Bolivia

Today we had another 6am wake-up call and left the hotel at 7am to catch the 7.30am tourist bus to Puno. A comfortable bus but with a guide whose English was difficult to understand and who had the irritating habit of saying ‘you know’ with every phrase! I have a sore throat but hopefully it will soon subside. Our first stop was at a colonial church in the small village of Andahuaylillas, built of course with a foundation of previous Inca stonework. It had beautiful painted ceilings and the usual golden and ornate altars but we weren’t allowed to take photos. Our second stop was at an impressive Inca site at Raqchi where there were the remains of a massive temple complex to the Inca creator God Wiracocha. It consisted of a very tall middle wall built in sections with stone at the bases topped with adobe brick – very unusual in Inca constructions – and two rows of pillars with the same construction with an outer wall. There were many other ruins to be seen of houses and round storehouses.
Unfortunately we didn’t have long enough here to really appreciate the whole site but it was good to see some of it. We then stopped shortly after for an excellent (and included) buffet lunch. Another forty minutes or so saw us at the highest point of the journey, La Raya, at 4313m. Another hour or two later we stopped at Pukara where we looked around a tiny museum (no photos allowed again) where there were some artefacts found at the local diggings of Pukara, another Inca site. We also looked around the church which had an interesting looking cupola from outside but was needing a lot of restoration work inside. We continued onwards and arrived in Puno about 5pm to find they had sent the wrong bus for us and Daniel, our tour guide had to help manhandle our luggage onto the roof! We got our first glimpse of Lake Titicaca and stayed at a hotel in the main square, which we face onto with a small balcony but we do have double glazing. Unfortunately that does not muffle the sound of the church bell!
Tuesday we drove to Sillustrani, an area on a peninsular on a large lagoon, where the Quollas and later the Incas built burial towers over tombs of their elite. In the afternoon we took cycle-rickshaws down to the lake and boarded a boat to visit the floating islands of the Uros. There are around 500 families living on these man-made islands of reeds and we were treated to a very good presentation of how they make and maintain the islands and were able to visit some of their houses. They also have a small pool in the centre of each island where the children learn to swim in the cold water at an early age.
We then had a short ride on their reed boat to a neighbouring island where we were picked up again by our boat for the return trip to Puno.
In the evening we had to brave a colossal downpour of rain and hail to get to the restaurant where we dried out and were treated to a great evening of music and dances from the Puno region. Wonderful coloured and elaborate costumes and very energetic dancing.
The next day we left Puno at 8am and after driving around part of the lake we crossed the border without incident into Bolivia. We then drove to Tiahuanaco and visited the museum before lunch. After lunch we visited the site but only actually saw a part of it. The monolithic statues reminded us of those on Easter Island and we could understand why Thor Heyadahl thought both peoples came from the Polynesian area initially.
We then drove to La Paz, a large city nestled within a crater of mountains and had dinner on the top floor of our hotel with a good view of the city. We also met up with Ivor (a Pole living in England) who seems very nice and who is joining the six of us for the extended trip into Bolivia.
The following day we had a leisurely start at 9am for the city tour and began by visiting the main square and the cathedral. The latter was less ornate and baroque than others we have seen recently and the simplicity of its towering columned roof was more to our taste.
Our local guide, Cynthia, had dressed in her cholla costume that had originally belonged to her grandmother and attracted a bit of attention from passers-by who had not seen the old, very fine style very often. We then visited a couple of museums including the Gold Museum which had a good collection of artefacts from Tiahuanaca and elsewhere.
We then visited the Moon Valley, an amazing landscape of towering galacial deposits which was how the valley of La Paz was before they built all over it. Within the next twenty years they are going to get increasing problems with houses collapsing and landslides because of the instability of the area not to mention problems with the water supply for the 2 million people who live here. I went over the road from the hotel and had a good haircut for 50 bolivanos.
There has been some trouble with changes to our itinerary as there are elections on Sunday and no-one is allowed to travel in or out of the cities. After discussion it was decided that we should spend 3 rather than
2 nights in Uyuni on the salt plains.
We left by the 10am bus to Oruro where we caught the train to Uyuni. Oruri is an old mining town and has nothing to recommend it aprt from the excellent roast lamb we had for lunch. We then boarded the 3.30pm train for the seven hours trip to Uyuni. Apart from being quite a rocky train which made pouring and drinking drinks difficult, the scenery was firstly crossing over a lagoon area with many birds near Oruro and then
miles and miles of altiplano which varied from cultivated areas to dry desert with mountain ranges in the distance.
We got into Uyuni around 10pm and went to our hotel, which was much better than we had been expecting. We had a large room with a ten foot wide bed and there is a pretty little courtyard. As we don’t have to drive to Potosi on Saturday we are intending to have a full day on the salt plains and then chill out on Sunday.
We had the best night’s sleep yet – a comfortable bed, a non-lumpy pillow and quiet! We met up at 10am to travel in 2 FWD vehicles to visit a graveyard for old trains dating from the early 1900s when this place was a booming mining town. We then drove onto the salt flats, the most extraordinary place I have ever visited! Mile after mile of white expanse, flat as a pancake with mountain peaks and islands in the distance. The salt looks rather like the rippled sand at low tide and in some places like hexagonal tiles. From 40,000 to 25,000 years ago this area was Lake Minchin which gradually evaporated. After 14,000 years Lake Tauca appeared which after a mere 1,000 years also dried up leaving two large puddles, Lagos Poopo and Ura Ura and the two salt plains or Salares of Uyuni and Coipas.
We stopped at a point where the salt layer is thinner (only 3-5m) and where gases and air from the volcano bubble up like springs.
We then visited Colchani, where they showed us how they dry and bag the salt. There are several family businesses doing this and the salt extracted and processed is around 20,000 tons a year. We also saw someone raking the salt on the plains into small conical heaps to dry a little before they transport it to the family shed to dry for 30-60 mins on a metal tray with fire below it before adding a little iodine and grinding the crystals to powder (these processes are done with the only machine they have) before being bagged by a younger member of the family and the bags being sealed with an open flame.
We then drove about 90K across the salt to the Tunupa Volcano and the village of Coquesa where after a drive up a rutted dirt track we abandoned our vehicles to walk up to a cave where there are some Chollpas mummies. Some had been found higher up the volcano but had been put in this cave for safe keeping. The cave was locked and on the way we had to stop and get the key for a small admission fee from a woman working with others to maintain the track.
We then drove onwards to Isla Incahuasi. This is a small rocky island covered with Trichoreus cactus and fossilised coral. We had an excellent lunch (at 3pm!) brought along by our drivers, of chicken and rice, eaten off tables made of salt blocks, before wandering up the track to the top of the island for some great views. We also saw a fossilised coral archway and a cactus that was 15,000 years old. Apparently this type of cactus grows at about 1cm a year.
We then drove for some distance and visited an abandoned salt hotel constructed of salt blocks as were the tables and chairs inside. There were also some sculptures such as a grandfather clock and various animals that we could catch a glimpse of as we peered through cracks in the curtained windows.
We then drove back towards Uyuni, stopping to take photos of the sunset. As we were doing this about 200 pink Chilean flamingos flew past which was a sight to see! Our vehicle disturbed an owl on the way as well.
After a quick shower to remove the dust and salt we met up for dinner at a nearby (and only decent) restaurant in Uyuni. I had llama steak and spaghetti which was great.
On Sunday the hotel very kindly made us all some lunch (spaghetti and tuna) as everything was closed until the afternoon. After lunch we all went for a walk to try and find a lagoon the hotel owner had told Gonzalo our tour guide about. We saw several Bolivian flamingos there. On the way back we spotted an owl and watched it for some while with our binoculars.
We didn’t sleep as well that night because there were celebrations going on after the elections which were a bit noisy outside. We left at 8am to drive to Potosi but one van had taken out the back seat to enable luggage to be stored in the van but this would have meant three on the middle seat which would have been squashed. So he returned to his depot to replace the seat and the luggage was piled on top of both vans covered with tarpaulins. This delayed us half an hour and an hour or so out of Uyuni the other van decided it could not continue as it was only firing on three cylinders. Another two hour wait for a replacement vehicle ensued before we recommenced our 6 hour journey to Potosi. This meant we didn’t get to Potosi until4pm so we didn’t have lunch and I hadn’t faced breakfast apart from a banana so I was very hungry come dinner time! We had a few biscuits and chocolate raisins that kept us going. The scenery was spectacular as we drove through the mountains to the old colonial mining town of Potosi and I took too many photos as usual! We had a walking city tour of various squares and churches before ending up at a restaurant early as we were all quite hungry.
Thank you everyone for your good birthday wishes - tomorrow we are going down a silver mine here at Potosi before driving 2 hours to Sucre which is reputedly a lovely town...look after yourselves and Alan, we are back on evening of 11th if you want to drop in...Love to everyone..Ann and Iain