Along the way we did have our share of misadventures. Saben (being the old man he is) messed up his knee, we ate more disgusting food than any human should be forced to eat in a lifetime, had to overcome some serious cultural differences (Peruvian bus etiquette for example), and may never be able to fully stand upright again after untold hours of bus travel. But, honestly we wouldn’t have had it any other way (well maybe a little less “breakfast” in Bolivia). We can’t wait to get back to South America and explore all the cultural riches that we were only able to scratch the surface of. Truly the trip of a life time, and we have only just begun.

(Be sure to check the photo gallery page here)

Favorite moments:

• Brazil, just Brazil…. all of it
• Bolivian landscape
• Machu Picchu
• Carnival in Rio
• Surfing
• Weekend in Argentina
• Iguazu Falls
• Brazilian Beaches

Not so great:

• Breakfast, in all its forms
• Killer bus rides
• Crazy Bolivian “roads”
• La Paz insanity
• Lindsey getting robbed, again

Total Money Spent Per Person: $1,997.75

Average Per Day Costs Per Person:

• Lodging: $6.50
• Food: $9.00
• Transportation: $7.25
• Misc: $10.00 (Beer, going out, guides, park entrance, etc.)

Total Average Per Day, Per Person: $32.75

Number of Days: 61

But traveling in Bolivia is not walk in the park. Most of the roads (if they can be called roads) are not paved so it’s much like being in the slam your face into the handlebars part of a roller coaster ride for 15 hours. Poverty is rampant, mostly affecting the native majority. Beggars line the busier streets and even on the most back, far out of the way city block you are nearly guaranteed to be approached by someone in want or need. Bolivia is complicated and at the same time utterly simplistic and we love it equally for both.

(Check out the Bolivia photo gallery here for some action shots)

Favorite moments:

• Landscape
• Lucky Llamas
• Cheap Prices
• Salt Flats (Day 1)
• Saltenas
• Eating Llama
• Potosi
• Chocolate in Sucre
• Colorful Native dress

Not so great:

• Getting robbed…again
• Not so great breakfast
• Lack of air in Potosi
• Freezing cold
• Bus travel

Total Money Spent Per Person: $378.75

Average Per Day Costs Per Person:

• Lodging: $4.25
• Food: $7.50
• Transportation: $3.75
• Misc:$9.75 (Beer, going out, guides, park entrance, etc.)

(Misc costs are high due to all inclusive Salt Flats tour)

Total Average Per Day, Per Person: $25.25

Number of Days: 15

(Not included is the $135 visa fee, This is represented in the main cost sheet here)

Let`s just get something straight here: a piece of bread is most certainly NOT breakfast, no matter how many flavors of marmelade you serve with it. So imagine our delight when we stumbled upon a little hole in the wall place  you can`t really call a cafe and can`t really call a snack stand that serves salteñas! And what, you might ask, is a salteña?

saltena

Well, it is in fact a very hearty, compact little breakfast that tricks you into thinking you can eat 2 but really you only want 1 because they`re surprisingly filling and delicious. They`re made of a bread very much like a sweet cornbread in a triangular sort of shape with a blackened ridge across the top. What secrets lie inside? They are filled with either chicken or beef, potatoes, and an unidentifiable broth-like juice that makes a hugely annoying mess once the eater reaches a certain number of bites.  After happily scooping up the fallen juice on your plate and making sure to leave no crumb behind, you will find yourself pleasantly full and reaching for your…Coca Cola. Oh yes, salteñas are a special thing that must not be muddled with coffee or milk or juice! Although admittedly, Fresca goes pretty well for quenching salteña-induced thirst even better than Coke but you be your own judge!

With bellies filled with the best breakfast we`ve had in weeks (did we mention that breakfast doesn`t exist in Brazil?), we finally hopped our bus to Copacabana.

View of La Paz from the bus

Not knowing what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to find a quiet town sweeping over and across hills with cobbled streets and paddle boats for rent bobbing gently in the lake waiting to catch the eye of a passerby young at heart.

Down the main street in Copacabana

Once we had set down our packs for the night, we dined on a fabulous 3-course meal all for less than $3/person! What a great (rare!) day for food!!

Saben dining on Llama and Fries

Then we strolled around the streets until dark, taking in the views of Lake Titicaca at dusk.

Lake Titicaca at night

After getting over the initial anger and feeling stupid for having gotten robbed while I was right there, Lin could really see how laughable the robbery was although she has to buy a new purse and wallet now. But, on a brighter note, if she keeps getting robbed like this, there won`t be anything left in her backpack!! Everywhere we go we always get asked how we can travel for so long and have such small backpacks. Well, the truth is, we get robbed and that pretty much lightens the load!

Random La Paz photo

Today we failed to catch the last bus to Copacabana, Bolivia so we are stuck in La Paz one more wretched night. Maybe tomorrow things will go more according to plan?

Our story begins on Palm Sunday, it`s backdrop La Paz, Bolivia. We had awoken early eager to see the city with fresh eyes after a night`s rest. Breakfast was awful as expected.

We headed down to Saint Francis` Cathedral to see how the Palm Sunday festivities were lining up. It was awash with merchants selling everything from palm rings and crosses to chocolate easter eggs. A line had already formed at the entrance of the church as the priest was beginning his latin sermon.

We decided to skip the proceedings for now and head up behind the church to the Witches Market. Old men and women, mostly native, wandered around looking over the items for sale. What does one sell at a witches market (behind a church)? Well llama fetuses of course. Not to mention the dried and stuffed bull frogs with gold nuggets as eyes, giant dried black condors, jaguar pelts and all manner of idol and potion. We stopped by a stand ran by an older Indian woman. Her stand was covered in the witches` wares and as much as we would have loved to buy a dried baby llama (fur and all), it was a bit too big to fit in our pack.

No so lucky for the llama

Rack of Llamas

On her table, between the frogs and incense and potions were small bowls filled with tiny clay talisman. Baby llamas for luck (only slightly less powerful that there formerly alive equals), frogs for wealth, condors for safe travels, Andean crosses for health, and a myriad of other talisman for all manner of things. We picked up the ones important to us. Lin grabbed a lucky llama and a condor. While Saben purchased a lucky llama, condor, and an Andean cross.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and got a little work done but our day was not complete. It was palm Sunday and, while we are not religious, this country certainly is and therefore a trip to the church to witness one of the most important days of the year was a cultural must.

Lunch, Pollo Milanese

As we walked in the courtyard hundreds of people were milling about outside, soothe sayers reading fortunes out of melted metal shavings, tarot card readers telling of the future and piles upon piles of palm stalks (for sale of course). Not quite what we had expected at a Christian event but this is Bolivia and the native culture permeates everything.

Palms for sale outside the church

Market outside the church

As we walked up to the church, Lin was held up for a moment by an old women who had dropped her cross made of palms in Lin`s path. We thought nothing of it. We went inside and listened to the priest speak in latin followed by a spanish translation by one of the altar boys. The church was packed, 300 people at least. Some crying, some deep in prayer, some texting in the back row, and two white faces among the masses understanding neither the latin or the spanish.

View inside the church

When we had our fill we headed off for some supper. As we were paying Lin reached into here purse for the needed change only to find her hand fall through the bag and out the side. It had been slit. Her face reddened; she was furious! She poured though the bag looking for what had been taken. Her wallet… All the fears rushed at once, what was in there, how much is it worth , what am I forgetting. After a few calming breaths we took count. Only the wallet missing. What´s in the wallet?…. Nothing! Lin hadn`t received her new cards from the last robbery and had spent her last boliviano on the lucky llama. Lucky llama indeed!

Apparently while the old lady held Lin at bay someone had taken a razor blade and sliced (inches from her spine) her bag open and grabbed the wallet. We had a laugh at the robbers expense. She lost her student ID and a phone card but nothing of value other than a very pretty and cute wallet. The last place you would ever expect to get robbed, in the entrance of a church. We enjoyed our supper and found a safe place (on our person) for the lucky llama…

Made it to La Paz after a very rough, long (11 hour), smelly, cold, bus ride. We went to find some breakfast, found something, ate it, immediately regretted it, felt like crap the rest of the day.

We took it easy today, getting a little work done and recuperating our rears from uncountable miles.

Plus today we celebrated our 100th day on the road! But our count is different in our own calendars and on the website (one began counting from Dec 25 when we left at Day 1 and the other began counting Dec 25 as Day 0…confusing we know). We celebrated with a delicious treat of Indian food at The Star of India (Highest curry house in the world)!

Lin at the star after the power went out

“Oooooohooohooahhhhahahahhh!“ Everyone jerked their heads to see an old man who had an uncanny resemblance to Jepeto (you know, Pinocchio`s father) and was wearing only a tiny Speedo that was struggling to retain its contents especially beneath a bulging hairy belly. He had taken the plunge into the hot springs and was apparently feeling the harsh contrast between the frigid air and the hot water. It must have been close to 20 degrees farenheit but plenty of brave (or crazy?) people stripped down right outside and jumped into the hot springs. Everyone in the water swore up and down that it was worth it…but they all also swore they`d never get out! Lin was smart enough to stay fully clothed but Saben braved it only up to his knees on the edge of the pool.

Lin, not in the hot springs

Hot springs at sunrise

The geysers we had seen shortly before coming to the hot springs were really small and not interesting in the least. They certainly weren`t worth getting up at 4:15AM to see! Today was a driving day, venturing over the worst of the “roads“ we`d yet been on. We went through the desert, over the mountains, through the valleys, crossing a few streams, and finally back to town. We stopped for the Rock Tree (more exciting in pictures), the Valley of Rocks, and at a few more lakes. By this time, we both felt completely disinterested and sick of being on the tour. We badly wanted (and certainly needed, phew!) showers and just wanted to be permanently out of that jeep. The drive was the most beautiful of all the tour and continued to move Bolivia up to our favorite and most beautiful country we`ve yet been to.

Rock tree (oohh, aahh)

Jeep in the vast desert

Sulfer lake

Back in Uyuni around 7PM, we had just enough time to eat dinner and buy bus tickets to La Paz. Oh hurray, more driving!

“Where`s the mechanic?“ Marco asked, in spanish, to a man walking by the road. “I`m not sure. He`s probably out with the llamas.“ Great, so the one mechanic in a town of 30 people was out tending his llamas?! Thirty minutes after we had set out, we had lost the bolt that holds the back suspension together. After 4 passing jeeps offered nothing but unhelpful stares, useless repair kits with only a wrench and 2 rubber straps,  Marco tied up the suspension (with the said rubber straps) and we headed back to town hoping our jeep wouldn`t rattle to pieces on the bumpiest non-road we`ve ever been on. And now that we made it back, the mechanic was out with his llamas? Well, a minor setback so we did what anyone would`ve done in this situation (right?!)–we went to the small schoolhouse and asked around for the mechanics child and took his daughter out of school!

Our poor broken jeep in the desert

She had the keys to her dad`s shop and even sold us some metal wire to fix the jeep. After an hour and a half of lost time we set off again, Marco wasting no time and seeming to forget that the suspension was only wired together. We flew across the semi-desert like a bat out of hades hitting deep holes so hard and so fast that the three of us in the back seat smashed our faces on the windows, banged our heads into the ceiling all the while slamming into each other as Marco drove wildly to avoid holes and bumps which only took us reeling into other surely bigger ones!

After what felt like a death race, we were relieved to get out at a big lake littered with tons of flamingos while lunch was cooking. We chased some vicunya (think of a llama crossed with an antelope, no horns though) and enjoyed some quiet, out-of-jeep time.

Vicunya standing at the foot of the mountain

Flamingos and the toxic lake (good band name)

Having actually made up time despite our prolonged breakdown, thanks to Marco`s madman off-roading skills, we took our time getting to another sulfur lake with more flamingos thoroughly engrossed in fishing for their lunch. More driving through the desert with a quick stop at an old lava flow now worn into irregular shapes til we came to the night`s lodging that offered no heat, electricity only 2 hours in the evening and icy showers that could potentially be used for cryogenically freezing bodies. Most of us skipped them hoping no one would mind if we all smell a little weird tomorrow.

Dinner was a delightful surprise: soup, bread, spaghetti with meat, and best of all, a bottle of red wine! It was quite a feast but it was so cold in that concrete hall with cracked and busted windows letting in the freezing desert air of the night. We all went to bed early just to warm up…and because we have to be up at 4:30AM tomorrow for the “geezers.“

It was a cold morning after a cold night. We got up to go shower and right outside the bathroom was the old hag who runs the place we were staying, giving us an especially evil eye accompanied by a firmly wrinkled grimace. We skirted by her, averting our eyes as we did in case she could project daggers from her eyeballs or maybe breathe fire.

The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Avenida,  was about the cheapest place in town and one of the sorta cleaner ones. But it was more like a HI hostel with tons and tons of ridiculous rules that we posted up every 10 feet. You couldn`t even use the toilet without being accosted by a sign telling you to poop a certain way! We were glad to get out of that place and headed to meet up with our tour group at Red Planet`s office. We were a group of 6 with a spanish speaking driver/guide and his spanish speaking wife and their 2 year old daughter.

First stop was the train graveyard, the final resting place for lots of old dilapidated trains that used to carry minerals down from Potosi`s mines to be shipped out and refined and later sold. Now they lay rusting, serving only as a photo op for tourists and a playground for the local kids.

Rusty the locomotive

Conductor Lindsey

Then it was the long drive into the flats, blinding white reflection that no sunglasses could stop. A vastness beyond compare. We stopped by the worksite of some local salt miners. The salt here is processed and sent to be distributed all over the world as table salt and preservative. We could help but eat some. It was salty to say the least, the saltiest salty ever to enter your mouth. It had the texture of rock salt. Needless to say no salt was needed for our fantastic lunch of llama steaks , salad and rice.

Salt piled by salt mines ready to be sent to a table near you

Tasty Llama

Lots more driving til we stopped at Fish Island, an island in the middle of nowhere in the salt flats covered in monstrous cacti that could eat your face. Then some time for “funny pictures” as Oscar put it.

View from the island

Spike the cactus

And I deamed of the worlds largest bottle opener

Lin squishing one of our fellow travelers

The salt flats actually used to be lakes so at one time (about 40,000 years ago), Fish Island was actually an island surrounded by water. (more on fish island here) Standing atop of the island you can see for miles and miles along the great white expanse and the surrounding volcanos in the distance a truely awesome sight, a desolate desert of white.

High on the hill

A Spaniard, 2 Mexicans and 3 Americans walk into a bar. It sounds like the beginning of a joke but seriously our group was actually comprised of those 6 components. And we did indeed all walk into a bar together. After a long day of driving and driving…and more driving, we were ready to be as far away from our jeep as possible so we walked to “town“ where we had stopped for the night. The town consisted of about 30 people and the only “bar“ that existed was actually a small convenience store that sold beer along with cookies, toilet paper, soap and other miscellaneous goods. Since we were 6, we all pitched in to buy 3 liters of beer to share. The owner was astonished at such a large purchase and happily invited us into the VIP lounge–his kitchen with a TV! Since 3 of us spoke Spanish and 3 of us English, we had a great time trying to communicate. But the more we drank the better the gringos` Spanish got, well at least we thought so! And we got to see the wrap up of the Agentina vs Bolivia soccer game, where Bolivia surprised everyone and beat Argentina 6-1!

Us in our VIP suite, bottle service and all

We took our time nursing our drinks not wanting to go back to the hotel until supper time–we were all starving!! The meals are good on this tour (a rarity) but they`re really far between and leaving our stomachs growling and begging for a snack at least. We stumbled back in utter darkness with only a tiny keychain flashlight and lingering rain clouds overhead blocking out the moon. We got back just with a minute to spare as our dinner was served: Quinoa soup and bread. We were all grateful but secretly disappointed. As hungry as we all were we had hoped for something a bit more hearty and filling than soup.

The other 3 tour groups eyed us with smirks as they ate their spaghetti. And then good ol` Marco (our guide) brings out a big plate of chicken and plantains! Woohoo–we won`t starve after all! With full bellies and a couple of hours left before lights out (the hotel ran on a generator), we played card games in Spanish and laughed as we tried to figure out the rules across languages. In fact, I guess I should say we even played charades!

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.

Knock, knock, knock…It kept coming but Lin thought it was just part of a dream. Knock, knock, knock. Nope, it was real and it wasn`t going away. Who in the hell could be waking us up?! It was 8:30AM. Lin was barely awake, looking surely quite disheveled and ragged. Who could it be but that blasted woman that had let us in just a few hours earlier babbling away in Spanish wanting to sell us a tour that was leaving in 2 hours. Are you serious? Lin just stood at the door, shivering and utterly incredulous at what was happening. When she said she wasn`t sure if we would be taking a tour, that she would have to talk to Saben and he wasn`t awake, the woman had the gall to ask if Lin would come tell her in 15 minutes if we were taking the tour. Lin shook her head and, even as early as it was, laughed at her. “No,“ she said, but the wretched thing persisted and offered a generous 30 minutes to wait for our answer. Just to get her to leave, Lin agreed and shut the door rather abruptly. By this time, Saben had awoken but only half heard what had happened. A half hour came and  she returned with that incessant knock, knock, knock again. Saben (being much more forceful gave her a firm “no“ and she went away. Not 10 minutes later, we ran to check out to escape that ridiculous woman.

We ate an undercooked, oil soaked omelet for breakfast and immediately wished we hadn`t. Bolivia isn`t really a place where you can send back unsatisfactory food and, for us, every penny counts so we can`t waste anything if we can possibly help it. Not feeling very optimistic about our future after such a terrible meal, we began a search for the best tour company to go to the salt flats. Evenutally, we made it down the long row of agencies to Red Planet Expeditions and a friendly guy named Oscar. We paid 550 Bolivianos for a 3 day tour with all meals and lodging included as well as 2 sleeping bags (normally 35 Bolivianos) for free since we are getting good at bargaining. We will leave tomorrow and found ourselves with a free day to do nothing. We sat in the square under the warm sunshine in a tiny dusty town in the middle of, literally, nowhere.

Tiny, dusty, oddly southwestern-esque Uyuni