Oh, the Places We'll Go

When the time came to move south from Bolivia into Argentina, we’d had a good run. We piled ourselves onto another crowded, slightly-ghetto bus and bounced down the 2-lane dirt roads to the border town. After a bit of a delay at the Bolivian side as we all waited for the border guard that keeps the exit stamp to arrive at work for the day, we walked across a bridge over a trash-filled stream to the Argentina side.

In Argentina, we were efficiently welcomed into the country by a couple of well-dressed, well-coifed mate-drinking border guards and then we walked to the bus station to continue the rest of our journey. This international transition is not too different from the US-Mexico border. The first bus we got on in Argentina (and all the ones since) have been double-decker, air-conditioned slices of heaven with large, plush seats that recline and have leg rests. The buses also show movies and there is an attendant on board that does everything from collecting your ticket to serving you food on the long-haul journeys! Needless to say, the contrast between the rickety old bus in Bolivia and the fanciest bus we had ever been on in Argentina was significant.

As we jetted down the paved, 4-lane divided highway and started to see billboards instead of trash on the side of the road, we reminded ourselves that this transportation upgrade was not without its costs. Literally! The fancy bus trip in Argentina was at least 10x more expensive than what we were paying in Bolivia and it was a foreshadowing of the money that would bleed from our wallets in this lovely, but relatively expensive country.

We loved our time in Bolivia – even more than we anticipated. Our total stay was about 3 weeks and there is certainly plenty to do there to keep you entertained for longer. Here is a snap-shot, in no particular order, of our favorite parts, the things we could have done without and of course, the food. Be sure to check out our Best-of-Bolivia Photos too.

The Good

1. Sunrise at the Uyuni Salt Flats – The perfect finale to an incredible couple of days.
2. The hike across Isla del Sol – Lake Titicaca’s island gem on the Bolivian side did not disappoint.
3. Arizona deja vu – Horseback riding through the desert outside of Tupiza
4. Charango purchase – Ted was pretty excited about getting his hands on a stringed instrument and teaching himself how to play it.
5. Devil’s Thumb – Our new friend Alejandra (a Colorado friend’s cousin) took us up to a sweet spot near her home with an amazing view of all of La Paz.
6. Playing euchre and drinking wine with our friends from South Africa on our Salt Flats tour.
7. Beautiful weather everyday – Literally. It might have been a little cold or a little windy, but the weather was dry and sunny the whole time and that was a treat.
8. Road trip – Bouncing around in the back of a Land Cruiser, listening to our Bolivian guide’s entertaining musical selections, learning to chew coca (to combat elevation sickness) and sucking on lollipops while watching the wild landscape go by.
9. Making dynamite – Ted learned how dynamite is made and used in the mines (to this day) on the Potosi mine tour.
10. Flamingos –Seeing them in the wild was quite a treat. I’m still not quite sure why they are pink, but I know I like it.

The Bad

1. Protesting coca farmers – Unfortunately some political decisions and the resulting aftermath interrupted our plans for mountain biking and hiking outside of La Paz while we were there.
2. The negative buildup – We’d heard several scary warning stories about the crime against travelers in Bolivia that we entered on a bit of a defensive. We never felt any less safe there than anywhere else on our travels and I wish we had never been warned.
3. Paying to use the public rest room – To be fair, this also happened in Ecuador and Peru. I understand that it is someone’s job and I’m willing to go along with that, however, when I pay I expect a certainly level of cleanliness and some toilet paper to be provided. Oh, and a toilet seat would be nice too…
4. Bolivia’s uncertain future. Right now there is huge political conflict between the wealthy and powerful upper class and the country’s first indigenous President, Evo Morales. Though the President’s support of indigenous rights is commendable in theory, he is alienating a huge segment of his population and the future is uncertain.
5. Expensive visa fee – As Americans, we were required to purchase a US$135 visa per person to enter Bolivia. That is a LOT – especially in Bolivia where your lunch costs less than $2 and your hostel less than $10.

The Delicious

1. Saltenas, saltenas, saltenas – Think empanadas but then think again. These little pockets of baked goodness are filled with a thick stew-like concoction of meat and some combination of potatoes, olives and eggs. The shell is nearly sweet, which sounds weird, but they are oh-so good. They are served for breakfast so if you don’t get one before early afternoon, you will be saltena-less for the day. Not only are they delicious, they are cheap. We had one (or more!) nearly everyday.
2. Almuerzos – Similar to the inexpensive set-menu lunches that we had in Ecuador and Peru, Bolivia did the same, but even cheaper. We could not get over how much food we were served for the equivalent of US$1.50. Needless to say, lunch was often the big meal of the day.
3. Indian food – In Bolivia? Yes. In fact, it is the best (though only) Indian food that we’ve had on our trip so far. We were craving it, a restaurant in the tourist area of La Paz was serving it, and we were not disappointed.
4. Family brunch – well, not our family. Through an introduction from a Colorado friend, we found ourselves invited to a Sunday brunch to celebrate a family member’s first communion. There Ted and I were in our fanciest travel clothes (clean jeans and a t-shirt) as we dined on delicious roast beef, drank sangria and dipped repeatedly in the chocolate fountain for dessert. Yum.
5. Fresh caught Lake Titicaca trout – Yep. That was good.

Nearly all international travelers to Bolivia have a visit to the Uyuni Salar (salt flats) in their plans. Though there are day trips to the area, we chose to pile into an 8-person 4×4 Land Cruiser and bounce around the “Southwest Circuit” for a 4 day/3 night outing. Beyond Ted and me, our car included our South African friends (Jeff and Romy) as well as our driver, Hugo, and our English-speaking guide, Archie. We were a great group and we were all thankful that there weren’t actually 2 more passengers in our car, as we saw many other groups cramped and it didn’t look comfortable.

We didn’t quite know what we were getting ourselves into at the outset, but the southwest circuit of Bolivia is some of the highest, driest, windiest, most barren and unique landscape that we have ever visited. Beyond the salt flats, the area is a hotbed of geothermal activity and rich in a variety of minerals that have a crazy effect on the colors of the lakes. Highlights include:

• The highest we’ve ever been! We were so proud of ourselves when we hiked the 15,000 foot pass on our trek to Machu Picchu and sure enough, we were just sitting in the jeep as we drove over a road with an even greater elevation.
• Lakes with the craziest colors. Emerald green, tropical blue – even red!
• Flamingos! There are three different species in the area and for some reason they love the harsh climate.
• Huge volcanoes all around – topping 6000m in altitude (near 20,000ft)!
• Having South Africans help us plan our trip to South Africa. We already had our guidebook for our upcoming visit and they went through it and told us what to do while we’re there.
• Having a drama-free trip. We passed other groups of travelers that were in cars that broke down multiple times, had crap food, or were with an unfriendly, unhelpful guide which is no fun at all.
• Hot springs in the middle of nowhere.
• Staying in a hotel made entirely of salt!
• Photo shoot at the Uyuni Salar (pictures coming up soon).

The trip was a complete blast and we wouldn’t change a thing. A huge thanks to Tupiza Tours for taking care of us and to Jeff and Romy for making it an unforgettable experience.

We had one day in Tupiza, Bolivia before we headed out on the much talked-about salt flat tour, so we decided to do a little horseback riding with our new South African friends, Jeff and Romy.

We had a picture perfect day and as we rode off into the mid-afternoon heat, Ted and I could not get over how much Tupiza reminded us of Sedona, Arizona (where we got married). We were surrounded by beautiful red rock formations and we rode past gigantic cacti. Oh, and it was dry and hot.

None of us were expert riders, but Ted was certainly the most comfortable as he showed off what he’d learned from our friend Alexia who he has had the opportunity to ride with a few times back in Colorado.

Tupiza is a sleepy little town but is surrounded by some of the most fantastic scenery we had seen in the country. The majority of travelers start their salt flat tours from the town of Uyuni which, now having seen, is a complete dump. Tupiza is not on the radar of many, but we certainly think it should be.

Potosi is all about superlatives. It was once the largest and wealthiest town in Latin America and to this day is the world’s highest city at 13,041 feet. Its largest and wealthiest status is due to the fact that it is surrounded by mountains that once contained so much silver, Potosi alone funded the Spanish colonization of the continent for over 200 years. Though nearly all of the silver is now gone, mining for minerals still occurs in conditions that have shockingly changed very little throughout the centuries. Miners regularly die within 10-15 years of their first day in the mine due to poor air quality that eventually pollutes their lungs and kills them. Throughout the history of the mines, literally millions of miners have died (a disproportionate amount of indigenous people and slaves brought over from Africa to work the mines) because of the danger and demands of the job.

This being said, one of the most popular things for tourists to do is visit the mines. This isn’t a formal organized tour about the history with some museum displays of old mining relics, this is a down-and-dirty tour of an active, working mine. I chose not to go because I wasn’t interested in being hot, dirty and uncomfortable, but Ted went and had quite an experience that he’ll write about in a future post.

One of the best outcomes of the mine tour, in my opinion, is that Ted met a great couple from South Africa that was heading in the same direction as us. As we both wanted to do the same tour of Bolivia’s popular salt flats, we traveled together onto our next stop.

A lot of people, as well as the guidebooks, call Sucre Bolivia’s most beautiful city. As it was on our way south through the country, we thought it certainly deserved a stop. The city itself is quite lovely with beautiful architecture, including the supreme court of Bolivia (Sucre is the judicial capital). There are some narrow, cobblestone, hilly streets reminiscent of small European towns and there is a mirador (a view point) at the top of a hill where you can look out over the red-roofed buildings and the surrounding rolling hills. It is also noticeably cleaner than some of the other places we had visited in Bolivia, as in the trash was actually put in the trash cans as opposed to anywhere along the side of the road. Everyone from taxi drivers to bar tenders remarked with pride about the cleanliness of their city.

Sucre has a very similar vibe to Cuenca, Ecuador and Arequipa, Peru being that they are all good-sized, attractive, well-kept cities with beautiful buildings, walkable streets and lots of great places to eat and drink (not to mention each is our favorite city in their respective countries).

Though there are a lot of day and multi-day trips that you can do around the area from hiking to horseback riding, we stuck to the city center because we have lots of trekking and outdoorsy time in our future as we heads toward Argentina and Chile.

What a fun word to say. Cochabamba was our next stop after La Paz, reached by a 13+ hour overnight bus. This was one of those trips that you are glad your parents don’t know you are doing because they would certainly worry. The roads in Bolivia, for the most part, are unpaved and as the area is mountainous and the buses are old, it makes for a long, bumpy, loud, cliff-hugging ride. We made it in one piece.

Cochabamba is a university town with a great buzz and lots of young people around. The town is also known for the HUGE Jesus statue that watches over residents from a nearby hill.  We enjoyed wandering around the campus and also the main prado with lots of different restaurants and shops.  And of course, we visited the statue.

As I’ve been browsing and acquiring small gifts for myself and others throughout our travels, Ted had remained purchase-less, until Cochabamba. Before we even left the US he had considered the possibility of acquiring a charango while traveling in the northern Andean countries. A charango is small, stringed instrument similar to a ukelele that is featured in a lot of traditional music in this region. A good friend of ours, Dave Griffith, actually studied abroad in Cochabamba, Bolivia in his undergrad days and came home with a charango that Ted has admired for a long time. With Dave’s help via email, Ted was able to return to the same shop where Dave had bought his charango over 10 years earlier and get one from the same guy. Craziness!

So now Ted is quite entertained as he teaches himself how to play with his new toy. And as it turns out, it has become quite a conversation starter among local folks who are intrigued by the gringo who is interested in learning to play, and they have happily taught him a few things. Perfecto!

La Paz is intense – in a good way. You can’t help but be blown away before even getting off the bus because you enter the city from above and wind your way down into the massive valley where the heart of the city is located, underneath the shadow of the 21,122 ft. Illimani Volcano.

Before you arrive, the guidebooks and a few travelers scare you with stories of complex scams (fake tourist police demanding to see/steal your passport), nasty distractions (someone spilling ketchup or spitting on you and then relieving you of your wallet as you clean yourself up), and corrupt taxi drivers (picking up additional passengers and then “kidnapping” you to an ATM and demanding you remove money). Needless to say, we were a little cautious when we arrived into the craziness that is La Paz.

I’m convinced that no one from La Paz would be overwhelmed by downtown Manhattan because the semi-organized chaos of La Paz’s streets and sidewalks would have them more than prepared. You constantly have to watch where you are going so as not to run down an old woman or get hit by a car or step in a hole in the sidewalk. But at the same time you want to look anywhere and everywhere all at once. There are people on the side of the streets selling anything from spices, to children’s bath toys, to toilet seats (which are pathetically underused in this country). There are markets that take up blocks and blocks that include practical items such a clothes as well as a witch’s market where you can buy an alpaca fetus, among other items to bring you luck or others harm.

Not only is the city a buzzing and fascinating place, it is surprisingly walkable. We spent several days exploring on foot and could have easily wandered more. We were also looking forward to doing some day trips and trekking in the nearby mountains, but our plans were foiled! One of the most popular day trips to do out of La Paz is to mountain bike the “world’s most dangerous road”. However, when we inquired about the trip in a travel office on our first day in the city, we learn that the access road to both the bike trip and other popular trekking was currently blocked by protesting coca farmers. The government had made an unpopular decision and the result was a road block for an interminable amount of time. Well then!

As it turns out, we had several contacts and friends of friends to look up in La Paz. Estefania is our friend who lives in Denver and as she is Bolivian, she has lots of friends and family that live here. She put us in touch with her cousin Ale who was an amazing and generous host. Ted and I got to explore parts of the city that folks don’t always venture off to see and we were even invited to brunch with Ale (and Estefania’s) extended family and friends to celebrate her younger sister’s first communion.

Ale and Estafania’s mom (via helpful emails!) also recommended we go see a pena in the city. Penas feature traditional dances and music from local Andean culture. The performance was vibrant and interactive, with the dancers pulling us up on stage, and musicians playing songs from the home country of each visitor (we got an Elvis tune sung for us). Though there were definitely other tourists there, I was surprised that nearly half was room was people from La Paz who had come to see the show.

A huge thanks to Estefania for the introduction, to Ale for taking the time to show us around La Paz and to her family for making us feel welcome!

Similar to Lake Titicaca, Copacabana is one of those place names that just sounds fun and that you look forward to visiting. Not to be confused with the famous Brazilian city with the same name, Bolivia’s Copacabana is a small little tourist town just across the border from Peru and also on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

Just as it is popular to visit the lake’s islands from the Peru side, it is equally popular from the Bolivia side as well. As we had already spent a good amount of time on and around the lake, we opted for a day trip out to the much talked about Isla del Sol.

After a hilariously slow ride out to the island, we were free to explore. There are several impressive intact ruins from the Incas that were cool to check out, however we were most blown away with the impressive scenery. We were dropped at the north end of the island and chose to walk the length of it to the south end where our boat picked us up later in the day before returning back to Copacabana.

Beyond on our day trip to the island, the highlight of the Copacabana area included amazingly delicious fresh-caught trucha (trout) served in lakeside fish stands with salad and potatoes for less than $3, where we ate several times.

Many folks cross the border from Peru and bypass Copacabana completely, opting to head straight for La Paz. However, it’s a neat little stop and we were happy to have a few more days on the water before moving on.

Wowsa, where do we begin? Peru knocked our socks off. We loved it there and I am pretty darn sure we’ll be back again someday. Check out what we loved, what we didn’t, and of course, what we ate!

Top Ten

1. The Salkantay Trek with the Mountain Lodges of Peru (MLP) – Pretty much the best trip we’ve ever done. Amazing scenery, great people, fabulous food, fancy lodges and spectacular hiking. What else can we say?
2. Machu Picchu – Though technically part of our MLP trip, it deserves its own designation because it was just as good as we hoped it would be, and better.
3. Getting to see and stay with family – What a treat to have a cousin living in Lima, Peru that was wonderful enough to host us and treat us like, well, family!
4. Swimming in the Amazon River – There were a lot of amazing parts about our jungle lodge adventure that we loved, but getting to jump in the water and escape the jungle heat for just a few minutes was truly priceless.
5. The Colca Canyon and the end-of-the-hike oasis – Just when you are getting hot, dusty and tired of walking, the blue-green pools of the Colca Canyon oasis are there to reward your amazing day of trekking with a refreshing soak.
6. Kayaking around Isla Suasi
7. The food (see below)
8. Hot tubs on MLP trip – See, we can’t stop talking about this trip.
9. Mountain biking in the Sacred Valley – Yep, that was a good day.
10. Rooftop views of Arequipa sunsets against the surrounding volcanoes

Bottom Five

1. The protests changing our plans in Cusco – Read Ted’s post about the protest delays. Not a big deal, but obviously not ideal.
2. The jungle was HOT, too hot – We must sound like big whiners.
3. Our grumpy host mom in Amantani – Sadly our ‘cultural tourism’ experience was a bit tarnished because we weren’t in the market for any local handicrafts.
4. Uros floating islands – Tourism exploitation at its worst.
5. Leaving the country – Could have easily stayed longer. That’s why I know we’ll be back!

Food and Drink – Favorite meals, dishes and drinks

This is really tough. Peru’s food is over-the-top. They are apparently in the middle of a culinary revolution down there. Nearly all the food was excellent – both in taste and presentation. I tell you, I think we need to start seeing some more Peruvian restaurants at home.

1. Lomo Saltado – What I’d call the ‘national’ dish and served in nearly every restaurant serving traditional food, lomo saltado is strips of beef, served with onions and bell pepper in a delicious sauce/gravy over rice and/or french fries.
2. Pisco Sours – The national drink. Made from grapes, Pisco is an alcohol that both Peru and Chile claimed to have created. The Peruvian version is made with sugar, simple syrup, sour mix, ice, and blended with egg white.
3. Ceviche – When ceviche is good, it is really good.
4. Pretty much all our meals on the Mountain Lodges of Peru Trip – We’ve never taken so many pictures of food in our lives.
5. Amazing seafood restaurant with Ryan and Angela – One of the Lima food scene’s many gems. We were craving seafood and no one was disappointed!
6. Eating Amazonian piranha that Ted caught earlier that afternoon.
7. Set-menu lunches – We were served gigantic portions of delicious food and it cost us less than $2 a piece. Definitely a winner for those of us on a traveler’s budget.
8. Machu Pizza – Well the name is cheesy but that didn’t stop us from going back again. Probably the best pizza and garlic bread we’ve had on our trip and served with dipping sauces made them even better.