Bolivian adventures... and misadventures...

So the time has come to update the old blogger...and where do I start?

I last left you from Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca where the fun and adventures were to start in Bolivia.

Well, we made our way to Copacabana (yes, just like the song that you are probably now humming to yourself) and a beautiful place called Isla del Sol. After an entertaining 3hr boat ride with a bunch of Brazilian boys to Isla del Sol, we started what was to be an incredibly hard hike uphill with our packs to our fantastic hostel (where we scored the best room in the whole place, overlooking Lake Titicaca). The next day was filled with a 6-hr hike around the island with another group of Bralizian boys. Now the tricky part of this hike was that one of us was still fighting altitude sickness and another one of us was experiencing the Bolivian equivalent of Delhi belly... not the most positive experiences for either but still an experience nonetheless.

After Copacabana, we took off on another bus ride to destination La Paz where we arrived late in the evening and got dropped off at a fantastic stop called ¨el cimentario¨, which does mean ¨the cemetary¨. Luckily we were quickly picked up by our friend´s cousin who was letting us stay with her for a couple of days.

After a couple of days in La Paz (and the purchase of amoxicilin to combat the onset of a sinus infection as well as the purchase of bronchial syrup to combat the onset of liquid in my lungs), S. and I hopped on an overnight bus last Sunday to Uyuni to start a 3-day tour of the salt flats and the surrounding desert. What they do not say in the guidebooks is that the journey by bus from La Paz to Uyuni is horrible! Not only is it 12hrs long with seriously bad toilets but also the road between Oruro and Uyuni is horribly bumpy for the entire 7hrs between the two cities!

After arriving at 6am, we decided to hop on a tour starting that day in order to save a stay in a hostel and to get us back to La Paz a day early; something that was soon to change.

Our first day went by well and was fun-filled.
Then came day 2...What started off as a beautiful day quickly turned to a horrendous sandstorm by 10am. After being turned away at a checkpoint, we took refuge in a little place called San Juan in one of the worst hostels that I have ever stayed in. The place resembled a bunker that I visited in grade 9 whilst in Normandy. Some windows had plastic coverings and sand kept blowing in (the wind was so strong that metal roofs were being ripped off). We were hoping that the wind would die down by mid-afternoon and that we could carry on our journey, boy were we hopeful. We ended up spending the night in one of the coldest places I have ever slept - we could see our breath when we exhaled.
The upside of this time bunkered down was the presence of other jeeps who had to stop because of the storm. We ended up buying most of the bottles of chilean red from the local (and maybe only) store and playing cards with yet another group of Brazilian guys. That coupled with copious amounts of chocolate kept the good vibes flowing.
The next morning was better and we continued on our tour with one day lost. If we thought that night 2 was bad, night 3 got the prize for worst sleep ever! It was colder than in the hostel/bunker and we were sleeping on concrete blocks, definitely made for stories to tell. But once again made better by meeting up with the same Brazilian guys from the bunker.

We made it back into Uyuni safe and sound a day later than expected.
Then it was another overnight bus for S. and I back to La Paz. This one was a lot more entertaining than the one down to Uyuni as the bus kept heaving like it was on its last legs. Once we arrived in Oruro at 4am we were advised that we would need to change buses as ours was broken. Off we go to the other bus only to discover that 1) the bus is quite full with locals and 2) there is no toilet on the bus and it´s a long way to La Paz. So after S. and I claimed a couple of seats at the back of the bus, I hop off to quickly run back to our broken bus that still has a functioning toilet on it only to hear a bus revving its engine like its ready to go. I run back to our ¨new¨ bus only to run into our Chilean friend A. who also needs to use the facilities before we head to La Paz. I wait for her outside of the bus thinking that if I am just outside the door then the bus will not leave without us... this is a VERY naive thought. Not one minute passes that A. is on the broken bus that the bus starts driving away with me still on the street and her in the broken bus. I start sprinting for the bus at the same time that A. emerges from the bus. We both bolt for the bus and barely make it on.

We got into La Paz yesterday morning and are heading out tomorrow afternoon on a 24hr bus ride from here to Pisco, Peru. Let´s just say that that iPods are charged and there will be some serious sleep time involved with fantastic earplugs.

Countdown until home: 5 days.