Faces of Bolivia...

...Portraits from my time in Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni (lots and lots of salt)...

 

Feather duvets, tasty nachos and no way out...

We had booked a lovely little bed and breakfast for two nights in Uyuni (http://www.hotel-lapetiteporte-uyuni.com) and it was way over our budget and worth every penny... the gorgeous duvet alone was worth the money! Having spoilt ourselves for the first couple of nights we then moved into a rather dingy hostel where I struggled to sleep... shouldn't have allowed ourselves a little luxury, it just highlighted what we couldn't afford and how amazing it must be to travel if you are rich! Anyway, enough feeling sorry for ourselves, we are, after all, in a pretty amazing place half way across the world!so... we have now found a much better hostel and have settled in nicely.

One of the best things about the town of Uyuni is that it is well set up for tourists who have come here to take a tour of the salt flats. Normally I wouldn't like the touristy aspect but it has managed to maintain its authentic side as well as having a great choice of hostels, restaurants and shops selling woolly llama gloves. We have become regulars at a particular restaurant that does a mixture of Mexican and traditional Bolivian food, yummy home-made nachos with guacamole to die for!

They have a market that sells everything from wallets to watermelons and it is quite obviously aimed at the locals. I bought the DaVinci code in Spanish (El Codigo Da Vinci) for less than a pound so have got something to occupy me for a while. The food part of the market is amazing. Everything you could possibly need; all sorts of fruit and veg, meat hanging up with flies happily buzzing around, sacks of different pastas almost hiding the old ladies that are selling them, tins, drinks, bread, herbs and spices. There are also women selling things ready to eat that smell yummy. As I got closer to their carts I realised I would need to be much braver than I am to try some of the huge bowls of unidentified meaty stews. Probably tasty, definitely scary!

There is a military base here so there are a lot of soldiers wandering around. Earlier today we met some lovely men from the Bolivian air force who let me take their portraits. They were really chatty and surprisingly good posers! After nervously approaching them to see if they would mind if I took their photo it was great to have such a nice experience and friendly conversation. I am actually trying to get a collection of portraits together of all sorts of different people in Bolivia to show what life here is like... I have made a start but will wait and post more of the photos I took when the collection is done!

We have seen a couple of funeral processions since we have been here. Always sad to see something like that but a unique insight into the way of life here. They use taxis instead of hearses and the coffin doesn't quite fit so it sticks out the back of an open boot. The mourners follow behind with a band of men playing brass instruments and drums. Everyone stops what they are doing as they pass through the street and they all make the sign of the cross. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Anyway, as much as Uyuni is an interesting place to be we have plans to go to Sucre next. We had a little panic when we spent a whole day searching for a way to get to Sucre and none of the options seemed particularly viable. We had the choice of going to La Paz (which is in another direction), getting a bus to Potosi and a connection to Sucre (total of 9 hours with no loo on the bus!), paying $200 for a car to take us to Potosi (not at all in our budget) and find another form of transport from there to get to Sucre or getting the train back to where we had come from. After a little more panic we looked on the internet some more and found something that looked promising... we went in search of an airline called TAM which had something to do with the military. They did not have a website and not many of the locals knew anything about it. Luckily we found their office and they do fly to Sucre. We booked our tickets for 500bolivianos (£25 each). Phew.

We have been here for 5 days and will have to wait another 5 days before we can leave as we missed the weekly flight. We are planning to go to the salt flats, eat more nachos and wander around the market so we are happy to stay here for now!

Bolivia begins...

Standing in the line at the border to travel across to Bolivia we did not have a clue what to expect. I had visions of sniffer dogs standing guard, our rucksacks being emptied and searched, our plans being questioned, medicine being confiscated and just generally having a tough couple of hours. In fact, other than a very long wait, it was a pretty painless experience. We crossed over into Bolivia with new stamps in our passports and walked less than 100m over a bridge to leave Argentina behind. We were greeted by 'Bienvenidos a Bolivia' with letters no bigger than a small shop sign and not much more impressive but there was a noticeable difference between the buzz of Villazon and the quite desolate feel of La Quiaca.

The first thing you notice is that there is definitely no lack of casas de cambios to change your money into Bolivianos. Actually there was no lack of anything as the next five blocks were covered with market stalls and little stores that poked out into the pavements... fake label boxer shorts, children's plastic toys, massive bags of coca leaves, mobile phones, watches and more tat that you could dream of.

We had picked up a lovely, travelling stray from England who had joined us in the queue. It was nice to meet another traveller who was on a similar route to us. He spoke no Spanish (I had been wandering how someone could get by without any language) and he had been struggling in the north of Argentina where less and less people spoke English. He was glad we could help him with the border, finding a cash machine, exchanging his currency, getting some lunch and upgrading his train ticket. It must be scary travelling on your own but everyone we meet who is by themselves seem to be doing just fine and having a great time. Braver than me!

There are two trains a week out of the border town of Villazon that go to Oruro and stop at Uyuni, Atocha and Tupiza. We were heading to Uyuni. The train journey was an odd experience. We had paid for semi-cama seats which were comfy and reclined a bit more than the standard ones as the journey was a nine hour one.

It was definitely the slowest train I have ever been on, in fact it was almost slower than a bus. The tracks were not exactly what you would expect either; low to the ground and covered in grass and dirt at some points which made the journey pretty bumpy. A couple of hours into the journey we were invited into the next cart where we found tables set out for dinner and were asked if we would like burger, chicken or vegetables... not too tasty but edible and quite good fun.

The rest of the journey was not as much fun. They turned the heating right up and the lights off so it was pitch black, it felt like some sort of sensory torture! We arrived at about midnight. Very ready for bed.

We've been in Uyuni for a couple of days now and my next posts will be about our time here (with lots of photos!) but I think I've blabbered on enough for now... ;-)