Sam and E-J's Adventure

Having arrived in Uyuni, one of the uglyiest towns we have seen so far, we spent careful time trying to find the best tour. Finally we decided to go with the company Blue Line, who promised us that it would be a memorable experience, which it certainly was, but perhaps not for quite the right reasons. The evening was spent enjoying some fantastic pizza at Minuteman Pizza, which is run by an eccentric American, who gets his ingredients from all around the world and creates the best Pizzas in the whole of South America. This was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for Sam!

Day 1
The tour began at 10:30 am and we met Judy a Swiss girl who was also joining our group. Our first stop was the Cementerio de Trenes, which was basically a load of old trains that the Bolivians didn't know what to do with, so they turned it into some spectacle for the public. We arrived at the sight along with another five jeeps, and realised that it was going to be like this for the rest of the tour; a constant stream of tourists, fighting to get their individual picture without any other random person ruining the view. The place was literally like standing in a graveyard of rusty old trains, which were once beautiful. We couldn´t really appreciate this as we were far more excited about seeing and getting to the Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats).

As we headed for the Salt Flats, our driver stopped various times to get his gasoline, coca leaves, phone card and whatever else he seemed to need. The constant deliberating seemed to build up our anticipation and impatience to see the flats.

Just before we reached Salar de Uyuni we stopped off again, at a few musems in which there were statues of animals made out of salt. They were pretty impressive, though it wasn't explained to us until we were about to leave the building that you had to pay to enter them.

Finally, after much anticipation we reached the Salt Flats and they were totally mesmerising. They were so white and as far as the eye could see. The feeling you get when you drive over them is that of utter bleak isolation, provided you are able to block out the other ten jeeps travelling in convoy behind you.

Our next stop was the Isla los Pescado. It is called this, because as you drive towards it, it looks a bit like a fish. However when we got there it was an island full of huge and impressive cacti, some of them as old as 500 years old!

When we got there we did a small walk around the island, taking in the incredible sights, before heading back to our jeep for a tasty lunch, which consisted of a sumptuous steak. At this point, things couldn't be better and we thought we had found our perfect trip.

After this we had a few hours to play on the Salt Flats, much to our enjoyment!

If only E-J was really this size, she'd be a lot easier to handle!

Sam was in his element, posing with the bottle of Mayonaise!

After a few hours of mucking around we were happy to leave the place in the knowledge that we would be returning for the sunrise, as informed by the tour operatour.

We then headed to the salt hotel we were staying in for the night, which was just off the salt flats and back onto the barren, muddy ground. This place didn´t look like much from the outside, but inside it was amazing. Literally, everything was made of salt, from the tables to the chairs to the beds that we slept on and they had some strange salt decorations hanging from all the way round the ceiling. They also had a stuffed flamengo on the wall, which wasn't quite so nice.

We had a great evening of yummy food and a good game of cards. It was when we were about to go to bed that we were told we would not be returning to the Salt Flats, due to the limitations of gasoline. Confused and frustrated to be told something different from what had been promised to us by the tour agency, we reluctently went to bed, defeated in the argument and by the fact that we would not be seeing the salt flats again. Instead we were told we would see the sunrise from our hotel. Bitterly disappointed we tried to not let this spoil our tour and thought positively about what the next day had in store for us.

Day 2
Having been told the sunrise was a 6:15am we woke up at 6:00am only to find the sun high in the sky. This was the first disappoinment of the day. We then had a quick breakfast and headed to our next destination which was a lake full of flamengos. E-J seemed to take in the view along with the rest of the group, but Sam sat in silence trying to withold his disappointment in the tour.

We continued our journey in the cooped up jeep for another 3 hours before getting out to see another view, the volcano Ollague, which constantly smokes away.

The next part of the journey was a 5 hour drive along rather bumpy terrain and with the driver only providing us with a limited amount of Bolvian music presented in tape format, E-J and Lou felt it was up to them to provide the group with some entertainment, so proceeded to sing every song they could possibly remember the words to, this ranged from the Spice Girls, to the Sound of Music, The Eagles and many more. This made Sam plummet into a deeper, darker depression over the whole situation.

The next location was Arbal de Piedro, known as the Stone Tree. The Stone tree was created by hot lava, which dried in this interesting formation, making it look like a tree and become one of the main attractions of the tour.

Despite being told not to touch it, we found various people trying to climb it and after patiently waiting for about 20 minutes for a clear photo of the tree, without any other tourist ruining the view, Lou and E-J had to resort to shouting at people to move out of the bloody way - much to Sam's embarrassment.

The next location was the Laguna Colorada and it had the most mesmerising colours.

The different colours within the lake are created by the wind mixing together the sulphur and different minerals inside it.

It was a very impressive sight, although it had to be a brief visit as the winds were incredibly strong here.

We continued our drive through the landscape, stopping occassionally for the `Bano natural`, which was always a challenge to find in such a barren landscape. We finally reached the place we would stay for the night around 4:30pm and settled in for a game of cards and an early night. There were also various other tour groups staying at the same place as us and at 5:30 they all started to run towards their jeeps to see the sunset. Being the only group left, again we felt as though we had been cheated by our tour company and asked our driver if he would take us too. He gave us his same usual excuse that there was not enough gasoline to get us to Tupiza, at which point we finally snapped and an enormous argument arose. Poor Judy was the only person in our group who could fluently talk Spanish, so had to be our interpreter as the tension rose. Finally, our driver, furious with rage decided he would take us, but by this point we were resigned to the fact that we had miss the sunset anyway, so there was no longer a point.

All agitated by the constant disappointments we decided to have an early night.

Day 3
Our driver woke us up at 4am to watch the sunrise and we were greeted by the pitch black and bitter cold. Sam and E-J, not the best at such an early time were at each other´s necks, furious with each other for one thing or another. We drove for a couple of hours in silence until we reached the area called Sol de manana full of geysers. These are boiling hot areas of mud, which have a contast stream of steam coming out from them, making them look very mysterious at this time in the morning. E-J was the only one to wander over to them as Sam was too cold and in too much of a bad mood!

As E-J walked past the no entry signs (following the rest of the crowd) and looked over the large craters into the boiling bubbles, spluttering out mud, she did question the safety of this place. It was only when she was back in the jeep that the guide informed the rest of the group that two people had died this year from being too close to the geysers...

We managed to miss the sunrise after all that and our next destination was to the Aguas Termales (hot springs). Still early morning, the temprature outside was freezing so no one was particularly keen to jump into the hot springs, but finally, E-J and Judy found the courage and once in, found them so warm and amazing. It was literally like being in a hot bath, though unfortunately with a load of other people.

We then had breakfast at this place before driving past Desierto de Salvador Dali, which is the site where Dali gained his inspiration for his famous surreal paintings. We then reached the final Lake, Lagona Verde with the enormous Volcan Licancabur behind it. The drive took quite a few hours and we were relieved to stretch our legs when we were there. It was an incredibly impressive emerald, green lake and if you stood at the correct point you could see the perfect reflection of volcan Licancabar, exactly fitted inside it.

Sam, at this point had, had enough of all the lakes we had seen so after one minute of stretching his legs, he grumperly returned to the jeep. The rest of the group took their time taking in the spectacular view.

When we finally left the laguna we then began our long journey to our third nights destination in San Antonio de Lipez. The drive was very bumpy and pretty unpleasant, especially for the two people cramped in the back. The landscape became incredibly barren with nowhere to hide behind if in need of a pee, except behind the actual jeep.

On the way to our final resting place, we visited a derilict site, 5000 m above sea level, making it incredibly breathless to walk around. The place is known as a ghost town, where the ancient people once kept lots of gold and silver, but their greed took over them and they ended up slaying each other until no one was left. Again, E-J, Lou, Tobias and Judy took in the sights while Sam sat sulking in the car.

We finally reached San Antonio de Lipez around 5pm. We had been promised a hot shower on the last day, but no such luck as not even a cold shower was provided. We played a few more games of cards had a basic meal before hitting the pillows again after such an exhausting day.

Day 4
We had a relatively late start of 7:30am and had a quick breakfast before our drive to Tupiza. The drive took about 6/7 hours in total with a lunch in the middle. At this point we all felt tired, irritable and in need of a shower and a good bed. Our driver drove incredibly well though there were quite a few hairy moments, especially when we had to reverse around a cliff edge in order to let a truck past. Also we passed several herds of donkeys, which we were told had been walking for fifteen days to get to the next village with the supplies of corn and flour resting on the animals backs. These moments reveal the reality of such poverty and limitation there is in Bolivia.

Finally around 3pm we were in Tupiza and within half an hour enjoying a much needed hot shower. The day finished with some drinks and a pizza, which went down extremely well.

Sam´s comments: Biggest disapointment of the trip.

E-J´s Comments: I am sure in time I will reflect back on this tour with fond memories as we did see some very impressive sites, but I was also very frustrated about how much we were lied to and the typical response to our complaints, being, ´well, it´s not my problem´, rather than trying to help the situation.

Our journey to Potosi consisted of a two and a half hour taxi ride from Sucre with our friends Tobias and Lou. E-J and Lou were constantly engaged in conversation whislt the boys read.

We arrived in Potosi, when it was raining and overcast and the place had a typical mining town feel to it. You can see certain buildings which were once quite beautiful during the wealth of it´s silver mining time and have now come rather derilict and run down. It seems to have an almost ghost town feel about it, although towards the centre of the town the buildings are better preserved.

Once we found a suitable hostel, Tobias and Lou went off to book their silver mine tour while we were adamant we would not join them and decided to explore what else Potosi had to offer. After a half hour stroll around the town and not in the best of moods, we descovered not much more...

We met up with Lou and Tobias in the evening and after a few persuasive encouragements they coaxed us into joining them on the mining tour the following day.

We then spent the rest of the evening in a cafe in the centre of town playing a new card game we were taught by Tobias and Lou, called ´500´. This game immediately became incredibly competitive as it was boys against girls!

Following a good sleep we rose to an early breakfast and made our way to the tour company for eight o´clock to meet our guide, a former miner. The first part of the tour consisted of us driving to the area where we changed into our suitable mining gear, which consisted of gum boots black, baggy pants, an orange overcoat, a hard hat and the important head torch. We all looked ridiculous!

The second part of the tour was going to the miners' market where we bought supplies and gifts to give to the miners during the tour. As they are all self employed they have to buy there own dynamite and tools! Our guide also gave us a talk about the history of the mines which opened in 1544 and told that more than eight million people have died while working there. Also that the life expectancy of a miner is no more than about 40 years old yet these people still choose to work there as the pay is much better than any other job they could do around that area. Miners usually work ten to twelve hour shifts, throughout that time they will go without food to avoid any reason to stop working. They survive the day on fizzy drinks and chewing coca leaves, which apparently gives them enough energy to work in dark, unventilated areas for long periods of time! They work in different groups sometimes as small as eight and others as big as thirty people. Our guide also talked about the different types of dynamite they use to blow up the mines and how all the labour inside is still manual. E-J became particularly nervous at this point, especially when he throw a piece of dynamite at her!

After buying our gifts for the miners, we toured the machinery areas, where the rubble goes through the process that turns it into silver and zinc. Don´t ask us all the technicalities as we didn´t catch all of it at the time.

To finish with we entered the mine and this was the part that E-J was dreading, especially crawling through a hole no bigger than half a metre in width and height. As we arrived we saw a few old miners enjoying that Friday feeling by having a few drinks of 97% alcohol! This didn't help E-J confidence too much either!

When we first entered the mine of Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), we became incredibly aware of the lack of air and dust that circulated around the area. Also the mines are literally mud holes with rubber pipes containing oxygen running through them. These are dug through the mountain with limited safety structures, so we felt they could collapse at any time.

We were also warned not to put our fingers in our mouths as the walls are covered in traces of arsenic and asbestos. Continually, as we walked through the tunnels in a crouched position we would bump our heads on the top of the cave and be relieved to be wearing the hard hats. With the tunnels being pitch black we relied on the limited light of our head torches to see where we were going.

As we walked through at a reasonable pace, the guide would suddenly tell us to move, hurry up or wait, as miners and their trolleys were constantly passing through full of rubble.

During the tour we walked through three different levels. On the first level there is a museum which contains a statue of a devil, miners religiously visit it and give offerings to the devil. Our guide kindly showed us this by lighting a cigerette and placing it in the statues mouth! They truly believe that this devil protects them in the mines, although we think a smoking devil probably wasn't a great idea!

On the second level we crawled through a tiny passage way on our way to the lowest point the third level. We were then taken into the area the miners deposit all the rubble out of the trolleys, which they manually shovel into buckets to be pulleyed to the top. This is all done extremely quickly to ensure the next trolley load of rubble doesn't cause a backlog.

This part was the most eye opening as you watched the strength and consistency of the miners in such poor conditions with no protection for their mouths and noses and in the blistering heat of the mines, which at the time of our tour was 30 degrees but can reach up to 45! We attempted the back breacking exercise of shovelling a few loads of the rubble into the buckets but immediately became breathless and exhausted, which wasn't helped by the fact that we where 4200m above sea level. As our guide spoke with his old work collegues he informed us that they where all set to do a double shift, meaning 24 hours in the mine! We also meet the youngest miner there who is sixteen years old and it was so sad to see someone of that age working in such hard conditions.

After we had observed this part of the tour, the reality of their lives started to sink in, we gave them the gifts and began our ascent to the top to exit the cave. It was during this point that Sam began to really struggle with his breath as he climbed through the hole, E-J on the other hand, was stridding on a head with the adrenaline of fear inside her and hoping to avoid any feelings of claustrophobia.

When we exited the mines, it was then time to blow up some dynamite. These sort of activites never cease to amaze us in South America, with the lack of health and safety precautions. We watched one of our guides put together some dynamite and then he lit it. He then passed it round the group for people to hold and take pictures with. E-J was havng none of this, but Sam rather enjoyed his near death experience.

The guide then took it back, ran down into the valley, dug it into a hole and then ran back, all in the space of ten minutes before the whole thing belw up. It was a pretty impressive explosion!

Sam´s comments: Crawling through the mine for me was harder than the Inca trail. I was slighlty alarmed that I was the last to hold the dynamite, but very relieved to pass it back! An amazing experience, will teach anyone not to complain about a hard days work!

E-J´Comments: The mines were an incredible exerience, especially to see that things like that still go on. The miners have a great comradery and they are all mainly Quechuan so speak their native Quechuan language in the mines. They all have one side of their cheek almost bursting with coca leaves and although it looks like a balloon, when you touch their cheek, it is as solid as a rock. It still shocks me that people still do this job and are allowed to in such appalling conditions!

The ride to Sucre was not a pleasant one for Sam as he was suffering from what seems to be a constant illness when you are in Bolivia, `The Bolivian Belli!`What also didn´t help was when the bus driver decided to lock the bus loo during the journey with another 6 hours to go!

When we finally arrived in Sucre, Sam went straight to bed (via a good 10 minutes in the Bus Station Loo!), and E-J went off exploring the pretty little city. It reminded E-J of Arequipa, as it too is full of beautiful white buildings. The streets are also filled with beggars on every corner. There is also an abundance of chocolate shops and the chocolate there tastes as good as in Belgium!

By mid afternoon, Sam managed to venture out for a quick bite to eat and afterwards we bumped into Lou and Tobias, our friends that we had originally met in Cuenca and had planned to meet up with again in Sucre. We made plans for the evening and retreated back to our hostels as the weather was pretty miserable.

The next day we all agreed to meet in the Bike Ride Cafe to watch the football game and to our suprise found a couple that we had met on our Jungle tour. The six of us all sat together having a good catch up and trying to ignore the appalling defeat that England experienced against Croatia. We spent the rest of the day and evening there, having various beers and enjoying each others' banter.

The next day we all re-meet in the Cafe for a hearty breakfast before we said our goodbyes to Veronica and Ben and set off for Potosi via taxi. We found this to be far more civilised than doing the usual painful bus journey and incredibly affordable too!

Sam's comments: Sucre was very relaxing, although the bus journey was the complete opposite! Sadly that will always taint my memory of a beautiful town.

E-J's Comments: Sucre is a very lovely place and the chocolate there is amazing! Sadly while we were there, there was a protest from the country people and there were a few riots which escalated into being very dangerous. We were lucky to be out of the place by then but we heard that the police got driven out of the town for a few days and a couple of young lads were killed in all the riots. Itś scary to think that somewhere that looks so tranquille and beautiful can have such an under current of political issues.

After a smooth flight from Rurrenabaque back to La Paz, we arrived at our hostel around 7pm, tired, hungry and in desperate need of a shower and some clean clothes!

The next day was our admin day, cleaning clothes, shopping, posting a parcel home and checking the internet; All those unexciting things that people never tell you about when they´re travelling...

We met up with our friends Dave and Angie and decided that we would do some ten pin bowling, which Angie had spotted on the main road in La Paz.

When we got there, it was literally liking going through a time machine, with wooden pins, and a few balls that actually bounced down the lane. There certainly wasn´t MTV blaring out of television screens here! The scoring system consisted of paper and a pencil and with none of us actually knowing the rules, we enjoyed making up are own! However, the highlight has to be the way the pins were replaced. As we knocked them down at a hasty pace, a middle aged man, cramped under the three foot hole at the end of the lane would dodge the balls and manually replaced each pin! Sometimes we thought he wasn´t watching and was bound to break his ankle, but to his credit he was extremely efficient!

Due to the novelty and the cost of 75p each, we continued to enjoy a few more games over the next couple of days.

We also visited the outside of the famous San Pedro prison, which is the setting for the book ´Marching Powder´. The Bolivian government obviously thought long and hard about the location of this high security prison, as we found it no more than 100 metres from the main road of the city centre. Here, amongst a picturesque park and hotel sat some of the most dangerous men of South America! Quite unbelievable. Having heard that anyone seen taking pictures has there camera removed, we took a walk around, noticing all the little cabin huts selling Johnny Walker whisky, and observing the many women and children going inside.

We finally said are goodbyes to our kingpin friends, Dave and Angie and look forward to seeing them when their travels reach London.

Sam Comments: Great city, with very friendly people, although don't know if that friendship is seen in the prisions.

E-J Comments: I´ve loved La Paz. It´s a dirty and busy city but it has the most beautiful view of the mountains right behind it. This is fascinating to observe both the modern day and indigenous people work side by side and as you walk down the main road there is a constant aroma of frying meat from practically every street vendor along and around the corner!

Awaking at 5am, we headed for the airport. We were all set for a one hour flight to join our tour at 9:30, but arriving at the airport, were informed that due to bad weather and previous delays we would not be flying until 12.30. Slightly frustrated, we headed back to La Paz for our free pancake breakfast and rearranged our tour for the following day.

We were back at the aiport at 11.30 with a second attempt to catch our flight and were then informed that it had now been delayed until 2pm. At 2pm we were greeted with the news that we would leave at 3pm. With the small airport full of raucous Israelis, fatigue setting in from yesterday´s bike ride and an unnecessary early start, we were tempted to sack it all off and head back to La Paz!

Finally, we boarded the plane and set off at 3.30. The cramped plane, along with 20 shouting and singing Israelis didn´t fill us with the greatest confidence, especially as E-J was struggling to find us two seats together! Once in the air we both relaxed and EJ took in the views.

On arriving into Rurrenabaque, we landed smoothly onto the grass landing strip surrounded by thick Amazon forest. We quickly passed through the customs hut and set off for the town of Rurrenbaque ready for an early night in preparation for our tour the next day.

On exploring the town, full of dusty, red roads and mopeds or motorbikes coming in all directions, we realised that there was not a lot to do here except drink! We ended up sharing a few drinks with a couple of French lads who had recently finished working in Cumbria, much to Sam´s delight! E-J began to worry about what lay ahead as they revealed their stories about their recent trip into the Pampas and how one of them had ended up with a frog on his face!

We settled down for an early night but that was abruptly stopped when what sounded like half of Tel Aviv decided to have a party along the corridor of our hotel from 12am until about 5am. This sent the red mist over Sam, who ended up shouting at them to be quiet in a very impolite way!

The next morning Sam was in his usual pre-tour mood; grumpy about the thought of sharing a few days with people he may not like. After a good breakfast we were relieved to find an enjoyable group of three Irish girls and an Australian couple.

The first part of the tour was a 3 hour drive in a rather small jeep along the dusty tracks to the town of Beni, which was on the edge of the National Park. The ride was incredibly bumpy and every so offer rocks and pebbles would fly up at the Jeep, adding a level of worry that if they flew through the windows they might do some serious damage to one of our heads! After Lunch we set off on a three hour boat trip down the Beni. This was incredibly relaxing and as we lay back in our seats, drifting down the river, we took in the sights of turtles, alligators, caiman, monkeys and the amazing surroundings with the sun beating down on us at 35 degrees.

We arrived at our camp which was a few wooden rooms built together on stilts (though the river was a good 5m below the riverbank) and quickly dropped our bags in the dormitory. We then set off for a well deserved beer at the Pink Dolphin Bar and watched the sun go down, sipping our amazingly chilled beers. After seeing the sunset we set off down the river (with a bit of difficulty getting back into the boat in the pitch black and after a few beers) and spotted the fire flies fly in the sky and the glow of alligator and caiman eyes´ floating in the river.

The next day was again full of heat and humidity. We started the morning with a trip to a local Anaconda field and started trekking through thick mud and sludge. E-J quickly realised that this was a another rather daunting challenge for her, where style was out the window and gum boots were a necessity! As we walked through the muddy sludge the stench of sagnent water was unbearable and the heat and humidity seem to enhance it. A couple of times we would get our boots stuck and with a slight panic, manage to release them. E-J had also managed to find a pair of gum boots with a massive whole in one of them, so that each time she walked she could feel the sludgy water squelching around in her socks. There was also a point where the swamp got so deep that everyone had to trek knee high in watery sludge, apart from Sam who had, had the smart idea of trapezing his way along a thin piece of fencing, which crossed the field. Occassially we would worry as our guide wandered off into the pampas in a desperate search for anacondas, leaving us to fend for ourselves. However, we weren´t as unlucky as another group who were trekking at the same time as us. Their guide literally left them stranded. Two of them had got slightly lost and managed to walk into a hornets nest! They eventually joined our group to there relief!

After walking two kilometres through the stinky field we finally returned to our boat without seeing a single Anaconda (much to E-J´s relief!), However we did managed to come across this:

After a good meal and a siesta we woke up our guide (who was a lazy little lad) and spent the afternoon Pirhana fishing. Sam's fly fishing technique looked rather spectacular and he thought it was only a matter of seconds before he managed to catch a big one and much to Sam's annoyance E-J soon managed to catch two! Sam on the other hand was still struggling, the last of the group not to catch one, but finally, much to his relief managed to catch a couple within seconds of each other and was incredibly proud of himself!

After feeling rather pleased with ourselves we all enjoyed a beer and settled into a lovely evening meal before an early night, with the idea of waking to see the sunrise. Sadly we woke to torrential rain so missed the sunrise. After the weather started to clear, we took in the amazing sights for the last time and much to E-J´s pleasure spotted a few pink dolphins under an overcast sky before heading back.

On the way back, we passed the oldest alligator in the river who is known by the name Pedro. Much to our amazement he also answers to it. Slightly skeptical, we tested this by waiting for the alligator to swim away before we called him again and watched him return. Our guide them greated him with his usual pat on the nose, treating Pedro like some kind of friendly dog...

On heading back to Rurrenabaque the journey was a testing one with the weather turning the brown dirt tracks into mud baths. Our driver was exhausted by the end of the day and 20 minutes before arriving into Rurrenabaque this was demonstrated as he pulled out of the petrol station in to another car! Fortunately, everyone was fine (though a little shaken up) and via a short de-tour to the police station we finally arrived back into Rurrenabaque. We spent the night enjoying a few beers in a local bar, re-living our great experience.

The next day we enjoyed a morning in Rurrenabaque in the unbearable heat before enjoyed a relaxed flight back to La Paz. We were lucky to get our flight, as again there had been some delays due to weather and we both were ready to escape the jungle after the mosquitos had seriously attacked Sam´s back and E-J´s bottom!

Sam Comments: On the flight in I thought my time was up, 20 Israelis, Ej and I and I couldn´t see the airport. After feeling relieved it was brilliant, Pirhana fishing was fantastic, would love to have stayed longer but the hole in my mosquito net did n`t help !!

E-J Comments: Rurrenabaque is an amazing and chilled out place and being so close to the wild life in the Pampas is such a humbling experience, although I am pleased I didn´t know about the seriously dangerous tarantula outside our dormitory until after we left!