After 4 months of travelling, things do change. As Tom a good friend of mine said to me before leaving, Belgium became blurry, the importance of what I did before became less clear to me and I got more focussed on my little life here, the travelling. Living to some extent in a bubble, meeting other travellers, reaching out. Bere did feel it from time to time, which made it not always obvious to find common ground. In the end, we did our travel and I think are both happy we visited all those places and did what we did.
May-be because I was in this little after-4-months-of-travelling-bubble that Bolivia pleased me very much, but I also think it is a great country to travel to. The people are very friendly -although the information thay give you not always reliable- I found busses remarkable safe, or at least not too dangerous. But above all, I loved the Altiplano, the high Andes plateaus.
Bolivia together with Colombia are my favourite countries, the Salar -the Salt desert in Uyuni- together with the Cordiera Blanca in Peru and Carthagena in Colombia the nicest spots on my travel. I learned to chew coca leaves in Bolivia, praised myself to be born in a good family and just enjoyed nature. We did not discuss a lot the politics of Bolivia, the reasons for its poverty, we did not focus on the outcome of the alliance it has with Chavez, in my view a dangerous populist person. That also is what is happening after 4 months of travelling. Politics lose some of its glory as the nature and scenery is just too beautiful and people just people, not voters.
The first thing we did was travelling by daylight from Peru to Bolivia, so that we could see the Altiplano and the Titicaca Lake. It is beautiful, but time constraints made us go straight to La Paz.
The contrasting colors of the Altiplano, Bolivia
Lago Pipikaka
So we started with visiting La Paz, a great spot to do stuff around. We did not do a lot, some biking and a visit to the Valle de la Luna which is a strangly eroded landscape.
Men will always remain boys... We took many "fighting" pictures. Bere always won or thought he won...
La Paz
The highlight came afterwards, a 3 day trip in the Salar de Uyuni and the Eduardo Avaroa National Park. The Salar has about 10 BILLION TONS of salt, the Natioinal Park about the same on colors -my guess. I liked it very much, sitting in the jeep for 3 days, being driven around, being fed, playing cards with the other people and just watching. Very, very, nice. Go there.
Our route
The track we did was Uyuni, Isla Pescado, Cuevas -caves-, which are in the Salar, then to Lago Hedionda and the two other small lakes, to the Arbol de Piedra -a rock eroded in the form of a tree-, Lago Colorado, the hot springs -termas-, Lago Verde and than all the way back to Uyuni. Some pictures.
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The group we were with… We had fun doing this
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Once more our group. At the Arbol de Piedra
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The Salar in its 10 billion tons of salt glory
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This is the way you travel on the Salar. In a jeep, all day
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Nothing lives in the lakes at more than 4000m except Flamingos. Lots
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As said, nothing lives in the lakes, except Flamingos.
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Bere
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Me in need of a haircut at Laguna Colorado, Peru
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The geisers, boiling hot mud. Like gorillas in the mist but than humans in the sulfer fogs.
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Another “Fighting” pictures. This time at Laguna Verde
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Laguna Verde
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Laguna Colorado. There also is the Laguna Blanco, Frio, etc, but that is for another trip…
Al this took us until the 15th of October. Afterwards, we went to Potosi, to the Cerro Rico, the mine which gave Spain all its colonial silver wealth. It is still mined, lived by the Bolivians as something of their culture, but man, it is hard. Incredible hard. Working around 12 hours in very primitive circumstances and at times at 40degrees C. La double is feared: working 24 hours in a row. But, the miners are self-organised and if they are lucky in find a good silver vein, they are rich. It is a lottery. With your health. We had the luxury only to stay two days.
Cerro Rico and Potosi, once the biggest city in the Americas and bigger than London of Paris. When it was still full of silver
And after that, Bert went home and I went to Sucre, the white city and spend 3 days doing nothing, went on to visit my cousin in Santa Cruz and than to Brasil. Unexpectedly, but great. I am there now, for some more time. Undefined. In Brasilia. 4 months of travelling makes me a little more relaxed.
Sucre is the white city of Bolivia. The university and constitutional court city. Relaxed but a little dull sometimes
Travelling is meeting with people. I spend 3 great days in Sucre, speaking in dutch with Doreen, from the Netherlands. They have such funny little words!
Familie in Santa Cruz
Brasil...
Hasta pronto.
Levi
