We simply fell in love with Bolivia … We planned to stay four weeks and spent almost seven there, which forced us to completely change the route for the rest of the trip!

What did we like so much in Bolivia?

(x) The immense diversity you find in a relatively small area (well, only twice as big as France): deserts, cold, wind-swept Altiplano, a hot and humid rainforest, Mediterranean-like cities, wine growing Tarija … The landscape is simply breathtaking! (x) It is surely the country in South America with the strongest and most vivid indigenous traditions. Even in La Paz, especially women wear traditional dresses, all shopping is done at colorful markets and you hear almost only traditional and folkloric music … The east of the country, places like Sucre or Santa Cruz, are quite different in this regard, more modern and there are supermarkets! (x) And last but not least, being able to afford a certain level of comfort, enjoying nice, clean and heated rooms, good meals in pleasant restaurants … was a great pleasure after 3 months traveling on budget.

Those impressions will always stay in our mind when thinking of Bolivia:

(x) It is such a cheap country! At the beginning we almost felt ashamed of what we would pay, no matter for a taxis ride, a meal, a juice on the street … (x) The landscape is simply breathtaking! We will always remember of Lake Titicaca, the Madidi National Park, the view going down “Death Road”, the unbelievable scenery of the Southern Circuit … (x) Tourist places like hotels, restaurant & bars, travel agencies … are mainly Bolivian owned and run, whereas most well run places we stayed at in South America were in foreign hands, German, Swiss, Dutch … (x) Roads are simply the worst we have ever experienced so far. Except between a few major cities in the center of the country some tarred roads exist, otherwise you only find terribly bumpy dust roads, at times even dangerous. After almost seven weeks, we understand how it has been possible that “Death Road” claimed 200 to 300 victims a year without any rapid effort to improve the situation. (x) Except in some bigger cities in the east, like Sucre or Santa Cruz, the indigenous culture is very strong and vivid. The way people dress is one of the most obvious example. (x) Even if people are not unfriendly, contacts with the local population is almost impossible, even in bigger cities but especially on the countryside. And when directly addressing someone, often this person would not reply at all or just with a few words, never a complete sentence. (x) Even though we have not really suffered from “Sorojche” or Altitude Sickness, we could really feel the altitude, and at times it was difficult to breathe. Of course, this was especially true above 4.000 meters where we definitely had to slow down and at times even stop and take a deep breath because we just ran out of air!

The highlights of these almost seven weeks in Bolivia were:

(x) Four days on the Southwest Circuit starting from Tupiza and ending with the highlight, the Salar de Uyuni. (x) Biking down “Death Road” between La Paz and Coroico with Downhill Madness. (x) Discovering the Rain Forest in the Madidi National Parc, only both of us and our guide Yadmani. (x) Seeing so many animals during our boat trips in the Pampa. (x) Discovering Lake Titicaca from the Bolivian side, which is far more impressive and far less touristy than its Peruvian counterpart. (x) Enjoying the city of Sucre and especially the carnival-like demonstration supporting “Sucre Capital Plena”. (x) Eating at very pleasant restaurants like La Cupula in Copacabana, the cheese and especially the chocolate fondue bring you down on your knees. At El Huerto in Sucre do not miss their “Surf & Turf” and the die for salad bar, one of the finest buffets of appetizers ever! All incredibly cheap! (x) And last but not least … Discovering the working conditions of miners in Potosí, a trip to hell! This was definitely the toughest experience of our whole trip, one that we will never forget!

What we would do differently:

(x) Surely, flying more would have saved us a few unpleasant nights. (x) Avoid some poor recommendation of the Lonely Planet, such as: Hostal las Tres Portadas in Potosí, Restaurant & Travel Agency Locot´s in Sucre, Bala Tours for the overpriced Pampa Tour to Rurrenabaque (their Jungle Tour is surely one of the better ones, and Yadmani, our guide for both, was great!).

Conclusion:

It is always difficult and most of the time not very relevant to compare travel destinations. The four countries in South America we have visited so far are worlds apart. But there is little doubt in our mind that up to now, we preferred Bolivia to the others. We are a bit worried that nothing will be able to top it. This country definitely deserves to be discovered, even though it is not major tourist destination and difficult to reach from Europe and the US. It can be sometimes challenging, because of transports and the high altitude, but it is definitely fabulously rewarding! And we have not seen it all: there are so many places we still want to discover! These seven weeks were not enough … We might very well be back here!

Bolivia is a cheap country, surely the cheapest we have ever been. But instead of saving, we rather decided to significantly upgrade our standard of living for the time we spent there: we chose more comfortable hotels, always with heating on the Altiplano and with a much higher level of comfort; we did not bother to cook and hardly ever frequented cheap food stalls but more often pleasant, even at times fancy restaurants; we booked many tours and chose the more expensive ones to optimize our comfort and experience; …

Even with that, we kept our average daily budget as low as 29.30 Euros per person, more than 10% less than in any other country. Hotels cost us no more than 10.60 Euro per night, by far the cheapest of our trip, even with the increased comfort.

Transport as well is extremely cheap in Bolivia. But the level of comfort has never been anyhow good. After the somewhat bumpy flight to Rurrenabaque, Heidi was too scared to fly, so we had to take far more dangerous busses, which are, no matter how much you are ready to spend, more of a torture than anything else! Gilles would definitely recommend flying more often and avoiding nights on bumpy and extremely uncomfortable bus rides. One way inland flights cost approx. 50 Euros, not a real fortune.

But in order to get an understanding for the cost of living in Bolivia, some information about the level of income might help. For an unqualified job, the minimum salary is as little as 520 Bolivianos a month, that is to say 49 Euros! People working in the mines under inhuman conditions in order to make a higher salary, earn an average of 800 to 1.000 Bolivianos per month, or 75 to 94 Euros.

Such a tour starts off a the miners market where we bought coca leaves, dynamite, 96% alcohol and soft drinks, the latter being the favorite gift considering the hard work in this temperature. Coca leaves serve as calorie intake and keep the miners from feeling tired and hungry. The alcohol is used as an offering to Pachamama and the Tio, but of course is also consumed, especially on Friday.

Every mine has a Tio, a devilish-looking creature that has to be kept content by offering coca leaves, alcohol, cigarettes. Otherwise he would bring harm upon the miners.

In order to visit the mine we chose Koala Tour, since their tour was the longest. We did not regret it. Before we set off, we were a bit shocked to find 18 people in the office, but we were assured that there would be three guides and everything would be fine. Still skeptical, we soon realized that there are so many mines that we will not step on each others toes and that these visits are also a positive experience for the miners, who take immense pride in their work, averaging 1.000 Bolivianos or 94 Euros a month, twice the minimum wage. They maybe lucky and strike a good vein, or make nothing.

Our guide Ronaldo was simply outstanding, he spoke slowly and clearly to the six people who chose to do the tour in Spanish and showed a great insight knowledge.

To take tourists down the mines is nothing new, it started about twenty years ago, but under different conditions - without helmets, one torch for a group and off they went. We do not know how they managed, because we constantly banged our heads against the rock. And the individual headlamps kept you from panicking if the group was a bit ahead.

Since 1997 Cerro Rico is an UNESCO World Heritage Site commemorating its tragic history. The dark side of this coin is that mining done on the outside is restricted.

Already in 1545 the Spanish were aware of the enormous wealth inside of Cerro Rico and forced thousands of Indigenous to work in the mines extracting the huge deposits of silver. To increase production, the “Ley de Mita” was passed that forced Indigenous and later African slaves to work 16 hour shifts. They were kept underground for 4 months. The working conditions were beyond description and an estimated 8 to 10 million of the forced labor died over the three century of Spanish rule!

Silver made Potosi rich and its population grew to 200.000, making it one of the largest cities of this time, bigger than Paris or London. Nobody knows how much silver was taken out of Cerro Rico during colonial times, but a popular estimate claims that is was enough to build a bridge made of the very metal across the Atlantic.

Today, about 15.000 miners work in Cerro Rico, only independent cooperatives who must buy their own equipment and sell the ore to the privately owned smelters. Nowadays it is tin, zinc, led and also silver the miners are after. But very little has changed concerning the working conditions: dust, toxic fumes, temperatures of up to 54 degrees Celcius, accidents due to a complete lack of safety standards, primitive equipment are the rule, very often for hardly any gains or profit.

Extreme poverty forces 2.000 children, all younger than 14, to work in the mines, mostly orphans. After working 10-15 years most miners develop silicosis pneumonia, those working with powered drills after two years. Life expectancy among miners is 40 - 45 years, 20 years less than the already low level for Bolivia.

This is a rather short list of cynical facts describing the lives of these people in 2007. We knew all this incredible facts and had seen the film “The Devil’s Miner” (El Minero del Diabolo) and felt prepared. Well, we were not. As soon as you enter the mine you start swallowing dust. It is extremely hard to breathe, especially while crawling on your knees through extremely low passages. It is hot… And we were just moving around and not further down than level 3: there are mines with 16 levels. So we were kept in a relatively cozy environment, even so a few times we thought of quitting.

We had the chance to talk to various groups of miners all doing different job, like chiseling a hole into the rock with a hammer. All the ore is extracted by putting dynamite into these holes, in colonial times wood was driven into these holes and than water was put over it. Other men were carrying rocks in bags crawling through passages not higher than 50 cm. Others were pushing carts with rocks weighing 2 tons and shoveling these rocks into baskets to be pulled up to the surface.

At times we felt truly ashamed of watching these people slaving away, while we were busy breathing. On the other hand we felt they took great pride in the fact that their job is so hard that people takes the effort to come down into the mines.

One group of sixty miners moves 120 tons of rocks to the surface per day. That is 2 tons per person! But again, no matter how hard one tries to describe this kind of work, it is impossible.

After 10 days traveling on our own, Heidi studying Spanish in Sucre and Gilles discovering the South of Bolivia, we met as planed on Wednesday, November 21st in Potosí, the highest city in the world at 4.070 meters.

Given the altitude, Potosí was rather cold, with daily heavy rain since the rainy season had just begun. On top of that breathing becomes difficult especially when walking uphill ... We chose for the first night a strongly recommended hotel in the Lonely Planet, the Hotel de Las Tres Portadas, because it was described as well heated and cozy. It actually turned out to be the most overpriced hotel we have been so far in South America. Well, at least it was heated … So the next day we moved to Residencial Felcar, which had much bigger, much nicer, better heated rooms for less than half the price!

Each of the three evenings we were there, we went and enjoyed the Restaurant 4.060, taking its name from its altitude: great Caipirinhas, excellent food and heated. Most of the customers were Bolivians, with only few tourists, which made it even nicer.

The supposed highlight, the “Casa de la Moneda”, turned out to be relatively disappointing. The museum must be visited in a tour, and the tour was simply overcrowded, with a guide speaking very poor English with an accent almost impossible to understand.

On the other hand, the tour through “Convento Santa Maria” was excellent. During colonial times, the second daughter of an aristocratic family was expected to join a convent at the age of 15, where she lived completely cut off from the outside world.

We also spent quite a bit of time looking for a way to travel from Potosí to Trelew near the Peninsula Valdez in the north of Patagonia, Argentina, more than 3.200 kilometers away. Well, since we did not manage planning in advance, we could not find any suitable solution: flights were too expensive or booked out, travel time by bus unbearable ... The fact that there is no airport in Potosí and no competent travel agency did not help either. So we decided to head south on Saturday morning by bus and find a solution once in Argentina …

“Kid, the next time I say let’s go to someplace like Bolivia, let’s go to someplace like Bolivia”, Paul Newman to Robert Redford in the film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. There starts a legend!

The outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, better known as Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, came to southern Bolivia in August 1908 and started robbing banks there. But they soon learned of a far more interesting target: the payroll of a mine-company, 480.000 USD, was to be transported by mule from Tupiza to Quechisla, and poorly guarded at that!

On November 3rd, 1908, Carlos Pero picked up the cash in Tupiza from Aramayo, Francke & Compania and headed north with his son, a servant and a mule. On November 4th, while ascending the hill called Huaca Huanusca, the Quechua word for “Dead Cow”, they were attacked by Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and robbed of the mule and the money, which actually turned out to be “only” 90.000 USD, the rest of the money being shipped one week later.

On November 6th, both outlaws reached San Vicente. But alarm had been given and a contingent of the army had already reached that village. In a gunfight, the Sundance Kid was severely wounded, making escape impossible. Butch Cassidy preferred to end both of their lives rather than surrender. Their corpses were identified by Carlos Pero. They were buried as “Desconocidos” or unknown.

So when being in Tupiza, I felt I had to follow the tracks of two of the most legendary outlaws, and at least go to Huaca Huanusca, 65 kilometers of Tupiza, since San Vicente has the reputation of being very disappointing... Well, you need a lot of imagination there to picture what happened! But at least the trip there is very scenic.

The Salar de Uyuni or salt flats near the small town of Uyuni are surely one of the highlights when visiting Bolivia, if not South America.

At 3.653 meters, with a surface of 12.106 square kilometers, this is the largest salt lake in the world. It covers as much as half of Switzerland! It is 40 meters deep in its centers and the most fascinating fact is that this salt lake grows every year: 2 to 3 centimeters in depth and also in surface.

It is not only the biggest reserve of salt in the world, but of many other minerals. For instance, in the Salar de Uyuni lay no less than 50% of the world reserves of Lithium! But fortunately, the commercial exploitation of the resources of the Salar has been so far controlled and limited to very small areas near Uyuni.

The only sad development is the growing number of “Salt Hotels” that pop up like mushrooms in the edge of the Salar, often lacking proper sanitation facilities. More and more, tourists are recommended avoiding them and not giving them business because of the dangerous environmental impact they have.

The vastness of the white plain is the main attraction, especially since this creates spectacular visual effects. The reflection of the sun makes the little “islands” or hills that exist throughout the Salar seem to float in the air when seen from the distance. The most famous island is Incahuatasi, which is covered with cactuses that grow up to 12 meters.

Although this three or four day trip, depending on where you start, is commonly called “Tour of the Salar de Uyuni”, it takes you much further south, to the colorful “Lagunas” near the Chilean border, past majestic volcanoes and a bubbling field of geysers.

The nights are spent in very simple lodgings, all dormitories, which gives it a bit of summer camp feeling, if it were not for the freezing temperatures at night. In November we were lucky, it was only around 0 degree early morning. In July and August it can get down to minus 30! Needless to say that the rooms have no heating, which finally justifies the four thick blankets that seem to be standard in every hotel bed in Bolivia at a certain altitude. The sheer weight of these and the high altitude make breathing a very conscious act.

The whole trip is quite strenuous, since especially on the second and third day, a lot of time is spent in the jeep bouncing along the dusty track.

Back in Uyuni most tourists leave straight away, since this place has little to offer, although I had a really fun night out with three young ladies from La Paz and two guys from Marseilles dancing away to Bolivian tunes. I ran into the girls the day after at Incahuatasi. They still were in their going out dress and had not slept a minute. Luckily they had only booked a day trip.

It had to be bad luck! For so many technical problems in only four days, there can be no other reason. True, driving conditions are terrible on the Southwest Circuit: the worst bumpy dust roads ever and salt simply eats up cars.In four days we drove no less then 35 to 37 hours. Our jeep was in a very good state when we left. For that, Tupiza Tours has a very good reputation, which in my opinion they deserve, no matter what happened.

On the first day, we had a flat tire … Well, this can happen! At night, Don Gerardo, our driver and guide, repaired the tire in the village where we slept with almost no tools.

On the second day, while driving up a hill we heard a loud noise and the engine started smoking: the cooler fan had literally exploded. Yes, that does happen, too, it seems! We drove back slowly to the closest village, hoping to find spare parts. In the middle of the desert, sweat dreams! But Don Gerardo, in less than 1.5 hours, recreated a new cooling fan using a piece of rusty iron! In the beginning, we shook our heads watching him working along. At the end, believe it or not, it worked …

Well, then came day number three. After driving one hour in the morning, flat tire! Don Gerardo changed the wheel in no time, we just drove on. Just after lunch? A second flat tire! Well, this is far less funny, since we had, as in any car, just one spare tire. It took only 40 minutes for Don Gerardo to repair it. Unbelievable!

After that, we thought we had seen it all. No more than one hour later, another big bang … Don Garardo gets down, opens the hood, looks at us and just says: “Finido!” The newly created cooling fan had just gone right through the radiator. In the middle of the desert … Luckily, a second car of Tupiza Tours was only a few minutes behind us and could take us to the next village, with no less than 10 people in the vehicle. There we waited until the next morning for a new car, which was sent from Tupiza, forcing another guide to drive all night long.

So after that, we were sure the fourth day could and would just be easy. Actually, we only had a fourth (!!!!) flat tire, but nothing spectacular. At the end, the joke was: “This is not the car, it must be the group!”

The so-called “Salar de Uyuni” tour actually covers a much larger area than the Salar de Uyuni itself … On a four day tour, we only spent half a day in the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt lake in the world. Truly, this is the highlight of the tour. But nevertheless, the other 3.5 days took us through absolutely amazing sceneries.

To start the tour from Tupiza rather than Uyuni was an excellent choice. Tupiza is a nice city with beautiful surroundings whereas I found Uyuni simply depressing. Moreover, while traveling through the whole Southwest Circuit, we were alone, whereas we once saw up to 20 jeeps coming from Uyuni when we were further north. And last but not least the four day tour gave us a better opportunity to discover the southwest of Bolivia, even tough it is not enough!

Choosing to go with Tupiza Tours turned out to be just right, even considering the technical problems we had. We were only four people in the jeep, making this trip comfortable. This is very critical, considering that over four days we spent 35 to 37 hours in the jeep. The driver and guide, Don Gerardo, was simply great, as was Julia, our cook, who had an incredible talent to prepare a fantastic meal lacking all the facilities of a regular kitchen.

The first day was “Altiplano puro”: shortly after leaving Tupiza, we climbed up to 4.500 meters, and spent the day between 4.200 and 4.500 meters on the Altiplano. This is not a very spectacular experience after having spent 4 weeks in the south of Peru and more than 6 weeks in Bolivia, but the landscape is still impressive.

The second and the third day were simply amazing, driving from one “Laguna” to another and from one desert to another: red deserts like the “Desierto de Dali”, where you find many Vicunas, some of the rarest and most gracious animals in the world; lakes of many colors like the Laguna Verde. The green color comes from the high concentration of lead, sulfur, arsenic and calcium carbonates, the background is dominated by the 5.960 meters high Volcan Licancabur. Another highlight is Laguna Colorada, a red and green and blue colored lake full of flamingoes, at more than 4.300 meters!

If you suffer from “Sorojchi” or altitude sickness, you might have a difficult time: during the three first days, we never got below than 4.200 meters. We even went higher when we crossed two mountain passes: one at 4.855 meters, more than the Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, and the second one, a plateau slightly above 5.000 meters. Breathing at times is no longer something that comes natural but you do very consciously, a strange feeling!

But of course, on the fourth day, you reach the highlight of the tour: the Salar de Uyuni!

Tupiza is a small and rural town mainly living from agriculture and mining. Tourism is only a very recent phenomenon: the first tourism agency here, the highly recommendable Tupiza Tours, opened 12 years ago and has remained without competition until 3 to 4 years ago. Now the number of tourists is increasing very fast, partly because of the astonishing countryside around this town. Another important reason is that travel agencies here offer much more reliable tours to the Salar de Uyuni than the ones in Uyuni, where problems have immensely increased in the past 18 months.

Before heading to the Salar de Uyuni, one of the highlights when traveling through Bolivia, I decided to take a few days relaxing and discovering the surrounding countryside. There are many possibilities to do so here, hiking, biking, horseback riding. I decided to start with the least demanding option, a full day tour in a jeep going to the main surrounding attractions. For this tour, I joined a very nice German couple from Mainz, Wolfram & Christine, who have traveled intensively throughout the world and with whom I had a very pleasant day sharing traveling experiences.

The surrounding countryside of Tupiza is simply wonderful: strange eroded rainbow-colored rocks cut by meandering dry river beds called “Quebradas”, with slopes full with cactus; hills colored deep red by led and other mineral deposits; rugged amphitheaters that were eroded into spires that resemble a stone forest.

This tour took us actually to all the highlights in the area of Tupiza, making it a day full of beautiful images and very strong impressions. I definitely plan to do another trip to one of the other Quebradas or do some canyon hiking or horseback riding on my own.

Immediately after returning from Tarabuco in the afternoon, I left Heidi to her Spanish class and started out for my journey to Tupiza, in the very scenic south of Bolivia.

Since I first had to go to Potosi and from there take a night bus to Tupiza, I was in a bit of a rush. It was Sunday, a popular travel day, so I was worried not get a place on the more comfortable "Buscamas" ... And for a night ride I did not really feel like taking a "Servicio Economico", which offers a very Spartan level of comfort!

Since the next bus to Potosi was not leaving within a few hours, I headed towards the "Collectivos". These taxis leave as soon as they have 4 passengers. The many drivers waiting here fight over each passengers, screaming and pulling them and promising THEY were about to leave and only one passenger missing, you. So I was squeezed into the back seat between 2 Bolivian men not really ready to give up any space.

Let´s look on the positive side. The trip was fast … very fast! Very, very fast!!! On a small mountain road in a terrible state, the driver had no problem taking sharp curves between 80 to 100 kph. Of course, to save fuel he would put the gear stick into neutral as often as he could. Overtaking in curves with no clue of what was in front of him was also common. No, this is not the whole story yet! He was mostly occupied picking through is bag of coca leaves, chewing away to stay awake … But after 2.5 hours, instead of the normal three, we arrived in Potosi in one piece and I was really relieved to get out of that car!

At the bus station, I immediately booked a seat on a "Buscama" and after two hours, we left perfectly on time for Tupiza. Well, that leg of the trip turned out to be even worse! To start with, this very old "Buscama" offered less comfort than a "Semicama", and it had no heating. Considering that we traveled mostly above 4.000 meters, the bus turned freezing cold after a few hours, with condensation water on the windows partly freezing in the early morning hours.

But the worst was the road: a bumpy dirt road, making me feel like sitting on a machine gun for 7 hours and being thrown from left to right and back and forth every single second. It was simply impossible to sleep! And as if that altogether was not enough, they played loud music ALL night long!!! When we arrived in Tupiza at 03:00 am, I could only think about the fact that I will have to do that stretch again, after joining Heidi back in Potosi in about 10 days.

I immediately checked in at the Hotel Mitru, "Best hotel in town" according to the Lonely Planet. Well, for 50 Bolivianos or 4.8 Euros a night, I have a nice room with private bath, including a great breakfast buffet and a beautiful, solar-heated pool. I am sure I will enjoy Tupiza!

Trabuco is a village about 65 kilometers from Sucre, known for its highly developed weaving techniques and quality textiles and especially for its very genuine "Indigenous" Sunday market. We decided to book a tour, which actually was only a bus provided to take the “Gringos” the 1.5 hour from Sucre to Tarabuco and back for 25 Bolivianos or 3.2 USD.

We went there with low expectations, especially after what we had experienced at the Sunday market in Pisac, Peru, which was packed with busloads of tourists. Well, Tarabuco is touristy for Bolivian standards, with a few small groups of tourists strolling around this rural market, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover a far more genuine market than we had expected.

The local population must be nearly solely “Indigenous” and the number of farmers wearing traditional clothes was overwhelming. Most interesting are the various head dresses, some look like leathery brown helmets, others resemble dark blue woolen ski hats. The most intriguing ones are worn by women, they can best described as fez-like black hats decorated with elaborate bead work in front. Often strings of beads are dangling right in front of the eyes.

Most men wear crème white pants and a stripped poncho, whereas the women are wrapped in what seems a big blanket, closed with a huge pin. All the farmers seem to be of a small frame, rather dark skinned with faces showing their hard lives. Many have all teeth missing except one or two. By the way, a common sight here in Bolivia is people whose individual teeth are framed with gold.

The men seem to be eternally attached to their bags of coca leaves and are chewing constantly. What used to be woven bags for carrying coca leaves are now green and transparent plastic bags. There seem to be a particular movement nationwide how to put these leaves into the mouth, it always looks the same, a bit like nibbling at first and then shoving it back into the already bulging cheek.

We shopped very local products: Heidi bought a “Cholita” blouse and put it on right away. Her new outfit caused a lot of head turning and surprised looks, obviously a sight unknown. Then brightly colored spices caught our attention, which could also serve as decoration back home and last, who can leave Bolivia without at least once shopping coca leaves, although we do not know what to do with them yet ...

Given this colorful crowd we spent little time looking at the famous weavings, which we had already seen and bought in the "Museo Textil-Etnografico" or Museum of Indigenous Arts in Sucre. This museum is indeed a non-profit organization created by two Chilean anthropologists and aims at revitalizing, supporting and promoting this “Indigenous” art of producing textiles. 62% of the price of a textile sold goes to the artist. What we saw at the museum was actually much finer than what was offered on the market, but also much more expensive. But we felt this project should be supported and besides, the piece we bought is very elegant and unique.

The other spectacle of the trip was the company of four shoe-shine boys, aged 10-13, who managed to slip on our bus in Sucre and had a day full of adventures. They were real characters and quite funny, so lots of people bought them food, sweets and taught them phrases in English.

Maybe not entirely, but …..Until two weeks ago, we perfectly stuck to our travel plans, spent less than what we had budgeted, in a word we were on track. Something very unusual when traveling “Round The World”. Then … Then we arrived in Bolivia! Fell in love with this country, we really did! Decided we needed more time to enjoy our travel here and finally threw our itinerary over board!!!

Actually we guessed it would happen and even were a bit afraid of it, but we are completely enthusiastic about it now. So what is new? Well, a lot!

Firstly, we are going to stay much longer in South America (4 to 6 weeks more), will only visit the northern island of New Zealand (only 2 weeks instead of 5) and completely skip Australia (good bye kangaroos) and instead spend time either in Malaysia or in Indonesia before heading towards Southeast Asia, where we might very well skip South China. Many thanks to our dear Australian friend Jody who helped us making this decision.

Secondly, we are going to go our own ways for about ten days. No, we did not quarrel, but discussed this thoroughly over a great dinner. Heidi simply is not ready to leave Sucre and wants to continue her Spanish lessons for one more week, whereas Gilles wants to discover the region of Tupiza and to have more time in the Salar de Uyuni. We will meet again in Potosí and then resume our “normal” travel together, heading south to meet Gilles´ Family in Tierra del Fuego for Christmas.

It has been a major change for us to settle down a bit and to live a more normal life, not packing our backpacks every other day or even worst, every day!

Heidi decided to take Spanish lessons here, a popular thing to do in Sucre. You find students from all over the world enjoying this beautiful colonial city, its moderate climate and prices unknown anywhere else: the going rate at a reputable language institute is 6 USD an hour for a private class. Heidi spends four hours every afternoon practicing Spanish. There are often evening activities like cooking or Salsa classes and on top of that, there is homework to be done and newly learned grammar and vocabulary needs to be revised, making it a rather busy week for Heidi.

Gilles, on the other hand, decided that he needed a little rest from 3 months traveling and what’s more, time to organize the coming two to three months. Since we will be staying much longer in Bolivia than what we had planed - 6 weeks instead the 4 - the rest of the trip in South America has to be completely reorganized. There is one deadline: we have to be in Ushuaia / Argentina on December 23rd, to meet the whole Barbier family who is going to travel from far away countries like France and the USA to celebrate Christmas with us in the “Southern most city in the world”, as people in Ushuaia like to put it.

Gilles also keeps himself busy with touring the city and taking great photos, doing day hikes to an “Inca Trail”, enjoying the breathtaking landscape surrounding Sucre or going horseback riding.

Our favorite evening activity is watching fantastic films about Latin America at the upstairs lounge at the Joy Ride Bar, like for instance “The Devil´s Miner”, a harsh documentary about the life of miners in Potosi, especially about a young boy.

Presently there are daily demonstrations here in Sucre. Every single day there has been some kind of event on the main square, Plaza 25 de Mayo, mainly students or school groups participating. In the beginning of September students and police forces were fighting all night long on the main square …

But violent demonstrations seem be an absolute exception. What we have witnessed so far was actually something in between informative events and small carnivals parades, with students or young professionals in various costumes dancing in the street in a convoy. The costumes either relate to Bolivia’s culture -“Cholitas”, “Mineros”, “Campesinos” or political figures. Hugo Chavez is the main target of ridicule, because he is seen as the person who has been influencing Evo Morales policy-making a great deal and nobody is happy about that. Luckily Heidi had discussed this topic in great detail with her teacher, so we could understand the very ironic posters the students were waving.

These rather cheerful demonstrations are used by the government to discredit Sucre: check the government’s website on Bolivia, probably you will find Sucre as a place rather troubled / dangerous. Of course, these press releases are issued by the government in La Paz …

What gets people so excited is that of the nine provinces of Bolivia, six would like the new constitution to include the possibility for Sucre becoming the real capital or “La Capital Plena”. Sucre is indeed the constitutional capital city of Bolivia, whereas the government sits in La Paz, the biggest city in the country.

Presently a committee is working on overhauling the Bolivian Constitution, which of course is done in Sucre. Supporters of “Sucre Capital Plena” want to include the topic of Sucre being the real capital of Bolivia in this new constitution. Once the constitution is finished there will be a referendum on it. If such a paragraph would be included, a “Yes” for the constitution would mean a “Yes” for Sucre being the capital. Naturally the government under Evo Morales in La Paz does not want to hear any of this ...

The morning we arrived, we immediately set out to explore our new “home town” since we plan to stay here for one week. Well, we found ourselves in a place worlds apart from what we have seen so far of Bolivia. The city itself is beautiful with lots of bright white colonial architecture. It is so obvious that this place is much wealthier than other parts of Bolivia we have visited.

People dress differently, you see a lot less women in their traditional clothes here and the population is mostly Hispanics, a lot less “Indigenios” than in Lap Paz or other parts we have been to. Most of the traffic consists of private cars, many of them brand new, expensive SUVs, not the fleet of old, run down taxis, “collectivos” and minibuses producing dark clouds of exhaust fumes like elsewhere.

There are lots of nice parks and one of them, the “Parque Libertator Simon Bolivar”, offers particular fun stuff. On Sunday morning, we walked through there and watched the local families take their children for pleasure rides on little vehicles or on horses.

Soon afterwards, we joined the wealthy crowd for a lunch at El Huerto, the most charming restaurant in a garden-like setting with food that simply tastes heavenly. We had a “Surf and Turf”, a two inch thick filet steak topped with lots of giant prawns and a tasty sauce, included was a salad bar. The very word does not do justice to the dishes served there: fantastic creations made of different vegetables and salads, pates and various salsas. For all this plus a big jar of fresh papaya juice we paid 160 Bolivianos or 15 Euros, so we might very well go there again and spend another “fortune”!

The same evening we discovered the Joy Ride Bar, which serves strong and cheap Caipirinhas and plays excellent music. We expected the usual tourist crowd, but were surprised that the vast majority of customers were locals. Groups of young and elegantly dressed Bolivian women enjoying themselves is a common sight at the Joy Ride, something we had never seen neither in Bolivia nor in Peru.

We left Coroico on November 2nd, “El Dia de Los Muertos”, just in time, because the same morning wealthy Bolivians from La Paz descended on this lovely village chocking its narrow streets with their big SUVs and completely booking up all nice hotels. For the trip back to La Paz we ended up in the most banged up, worn down minibus to be. Nevertheless we made it, but what followed that afternoon was failure after failure.

First we could not get a “Buscama” to Sucre, but only a “semi-cama”, far less comfortable and without toilets for a twelve hour night ride. Then we went to Downhill Madness to pick up our CD of our ride down “Death Road”, only to find the place closed. We called a number and were promised that they will send the CD to Sucre. Eventually it dawned on us that this was THE holiday, whereas November 1st was not. But the biggest blow was that the Main Post Office was closed as well. Heidi had waited for a little parcel from Austria for weeks … Unfortunately we had bought the tickets to Sucre already and the post office was not to open until Monday, so we decided to leave anyway.

The bus was rather comfortable and actually we both were able to sleep on and off, only the first three hours to Oruro were a bit weird: although it was a bus with numbered seats they cramped so many people in the bus, that people were sitting in the aisle and it the driver’s booth!

Once in Sucre we went straight to Villa de la Plata, a “Hospedaje” that rents out three apartments. So now we share a nice apartment with a lovely Swiss couple, Reto and Petra, who has been cycling through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. They then flew to Lima and biked down to the south of Bolivia, crossed the “Salar de Uyuni” and have been in Sucre now for three weeks learning Spanish.

The Yungas is an area north of La Paz which is best described as the transition zone between the dry Altiplano and the humid Amazon Basin. Coroico, a small sleepy village, is one of the major settlements in the region. We got a first glimpse of this village perched on the mountain slope with amazing scenery all around when biking down “Death Road”. We knew then that this was a place where we wanted to chill out for a few days.

Not that we were tired, but we were worried that moving constantly within a range of 4.400 meters of altitude might eventually have an effect on our bodies. After spending weeks above 3.800 meters in Peru, near Lake Titicaca and in La Paz, we went down to the Amazon Basin at 280 meters for ten days, then up to La Paz for just two days with one time at 4.640 meters and back down again to the Yungas at 1.750 meters.

Actually we both have coped rather well with the high altitude, even though it has been sometimes difficult to sleep around 4.000 meters, but that was as severe as it got. In Cusco, at only 3.200 meters, it is not uncommon that tourists have to be admitted to the hospital and giving oxygen.

There is a lot to do in Coroico, hiking, more mountain biking, horseback riding, which all seemed so tempting. But luckily it rained us on the first day, forcing us stay at the hotel, which was probably the wisest thing to do after all the recent activities and we really managed to nothing for a few days.

Here in the Yungas region, it was the first time that we saw a few black people. While traveling through Peru and Bolivia it seemed that the population was exclusively of Indigenous or Hispanic descent. So this caught our attention. There are about 35.000 Afro-Bolivians who descended from African slaves that were brought to Bolivia to work in the silver mines of Potosi, where they died in astronomical numbers. Actually there is a village here called Torano, where only black people live. It has already found its way into the travel itineraries.

One day we hired a taxi to take us to coca and then to coffee plantations. Our taxi driver, a graduate of the University of Agriculture in Carman Pampa, therefore also served as knowledgeable guide for those almost three hours. And this is what we learned.

The Yungas is the region that produces the best coca leaves, which are sold throughout Bolivia. There are different plants of coca, and the lower bushes are the one producing the highest quality of leaves. Of the four harvests per year, the first harvest is also the one producing the highest quality. One kilogram of Coca leaves costs approx. 40 Bolivanos or 4 Euros … Our “guide” explained us that one field could bring as much (or actually as little) as 2.000 Bolivanos or 200 Euro per year. We watched some farmers pick the leaves. It is hard work in this heat, a field also requires tending, for example weed needs to be removed.

By the way, coca leaves are sold legally in Bolivia and we have started most of our days with a cup of Mate de Coca. It is served in teabags or the very leaves. Just chewing coca leaves does not have any effect. It needs to be taken with an alkaloid to extract the stimulating substance from the leaf: this is usually made of mineral lime, potato and quinoa ash.

We then took a road that remembered us very much of the “Death Road”, but for the fact that this one was only linking Coroico to a smaller city, Carmen Pampa. There we had a chance to visit a coffee plantation as well as a processing plant. We got to see coffee in every possible form and stage of processing: from the red and yellow mature beans still on the tree to grinded coffee with a extreme strong aroma.

When doing research on our report on “Death Road”, we came across the following website: Death Road, which consists only of about 15 incredible photos showing “Death Road” shortly before the new road was finished. There is a very short comment for each photo.

The photo introducing this short text was taking from a brochure promoting hikes and bike tours down “Death Road”.

This trip down the mountain was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip so far. It was simply fantastic, like a great dinner, you do not want it to end!

About ten years ago a company in La Paz started offering biking down this road in the midst of all the traffic chaos and dust, which added a few more fatal accidents with bikers falling off the cliffs or hitting trucks. There again, the exact number of casualties is unknown and varies from 8 people in 2006 to 15 people over 5 years. You can see many memorials along the way, especially in Hebrew, young men aged 20 or 21, that is to say just out of the army when many young Israelis travel for a longer period.

Knowing all this and given the dramatic title of this excursion, Heidi was very reluctant to do his trip. But since the new road was opened ten months ago, all traffic is of course using the latter. After visiting various companies we decided to go with Downhill Madness because they divide the group according to the speed people want to go. This was very important to us, since we did not want to be pressured by fast, daredevil bikers. Apart from that their equipment was state of the art and they have many years of experience, being the second company that started doing these trips.

What promised to be a scenic ride with a bit of adrenaline exceeded all our expectations!!! It was one of the most wonderful experiences for both of us, using only gravity to descend from 4.640 meters to 1.295 meters, within only 64 km.

When you start out at freezing La Cumbre, an hour from La Paz, the landscape is the typical barren Altiplano scenery with snow-capped mountains, 6.000 meters or higher, lurking from behind smaller mountains. We were lucky since it was not raining or snowing, which is often the case there. The first 30 km is a paved road with the steep slopes of the Altiplano gliding by. We were only a group of five and we all wanted to go slowly, which was perfect.

When the road started climbing for about 3km Heidi gave up after 30 seconds, pushing her bike and then even retreating into the support vehicle which follows every group of biker, so did the other three ladies. Gilles did not give in and only once used the car to hold on and pull him along a stepper bit.

When the road leveled off we mounted our bikes again, soon we reached the part where the new road begins and the old road branches off following the mountain slope with the Coroico River deep below, like a silver band. Here the dirt road began, we were not immediately aware that this was already THE road, because it seemed more of a gravel path than anything else. It was only then that the expression “Death Road” did not seem all that cheesy!

The landscape and the temperature changed quickly and the view became simply breathtaking. The green steep slopes of the Yungas region are full of lush vegetation and it became hard to concentrate on the road. Since we were such a small group we often stopped to take photos, have a snack and allow the driver to take photos and videos of us, these will be put on a CD, a fantastic souvenir. The longer we traveled the more confident we became. There was only one scary moment when one of the Australian ladies in our group went head on down onto the road because she had pulled the front brakes too abruptly. She went into the support car, but joined us later.

The closer we came to Coroico the more beautiful the landscape became, which made us decide to stay here for a couple of days. This trip always ends with a buffet lunch at the Hotel Esmeralda and a dip into its bright blue pool. This is what we have made our new home for the last two days ...

Most people may have heard of this road which starts in La Paz descending 3.450 meters down into the Yungas, within only 64km. Only until you see it for yourself, does the name “Death Road” sound extreme. It is an unpaved gravel road that was wedged out of the mountain in the 1930s by Paraguayan prisoners of war.

Nobody knows how many died during the construction, but statistics for more recent time are available. Every year about 200 - 300 died on this short stretch. In one year about 25 vehicles fell off the road, making it one every two weeks. In 1985 a completely overcrowded bus plunged down killing everybody and making it Bolivia’s single worst traffic accident. The name “Death Road” is not an invention of sensational journalism but was given to the road in 1995 by the Inter American Development Bank.

The reasons are many. First of all, at some parts of the, if you want to call it a road, are so narrow that it seems hardly a car can pass, about 3 meters wide. High rock walls go up on one side, whereas on the valley side the cliffs go down hundreds of meters. Irresponsible driving, alcohol and the conditions of the vehicles are others. During the dry season the road is a ribbon of dust with clouds of sand engulfing the vehicles and bringing visibility down to zero. Fog is quite common in this area and during the rainy season cascades of water rush down the mountain turning the surface into a slippery, slimy mass.

Now this notorious 64 km road was not a path that connects a couple of villages, but was the main and ONLY link from La Paz to the fertile Yungas region with its coffee and coca plantation, and then further into Bolivia’s Amazon Basin and at last into Brazil. It was heavily frequented by trucks, busses and all kinds of vehicles.

Accidents were so common that special driving rules were introduced for this road: vehicles going up had to drive on the mountain side of the road, forcing trucks going downhill to slow down and allowing their drivers to be able see more accurately how far the outer wheels were from the cliff’s edge, especially when passing each other. Hence, this road was the only one in America where people drove on the left. People from La Paz and Coroico told us how horrifying that trip was and that drivers would have all kind of rituals before starting out hoping for a safe trip, like praying or bringing offerings. The side of the road is full of crosses or plagues remembering those travelers whose prayers went unheard.

Talks about building a new road started 20 years ago, but only in December 2006 was this one opened. So all this is history now, since most cars take the new road and “Death Road” has been given a new purpose - it has become a Mecca of mountain biking in Bolivia, something we could not miss.

With high expectations, we went up to El Alto Sunday morning to visit the weekly “16 de Julio Mercado”. It must be the biggest market we have ever been to, since it seemed as if all of El Alto had turned into a huge market. Though the products for sale were not very attractive for us, you could actually find anything from white mice, building material, second hand clothes, food, DVDs for 0.4 Euros and what not ...

There were masses of people moving every which way and soon we became tired of being shoved around. We were the only tourists there and often suspiciously looked at. So we decided to look for a viewpoint to take nice photos of La Paz from above. We walked and walked and never came even near the very rim. After asking a lady where the “Mirador” was, we were told to take a certain bus. Once we arrived there, it was not much of a view so we bussed back to the center of El Alto and then down into “the big bowl” again.

In the afternoon we bussed up to El Alto again in order to watch the popular “Lucha Libre”, a rather bizarre kind of show wrestling that takes place every Sunday. It starts around 04:00 pm with rather inexperienced man wrestling man, woman wrestling woman and then builds up, when around 06:00 the big stars enter the arena, men and women.

The venue is a multifunctional gym and the place was packed with local people who took this very serious. Some of the wrestlers are real celebrities and people hold out their kids to have a photo taking with them. All the wrestlers are clad in grotesque costumes, a mummy, a skeleton, a “Cholita”, a soldier… They are very athletic, otherwise them would not survive the constant banging of their bodies on the floor.

We went there because it is a real local event, but found it rather ridiculous watching people in disguise hitting each other. Even though most of it is show, injuries are common, like fractures or dislocated shoulders as the person sitting next to Heidi told her. In order to show disapproval visitors throw oranges, plastic bottles or the content of the bottles at the fighters, who then throw them back. This can turn into a messy affair, for instance the lens of our camera was sprayed with coca-cola, or especially when fighters leave the arena and continue their fight near or even inside the visitors’ area, which always causes major excitement.

This chapter is aimed at persons who are VERY interested in traveling by plane or flying planes. Only if this is the case, read on ...

Flying in South America is something really special, we will soon explain why. But without any doubt, the climax is La Paz El Alto (IATA: LPB / ICAO: SLLP), the highest international airport and the second highest commercial airport in the world at 13.325 feet or 4.061 meters (the highest one is "Qamdo Bangda" in Tibet at 14.219 feet or 4.334 meters, but is hardly known).

At this high altitude, the air is “thin” and therefore “carries” much less than at sea level. On top of that, La Paz is close to the Equator and therefore, even given the high altitude, the air is comparatively warm. That means the air “carries” even less, La Paz El Alto is indeed the very “High & Hot” airport in the world. And that makes it an exciting place to fly at!

A plane must approach much faster (5 to 10 Knots Indicated Air Speed or KIAS) than normally, having a landing speed almost equal to its starting speed! But that is not all: the airport’s runway 10 is equipped with an ILS Cat 2 Approach, which enables an automatic approach until 400 feet Above Ground Level (A.G.L.). But its opposite end, runway 28, only allows a VOR or “Non Precision Approach”, with a 90 degrees left turn only 4.5 N.M. (nautical miles) of the runway, making it a “Kai Tak - like approach”. And talking about the runway, it measures no less than 13.325 feet or 4.000 meters and is therefore one of the longest runways in the world (ok, not as long as the one for the Space Shuttles in Cape Canaveral …).

But the most interesting part is definitely taking off … As already mentioned, this airport is “High & Hot” and therefore the wings “carry” less than at sea level. On top of that, the engines’ efficiency is lower at this altitude and with these higher temperatures, therefore acceleration and of course take-off times are even longer. As a consequence, a plane needs up to 50% more runway to start than at “Mean Sea Level” and is not able to climb as fast as at “Mean Sea Level”.

And that is what we experienced …

On our two flights from La Paz to Rurrenabaque, the time rolling (on the runway from complete stop to rotation and take-off) on a small Fairchild Metro SA-227 was 46 second the first time (cold and rainy) and 53 seconds the second time. We also measured a time rolling of 62 seconds for a Boeing 727! And we had the “chance” to experience twice an approach on runway 28, as spectacular as described above! The approach speed was also incredible. The captain told us afterwards that he approaches between 115 and 117 KIAS where he takes off (V.R.) with 122 KIAS.

Because of these specific conditions, La Paz is THE place where every aircraft is tested under “High & Hot” conditions to get certified for commercial flights. We saw the brand new Falcon 7X, which Gilles saw at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget in June 2007, being tested. And the captain of our flight to Rurrenabaque told us that the Airbus A380 was planed to be tested in La Paz, but the A.P.U. (Auxiliary Power Unit, which, among others, starts the engines) would have needed to be redesigned just for La Paz. So Airbus did the tests in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia instead … at “only” 7.800 feet.

But La Paz was not the only “interesting experience” we have had when flying in South America … The airport in Rurrenabaque was quite an experience, with its grass runway that cannot be used when it rains, leading to numerous flight cancellations, we have mentioned it before. We also enjoyed a pilot reading his newspaper on a small Cessna on the way to Canaima in Venezuela ...

Surely another surprise was the way how Brazilian pilots behave during take-off and landing. For take-off, they never seem to hesitate to use full power: we experienced take-off times of 26 seconds on a full Airbus A320! As for landing, they bring the plane to a stop so abruptly that passengers are thrown forward, among others using reverse thrust at full power until complete stop!

But the most unbelievable for someone used to flying in Europe or the USA, where pilots stabilize planes on the localizer for 15 to 20 N.M., is the habit of Latin American pilots to make an extremely sharp turn, ranging from 90 to 200 degrees and immediately touch down afterwards. We experienced it on small Cessnas, where it surprised us a lot. But we also experienced it on Airbus A320 or Boeing 737, which are no small planes. And that is a weird feeling!

High, higher, the highest! - La Paz is definitely the city of superlatives when it comes to height, also in terms of difference in altitude within the very city. The city’s wealthy neighborhoods are located in the lowlands, at 3.200 meters, its very center at 3.660m and El Alto, at 4.050m, which makes it the highest capital of the world. In most cities the fancy hoods are higher up whereas the cheap quarters are down under. Why is this reversed in La Paz? If you ever felt the difference in temperature of 800 meters at that altitude, with heating basically unknown, you will understand why the haves do not mind to be looked down upon.

About 60% of Bolivia’s population is of indigenous descent, and this is very obvious once arriving in La Paz. Since we have travelled through rural Peru for more than a month we were used to seeing most women wearing the traditional dresses, even in a big city, whereas tourists whose first destination is Bolivia are usually struck by this sight. In Bolivia these women are called “Cholas”, their outfit usually consists of a black bowler hat, a horizontal multi-layered skirt, an apron, a woollen “Chompa”, a shawl and a colourful woven piece of cloths that is slung round the shoulders to carry everything from shopping to babies or both. Most women normally braid their hair into two long plaits and tie them with a big tuff of black wool.

The typical street scene is a sidewalk lined with vendors squatting there all day, trying to sell anything from food, clothes, household items, DVDs, you name it ... Most shopping is still done on the street or at markets, the vendors are mostly women, who often have theirs babies / children with them, wrapped in blankets or once they are able to sit, they are placed in paper box with a toy, older children roam around.

An army of shoe shine boys or Lustrabotes” is another prominent image in La Paz. They are primarily noticeable by the way they dress. Wide baggy pants and pullovers, often a vest over it but most striking is their head dress, a baseball caps with a woolen ski mask pulled over it which leaves only the eyes visible. This appearance gives them a bit of a daredevil look, and also defines them as a group but most likely it is used to stay anonymous. Very often they are students who do not want to be identified doing such low status job.

One of the most interesting sights is the extremely educational Coca Museum which explains the leaf’s role in traditional societies and its wide spread use during colonial times, when it became the main calorie input of the enslaved population helping them to endure the indescribable working conditions in the mines. It also describes its use by the soft drink and pharmaceutical industry and devastating drug it can be turned into in make-shift laboratories in the jungle.

Visiting the Pampa here is done by boat, and you get to see a very diversified fauna: Capybaras, Caimans large and small, many kinds of Monkeys, Turtles, a huge variety of Birds and with some luck Anacondas. The one animal you want to avoid are the mosquitoes - millions of them attack at random, you may spend a whole afternoon without being bothered and the next morning can be hell; nothing helps, repellents, long sleeves, we did it all, and despite we are both covered by terribly itching bites of all sizes.

During our stay we did various boat trips at different times of the day, the one after sunset we enjoyed most. The thick green towering vegetation on the river banks had then turned into black indefinable shapes, with the mosquitoes gone and the brightest, fullest full moon. It was simply perfect.

Heidi was rather reluctant to join a short fishing trip one afternoon, fearing the relentless stings, which you can expect as soon as the boat stops. But miraculously none of the beasts showed up and we had great fun “feeding Piranhas”, because they simply nibbled the meat off our hooks and only Gilles caught a tiny little one, which we quickly returned to the river of course. Once we realized that the fish outwitted us, we started “playing” with the Piranhas by keeping the hook only a few centimeters below the surface and watching them eat the meat away from the hook without getting caught.

The last day we did a walk looking for Anacondas by walking on an elevated path through the Pampa, checking under bushes and trees, which to us seemed a rather naïve approach. Heidi once read that a film crew looked for days to find one in order to do a documentary. During this three hour stroll we found a dead anaconda and a rather big rattlesnake. On the other hand, another group discovered three of those snakes and two of them bite some tourists, who were getting too close.

The diversity of animals and the possibility to observe them from very close is amazing. We saw lots of Caimans, even some Black Caimans, which are hard to spot in that area, one of them must have been more than 4 meters long. Turtles are usually found on tree trunks in the water, where they sunbathe, often piling onto each other. Of the many Monkeys we saw, the tiny Squirrel Monkeys was the most sociable one, we could have touched them, which of course we did not do. The Capybaras, the biggest rodent in the world, could not be bothered by us coming really close and taking tons of photos. There are quite a few pink Dolphins, even though all you can see is their back when they come to the surface for a second to breathe. Last but not least, there are birds, birds, birds …in all sizes and colors.

We must admit though we were also happy when it was time to leave the camp in the Pampa, because by then we could not endure the thought of being bitten by more insects. The ride back in the jeep was quite an experience, now the road was dry and every vehicle produced an immense cloud of dust.

Back to Rurrenabaque, we took a long shower and hit the Mosquito Bar, where everybody else from our group gathered, as well as other people we had met before and it was such a fun evening. Of course we were all very excited whether we would be able to fly out of Rurrenabaque the following morning knowing of its reputation for delays and cancelled flights. Hey, with only a four hour delay we left and touched down in La Paz 40 minutes later and almost 3.800 meter higher up. We felt rather wobbly and even when standing still we had a pulse of 115 per minute ...

After we got off the “Collectivos”, we had to climb a tiny hill up to our hotel, doing this with our backpacks under this circumstances we moved and puffed like those people about to reach the top of Mount Everest.

The Amazon Basin around Rurrenabaque is divided into two distinct zones: the “Selva” or Rain Forest of Madidi National Park, and the Municipal Reserve of the Pampa of the River Yacuma, a large, flat area of swamps along this river which is used for the excursions by boat. Most tourists head for the “Pampa”, because that is THE place to see animals: lots of different birds of course, Capybaras, Caimans, many kinds of Monkeys, Turtles and if you are lucky, Anacondas.

After our very positive experience in the Madidi National Park we booked the trip to the pampas with Bala Tours as well, clearly saying we wanted Yadmani to be our guide again. But this time we decided for the shorter 3 days / 2 nights tour: Heidi was not very motivated for a longer one, especially since it includes a day on horse-back, which Heidi could not even think of doing in this heat and considering the zillions of mosquitoes about to attack.

Due to previous heavy rain the ride in the jeep to the camp was like being on an ice-rink and took us four hours. It was worse than any road we have traveled, even in southern Senegal or Mali. This is also partly the road linking Rurrenabaque and La Paz and considering the state of the road we were sooo happy to have taken the plane, even considering the major delay we had.

We were a group of 5 people, a Dutch couple and a young man from Tasmania. The Dutch people joined us later since they arrived late from La Paz by bus. It took them 22 (!) hours for 410 kilometers on the kind of road we just described ...

There were two other groups at the Caracoles Lodge, which was a major change to the Tacoaral Lodge in the Madidi National Park were we were alone, but they were all fun people and we enjoyed each others company greatly.

Unfortunately the service and comfort offered by Bala Tours in the Caracoles Lodge in the Pampa was far from what we experienced in the Rain Forest and was actually a joke considering the price we paid, more than twice as much as the cheaper tours.

When coming to explore the “Selva” or Rain Forest, do not expect to see many animals, for that you need to go to the “Pampa”. In the forest, you might get to see a few monkeys, wild boars, birds, but do not expect jaguars or tapirs crossing your path. However, the lack of seeing animals is greatly compensated by what you hear around you. Some birds or insect can sound like a dentist’s drill or a chain saw. Wild bore can be heard rampaging through the forest from far away and the smell that should keep away their potential predators is intensive, to put it mildly.

But above all, the real pleasure comes from immersing in this green, green vastness, the sounds around you. During the morning the heat is bearable and the canopy protects the wanderer from the scorching sun.

Only on our last day we walked for 6 hours and around noon time the heat was getting to us, on top we were tired and had been bitten by plants, mosquitoes, ants, spiders and any kind of bugs, you actually prefer not know what it was … At the end of the day, Gilles must have been bitten around 100 times …

The trail we walked was only visible for the first two hours, then Pedro, who had come along, had to use his machete. Many times our bodies ploughed our way through. Yadmani told us that it was more than a month ago that somebody walked this path, so you can imagine what this means in this kind of environment.

The final destination of this long walk was a Tacana community, the local indigenous ethnic group. What should have been the great reward of our long haul turned out to be a settlement consisting of three huts. Of the two families who live there only a few children and two women could be seen, the kids immediately hid in one of the huts once we came out of the woods.

The only person we encountered was a young woman who was taking apart a wild boar the family had hunted the day before. It was done quite systematically, but still it was a messy affair, with the chicken and ducks trying to get their share of the bounty. Gilles cannot stomach such sight, but even he had to laugh when the women called a little girl from the hut to pick up one of animals’ legs, and take it inside. The piece of meat was as large as the girl. It was hard resisting taking a photo.

After a good laugh we left this place and would not recommend anybody to take this walk to see this community. There is really nothing to see and if it had not been for the unusual butchery we would never remember it.

Madidi National Park is located in the western part of Bolivia’s Amazon Basin and is one of South America’s most intact ecosystems. It covers an area of 1.8 million hectares and was only created 12 years ago. Presently only 8.000 people visit the park per year.

The area of the park itself ranges from mountains 6.000 meters high to the Amazon lowlands, making it South America’s most diverse wilderness gems with a huge variety of fauna and flora. Sustainable ethno- & ecotourism is the philosophy here and of what we observed so far it is not just a marketing trick.

In order to visit the Madidi we decided to use the service of Bala Tours, one of the more expensive agencies, for various reasons. Firstly it had been recommended several times by travelers on the ThornTree forum, but mainly for the comfort of its Tacoaral Lodge in the park. It consists of three buildings, two are subdivided in 6 rooms and one serves as dining room / kitchen. But most important, it is equipped with a solar panel that produces enough energy to provide light for in the lodge, a luxury we have come to appreciate after outings in Venezuela. Yes, and there were real showers, also absolutely necessary after walking in the humid forest for hours. To create enough pressure for operating the showers, for half an hour a day a generator is used to pump the water from the well up to a little tower.

The 4 days / 3 nights tour with Bala Tours costs 170 USD, whereas the cheap agencies offer 3 days / 2 nights tours for as little as 50 USD, but travelers stay in dorms, wash in the muddy river and find their way to the toilet at night by holding a candle. Do not waste your time to bargain, Bala Tours goes by their price list!

We reached our lodge after a three hour boat ride up the Rio Beni and then Rio Tuichi, this ride alone is worth the trip. Only a small number of agencies are permitted to run a lodge inside the park, all together eight and they are all situated along Rio Tuichi, with the fancy Chalalan Ecolodge the furthest up. This lodge was created in 1990 by the inhabitants of a remote Amazon village and has been extremely successful ever since.

Our lodge was further down and less well equipped, but extremely comfortable and clean with large airy rooms. All the material used to build the lodge is taken from the forest and fruits tree and a small vegetable garden helped Bernando, who cooked for us, to create his incredibly tasty meals.

We were the only tourists there at that time and had the whole attention of Estella and Pedro who run the lodge. Yadmani, our guide, took us on long walks around the forest and showed great expertise pointing out the various plants, trees and the occasional wildlife, especially interesting was to learn how many of these plants are used as medicine.

We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere, although quiet it never was. Why? You need to hear the racket the insects and birds are able to create in order to believe this, especially in the morning.

The only downside of such a trip is that you are eaten alive by zillions of insects which are so small that you do not even see them. Only after hours the agony sets in when you realize your body is plastered with red itching spots.

October 18th, after numerous phone calls to the airline and hours waiting at the airport we made it! AmasZonas flight 90 eventually took off and what is more important touched down on the dusty / grassy runway in Rurrenabaque, with no less than a 25 hour delay …

On our second flight the weather was just fine and we were able to watch the Cordillera Real and its many snow-capped mountains of more than 6.000 meters high, while our plane was climbing. Then the scenery abruptly changed with the Yungas highlands down below and finally the Amazon Basin, all this within 40 minutes. Even though it was not a charter flight, literally everyone cheered the pilots for finally getting us there.

Apart from the delays, this was an extreme trip: within 40 minutes we moved from a chilly 4.050 meters on the Andean Altiplano to the heat and humidity of the Amazon Basin at 280 meters in Rurrenabaque.

This is a very laid-back sleepy village at the edge of the Amazon. Locals move on scooters and nobody harasses you trying to sell you God knows what. Many tourists and locals use hammocks to escape the incredible afternoon heat, while pool addicts like us dish out the 20 Bolivanos or 2 Euros to use the swimming pool at the Hotel Ambaibo.

We checked in at the Hotel de los Tucanes de Rurre, which was actually the first place where the small bus from the airport stopped “downtown”: a simple but nice place with lots of hammocks in the yard and very cheap. Unfortunately some Israelis were in party mood and stayed in the hammocks most of night drinking. Since every room here has just mosquito nets and no windows, everybody was forced to listen in. We decided to stay at another place when we come back from the trip to the Rain Forest.

The first evening, we decided to meet several of our fellow travellers to celebrate our arriving in Rurrenabaque and “of course” headed toward THE traveller’s bar, the Mosquito Jungle Bar. That place is a gold mine: literally every tourist shows up there for a drink, there must have been 100 people there that night, downing cocktails for 28 Bolivianos (2.8 Euros) before heading out to the Pampa or Rainforest.

Today, October 17th, we happily boarded a tiny plane that would take us into the warmth of Bolivia’s Amazon Basin. Taking off from La Paz El Alto International Airport at 4.050 meters added to our excitement, but soon turned into a nerve racking journey. Due to bad weather the 40 minute trip to Rurrenabaque was more like a roller coaster ride. Heidi felt as if she had stopped breathing and stared at her watch counting the minutes to finally touch down.

As soon as we approached the tiny airport, the captain announced that we could not land due to heavy rain and had to go back to La Paz. The runway at Rurrenabaque is only a stretch of grass and landing under this condition would wreck the very runway. So we had to rock back to La Paz in this kind of weather, where we were told to wait a couple of hours.

There was a tiny chance that we could go to Reyes, an airport an hour away from Rurrenabaque, but at three o’clock this hope was shattered and we shared a taxi back to La Paz with a couple from Belgium. They had just arrived from Sucre by bus, a 15 hour trip, because their flight to La Paz was cancelled and now they were faced with another cancelled flight!

Tomorrow early morning we will call and find out if we will be able to give it another try ...

From Copacabana we took a public bus to La Paz, the “tourist bus” would have been only slightly more expensive, but it only leaves in the afternoon, whereas the public busses leave every hour. Our bus was a bit ancient and not suitable for tall people. There were only five tourists on our bus, but the tallest was sitting behind Heidi and she was in touch with his knees for the entire trip!

We approached the city by first going through El Alto, when suddenly the bus crossed the edge of the plateau and started winding down the road to La Paz. The view is incredible: the city seems to be located like in a great bowl below with every inch of it being covered by buildings!

Once we got off the bus, we were approached by three policemen who wanted to see our passports. Being alarmed by stories of bogus police, we were a bit nervous. Gilles first ignored them, then required to see an ID, which were some plastic cards. Eventually we showed our passports, since all this happened in broad daylight and there were lots of people around.

Afterwards, two “Tourist Policemen” stayed close and offered to flag down a taxi, which turned out to be an illegal one. The driver had no papers whatsoever with him. Nevertheless, after a few minutes of discussion, the two policemen found it suitable to take us to our hotel. Once our luggage and we were inside the taxi, one of the policemen also got into the car, which left us speechless. Although we felt prepared for such fishy situations we were paralyzed. We kept checking the street signs and soon relaxed when we were sure to go the right direction. We still do not know whether this was a particular precaution or if the policeman was just bored, or if he cut a deal with the taxi driver later for not having his papers.

We checked into the Hotel Fuentes, which was recommended in the Lonely Planet ThornTree but not in the travel guide, in the very, very center and we love it. It is completely quiet because the street to access the hotel is a pedestrian zone, actually it is the road of the Witches Market. The rooms are quiet, modern, clean, with very hot showers and with little heaters that can be rented for 3 USD per day.

But we only have stayed in La Paz for two days, since we decided we definitely needed a little bit of a warmer climate before visiting the city more in depth, so we booked a flight to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon Basin.

There are a few peculiarities that we observed in Copacabana, but nowhere else!

Every day, but especially on Sunday, cars, taxis, busses, etc … line up in front of the gigantic Cathedral to receive a blessing by the priest, which should keep both car and driver safe from accidents. People actually come from far away to receive this “Benedicion de Movilidades”, or as an American tourist put it, “car bless day”.

This ceremony is quiet a spectacle. First, the vehicle is thoroughly washed and then decorated with real flowers, plastic garland and colorful ribbons. The stalls to buy the decorum are conveniently lined up around the plaza. The vendors are very skilled in applying it in no time. Next beer or sparkling wine is strayed all over it and some liquid from a tiny bottle is put on each tire, then pedals of flowers are thrown all over it and finally crackers are placed next to each tire, making everybody duck when they explode. Now it is time for the priest: he gives a little speech to the family assembled and then blesses the vehicle by walking around it, spraying water with what looks like a giant rose onto the car. Last the family itself is blessed by everybody touching the very giant rose which the priest used for blessing the car.

Another oddity we noticed was that we encountered a lot of people with one eye bandaged. These sightings already began in Puno. When waiting at the border to get our passport stamped it seemed a mass movement. So our initial guess was that a certain eye surgery is far cheaper in Bolivia than in Peru, but when we saw even more of these newly operated persons in the streets of Copacabana, we asked the senor where we had our daily fruit juice.

Well, people from both sides of the border flock to town because this operation is done for free by some of the 2.000 Cuban doctors who have been sent to Bolivia by Fidel Castro to support the ailing health system.

Eventually we decided to interrupt our short vacation in Copacabana / Bolivia, take a boat to Isla del Sol and trek the island from north to south. After a two hour boat trip from Copacabana, we got off in Cha’llapampa at the northern tip of the island and asked a local guide to show us the sights of that area. This included the Pre-Inca ruins of Chincana, the Mesa Ceremonial, which was used for sacrifices but where now a local “Shaman” treats people, and Titi Khar’ka or Rock of the Puma, which gave the lake its name. With the help of Faustino, our guide, and a lot of imagination, we also identified the “Cara de Viracocha” and the “Refugio del Sol” in that rock.

After saying good bye to Faustino we walked the three hours south to the small village of Yumani. The walk is very scenic with the Bolivian shore to your left and the Peruvian to your right. When you look north there is nothing but water, like an endless ocean. It is actually only a seven kilometres walk, but at that altitude, up to 4.075 meters above sea level, the air is very thin. So we had to walk very slowly not to run out of breath.

Very few people did this trek and only towards the end we met a Columbian, an Iranian and German lady and together we started looking for a room for the night in Yumani. We tried lots of places, paying particular attention to the temperature in the room and were extremely lucky to find Posada Isla del Sol, no sign indicating its existence, hidden behind the island’s only Internet Café.

From experience we knew that a tin roof means freezing cold nights. This place was a modern adobe building, nicely painted inside and outside with a copula in each room that each had six tiny round glass openings. We chose the room that was still full of sun at 05:00 pm and after coming back from an adventurous dinner, the room was still really warm. It seems as if the copula collects the heat and keeps the room warm, genial idea!

We had dinner in a little place with a view to make you weep, to say the sunset was spectacular does not do it justice. The reason we went into that place was because it had a pizza oven and from experience this usually means a warm place. Once we sat down, naturally ordering pizza to keep that oven going, more people kept coming in, the usual phenomenon: if there are people in there it must be good, especially since most places around were empty. We also strongly believe that the very fact that we closed the door of the restaurant made it so much more attractive: who wants to be in a place with its doors wide open at 3.900 meters above sea level, which means freezing temperatures at night? We have concluded it must be a cultural thing to leave doors and windows wide open despite the extreme cold.

Well, it turned out that this crowd was quite a challenge for the family who runs the restaurant, more people from the neighbourhood had to be called to help with the cooking and after two hours we were able to enjoy our pizza. Since we were exchanging travel stories with Catherine, the German lady we had met, we were more patient as we would usually are.

On the next day, after a long breakfast, we walked down the “Inca Stairs” or “Escalera Del Inca” to the port, rather unspectacular. The boat that took us back to Copacabana was small and only had one engine, which made the trip a bit tedious.

We have been traveling for 11 weeks in South America so far. We visited 3 countries and spent one or more nights in 45 different places … Especially in Venezuela & Peru the rhythm of our travel was really challenging. So we needed a little rest and therefore chose to treat us to a few days of “vacation” in the famous Hostal La Cúpula in Copacabana, Bolivia, before continuing our trip.

This place is truly heavenly, located a five minutes walk from the center of the small city of Copacabana, on a hill overlooking Lake Titicaca. It features everything that a tired traveler dr