Bolivian Breakdown

Ben Writes -

The journey from Cusco to La Paz was pretty comfortable and we immediately felt at home in the world´s highest capital. The Bolivians are simply more chilled out than the Peruvians and as a result La Paz is slightly less crazy than the other South American capitals we have visited - and none the worse for that. Wherever we went in the city and later in the countryside we were impressed with the hospitalitity of the Bolivians - unfortunately the Peruvians had not always scored so highly on this point.

La Paz is perched in a valley at a height of 3700m. The main street is at the bottom of the valley with all other streets sloping up from it. We realised that we would have to get a move on to see something of the country as we only had just over a week here before flying on to Buenos Aires from La Paz.

The day after we arrived we booked ourselves onto a tour of 'Solar de Uyuni' some amazing salt flats and volcanic landscapes in the south of the country. We left that night on the overnight bus. I managed to get some sleep on the first part of the trip but by morning the road deteriorated into a rocky dirt track and I was violently sick as a result (I made it to the bathroom in time but did not much enjoy the clean up job after). This was illness no. 6 on the trip I belive which may constitute some kind of record.

Later on we arrived at the desert town of Uyuni to catch our jeep that would take us off road for four days. Uyuni was an eerie, desolate place. The town itself had one real interest point, which was a railway graveyard just out of town. Massive rusting hulks of ancient trains were decaying there in the desert and we were allowed to go and clamber all over them.

A slight hint of what was to follow occurred when we returned to our jeep and found our driver and several of his mates with their heads under the bonnet. All was fine he assured us. Off we went.

About thirty minutes out into the desert a loud bang forced our driver to swerve across the road and come to an abrupt halt. The front axle had gone. We thought that was it for the jeep but our driver was determined that he could fix it. We waited for three hours in the midday heat until he admitted defeat. It was a bit hot. Our man was not happy at losing our group to another driver but we were pleased to be underway again.

The salt flats were incredible. Our new driver showed us where local people collect the salt for commercial use. There is not much chance of them running out anytime soon - the plains run for 1000 km in every direction and are about 20ft thick.

We had to wear sunglasses to account for the brilliant white glare from plains. Taking off the glasses was disorientating. I had left my sun hat in La Paz as I was expecting it to be freezing cold - not a very smart move. It was cold at night but it was very warm and sunny during the day - doubly so when so much heat was reflected back at you from the ground.

We were shown a salt hotel which was constucted entirely of salt quarried from the plains and then drove on to an island in the plains which was covered in cactus and had fantastic views.

In this remote place some of the cacti on the island were up to 16,000 years old.

That afternoon it started raining and we were lucky enough to see the effect of water on this perfectly flat suface. With no drainage the plains form a pefect reflection of the sky and horizion above.

We stayed in salt constructed dwellings the next two nights. It was great fun despite the lack of electric lighting or heating. It got a bit cold after dark. We continued our jeep trek down to the Chilean border where we were treated to amazingly green and pink lakes with flamingoes, volcanic hot waters, guysers and bubbling mudpools. All this was presented in typically laid back Bolivian style which was quite charming.

We had 8 hours of dirt tracks back to Uyuni the next day and then had to wait until 3am the following night for our connecting train to Oruro. We had to get another bus from there to La Paz. All the hassle was well worth it though. We had seen one of the most isolated and beautiful parts of South America.

Back in La Paz we had one more day left until our flight to Argentina which we wanted to use constructively. We had heard previously on our travels about 'the world's most dangerous road' or 'death road' a 70km bike ride that drops 3000m along it's length and is in some places only 2 meters wide. The road hugs the side of the mountains for 30km with a sheer drop on one side.

We were told that some companies would not run the trek during the rainy months of January and February but it wasn't raining and the forcasts were good. We'd be fine right? Well not exactly. The rain started drizzling in the morning of the ride and grew steadily throughout the day. We got drenched.

Apart from our hands and feet going to sleep the heavy rain caused many waterfalls which fell on both sides of the road and in some cases formed streams and torrents which washed right across the dirt road making it more unstable. Bits of the ride were not actually enjoyable at all, especially when we went past the many crosses and small memorials to people who had gone over the edge. We took no pictures of these as it would have been rather crass to take any and they were actually quite unnerving. One old guy stands at a hairpin bend waving people through as some years ago his whole family was lost there. 100 people are currently lost a year but this should fall as the road is shortly to be closed to general traffic. Only cyclists will be able to use it in future as a new road is being opened up for non tourists. A good thing as the manic bus and van drivers don't make the trip any easier.

On the way back up the road in the van after the cycling we got a flat tyre. We were perched on the very edge to let others past as the guides changed it as quickly as they could. It was getting dark so we were all relieved to get it done and get back to La Paz.

But we made it and got the T shirt.

Next stop Argentina.