Hola
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If you are English speaking please ignore the above paragraph as it is just for the Spanish speakers.
Well let`s see .... I am currently writing to you in humid and sweaty Manaus after a 3 day stint living in the depths of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil eating pirahana and hunting crocs ... this story and I am sure more from this fascinating country will have to wait for the next time. In the meantime - Bolivia!
Bolivia was a fantastic little country (pop. only 8 million) full of friendly people and pyschedellic landscapes. In total I travelled Bolivia for just over 2 weeks. My first stop in Bolivia was an idyllic little boarder town called Copacabana (not the same one old Barry M sings about). Copacabana has Bolivia´s share of Lake Taticaca ... and I feel the more attractive side. I spent a few days exploring this town and trekking the ISLA DE SOL (a beautiful island 4,500 mtrs high) after which myself, Emily and a lad from S. Hampton called Andy grabbed a grimy mini bus to the capital city La Paz.
The unfortunate thing about Bolivia is that La Paz is in the cnetre whilst all the interesting places to visit are either North, South or East of the capital. This meant I travelled through and stayed in La Paz many times. La Paz itself is quite laid back and at a O2 deprived altitude over 4,000 mtrs. Over the first few days in La Paz there were a number of festivals and parades and it was during one of these parades that I met Mariela (a great local gal) and friends, who showed me round the racuous nightlife of La Paz. Hi guys and thanks for everything. La Paz was also the main city from where I bought an abundant amount of souvenirs ... the place is unbelievably cheap. Where else can you buy a steak with 2 eggs, rice, potatoes, a side salad, fizzy drinks and desert for under 3 pounds! In total I sent over 12 kilos of items back home (must have pleased the Barnet postie) including a poncho, wooden snake and a large number of mint condition 50´s pulp books which I itend to sell on Ebay.
From La Paz I travelled on the worlds most dangerous road North towards Coiroco. It is named the most dangerous as it has the highest number of fatalities per annum ... this is forced into your head from all the crucifixes attached to the cliff where some poor fella met their maker and the fact that the bus you are travelling on has only a 3 mtr, gravel track for it to ´race´ down (there are no safety barriers between road and 1000ft fall). Thankfully I survived the journey and enjoyed a few days in Coiroco. Coiroco is an eden over looking the rainforest and a great place for photogrpahy, especially when I went horse riding over the mountain range. This place was also the one and only time I got to mix coca leaves with some black enzyme ... which certainly gives you a buzz (as well as numbing your whole mouth). From Coiroco I headed to its grimy neighbour Chullimani. - a rather dumpy town which happened to run out of water whilst I was there. This place was however the first time I had experienced REAL S. America as it had no gringos, no internet, no hotels, no restaurants but plenty of poverty and many bored looking villagers staring longingly into the nights sky ... I only spent a night. My original plan was to visit the Amazon from Bolivia and Rurrenbuque but that would have meant two 15 hr bus rides on unpaved roads, so I changed my mind and decided to viisit the Amazon in Brazil ... a good call. It was then back on to the dangerous road again and back to La Paz.
I spent a couple of days in La Paz and then went South to the butt clenching freezing salt plains of Uyuni. I got a 3hr bus ride to Oruro and from there a 7hr picturesque train journey to Uyuni. The next day I woke early (literally frozen to the sheets, serves me right for not listening to the guys about taking a sleeping bag) and went down to the ´locomotion cemetary´, a fantastic place full of decrepit, rusting trains and locomotives; a photographers dream. From there I went on a tour to the Uyuni salt plains with a couple of Italian lads. The plains were pretty unbelievable. It looks like you are driving on ice but it is actually miles and miles of pure white salt. We went to the´fishing island´full of rather large cacti and the place where I frist ate llama ... tastes like a good steak. We also checked out the mummies of Uyuni (a rather grim cave full of corpses), flamingoes of the salt marshes and watched the sunset over this outerworldly landscape ... perfect tranquility and silence.
From Uyuni I got a 10hr bus back, once again, to La Paz. The next day I took a tour to see the Tiahuanaco ruins just outside of La Paz. It was pretty dispapointing after witnessing the grand daddy of ruins Machu Pichu but we did get to view a recent discovery of canablised corpses! This culture (from which the Incas originated) was not one to mess around with.
The next day I caught a 4.00 am flight to Brazil.
Bolivia may have been short on sights but it was not short on friendliness and I had a good couple of weeks there which I shall not forget in a hurry. I plan to spend over a month in Brazil due to the vastness of this country and shall write another email when I get the opportunity. Remember to keep on checking the blog.
In the meantime if you have any news it would be good to hear from you.
Take care,
James
