We LOVED (most parts of) Bolivia. It is most definitely one of our favorite countries we have ever been to. The countryside is astoundingly beautiful, the people are generally nice and helpful, they speak Spanish and not Portuguese, everything is dirt cheap, and the Bolivian traditional dress is stunningly colorful and intricate. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 103: Copacabana, Bolivia

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

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Day 102: La Paz, Bolivia

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?

Day 101: La Paz, Bolivia

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 99 or 100: La Paz, Bolivia

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

Day 98: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

“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. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 97: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

“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

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Day 96: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

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

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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

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