Bolivia

A highlight was to have all our smelly, dirty, moist clothes washed and dried and delivered to our hotel in Rurrenabaque the very same night we came back from the jungle. This was a first for us. We saw a huge hole in the road that someone had taken the initiative to cover with a piece of cardboard - shaky! We have come across so many similar happenings in Bolivia!

We decided to take the small 20 seater plane the next day (30 May) to La Paz (a 40 minute flight at the price of a Kulula flight) rather then the 20 hour bus ride through the night on the death road with a very real chance of not surviving. The airport is a tiny building with a grass runway. Amazing how job creation works in this country - two people were siting at two different desks at the airport to collect two different taxes from each of the 20 passengers!

The flight was beautiful - we took off in the amazon lowland, climbed over many mountain ranges and eventually flew next to snow covered peaks of 6000m high. The landing (at 4000m) was quite shaky as we could see through the cockpit how the plane was tossed from side to side.

The day in La Paz was spend doing admin and booking our bus tickets to Puno, next to Lake Titicaca in Peru for the next day.

Culture shocks: local people don't have grey hair until they are very very old; government and official signs are painted by hand; the electrical heating contraption around a shower head results in the heat to be inversely proportional to the water flow.

We planned to rest the day after we returned from the pampas trip. On the way to the internet we walked past Madidi Travel agency who have their own lodge deep in the jungle where we wanted to stay for a few days. As we popped in they told us that they were leaving within the hour - we decided there and then to join on the condition that we get our own room for the price of a dorm bed room.

After just under 3 hours motoring down the Rio Beni river, we reached the footpath to the camp, some 30 minutes further into the jungle. This eco-lodge was the brainchild of Rosa Maria Luiz, a camp fighter for eco-tourism in Bolivia and who played the main role in getting the Madidi National Park established amidst incredible opposition (oil and logging companies). She was also featured in the March 2000 article in National Geographic. Unfortunately she could not be at the lodge as she was in La Paz recovering after an attach by a cayman (like a croc) in the dam in front of the lodge where we were staying.

The main building is a huge open plan construction with no real walls, but only heavy duty gauze like netting. There is also a beautiful dam full of piranhas and a few caymans. The lodge was named after the serere bird, something that looks like a confused chicken.

At the camp we were upgraded yet again (!) to the most luxurious cabin - again no walls, except the netting - deep in the jungle.

There were 2 local spider monkeys hanging around the camp - they were very playful and, of cause, very naughty (they like to ride on the backs of the local pigs). We went paddling on the dam in the late afternoon - spectacularly beautiful with absolutely no wind and all the loud sounds of nature around us. The 10 minute walk in the night to the cabins in jaguar country was quite nerve-wrecking at first (for Johan at least). The night is alive with countless insects and animal noises and fireflies. Janine was thrilled to discover that you can locate insects at night by the reflections of their eyes - as with the alligators in the pampas. The jaguars come to visit the cabins most nights and one can hear then walking and grunting. The drops of the humidity condensing on the jungle leaves sound like rain during the night.

We went on a few guided walks with a brilliant local guide called Rudolfo. Our spanish is at a stage where we could easily follow him and even play the role of interpreters for the other 4 guests. We saw a huge 3m cobra, lots of different types of monkeys, leave cutter ants, huge metallic blue butterflies, macaws and a variety of insects and fresh jaguar prints. Some of the ants ( 2.5cm long) have a bite that burns for 8 hours. Other ants have such strong pinchers that they are used by the local people for stitches. Then there are the vicious wild pigs called piccaries - they are also referred to as "killer pigs" as they have eaten people alive (and the but of a man from Rurrenabaque who could not get quickly enough up a tree). The afternoon was spend relaxing and fishing piranhas - quite bigger than those in the pampas and a bright yellow this time!

We also went on a night walk with our guide. We often had to switch off our lights to listen. Incredible not to be able to see 30cm in front of you. We were eventually tracking a jaguar mom and her cubs. We came very close (probably 20m) and, although we could not see them in the bush, it was quite clear from her grunts that she did not appreciate our presence.

We made some jungle jewelry from nuts and seeds and also tattoos (lasting a few days) from the juice of a tropical fruit. Our guide knows the jungle inside out and showed us many different types of medicinal plants and also how to get a few liters of pure water out of a certain tree's branches.

We were sad to leave such a beautiful and unspoilt place even after we extended our stay with another day... (visit www.madidi-travel.com for more pics and info)

After a day's rest in tropical (humid but cool?) Rurrenabaque, we booked a trip to the pampas with Inca Land Tours. Rurrenabaque is settled between the jungle and the pampas. The pampas is basically open savannah with swamps in between, but during the rainy season it is water almost everywhere.

We learned the morning we went that it would only be the two of us, so we have the whole camp and staff to ourselves. Johan was slightly worried as the tour was really inexpensive and wondered where the corners would be cut. When we were picked up from our hotel a man with only one eye was sitting in the back of the 4x4 - Johan thought, oh no - this is our guide - we get what we pay for! Fortunately this was not the case.

After a 3 hour 4x4 trip on a very bad muddy road, we arrived at Santa Rosa where we boarded a small dugout canoe with an engine. The camp is about 3 hours upstream from where we started. It is hard to believe that there could be any other region with such a high concentration of wild life and bird life - they were everywhere - all kinds of small and large birds every few metres - caymans (like crocodiles), alligators, pink (I kid you not) river dolphins, capybaras (the largest rodents on earth - like a guinea pig, but as big as a real pig), etc... The river is only about 10m wide and we had a fantastic time cruising it in search of all kinds of animal life.

That first night was an incredible highlight as we travelled down the river without an engine and with only flashlights that were switched on every now and then just to reflect countless pairs of red dots (alligator eyes). The stars were reflecting in the water and it seemed as if one could pick them up (except for the red ones, of course).

The next day we went anaconda trekking in the swamp. Armed with a stick and gumboots, we set off in the marsh which was almost knee deep. It reminded me of waterblommetjiebredie! At first I though that there were no snakes as we did not find any for hours, but I later thought that they were probably everywhere but we were too blind to spot them. We eventually found an anaconda of about 3m in the swamp, but the guide was not quick enough to catch it. We were glad as catching anacondas can cause their death due to trauma as well as ill effects of sunscreen and insect repellent. Janine would have loved to hold one though. This particular snake swam over a small river and looked at us from the safety of the other side.

Our guide was operating like a machine - mostly due to the coca leaves he was chewing. It is known to dull exhaustion and some mineworkers in the Potosi area worked up to 48 hour shifts with the aid of these leaves. We did our best to keep up the pace - no resting for 5 hours!

That afternoon we went piranha fishing. They are also everywhere in the rivers - no need to try to find them - Johan caught some 15 of these vicious little monsters in less than an hour - just use meat and a hook. There are many different types with also different colours. They complemented our supper that night!

One can hear the dolphins splashing in the river at night! There is also a cayman that hangs out at the camp that gets the leftovers - we watched as he polished last night's leftover pasta!

On our return trip with the 4x4, our driver decided to give his friend a driving lesson for the whole 3 hour trip. The guy was driving like a maniac and resulted in the feather springs breaking - this was fixed in a small town and set us back another hour! But we made it eventually...

We took an overnight bus from Coroico to Rurrenabaque, the gateway to the Bolivian Amazon. This bus ride was probably the worst of my life. We left at 3pm and arrived at 7am. But what makes this ride worse was that it was a continuation of the "death road". Sheer cliffs drop into oblivion. Our bus driver is crazy and drives as fast as he can in the dust behind another bus.

We had to stop once while a bulldozer cleared a landslide from the road (by just pushing the debris into the river way below us). At another time we had to stop (for an hour) where a sign said "Beware! Excavation with explosives" We had to wait while the road was cleared again. Many people were standing in the isles throughout the night. It was a very long night...

The road from La Paz to Coroico has been dubbed the "world's most dangerous road" primarily due to the high number of fatalities (a few hundred per year) along this 65km route. The road is only about 3m wide in places, drops some 3600m in altitude over this distance and has vertical drops (yes, really!) of over 1000m. And do not forget the buses and trucks...

We decided not to take public transport, but rather go down this road by mountain bike! We went with a company from La Paz called Gravity Assisted Mountain biking. Just before you enter this road, all vehicles are checked for roadworthiness and a list of passengers are submitted to the police.

The 1st 21km was very fast on good tarred roads. It was here where my bike's pedal fell off! Then the death road followed with incredible views and the adrenalin of riding 1m away from a 1000m drop. The road is carved out of the side of a mountain and we crossed a few rivers and passed under a few waterfalls as well. The trip ended in Coroico, a beautiful mountain village where we spent 3 days in our own private cabana with hammocks and amazing views...

Culture shock: showers are heated with an electric apparatus (with lots of wires) connected to the shower head - some showers even have a switch on the inside; food is served whenever it has been prepared, ie your meal may come in no particular order and drinks may only come after the meal; once we were the only people at a restaurant and the cook had to send someone to buy ingredients while we wait; we also saw a sheep running into the kitchen!

Some interesting political facts: the country had 175 presidents in 175 years of independence! One president ruled for only 6 hours while there were once 3 presidents at the same time. One president was illiterate and ruled for 7 years - he was not too bright. He exchanged, for instance, a huge portion of land for a horse.

The economy is more stable now with inflation around 10% per year, down from 10000% in 1985 when the military ruled. They tried to alleviate poverty by just printing more money!

Coca leaf production (the major component of cocaine) used to be the country's major export together with cocaine. The country lost about $500million per year due to the US funded war on drugs and currently finds itself in a recession.

Coca leaves are not illegal and local people chew it to alleviate hunger and thirst and tiredness, especially at higher altitudes. Janine had some coca tea which may explain her strange behaviour recently (just kidding about the behaviour, not the tea!).

Some other funny stories: In Bolivia, people drive on the right hand side of the road with their steering wheels on the left hand side of their cars. They, however, did import some cheaper cars with right hand side steering. All they did was move the steering wheel to the left hand side. The instruments stayed on the right!

We first found it strange that many traditional local women wear men's British bowler hats. Apparently someone imported these hats in the 19th century for men, but he imported way to much. He then convinced the local upper class women that this was the latest European fashion, turning them into eager buyers for his product! Current day peasants mimic the then trends of the upper class women. They all wear ornate layered skirts, shawls and, of course, the bowler hats.

We left the unfriendly 'one llama town' of Uyuni in a hurry by taking the night bus to La Paz. This was probably the worst bus ride of our lives. The road was almost entirely 4x4 territory, but somehow our bus driver managed to bounce us all the way to La Paz (about 350km away), some 10 hours later.

La Paz has had some bad publicity recently about various scams to separate travellers from their money and belongings as well as two Austrian travellers that were murdered. Johan had (off course) a detailed security plan to prevent these things from happening to us. Coming from South Africa, we are also much more careful with our belongings and always alert to safety in general. The downtown area (where most travellers stay) is now constantly patrolled by the tourist police for added security. I must add that we never felt unsafe at all.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 3600m above sea level. Some 2 million inhabitants live in and along the edge of a huge beautiful basin. Interesting to note that the poorer people live higher with better views and the richer people live lower with no views at all!

Bolivia is very cheap by almost any standard. Internet is about R1.50 (US$0.25) per hour and a three course meal for two (including drinks) costs about R60 (US$10).

We are currently doing a crash course in conversational Spanish. Be warned, the next blog may be in Spanish!

On 4 May 2006, we crossed into Bolivia at an altitude of 4300m above sea level for our 3 day tour. The border post was as uneventful as any deserted hermit's house high up in the mountains and snow could be. After the formalities, we drove to a high altitude lake (Laguna Blanca) where we changed over into a 4x4 which we shared with a friendly French family. They were so kind as to stitch some panoramic fotos together for us.

From here we visited 3 different coloured altiplano (high plane, ie above 4000m) lakes - Laguna Blanca (white), Laguna Verde (green) and Laguna Colorado (red). The scenery was out of this world - beautiful, clear, clean and quiet with flamingos to complete the picture. Accommodation was very basic the first night although the quality and quantity of the food was a wonderful surprise. Sleeping was difficult due to the altitude and cold.

The 2nd day was another perfect day without a cloud in sight. The sun is very fierce at these altitudes and we had to apply sunscreen regularly. We stopped a few times to experience the solitude and strange rock formations of the desert. Our driver later decided that racing another 4x4 would be the right thing to do. This was quite scary and although we won, we ended up with a flat tyre.

Every now and then we would see vicunas (similar to llamas) in the wild. Apparently they are can be aggressive and can spit with deadly accuracy, so we kept our distance. We then stopped in a small dusty village for the driver to drink a few beers (!).

We eventually arrived safely at the Salt Hotel on the edge of the largest salt flats in the world, the Salar de Uyuni. The whole hotel, save the bathrooms and kitchen, is made out of salt - the floor, the walls, the beds, the tables, the chairs, etc. Much more luxurious than the previous night's accommodation and also much warmer.

After a good night's rest, we awoke to another clear day. This day turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The Salar is approximately 12000 square kms of perfectly flat salt. During the rainy season, much of the flats is covered with a few centimeters of water, creating spectacular reflections. We were fortunate enough to drive through water for a few kms before hitting hard salt. The reflections were unreal.

In the middle of the flats is an island covered with cacti where we enjoyed amazing panoramic views of the flats. We then walked into the salt flats where Johan tried (unsuccessfully) to find the rare Uyuni salt lake snail. From here we headed towards Uyuni where our tour would finish and we hoped to rest for a day or two. Upon driving into the dusty, windy, unfriendly town, we decided there and then to catch a bus to La Paz the very same night!