3days across desert to leave Bolivia(Thank God) and back to the modern world in Chile + the Atacama!

So not too much more to say about Bolivia apart from the fact that its definitely not far up on my list of countries. Pretty much down the bottom to be honest. Hate to say that about a place but I just wasn't impressed. It was cheap, sunny and we had a great crowd of people to travel with plus did a lot of cool activities so should have had all the good factors there but something just didn't add up and it was mainly the Bolivian people and service. The highlights were the Loki hostel in La Paz(which isn't Bolivian owned), the food in the tourist restaurants(which isn't Bolivian), the Death Road cycle (which was great but still a road that a lot of people died on), the visit to prison(an amazing experience and definitely something I'd do again but still we're bribing cops, murderers and drug dealers to show us the inside of a prison) and the first day of the Salt Flats(which our guide was absolutely shit!) So sorry to sound so negative. I had a great time there. Enjoyed most of. Don't get me wrong but overall as a country it just didn't impress me. The scenery was nowhere near as good as Peru, the people were very different to the friendliness of Peru and Colombia. The local food was very basic and unhygienic. Been eating a lot of street food the whole way from Mexico to Peru but barely touched it in Bolivia. The tourist infrastructure is there but just not in good service. As soon as they have the tour or product sold they don't care anymore. The exception to this is our tour on the death road. Our guide was brilliant. I didn't go to the jungle thank god but eight of the others did a tour there, got a shit guide, very little food and bitten all over my mosquito's. Everyone we met heading north had absolutely loved Bolivia. And to be honest a lot of people I've travelled with before who are probably reading this also said Bolivia is one of their favourite countries. And I can totally understand why and the different perspectives you get when you head from south to north rather than the way we did it. For example I absolutely loved Vietnam, one of my favourite countries but a lot of people I met hate it. Funny how you can think different things that way.

Anyway, after Sucre which I actually quite liked, we went to Potosi. This was another tour where you go into the mines to see how people work. Under the same conditions that they did hundreds of years ago. Another tour that sees the hardship of the Bolivian people. Well we didn't bother with it in the end and spent about three days doing nothing but staying in bed and watching movies. From here it was a bus trip to Uyuni across roads that weren't really roads just dirt and mud and potholes until we got to a big flat plain spread out for as far as the eye can see. Coming into this town all we could see was rubbish everywhere. Literally plastic bags in particular strewn all over the place. It was very ugly. The town didn't have much to offer either but it was just the starting point to our Salt Flats tour. Most of them didn't provide English speaking guides but we eventually found a really nice agent whose husband did the three day tour to the Chilean border across the Salt Flats and the desert. This was three days across no roads I think more than 600km but honestly some of the driving on the Salt Flats is better than most Bolivian "roads"!! Although we had pretty good experiences on buses in Bolivia I've heard about other dodgy roads and stuff. I guess we avoided a lot of them.

The Salt Flats in Bolivia are amazing. It is the worlds largest at 10582 sq km. To put this into perspective Ireland is 84421 sq km. So about 1/8 the size of Ireland. Its flat as can be and covered in salt. The jeeps drive across this. There are hotels made of salt here as well. It was very impressive and we did all the cheesy photos that everyone does that with the perspective issue. The first night we stayed in a salt hotel and the food was pretty good the first few days as well. Got llama which I quite like and there was decent portions as well so me with my huge appetite got at least three helpings.

Our guide was pretty useless and kinda but a dampener on the whole trip. Even though his wife in the tourist agency sold the trip well he was just a bit strange. Started out the first hour all cheerful and happy but after that he barely spoke to us. Barely told us a thing and after the first day he stopped speaking English altogether. Most of us had enough Spanish to understand everything except he didn't speak that either. He started falling asleep at the wheel which wasn't that big an issue cause there are no roads to drive on but still that wasn't the point. He slept in, in the mornings when he told us to be up at a certain hour and then when we questioned him about things like that he pretended not to understand. He'd throw out the food to us and then go off to sleep or chatting to other guides or something. In Peru and the death road we had meet such nice people doing tours. Really friendly. Such a different experience in most of Bolivia. I just couldn't wait to get to the border and get to a modern developed country!! We spent most of the second day driving across desert that went up to 5000 metres high. Windy as fuck, hot, cold, freezing. It kept changing and would have been amazing except for the fact that we were just in a bad mood with the driver. Had a really nice Irish couple in the car with us that we got on really well with and funnily enough also new a good few people I've worked with in hotels over the years!! And a very odd Barcelona guy who didn't talk too much at all. Most of the highlights of this desert and salt flats trip are in the photos so won't bore with the details here.

The second night was freezing. Had had a shit dinner the night before, shit breakfast that morning and just wanted to get straight to the border. We all woke up feeling the effects of the altitude and it was that day that we hit 5025 metres. The bottle of red wine and beers the night before didn't help it. We finally got to the border at around 930 and to top it off the border guards wanted to make us pay to leave the country. An unofficial payment that goes straight into their pockets which usually you don' t have any choice but to pay. Just one last straw to top off Bolivian hospitality.

We got in a Chilean bus and already the driver was friendly. You could see the difference in peoples faces. He started describing all sorts of stuff to us. 45 minute journey from here where we actually got proper roads again at over 4000 metres down to the Atacama desert at around 2000 and something. The driest desert in the world we were stopping off in a town called San Pedro de Atacama. The Chilean side of the border was an ordeal because they didn't want any food, wood or anything like that coming into the country from Bolivia. And what a relief it was to get there. Felt like been back in Europe. Proper hostels, showers, toilets, cars, roads. All the things we're used to but usually culture shock for me is coming back to normality rather than the opposite way around. Stuff you'd never really appreciate or notice but when you don't have it for a while and then get it back its mad!!

San Pedro is a beautiful little tourist town. Even so modern that out in the middle of the park in the centre they have wifi and all around. Christmas decorations are up with a big Christmas tree right in the middle of the town sq. Great star gazing at night and great food. I've been looking forward to Argentinian and Chilean food for so long now. We got this meal in the tourist restaurant in the Sq and even though Chile is meant to be expensive $10 for this was great value. Bread with Olive oil, Greek salad lots of olives, pork steak(the girls got salmon pasta, and a pasta pesto which I also got to finish), glass of amazing wine(and i never notice the difference with wines) and an ice cream!! Was in heaven. Might sound plane but it had so much flavour. And the hostels also have kitchens. Been so looking forward to been able to cook my own meals again!!

Anyway, sorry to sound so negative about Bolivia but Chile is definitely a positive so far. Love the people, the food and everything about it so far. Only going to spend two days here though then get the bus to Argentina spend a few weeks there and back to Chile then for New Years. Will probably be switching in and out of the two countries over the next few weeks.

Salt Flat Photos Day 1

Driving through the desert photos

Map of Route

Bolivia - Prisons, Highest cities, Cycling Death Road, lots of Irish

Entering Bolivia after Peru was like going back in time a lot. Lots and lots of more indigenous people and we had heard how cheap it would be but literally couldn't believe how cheap it was. Imagine stuff priced the same in numbers as in Ireland. But the exchange rate is roughly ten to one. So you could get a cheap meal for 10 or so an expensive meal for 20. But really that's 1 or 2 euros. Or a room in a hotel was varying from 15 to 40, per room, not per person. Couldn't get over it. Possible to live good here for 5 or 6 euros a day including transport but its all the activities that really add up and cost a fortune.

So the first few days we stopped off at Copacabana by Lake Titicaca the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. 3811 metres with snow capped mountains around as well. The whole town was geared up for tourists but no tourists were around. It was more like a weird little ghost town so we just spent the day sitting out on some sun chairs by the lake drinking some beers and reading some books. Then two random Irish guys showed up who recognized us from Ecuador and we stopped to chat to them for a while. We decided the following day we were going to take a boat out to Isla Del Sol island, trek across it, come back and get to La Paz the following day then. We were a bit bored of the town.

Funnily enough the boat out to Isla del Sol, 2.5 hrs worth was mainly Irish people on it. Had a good chat and got to the island with great views of the lake all around. Very flat lake, nice sunny day but the people, the locals we met just weren't that friendly. Not like what we are used to. And even though the money is nothing they all seem out to want to make money off the stupidest things! Like at three different sections of our walk there was a local there trying to charge us to get by. It was a three or four hour walk from the north to the south in which we mainly stuck with the Irish and a few Canadians. Had known this guy Aiden now for a few days and had done a bit of the usual stupid small talk where you find out where people are going and stuff. But whatever way the conversation went we discovered that we share first cousins. He's just on the other side of the family than me, and he had been to my house yrs ago and I'd probably visited him too. Am used to meeting Irish I know in Australia or Asia but a little random island in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia when you discover someone your kinda related to was quite random!!

That night we got back got the bus to La Paz and went to The Wild Rover an Irish hostel famous for its parties, Irish food, big warm duvets etc. Three beers in got me so drunk. probably the first time that little since I was 15 or something. But we were at over 3600 metres where all sorts of crazy stuff effects your body. You should see the state of some people who've flown in directly from sea level. Also found out later the beer which is a good beer was 7% and also larger than a pint for less than 2 euros so that helped explain it.

One of the days in La Paz I went to this place which claims to have the hottest chilli's in the world. So if I finish the Vindaloo dish I get a free tshirt. I love spicy food so had to do this challenge and wasn't too bad. Hottest thing I've ever had still is called an Issan salad in Thailand!

We ended up spending about 6 days in La Paz. I wasn't too impressed to be honest it was just the crowd we had and the hostels that were great. We left the Wild Rover and moved to Loki probably one of the best hostel chains in the world!! Might have talked a lot about these hostels already but they have everything. Absolutely everything. This one even had oxegen tanks for people who were feeling the altitude!!! We had a few nights out drinking. Nothing special except that it was so easy to get drunk. A lot of people we've met come to La Paz and stay for weeks or months. I honestly could not see the attraction at all. For the first few days in Bolivia I seemed to bump into someone I kind of knew nearly everyday. For months without seeing Irish people there were nearly a majority of us in every hostel. One night in a bar saw this girl I recognized from Uni. Turned out she was in loads of my photos from the last week of Uni and recognized loads of people I knew. Then another girl in my dorm went to school around the corner for me and lived where I surf. This kind of stuff kept happening until I was out in one shitty nightclub in La Paz that reminded me of the old version of the knights at home and I bump into about three people from Clare.

Since the middle of October there has been a group of about ten of us travelling some people parting for a few days and joining up again and also a few new members to the group as well so have had lots of people to do activities with. We got a group of 12 people to go cycle the death road. A lot of people I know have done this. Lonely Planet which I always recommend for everywhere but have found it useless for South America says how you should only go with this one company gravity and a lot of the other companies have dodgy equipment. This road is described as one of the worlds most dangerous roads cause of its high cliffs, tight turns, crazy drivers and mainly the amount of people killed on it each year. There is barely enough room for two cars to pass on it not to mind the amount of trucks and buses travelling from La Paz to the Amazon. It closed two yrs ago due to a new road opening and is now open only to cyclists. So you do need good safety equipment to cycle it. I shopped around to about 12 different places checking it all out and decided on one company. A few of the others were skeptical about it because of the Lonely Planet article saying not to trust other companies. Well later on when we were on the road we could see that the company Lonely Planet recommend that charges 720 Bolivianos had the worst equipment, just luminous vests, no proper clothes, shoddy saddles and bicycle helmets. We got the cheapest price of all of them at 420 and got the best gear. Proper waterproof and protective coats and pants that barely any other company gave. Vests, helmets that were like motorcycle helmets, proper knee pads, bikes worth $3500 USD before they were shipped and breakfast, lunch and two big decent snacks and water. Plus a guy to take our photos and videos. It was great. The bikes were double suspension with hydraulic breaks.

So we started off the day pretty early, great that we were all friends already and went up to 4600metres to start our cycle on a tarmac road. We had a good number of Dutch with us who claimed they would be no good cause they are used to flat roads and of course they went flying ahead. They were so fast. This wasn't the death road the first few km but I found it more scary cause I thought I should try keep up with them which I obviously failed to do!! We were told we were going at a max speed of 60 - 65 kmph at this section. We then reached the start of the death road. Gravel, very tight curves, getting warmer as we were going down and stripping off the layers. We were losing 1000metres every hour or so. By the end of it we had gone down something like 3700 metres from snow capped mountains in a moon like landscape where nothing grows, through pine forests, into jungle with banana trees and tropical weather to near the amazon. Very interesting change of scenery. The cycle on the death road was very interesting. Fast speeds, slowing down for corners one guide at the front, one behind, another for photos and two support vehicles. There was three minor accidents among our group! One girl fell at very start of death road and cut side of her face. Then one of the guys we came upon and he was halfway off the side of the mountain with his bike on top of him. Think he flipped over the handlebars. He got up laughing as if nothing happened. But looked quite scary from where we were. Then another guy did a slip over a rock in the middle of the road, not near the edge but still cut himself in a few places!! Id highly recommend Overdose if anyone else is going. I know a lot of people have done this already and have seen loads of photos but great guide, and great company.

So after this most of the group were heading to the jungle, amazon for a few days, Adrian was going ahead to Argentina cause he had to start his work visa by the 5th so myself and Mallory decided to head to Sucre and meet up with the rest of the group for the Salt Flats for the weekend. We bought our ticket for the night bus and it was only 70 Bolivianos which is $10 for a luxurious night bus that was like 12 hours. Even though Bolivia is cheap I was sure we were been scammed. Usually we were bargaining for buses in other countries but here I felt like I should have been offering him more than this just to get something comfortable. Like bargaining in the opposite way. Am so used to buses in Asia screwing you over, and in south America buses are better than first class planes. Just couldn't understand why a bus would be this price. So waited around for an hour and got on. Wasn't too bad. Full reclining seats and all that is practically a bed but just no toilet on board.

The main plan for the next few days was just to sit around relaxing and doing nothing. Dec 1st was our first day in Sucre and also the first day of summer and sure felt like it. The weather here changes usually with altitude not so much with season or distance from the equator. But definitely felt like a lovely summers day!! Weird when looking at all the pictures of the snow at home. Heading south from here the weather should keep getting warmer for a while, even though were going further from the equator we've been at altitude for so long now its been chilly enough at nights. Rain usually follows me everywhere I go but I must have some good luck charm lately with me cause I think I've only seen two days of rain since the start of October. Loving it. Also even though there was Xmas decorations as far back as October in Colombia we are seeing them more and more. Keep forgetting its nearly Xmas. And compared to Australia and NZ which seemed to do very little for Xmas with regards to decorations South America is definitely into it in places!!

Had a nice walk around Sucre and relaxed in the park reading and stuff. Very very much reminded me of Spain, blue skies, white buildings, hot, red roofs and pretty churches. Nothing to keep us there too long though to following day we moved onto Potosi the highest city in the world at over 4000 metres. Again was skeptical about the bus cause it was only 1.50 EUR for 4 hours. But of course it was fine again.

After that we are planning on moving on to Uyuni to do a salt flats tour and then head into the north of Chile and onto Argentina. Been looking forward to Argentina for so long now!!! Can't wait.

This is a map of the route with the list of hostels and transport and all that.

Bolivia Photos

Death Road Photos