Bolivia

San Francisco Cathedral, La Paz

La Paz

As soon as we arrived in La Paz we knew it was unique and that we'd like Bolivia as a whole. We arrived from near sea level and quickly felt the effects of landing at El Alto (formerly John F.Kennedy Airport), the fifth highest airport in the world at 13,323 feet. As I was filling out my Visa application I began to feel dizzy and struggle for breath. I realized I was filling the form out wrong and looked at the guy to apologize, he asked if I was okay, I kinda giggled and said my head felt a bit funny and took off my jacket. As I was getting ready to take a nap at his desk a doctor arrived with a wheelchair. I was handed my passport with my shiny new visa and wheeled off to get oxygen. Ten minutes later we hoped into a cab and quickly dropped about 1,500 feet, into La Paz.

From the airport you have the option of taking a taxi, for about $8-10 to La Paz city center or you can take one of the mini-vans for about $.75 per person. If you are experiencing the effects of altitude, taking a taxi is your quickest route down in elevation, although the mini-van doesn't take too much longer. So if money is tight, take the bus, take deep breaths through your nose and stay calm, you will quickly begin to feel the effects of dropping elevation into La Paz. We didn't have any Bolivianos and appreciatively paid the taxi $10USD.

We took it slow the first day, finding it still somewhat difficult to walk and breath at a normal pace. La Paz has some seriously steep hills, so slowing the pace was easy and you don't look like a wuss. We arrived on a Sunday, which meant the central market was closed as were many of the stores along the streets, but we found the most delicious pork sandwiches on the street and ate these a couple of times while here. A thing to note about Bolivia, is that you will not find heat in your room, and a hot shower is a luxury. It was cold in our room, and if we were in our room we were under the down comforter, fully clothed, often wearing a beanie and mittens. The common area was also cold and we wore our down jackets to breakfast.

The second day we awoke to what sounded like gun fire. We didn't hear any commotion in the common area of our hostel so we got dressed and ate breakfast. The gun shots continued to echo all around us, still, no one seemed alarmed so we shrugged our shoulders, put on our bullet proof vests and ventured outside. We headed out to the Witches Market for concoctions of herbs, oils and voodoo. What we found was a few streets with the basic tourist wares. We purchased coca candies, coca tea and coca leaves to help our bodies acclimate. There are many kinds of coca and only several that are used for cocaine. Coca is more common than tobacco and coffee and can be found in various forms. Coca has incredible medicinal purposes and helps with energy, which is needed when you are acclimating. As a tea it's very similar to green tea, with an earthy flavor and similar effects of the caffeine in green tea, but more subtle. The effects are so subtle, totally different from coffee, in that you don't feel like you can write a book in one sitting, or run for miles (at least this is how I feel after a cup of American coffee) you just feel wholesomely, calmly, happy. As Jason chomped on the leaves waiting for their miraculous effects, we found an oxygen tank, being able to wait, or walk any longer. (If you are wanting to move to La Paz and need a business venture, may we suggest opening oxygen bars near all the tourist hang outs. You will make a killing.) After 30 minutes Jason was cleared to go.

His blood oxygen level was up to the local norm of 92-94%. In the states this would still be considered low, but here it's basically an A+. I sipped coca tea as he inhaled deeply and we were informed by the kind lady running the two seat office, that it was not gun fire we had been hearing all morning, it was fireworks, used by the protestors. Bolivians, we would soon find out, love their protests and their fireworks. Every day we were in La Paz and Sucre, there were protests. Feeling better about the risk to our lives we enjoyed a lunch of organic, vegan soup and walked like geriatrics back to our room where after shivering for about ten minutes we fell asleep.

Our plan was to stay three nights in La Paz and fly to Sucre to begin Spanish lessons a day after our arrival. It quickly became clear that we were in no shape to return to El Alto Airport and 13,323 feet. We stayed in La Paz for five nights, not straying too far from our hostel, took daily naps, drank coca tea and ate from street vendors and once at the central market. The second and third floors of the central market are food vendors. Tiny little spaces, seating about six people, include a small kitchen, all cooking and serving supplies and 1-2 ladies cooking up a storm. These are extremely popular among the locals and most have lines about ten deep. The food is well worth the wait. Two large meals, including some of the tastiest broth ever, cost less than $3.

La Paz is built up crazy steep mountain sides and to get to these neighborhoods they have put in an extensive gondola system called Mi Teleferico, the longest arial cable car system in the world. Currently there are four fully operational, seven more are under construction or in the planning stages. These are beautifully maintained, professionally run and get you to where you need to go, quickly.

Each ride cost about $0.50 per person, one-way. They are the best option for travel as the streets are congested, all the time.

A popular thing to do here is mountain bike down The North Yungas Road or The Death Road. This road claimed more than 300 lives per year when it allowed cars. In 1995 it was called "the most dangerous road in the world" and this was our ultimate goal in getting acclimated, as the start of the multi-hour ride is over 15,000 feet. We never did feel quite like ourselves and oxygen is not included on the ride, so we decided to find risk elsewhere and ate lettuce from a street stall.

Random sentence: The traditional costume of the local women is unique, colorful and you can't help but smile when you see them.

A woman in traditional dress walking Calle Jaen

Sucre

Sucre's historical center is where we called home for eleven days. There are a number of Spanish schools throughout this area as well as restaurants for every budget, parks, churches and museums. We picked Sucre as the place to learn Spanish after talking to people throughout our travels who agreed Bolivians speak slowly and with clear pronunciation. It's also one of the most affordable places to learn Spanish in South America. The historic center is therefore a hodgepodge of people from all over the world.

Sucre is affordable. We enjoyed "the menu of the day" at several restaurants, paying no more than $5 each, for a three course, plus fresh juice, meal. Our favorite was Condor Cafe, a local non-profit operation giving back to their community. We also enjoyed fresh vegetable/fruit juice and local cuisine at the central market,

Yum, fresh juice!!

delicious saltenas at Flores Salteneria and a glorious supermarket where we splurged on several chocolate bars made locally by Chocolate Para Ti. Google had informed us that Chocolate Para Ti can only be found in Sucre and is some of the best chocolate in the world. This set the bar high and after trying Para Ti's competition, we were sorely disappointed. Para Ti , however, lived up to it's reputation. It is smooth, creamy, rich and delicately flavored with options such as peach, salt (from the salt flats), quinoa, coconut and several others. We tried nearly all flavors, including a bag of cream filled bon bons. Delicious!

Our first full day in Sucre was spent with other students from our spanish school, Sucre Spanish School, on a day long trip to Tarabuco, to observe their yearly festival. We have no idea what we were observing except that there were similarly dressed men and women from neighboring towns, stomping their wooden shoes with spurs made from what looked like the top of soup cans. They danced through the streets singing the same song where the women respond to their male counterparts in the most awfully shrill voice.

We followed the masses into a main fairground, the center holding a temple made from fruits, vegetables, plants and animal carcasses. Surrounding the temple-like structure were vendors selling cold beverages. In front of the structure were bleachers, filled with people. Clearly, every inch was filled with people and we quickly felt claustrophobic and spent our time meandering through the old city streets, finding shade.

The next five days were spent like this: get up, have breakfast, study, have lunch go to class for four hours, have dinner and go to bed. The first day of class went quickly, was fun and exciting. Our teacher, a university student studying architecture, Carolina was upbeat, super smart and made learning fun. The second day was a bit more difficult, our brains had been turned on and the hours did not go by as quickly. The third day I wanted to quit. I was fully aware of the effort it will take to become good at speaking Spanish. There is so much to learn that I felt overwhelmed, stupid and tired. My brain hurt and I got frustrated easily. Jason just moved right along, undeterred. By now our homework consists of conjugating irregular verbs and making sentences. It is rather impressive.

It's remarkable, what we are able to do after twenty four hours of classes. We have learned more in these five than in two years of high school Spanish. Our final day arrived and we weren't ready for it to be over, so we added one more day and spend the weekend practicing our language skills as we toured the city.

San Felipe Neri rooftop

There are a few places in the historical center that you can get a rooftop view of the city. We chose San Felipe, an old convent that appears to now be a prestigious private school. It cost 15 Bolivianos to enter, meander and hang out on the beautifully tiled roof.

The historic center is always busy. It's congested with cars and people. School kids hang out near the central market after school and those kids not fortunate enough to attend school work for donations by making rather impressive street art with chalk. It's sad to see and makes us even more grateful for the efforts of Condor Cafe.

Shopping throughout Sucre, and Bolivia, is a pleasant experience. No one hassles you. They don't roll their eyes or get angry if you don't buy something. They show gratitude that you even browsed their store or stall and are eager to assist you. In all our travels thus far, Bolivians provide the most enjoyable shopping experience.

We debated whether we should stay in Sucre and continue our Spanish lessons but decided it was time for another adventure and we hopped on a bus and headed down to the Salt Flats.

Uyuni & The Salt Flats

A seven hour bus ride from Sucre brought us to the desolate town of Uyuni. Steampunk and hippies have definitely found this place and made their unique mark. The town is tourist driven with many eateries serving up pastas and pizzas for double the price of other places in Bolivia. As always, you can find more affordable options from the street vendors.

We purchased our 3day / 2night Salt Flat (Salar de Uyuni) tour in Sucre and paid a bit extra than if we had done it in Uyuni. The best way, really the only way if you ask us, to see the salt flats properly is to hire a guide. They know how to navigate the flats and will keep you safe. The salt flats are the largest in the world at 4,086 square miles sitting at 11,995 feet elevation with depths in places of near nine feet. There are cracks in the flats and in rainy season fill up with water, making them near indistinguishable to the untrained eye. People have ventured out onto the flats and fallen in these crevasses, never to be found. Death, however, is not a common occurrence out here, but you seriously increase your risk if you venture out on your own. Furthermore, the only vehicles we saw out here were Land Cruisers. To learn more about this incredible natural wonder, spend some time on Wikipedia. It will blow your mind what is produced out here.

Each tour consists of a Land Cruiser with a maximum of six guests, plus the driver. All meals are provided as well as lodging. You must bring four liters of water per person and your own toilet paper. First stop, is the train cemetery, just outside of town. The train had a somewhat short life in Bolivia. Rising from the need to transport people and goods from the mines it quickly became obsolete once the mines were stripped of their value. People left to find work elsewhere and the trains became an expensive upkeep.

It's a shame, as this would have been some incredible landscapes to view from the window of a train.

This part of the track is still operational and goes to Chile, not too far from here. This part of the track is surrounded by extinct volcanos.

Once on the salt flats, not much further outside of town, our driver found us spots where we were alone, helped take pictures, and brought us to both wet and dry salt. As far as the eye can see, in all directions is salt. It's remarkable, unbelievable and immensely beautiful. All six of us could have spent the entire day and night out here, it's that awe inspiring. We have never seen anything even remotely close to this and didn't want it to end. We were extremely lucky to get blue skies and sun and in the distance, over the mountains there were dark clouds and rain. After a delicious lunch at the salt hotel, we continued along the flats, until several hours later we saw land and deeper water. We drove off the salt just as the sun was setting.

Hands down, the most incredible natural wonder we have ever seen.

The hostel we stayed in the first night was practically made from salt. The floors were salt, the table and beds were salt and it was warm! We hadn't been this warm since arriving in Bolivia. It was glorious.

Salt floors!

All six of us were giddy with excitement to stay here and were all in bed way before 10pm.

The next morning began at 6:30a.m. and we ventured into the mountains for lagoons, volcanos and wildlife. There are dozens of volcanos in Bolivia with the most recent eruption in 1995. During day two and three it seemed like everywhere we looked, we were surrounded by volcanos. Our first stop brought us here, to this lagoon and our first sight of pink flamingos!

There are three kinds of pink flamingos in Bolivia: Andean, Chilean and James, all can be seen while on the three day Salt Flat tour, especially at Laguna Coronado or Red Lagoon.

This tour brings you literally out to the middle of nowhere. The landscape changes dramatically and quickly. From this lagoon we find ourselves surrounded by barren, dry, brown and somewhat lonesome landscape that reminds us of what being on the moon would feel like. Nothing grows out here, except for tiny little random patches of green, which the wild alpacas graze on.

Day three we awoke at 4a.m., quickly ate and headed out to find the center of a massive volcano, at nearly 15,000 feet elevation. In the States we would never have been allowed to have this experience. Some tourist would have fallen in, had a quick death, the family would have sued and the park would have been closed, or guard rails would have been installed, limiting our experience. Here, there are no guard rails. It's exhilarating, having the freedom to experience the sounds and smells of the inside of a volcano. The ever lurking danger of death by molten lava definitely keeps you alert, even if you are seeing your heart beat in your eyeballs because of the elevation.

From here we ventured out into desolation, on our six hour journey back to civlization. Stopping at Laguna Verde, green for it's high concentration of arsenic, but green only when the wind is high and the water stirred. It wasn't windy this day.

No flamingos here, drinking this water means certain death

Natural, random rock formations which certainly would have inspired Dali, aptly named Dali Desert.

Okay, this picture does not do this place justice, believe us when we say, as soon as you round the corner and see these in the distance, even if you don't care for art, you'll be like, that looks vaguely familiar, is that a painting? It's that obvious and beyond random.

We stopped by this famous rock formation:

But our favorite site of day three was this place:

Over 30kms (or possibly 300kms, I couldn't quite hear our guide) of lagoons, picnic spots, rocks and green space. Today it rained, otherwise we could have spent hours here. It's stunning and the first green space we'd seen since arriving in Uyuni. Today was also April 1st. As we were riding along, tired, sleep deprived, a tad bit hungry and anxious to get to a shower, Jason decided to unleash his gift, in the form of faking a heart attack. In my panic I tried to recall the Spanish word for STOP the car, while tapping the driver on the shoulder and the leg of the girl next to me, a doctor...specializing in microbiology, in a research lab, the car was stopped. With five other concerned citizens I quickly dialed the life insurance agent..."April Fools" he says! Asshole, I say and we continue on our day.

Never cry wolf...or in this part of the world, fox. Jason, yeah, he's still alive, healthy and happy. I will have to wait to collect the insurance policy.

The crew...on moon like landscape. Just over those mountains is Argentina. Trip of a lifetime with incredibly kind people.