ While we were in line for the train tickets, a man in plain clothes who was apparently employed by the rail company was directing people in a real line to take turns for the ticket counter. In Bolivia, lines are foreign things–people of all ages pass to the front of the line and push their way in front just because they don`t feel like waiting in the long line. Thankfully for us, since we were on a tight time schedule, this man was keeping everyone literally “in line.“ Another scruffier looking guy comes inside the station and, chatting with the line-keeper, pulls a half eaten donut shaped piece of bread out of his pants pocket and gives it to the line-keeper guy, who takes it, and even more surprising, actually eats it! What is this land? This is the real South America. Things are back to strange; there are no rules, just grey areas. It`s like Central America, minus Costa Rica which is all refined and paved and clean like Brazil. Bolivia is noticeably different and it feels like coming home after all the time we spent in the poorer parts of CA. Although admittedly, it was a bit tough to get back out of the western habits from the last 2 countries and back into the uncomfortable, staring, strangeness of a place like Bolivia. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 88: Corumba, Brazil –> Bolivia (sorta)

Another boring day for posting. We  got our stamps and papers in order for the border crossing into Bolivia. Doing a lot of post writing today at a gas station/convenience store/church/internet cafe (no joke, all lumped into one enterprise!).  Ran into one of the guys from the Blue Cave tour we did a couple days ago in Bonito while we were doing some website work. This afternoon we left Brazil but we arrived at the border during the 2 hour lunch break. With no other real option but to stay there, we decided to head across the border anyway (it`s not like anyone was going to stop us–they were at lunch!) and buy our train tickets in case the border visa took a while.

Thinking the train station couldn`t be too far, we starting walking through the mud, rain, and growing water puddles until we finally found out that the station was 15 minutes away by car. When we arrived by taxi, we discovered that they too were taking a 2 hour lunch. Now we were really stuck and had to wait and hour and a half for the train ticket office to open back up. Finally taking care of that mess, we taxi`d back to the border where we began filling our form after form for the visa (US citizens need visa for Bolivia–reciprocal behavior between these 2 countries). After filling out forms in tripilcate and answering some questions, we were informed we had to pay the $135 fee only in US dollars. What?! Ok, so we had to find an ATM but it wasn`t working and we were directed by the security guard to the other ATM in town a few blocks away. It wasn`t working either. We had no choice but to head back to the border to pay in Bolivanos. Luckily, on the way, we ran into one of the many guys who change money (just some guy in a lawn chair by the road–there`s a long line of them yelling “Cambio“ as you walk through the border) who ended up giving us a better rate than our bank! Whew, now we could pay our fee and hopefully be on our way. When we got into the border office, who did we see but that German guy from the cave tour and the internet cafe from yesterday! Turns out we were all taking the “death train“ to Santa Cruz but were seated in different train cars. FYI, the “death train“ isn`t named so because it`s dangerous. Instead it was used to carry Yellow Fever victims out of town into a quaratine area. It`s a really slow, rocky ride where the train sways so hard from side to side on the tracks, you will swear time after time that it`s surely going to tip over. Very, very slow overnight train with lame Chinese movies and an overdubbed American movie without English subtitles.

No pictures because there is nothing to see…just mud, lots and lots of mud.

Ouch! Brazil hurt the budget, but it was worth every penny. We had a fantastic time in Brazil! We really had a hard time coming up with anything we disliked. We got to do some really fun stuff in Brazil: we caught and ate killer fish, cheered like locals at the Botafogo soccer game, partied it out at carnival, enjoyed some of the most pristine beaches in the world, and stood in awe at the raw power of Iguazu Falls. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 87: Corumba, Brazil

After a longish travel day, starting at 6AM, we were ready for lunch but unfortunately we arrived in Corumba between usual meal times and struggled to find a decent place to eat. We settled on an absolutely horrid (we found out after we had gotten our food) restaurant with decent prices but the food was so bad neither of us could finish it. We had some errands to do today, nothing exciting. An unpleasantly muddy, rainy day that was capped off with a terrible pizza for supper. Why can`t we find any good food here!?