High life in Bolivia
Trip Start
Nov 18, 2008
1
16
55
Trip End
Nov 17, 2009
La Paz,
Bolivia
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
So as soon as we were checked in we went to the bar to claim our drinks! Then we realised we had no Bolivian Bolivianos left having spent them all on the taxi and a bottle of water! So we managed to find a couple going to Peru and exchanged our remaining Peruvian Sol, thus being able to afford another round- Result!! We then got involved in some crazy Australian guys game which consisted of him providing free shots for everyone and making us guess what was in them! We had a good night and got chatting to some Argentinian guys who were keen to give us advice on Argentina and insisted we try an Argentinian cocktail!
Next day after a breakfast of pancakes at the hostal we were ready for what we had been advised was a not-to-be-missed Bolivian Experience! We took a visit to La Pazīs infamous San Pedro Prison. It was totally fascinating and not at all as youīd expect a prison to be. We went to the San Pedro Plaza with a Greek girl from our hostal and 2 Dutch people and were immediately approached by a toothless South African woman who was very keen to point out that she was not a prisoner! She explained what would happen and we were inside with permanent marker numbers on our arms before we knew it! This was the thing which identified us as visitors and enabled us to be counted in and out again! We met Oscar and Miguel at the gate and along with 2 "security guards" (really they were other prisoners) we were off round the 7 sections of the prison. Basically there are 1500 male prisoners in the jail and their wives and kids can come and go as they please, often living in the cell with the prisoner. Each prisoner, upon entering has to buy his own cell or can rent space from others if he wants. They have saunas, gyms, pool tables, table football and even a small football pitch. The prisoners wives can bring whatever they want into the prison and they set up shops and stalls in the cells selling all the usual sweets, biscuits, juice etc and some of them make cakes or set up hairdressers too! There are laundry areas and washing lines full of kids clothes everywhere which is a really sad sight to see in a prison. The prisoners themselves sometimes make things to sell too like wooden toys, metal cars and wee clay models of llamas. It was quite an experience to be in there and we were inside for about 2 hours. Of course thereīs a darker side to the whole situation as well and about 75% of them are in for drugs related crimes, bizarrely however, the authorities turn a blind eye to the cocaine factory inside the prison and rumour has it that a prisoner on a 10 year jail term can get out after 4 years if heīs willing to work in the factory! Itīs a self-perpetuating problem however because when prisoners are released into the real world, they find accommodation more expensive, food no longer free and most of them have a drug habit which is more costly than when they were inside prison, so thereīs a high rate of deliberate re-offending in order to get back inside!
It was quite a full-on experience and we headed to a cafe for some food and to reflect on the mornings events! Then, as we were relaxing a guy who turned out to be dodgy looked like he was fixing a fire but just in time Pete noticed his hand sneaking over towards my (empty) cameras case! The guy ran away with nothing but it gave us a real fright! We wandered around La Paz in the afternoon before heading back to the hostal for dinner and or course our free beer in the evening!
Next day we took a trip to Chacaltaya mountain -home of the world highest ski resort! This is in actual fact a bit misleading as the snow has melted so much that there is no longer a ski tow near the snow! In theory you could climb up with your skis, pop them on and ski all of 5 seconds before reaching the rocks! Global warming had a lot to answer for!
Anyway we walked from the redundant Ski Club House Andino Boliviano at 5300m up to the top of Chacaltaya at 5450m. Being Bolivia there were no warnings about the altitude which is quite severe! We moved on to visit the surreal landscape of the Valle de la Luna - moon valley which was tourist-tastic!
That evening we headed off on a night bus to Uyuni in the south of Bolivia. It was a gringo bus! Not a local in sight!! But good fun -people were passing packs of biscuits around and we had a chat with some of the folk around us. The roads were rough - apparently only 5% Of the roads in Bolivia are paved and after about 2am the road deteriorated to a corrugated iron-like surface so we juddered along for the remaining 5 hours as it slowly got worse!
Arrived in Uyuni which is a ghost town which seems to exist only for the tourists with its 60 tour operators in town! After some research with our new Amigo Bal, we booked a 3 day tour into the Salt Flats and desert region which would drop us in San Pedro De Atacama, Chile.
We set off a few hours later in a jeep - driver and cook in the front, a strange German-Brazilian couple, Fray from Yorkshire, Bal from London and the two of us!
Over the next 3 days we saw some of the most amazing scenery ever! Starting with the vast brilliant-white salt plains which are the remnants of an ancient sea which became landlocked and evaporated leaving behind 12000 square km of salt which is 10m thick! We saw giant cacti, coral remains, mummified remains as itīs one of the driest places on earth they were really well preserved lying out in the desert. At the end of the first day we saw an amazingly clear night sky and the milky way.
Next day brought us across the desert driving over vast barren flat areas dotted with flamingo filled lagoons of different colours and wind eroded rock formation which provided a climbing opportunity for Pete! Itīs quite hard bouldering and 4500m though and we were all puffed quite quickly.
We ended the day with Laguna Colarada, a red cloloued lagoon with flamingos and snow capped mountains beyond! It was a photographers dream! We enjoyed Bolivian red wine and some games with the group in the evening too.
The last day was an early start, but worth it to see the geysers at sunrise, puffing clouds of steam into the air amid boiling, bubbling muddy pools. We than passed some more flamingos and had a thermal bath at 5000m before breakfast. It was then onwards past Laguna Verde towards the most remote border post weīve ever seen! A hut in the middle of nowhere, where we were passed from the jeep over to a Chilean minibus to take us to San Pedro de Atacama. Within the first 500m we were on paved roads in a smooth minibus and Bolivia seemed a world away.
