Sunday 27 May 2012

This blog is on time for Bolivian standards...

Oh boy, am I in Trouble. Trevor just tweeted me saying "grandma says to write a blog.. She really is ambushing me from all angles!! I'm sorry grandma, here we go! Last time I wrote we had just gotten to bolivia. Bailey and I recovered for our adventures in Rio in the luxury of a nice Bolivian hotel in Santa Cruz. We enjoyed the privacy of having a room to ourselves, hot showers and most importantly, cable tv to watch American idol!! We spent 3 days in Santa Cruz enjoying the nice weather, cheap food while admiring the limberness (is that a word?) of the bolivian women. We couldnt help but be amazed at the sight of these Bolivian woman who would spend their days on the concrete beside their fruit stands. I just kept wondering if they were going to be able to stand up after! Evidently, these women dont like to have their pictures taken, as we learnt when bailey tried and Then had a peice of Cheese thrown at her. After santa cruz, we made our wayton to the high altitudes- which bailey fell victim to. On our way in to the mountains and on to sucre, we learnt a very valuable lesson. DO NOT DRINK COCA COLA BEFORE A BUS RIDE. We had been warned by other travelers that buses in Bolivia lack washrooms and fail to make bathroom breaks- apparently, this is true. We somehow managed to hold our bladders until we arrived in sucre, where we learnt that not all of south America is warm. Sucre was about 6 degrees, which felt unbearable to us. We decided to "adapt" to the cooler weather by hiding indoors at an Irish pub and starting our on-going tournament of crib, whichim convinced bailey spends all her free time online practicing, as she always seems to win. After sucre, we headed for the south of Bolivia, stopping in potosi- the worlds highest city, and arriving in uyuni. This is where we were able to do our salt flats tour. We bundled ourselves in alpaca wool and set off on a 3 day tour with 4 other people. The tour was excellent. We got to see so much of southern Bolivia. Unfortunately, bailey was suffering from severe altitude sickness (self diagnosed) and spent the majority of the tour snoring in the back. The highlight for me was the mountain of seven colours. I will try and post pictures soon of this. During the tour we also go to sleep in hostels made of salt, we ate llama(vegetarianism is so not in here) and we toured various lakes within the southern region- some covered in flamingos! We took our first train after the tour in uyuni to la Paz. This was awesome, especially since we heard the road was treacherous. We checked in to a comfy hostel in la Paz. The city was amazing! It is developed within a big canyon, and the lights of the city at night are spectacular. Bailey was still sick for our first few days in la Paz so we took it easy. As soon as she seemed to turn the corner, we signed up to bike "the death road". This is supposed to be the worlds deadliest road, however cars don't run on it anymore. It's now just set up for tourists like us who want to give their mothers a heart attack. Don't worry, we were definitely the back of the pack! On the Sunday of la pa, bailey and I treated ourselves to a gourmet Easter dinner- pizza and beer. After la Paz, we went to lake titicaca. We took a bus to copacabana, where we spent a night and then boarded a boat to "isla del sol" the next morning. Isla del sol is supposed to be the island of the sun. We spent one night on the island in a hostel way up high on the island to get the best view. Unfortunately, you have to avoid large amounts of donkey poop while attempting to hike up to it. The island was really cool, we had a spectacular view of the lake- it seemed to go forever. That night, in search of dinner, we somehow managed to wonder in to a place, which we believe was just a woman's house and sat down for dinner. The woman agreed to make us supper though, so that night we were spoiled with a Bolivian feast! The next day, bailey and I were somehow convinced into hiking across isla del sol, to visit the origin of the sun. This sounded like a great thing to do, until we go to the ruins and found a stone table with a couple of rocks around it and then realized we now how to hike 4 hours back. We no longer trust 6'5 German men. So that's bolivia in a nutshell!! I am now writing this on my phone as I am terrified that my grandma will refuse to make me tuna sandwiches when I get home if I don't start posting something. I will write about our adventures in Peru and Ecuador within the next few days. Pictures to follow.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I'm exhausted just reading this! I hope that Bailey was ok in Peru! Looking forward to seeing your salt flat pics

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