Written the 14th March but not able to update until now due to the usual computer issues – internet goes down, power cut, no USB port, etc etc – we know them all well by now!! ;o)Greetings from Sucre, a very pretty Bolivian town which thankfully serves ´normal´ food. Such a relief!! (We were starting to think we were going to turn into a pizza or a chip as that is almost all we have dared eat in Bolivia until now!! Most unhealthy)
Yesterday we got to meet the local dinosaurs, no not the old folk but the owners of the many dinosaur prints just outside Sucre. (This location used to be a lake several hundred million years ago apparently!) And today we are getting ready to head off on our travels again, on a 14 hour bus journey to Santa Cruz in the lowlands, and then a 20 hour train to Brazil, to do a 4 day Pantanal trip (for those of you that watched Planet Earth, it is a huge wetland area that was featured on that).
We would like to say that we are both now fluent in Spanish after our 2 days of classes, at least in our dreams! It did help a little but still didn´t enable us to fully understand Lord of the Rings in Spanish. Fortunately the film doesn´t really need the words so we just watched the actions!
It was a huge relief to leave La Paz though. Far too many cars, pollution and noise! However a visit to the Cocoa museum before we left was interesting. Apparently Cocoa leaves have been made illegal in this country many times, until the ´powers that be´ realised that they get more work out of the workers if they let them have them. A perfect example was in the mines in Potosi which we visited and which were pretty grim. Very dark, dusty and cramped. The employees used to do 36 hour shifts in the mines and it was only the Cocoa Leaves that kept them going. We ourselves can´t really see the appeal. They taste foul and don´t seem to have an effect (unless we just haven´t had enough?!) About 4% of the leaf is Cocaine so as you can imagine, it´d take alot to have that much of an effect.
Then we had a 3 day trip to Salar de Uyuni – a huge salt lake in the middle of Bolivia. Fantastic and very warm, despite it looking like you were surrounded by snow!
Much time and effort was spent attempting to balance on a Pringles Tin or a tripod! I think we got there in the end though?!Also on the trip we saw the National Park Andina which borders Chile and Argentina.
This huge park is most definitely in the middle of nowhere and features desert, rocks, coloured lakes, more red / orange rocks and loads of flamingos. I thought the sights were amazing but I think M thought that too much time was spent in the car travelling to the next place. Most frustratingly however, we managed to get a virus on our computer disks and therefore quite a few of the photos have been ruined. Hopefully Mark is onto it now though and a few have been salvaged. The frustrations of modern technology!
Next we travelled down to the cute little town of Tupiza and learnt first hand the problems of Bolivian transport, as mentioned in the travel guides! Our train was supposed to get into Tupiza at 4am and actually made it there 7 hours late at 11am, due to 2 piles of rocks on the tracks that took hours for a digger to arrive and clear. For us it worked out well though as it meant we got a proper nights sleep and were having fun playing cards with a Swiss couple while we waited.Then the next day we did a Triathlon, which meant we cycled, horse rode and rode in a jeep to see all the pretty sights of Tupiza in one day! And there were lots. It was very like the Northern Territory in Australia with huge red rocks everywhere. Some have compared it to the Wild West and it did look a bit like that really – dust, cactuses, huge rocks and wide open spaces . .
Well that is about it for the adventures this time so until next time take care!
