Bolivia: La Paz and Death Road

After our amazing salt flats experience, we flew back to La Paz and spent a few days in the city.  La Paz is interesting due largely to its location.  It is on steep hills, with the airport and poorer neighborhoods at the top at about 13,000 feet above sea level.  The neighborhoods become more upscale as you descend to the lower elevation (10,000 feet), where it’s a bit easier to breathe. 

City View

We stayed in a tourist area where there were plenty of markets, shops, and historical churches.  We spent a day looking at the various crafts and taking a tour of the San Francisco Church and Monastery.  An English speaking guide was provided with the entrance fee but he talked so quickly that I think we only understood about 60% of what he told us.  Nonetheless, it was a fun tour.

San Francisco Church

Looking over the city from the monastery rooftop

Narrow passage up to the roof and bell tower

Vegetable Market

Vegetable Market Shopper

We had more time than we needed in La Paz and Simon decided that we should spend one of those extra days mountain biking down Death Road.  There is a good reason the North Yungas Road in Bolivia has been called “Death Road.”  It is estimated, that before an alternative, safer road was built, 200 to 300 people died on the road each year.  The entire road is dirt.  In some parts it is very rocky and in others muddy.  There are portions that are no wider than ten feet, with no guard rails and drop offs of more than 1,800 feet.  Since the 1990s, mountain bike tour groups have been taken down a forty miles stretch of the road, which is mostly downhill.  Not my idea of a good time, but I decided that I’d prefer to join than sit at the hotel room wondering if Simon had fallen off a cliff.

We were geared up with waterproof pants, gloves, and full helmets before being bused out to our starting point at over 15,000 feet above sea level.  The first stretch was not too bad.  It was all downhill on a paved road.  I can almost say it was fun.  Then, we arrived at the police check point, where we paid our fee for using Death Road and boarded the bus again for the first few uphill miles of the road.  Once we got on the bikes again, the real mountain biking began.  Let’s just say that I will not be taking up mountain biking any time soon.  I was not even concerned with the huge cliff I was riding alongside because I was concentrating so hard on not falling off and doing my best to ignore the pain caused by constant bumps and a very hard bike seat.  Simon, however, loved every minute.

When we finished the ride, we had lunch at a hotel and were able to shower and go for a swim.  That was the best part of the day for me.  We had a long three hour drive back to La Paz.  We took the newer, “safer,” road to get back.  It actually has two lanes.  The views of the Andes were spectacular along the way.  We passed through a tiny cliff side town where everyone was gearing up for a big Bolivian Independence Day celebration.  

I survived Death Road and all I got was this t-shirt

Independence Day Parade

Time to relax

Back in La Paz, we were pretty much done with the tourist activities and passed our time by going to the movies.  We managed to find a theatre that played English language movies with Spanish subtitles.  We saw The Dark Knight Rises for about $3.50.  We thought it was such a deal that we went back the next day and saw Friends with Kids, or in Bolivia, “Plan Perfecto.” Unfortunately, our second trip to the movie resulted in the biggest loss of the trip – Simon’s iPhone.  It fell out of his pocket in the theatre and was gone when we went back 15 minutes later to look for it.  I hope it’s making someone in Bolivia very happy right now.

Bolivia: Salar de Uyuni

Uyuni - where Toyota Landcruisers go to die.

We flew to Uyuni from La Paz, so were able to take in the salt flats and the town from above.  The town is in the middle of nowhere.  The airport is a strong competitor for smallest airport I have ever seen and is definitely the emptiest.  It consisted of one main  building that was unfinished and largely empty except for one check in desk.  Only Amaszonas airlines flies in and out of Uyuni.

Uyuni Airport

Empty Interior of the Airport

After arriving, we booked a salt flats tour with one of the many companies vying for our business.  All of the companies use Toyota Landcruisers for their tours and most are a good ten years old.  Most tours will pile seven people (6 tourists and the guide/driver) in for the three day tour, which is mostly spent in the car.  For some extra comfort, we paid a little bit more and were placed in a group with only four passengers - the two of us and two girls from Spain.

Landcruisers lining up on the streets of Uyuni

Our first stop on the tour was the train graveyard, which is only a few minutes outside of Uyuni.  It’s exactly what it sounds like; a big area full of old, rusted trains.  Some of the parts had been turned into teeter totters and swings.  We had about twenty minutes to explore and climb on things like children on a playground.

Next, we drove out to a small town, if it can even be called that, on the edge of the salt flats.  There were plenty of stalls selling crafts to the tourists and a small salt “museum,” which had a few sculptures made of salt. 

Many tours stopped for shopping

At the Train Graveyard

We continued on to an area just outside the town where the salt is mined. It is piled up into “salt mountains” to dry before being transported to a refinery.  Some people thought it would make a good picture to stand on top of one of the “mountains.”  As soon as anyone played on the piles, a woman wearing a balaclava and carrying a shovel came running over and made that person pile the salt back up.  This of course was another photo opportunity.

Flags on the Flats

Salt Mountains

Finally we made it out to the salt flats.  The salt flats were formed when a prehistoric lake dried up and left an estimated ten billion tons of salt behind.  At over 4,000 square miles, Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat.  We stopped for lunch at Isla de los Pescadores, an “island” in the middle of the flats that is covered with cacti, some more than 1,000 years old.  Since this was our longest stop on the flats, we also got to take pictures, playing around with the perspective.

Isla de Los Pescadores

That's Me in the Palm of Simon's Hand

Giant Cookies

After a few hours, we continued our drive over the salt flats, with nothing but white as far as the eye could see.  Eventually, the salt gave way to dirt again and we arrived at our hotel for the night.  It was made completely of salt.  The walls, the bed frames, the tables, the chairs, the floor…everything was salt.  As you might imagine, it’s difficult to install any sort of heating in a salt hotel and it was COLD. We had dinner and then crawled under our covers with quite a few layers of clothes on.

Dining Room in the Salt Hotel

Ready for a Cold Night in the Salt Hotel

The next day, we spent a lot of time in the car, stopping from time to time to take pictures of the incredible scenery.  The rocky landscape of the “white desert” looked like something from another world.  We got to spend quite a while enjoying this area as the Landcruiser broke down here.  Another driver from the same tour company stopped and together with our driver, Oscar, they were able to get the truck running again after a nervous thirty minutes.  This was not a place we would want to be stuck for too long.  We carried on and saw some amazing lakes, volcanoes, and rock formations before arriving at Laguna Colorada where we would spend the night. 

One of the lakes we stopped at

It was freezing and did not smell very nice

Flamingos on the lake

Simon and one of many crazy rock formations

In the middle of nowhere - the spot where the Landcruiser broke down

Distant volcano

Laguna Colorada is at about 16,000 feet above sea level.  Because of certain minerals, some portions of the water are a deep red.  It is a very beautiful and unique spot, but also absolutely freezing.  This was also the only place that I started to feel sick from the altitude.  Our accommodation for the night was nothing more than a stone refuge.  The toilet "flushed" with a bucket of water.  The metal roof was weighed down by rocks and old tires.  When we signed up for the tour, we were told the second night accommodation was "basic" and it definitely was.  As we sat at the table waiting for our dinner, all four of us kept going back to our bags to get more and more layers.  Eventually, we started pulling the blankets out of the room.  We finished dinner around 7:30pm and went straight to bed simply because we wanted to get under the covers.  I managed to stay warm all night but was wearing two long sleeved thermals, two t-shirts, a fleece jacket, thermal pants, two regular pants, two pairs of socks with a hand warmer between, a buff, a beanie, gloves, and an eye mask,  This was under two sheets, a sleeping bag, three heavy blankets, and one light blanket.  I could barely move. 

Laguna Colorada

Our luxury accommodation

At 5:30am we set off again for our final day of the tour.  The first stop was the geysers.  I expected to this to be similar to what we saw in Iceland, but it was completely different.  The area looked like something from another planet.  The way the morning sun shined through the steam just made it look all the more eerie.  Because nothing was roped off, you could walk right through the area and among the many boiling geysers.

Geysers

After the geysers, we visited another lake and hot springs that you could swim in.  Even though the warm water looked inviting we opted not to go in since it was still freezing outside and nobody looked happy when they got out of the water.  Our last stop before beginning a very long drive back to Uyuni was Laguna Verde, a lake colored green by arsenic, lead, and copper.

Hot Springs

Laguna Verde

We took a different route back to Uyuni and passed by a few towns and llama farms.  Unfortunately during a large part of the drive we got to listen to the driver’s mp3 player, which seemed to consist of one Bolivian pop song that repeated over and over again.  The main chorus was just someone shouting, “Uyuni! Bolivia! Lima!”  The song still haunts me.

Bolivia: Copacabana

We crossed the border into Bolivia just outside the lakeside town of Copacabana.  Even though its considered a Bolivian "resort" town, Copacabana is pretty small.  There are plenty of tourist shops down a main road and a large cathedral that was nice from the outside.  The highlight of Copacabana was probably our room.  Because of the elevation, it gets very cold in Copacabana at night.  Our hotel had no heating, but guests were invited to use propane heaters in their rooms....from 6pm to 10pm only...and only two heaters were available between about 15 rooms.  We were lucky and managed to get a heater both nights we were there.  The first night, the propane ran out by about 9 though.  I highly doubt they refilled the propane the next day, so in all likelihood, the second night, we were the only ones with any heating at all.

Bolivia Immigration

Simon about to cross the border

Inside the Cathedral

Me standing in the courtyard outside the cathedral

Copacabana and Lake Titicaca

Some turkeys that decided to join us for lunch. This restaurant would not get an "A"

While we were in Copacabana, Bolivians and Peruvians started piling in to the town and lining up to have their cars blessed at the cathedral.  Apparently, this happens every year at the beginning of August.  Before the blessing, the vehicle owners dressed their (unwashed) cars in all kinds of flowers, hats, boas, and small figurines.

All dressed up for the blessing

From Copacabana we took another bus to La Paz.  Crossing Titicaca was especially interesting.  All the passengers piled off and took a small boat.  The bus, and all the luggage with it, was piled on to what can be described as a large raft with a small motor attached.  The bus slowly floated across.

Boats we crossed Lake Titicaca in

Our bus crossing Lake Titicaca

Peru: Lake Titicaca

We took a bus from Arequipa to Puno to visit Lake Titicaca.  Other than the lake, I don't think there is any reason to visit Puno.  The most interesting place in the town was a large supermarket which I referred to as Peru's Target.  It had everything - food, electronics, clothing, toys, even car tires.  Anyway, during our one full day in Puno, we set off for the port to visit the Floating Islands of Uros.  After a very very slow twenty minute boat ride we arrived in Islas Uros.  I was expecting one big island, but Uros is actually made up of many different islands, with each island having about four or five families on it.  The floating islands are made from reeds that grow in the lake.  Walking on the reed island feels a bit like walking on a trampeline.  The trip to Uros was very touristy.  The community did not seem very authentic and we doubted whether people really live on those particular islands anymore.  However, it was still interesting to get an idea of how people used to live, and still do on reed islands that are more difficult to reach.

Beautiful Puno

A reed restaurant

Welcome to Uros

Simon on the island

A local family

A reed boat