La Paz, Bolivia

This journey to La Paz was far less stressfull than our previous attempt. After a 40 minute flight, we jumped in a taxi that gave us incredible panoramic views of the city, before taking us through the choatic center...

This was the city we felt most apprehensive about visiting in South America thanks to guide book warnings and stories from other travellers. However we were pleasently surprised by our plush hostel and went straight out to hit the shops selling "genuine fakes" and to find some food. We went to a recommended British curry house, but it turned out to be an insult to the word curry. We've had more flavoursome cardboard than the Bolivian attempt at Indian cuisine!

Whilst in La Paz we had planned to cycle ´The World's Most Dangerous Road', but our plans were scuppered when the companies offerering this tour refused to take us due to a local festival that meant the road's traffic would treble and would likely be full of drink drivers. Even by Bolivian standards 'The World's Most Dangerous Road' had become too dangerous!

As an alternative, we signed up to see the local Cholita Wrestling league that evening. We didn't know what to expect other than the cartoon images of Bolivian women strangling each other! The arena was no more than a rundown sports hall filled with plastic garden chairs and a wrestling ring. Over the next two hours we saw a variety of opponents take each other on; including, gimp v cat, clown v overweight woman, cheeky camp man v overweight woman and the tag-team finale, two overweight women v men in gold spandex! The crowd went crazy for it, as locals and tourists threw bottles, food and chairs at the wrestlers! This was an evening like no other and one that we won't forget in a hurry!

      

The next day we visited the infamous San Pedro Prison. On our travels we had both read ´Marching Powder´, a book about a British drug traffiker who is thrown into Bolivian prison and describes how crazy the prison system is. It didn't look too daunting from the outside, but there was a huge queue of women and children waiting to see their husbands. We visited the main tourist plazas and spent a lot of time wandering around La Paz's vibrant street markets. Around every corner plump Bolivian women could be found sat surrounded by their wares - flowers, fruit, vegetables, meat and more. Most traders didn't have a stall, but simply laid out their produce in the road whilst cars flew inches away from them.

Close to our hostel was the famous Witches Market where you can pick up a llama fetus to bury underneath your house for good luck; unsurprisingly neither of us made a purchase!

     

We did, however, go shopping for alpaca jumpers...

Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

We decided to fly from La Paz to Rurrenabaque - a forty minute flight as opposed to a 20+ hour bus that is liable to get stuck in the jungle for days if it rains. The plane was tiny, with less than 20 seats and the airport was little more than a landing strip in the middle of the rainforest!

Much like the Salt Flat tours, choosing a tour operator is a minefield. After speaking to most of the tour companies, we opted for Mashaquipe as it's run by an indigenous Amazon family and they use the money to protect the rainforest and its wildlife.

Our tour started with a boat ride up the Yacuma river where we saw aligators casually basking in the sun! 

We then hopped off the boat to visit the Mashaquipe sugar plantation, where we had a go at making sugar cane juice. It tasted really good, but after two bowls we started to get the shakes!

When we got to the camp we were really impressed with our jungle lodge - better than our accomodation in the town! Once we had unpacked our bags, we set off into the jungle to learn about the medicinal uses of the plants and trees... 

 

Leading the way with his machete, Ismael (our guide) welcomed us to the jungle... He had us trying a variety of rainforest delights; parasite-killing milk from a tree, bamboo water and even a live lava he found inside an almond nut! Sam was the last person to try his lava as it was wriggling around in his hand... but he caved in and gave it a go! It tasted surprisingly nice - mostly of coconut milk and almonds.

Next Ismael found a conker-like seed that when cracked open, contained lots of tiny red berries. He then proceeded to mash the seeds up and paint tribal patterns on our faces with the juice. He reckoned he matched Jo's colouring perfectly, but we're not sure he'll be making it as a make-up artist any time soon - especially when it wouldn't come off!

We emerged from the jungle hot and sticky, so decided to swim back to our lodge by jumping out of our boat and into the Tuichi river. Tuichi means 'angry' in the local indigenous language, and it quickly swept us to our camp!

After a cold shower, a hearty dinner and the discovery of even more wildlife in our camp (a tarantula and a boa constrictor to name just two!) we headed out in the boat again... this time in complete darkness. By shining our torches across the water we could see the red eyes of aligators staring at us just above the water. The highlight was when Ismael spotted a jaguar staring back at us on the other side of the river. We could only see its eyes, but no one was too keen to go across the river to get upclose and personal with it! 

The next morning we set off on an eleven kilometer trek through the jungle to our camp. The hike through the was rainforest was humid and sweaty, but the views were incredible. Despite concerns we may not see much wildlife through the thick rainforest, we were lucky enough to see four different types of monkey swinging in the trees above us. It really was remarkable how much they looked like Jo...

 

We came across a huge variety of unusual plants and insects. The Army Surgery ants were the most impressive as they're used to stitch together wounds when their pincers clamp across a gash! Ismael was even brave enough to show us how they worked!

Ismael had found some vines hanging from a tree - and in true jungle fashion - taught us how to swing through the rainforest like Tarzan! Our newly found skills earned us the nicknames, Jungle Boy and Jungle Girl! A few hours later we made it to our camp, which was no more than some wooden posts and some tarpaulin... 

After a quick lunch we were back on our feet once again, this time in search of wild pigs! It didn't take long for Ismael to track some down and he managed to find a group of two hundred. Unfortunately they smelt us coming and did a runner, meaning we embarked on a wild chase through the jungle trying to catch a glimpse of them! When we got back to camp Sam smelt as bad as the pigs, so we both decided to head to the nearest stream for a wash. It felt like we were on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! as we stood in the water in our swim stuff scrubbing ourselves down!

After a night sleeping under just a mosquito net, we headed back into the rainforest towards a mirador (lookout) high above all the trees. The view was absolutely stunning, with lush green trees as far as the eye could see. It made the long and arduous hikes completely worthwhile. Ismael then whispered to us that we should follow him as quietly as possible... he had found a tree filled with over a hundred makaws!

We were soon back at the river and Sam decided to cool off by floating back to the camp again. Jo decided to take control of the boat and sailed back to the shore instead. Once we were on dry land again, we had a go at making jewellery from seeds and nuts we had collected in the rainforest. It involved a lot of sanding and elbow greese, but on completion we were informed that we'd created jungle 'wedding' rings - and would have to stay monogamous like the makaws!

Sucre, Bolivia

We headed to Sucre in search of warmer climes after the sub-zero temperatures of San Pedro and Uyuni. The weather didn't disappoint and we were able to bask in some sunshine for a few days!

Sucre is a beautiful town, filled with historical buildings, churches, plazas, cafes and amazing markets. We were really taken aback by how different Bolivia is to everywhere we've visited so far - much poorer, less westernised and more indigenous. Many of the older women wear traditional Bolivian clothing - a skirt with lots of petticoats, a pinafore, shawl, bowler hat and two long plaits (often with tassles tied to the ends).

     

One of Bolivia's main 'attractions' is how cheap it is and this was a welcome change from the extortionate Chile. On most street corners we would find food vendors selling popcorn for 10p a bag, a pizza for 60p and freshly squeezed orange juice for 35p. We even manged to have a three course meal and a drink for £1.30!

Unfortunately much of our time in Sucre was taken up with the headache of trying to organise a way to get to La Paz for a flight we'd booked to take us to Rurrenabaque. Union strikes and school holidays threatened to scupper our plans entirely, but after much confusion we were set to take a 12 private taxi in the wrong direction to Cochabamba and then fly to La Paz from there...

Of the little free time that we did have, we managed to visit lots of local restaurants, go to the cinema and take the Dinobus to Cretacious Park to see the largest set of dinosaur prints in the world. Lonely Planet described it as a 'slick theme park', but it was more Fishers Farm than Thorpe Park. Still, it was fun to look at the prints from over 200 metres away across a dusty quarry...

We were all booked and set for our painfully indirect journey to La Paz, when we were told the blockades had ended and the roads were clear! So having wasted a lot of time in travel agents and internet cafes and a £25 flight, we quickly changed plans and booked the first direct bus to La Paz. Our bus was luxurious and just as we reclined our seats and Sam exclaimed "this is the life", another couple arrived with a ticket stating the same seats as ours...

After more confusion it was clear that we had to get off! The bus was seconds from leaving, so we pleaded with the driver to open the hold so we could climb in, scramble around in the dark and retrieve our bags. Panting and sweating - but clutching our backpacks - we were pointed to a different bus; filthy, smelly and falling apart! We found our seats right at the back, next to the toilet... Jo then discovered that her chair was broken and had to sit in a certain position all night to stop the seat collapsing! We hardly got any sleep and when we arrived in La Paz the next morning, a girl on our bus discovered that her bag had been stolen.

Next stop, the Amazon rainforest... and as far away from Bolivian buses as possible!

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

We had pretty low expectations of the salt flat tours having read the guidebook and spoken to travellers who'd suffered it first hand - we'd been told to expect a very bumpy ride, drunk guides, frozen beds and terrible food. Thankfully we experienced none of the above...

We had a brilliant group and an even better guide! He didn't speak a word of English, but luckily Kenny was fluent in Spanish and translated every fact, joke and story for us. We'd been forwarned that Bolivian people were quite shy - Luis must have been the exception, as he kept us entertained the whole way and even sharked us at cards!

The first day we went to Laguna Colorado which was deep red and purple and looked amazing as the sun was setting across the mountains... we even caught our first glimpse of wild flamengos!

We also visited some more geysers, which were very different to the ones in San Pedro de Atacama. They stunk of rotten eggs (due to the sulphur) and had created huge craters that made the landscape look like a scene out of Star Wars. We trod carefully as Luis had warned us that some could explode at any moment!

We then went for a quick dip in some thermal baths with the most amazing views. Sam made quite an entrance as he slipped on an algae covered rock and splashed everyone. Thankfully the outside temperature was much warmer than in Chile, so getting out was no where near as painful and Sam didn't scream this time!

After a bitterly cold night, wrapped in our thermals, jackets, jeans and sleeping bags, we headed out to see huge flocks of the endanged James Flamengos on beautiful half-frozen lagoons. It was amazing how close we were able to get, and how loud they were!

Our accomodation the next evening was a hostel made entirely of salt - chairs, tables, beds and walls! In the morning we set out for the slat falts, stopping off for a wander round a coral island, which was covered in 1000 year old cacti... 

We witnessed a couple of flirtatious male llamas frolicking on the salt flats!

We then spent a good three hours conducting a photoshoot....

We had an amazing trip and made some great friends along the way!