Em and Jeff's Adventures

Traveling Through Bolivia

La Paz

We spent three full days in La Paz, all of which were action packed and adventure filled. (Punctuation leaves a little bit to be desired on this computer, so please bear with me.)

The first day we walked around the tourist area and ate dinner in an excellent local restaurant. Jeff and I split something called pico macho, which turned out to be a giant plate of beef and potatoes. Fortunately, everything was well seasoned and didn´t taste "too beefy", which is my favorite kind of beef these days. We tried to eat out on the patio to view La Paz in action, but it got too cold and we retreated indoors.

Day two, we took a mountain bike trip down the world´s most dangerous highway. It was 60km of pure downhill fun. The first third of the trip was paved and as we were wearing yellow and gray jackets, I imagined we appeared as a small section of the Tour de France. Jeff, of course, was in the lead. Gail and I, being more cautious and slightly more sane, brought up the rear.



The second two thirds was unpaved and wound around the mountain like the red stripe on a candy cane. It was an exhilerating (check the spelling on that one please) ride! Jeff and I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I think Gail has conquered her fear of what our boss Kym in Alaska calls "bad run out."



The next day was a little more relaxed. We hung out in La Paz, visited the street fair for La Paz´s cannonization (creation as a city), and went to a photography exhibit on Chagas disease. Jeff also laid the ground work for getting into La Paz´s unique prison, which is run on a capitalist system. I´ll let Jeff tell that story. Gail and I went shopping.

Monday afternoon, Jeff and I caught a bus to Oruro and Gail caught a plane back to Quito. We look forward to seeing Gaily back in Chicago very soon. Jeff and I had a great dinner in Oruro and went to bed early to prepare for our early morning waiting session. Train tickets to Uyuni are few and far between and we knew we´d be up against the local Quechua population. They are not to be sneered at when turning up for tickets of any sort. Needless to say, Jeff couldn´t sleep and bolted out of bed at 4 30 to join the ticket queue. He was sixth in line, after five ambitious Quechua ladies who arrived between 3 and 4 30. I slept until 7. Fortunately, we got tickets and arrived in Uyuni Tuesday evening.

Today we took a tour of the Salt Flats, which were daunting and inspiring.


We´ll try to post some more pictures soon. Right now, I have to sit on my hands because my fingers are falling off and frostbitten. The only problem with Bolivia is the altitude...it´s incredibly high and incredibly cold all the time. I´ve been wearing my long underwear non stop since we hit Oruro. We´re both looking forward to some beach time when we get back to the states.

Tonight, or rather tomorrow morning (as our train leaves at 2 30AM) we head to the border of Bolivia and Argentina. Tomorrow evening, we should be in Salta, Argentina. We have about a week and a half left to travel before we head back to Ecuador to collect our things and catch our flight back to the states.

We´re looking foward to being in what Jeff calls "Greenland." Meaning, of course, that Argentina is green (and thus safe) in the areas of food, water, malaria, and other typical South American distresses. Let´s hope I´ve left the days of stomach infections behind...

Greenland, here we come!

posted by Tobias Arthur @ 10:13 PM