BootsnAll Articles

China. Maybe One Day #7: Bolivia - Bolivia

Tuesday, 5th November, 2002

Well, it's November 5th. My friend Tim is lying in a hospital bed on a
drip, and I am awaiting the results of some tests. How did we get into this
situation? I'm not sure. Unlucky, I guess. I can, however, let you know how we
have been spending our time in Bolivia.

Once we had arrived in Uyuni I decided that I was not going to drink any
alcohol for the entire time we were in Bolivia. As we spent the first
evening down the pub playing darts with the people from our Salar trip I
quickly revised this statement to "I won't drink any beer then, and as soon
as we leave Uyuni I will stay off the booze totally".

We left Uyuni the next
day, bound for Tupiza. I had wanted to get the tourist train, Expresso Del
Sur, down to Tupiza and do the trip in daylight. However, it turned out that
the nice comfy train was full up and we had to get the local train which
left at 2:30 in the morning. The train journey lasted five hours, but it felt
like a lot longer. I had no room to move, the carriage smelled of sweat and
maize, and there was no fresh air. When we got off the train we decided that
we would just stay in Tupiza until we could get the nice train back, even if
we had to wait a week.

We spent the next day horse riding around some of the most fantastic scenery
I have seen on this trip. It was real Badlands-type stuff. Red rock canyons,
huge towers of rock, that sort of thing. We galloped through streams and
along dry river beds. Rode through mountain ranges and even along the train
track. We even met a train going the other way! If I was any sort of writer
then I would describe it much better. As it is I guess my family will once
again have to wait until I send the photos home.

The next day we spent wandering around town. We did go up to the giant
slide that they have in town, but it was shut so we could not play on it.
Luckily we had managed to buy train tickets for that evening, so we didn't
have to hang around to long. We couldn't get first class, but we had been
assured that third class had the same seats, just no blankets or waiter
service.

Now the train down was full of people who didn't have much money.
Everyone was dressed in traditional Bolivian attire of blankets. Some of the
women had babies and small children with them. The babies were wrapped up in
blankets and quite happy to stare out the window. The smaller children just
kept quiet. The train back was full of wealthier families. They were dressed
in more western clothing, and had obviously adopted our lifestyle. As a
result we had two screaming babies in the same carriage as us and one small
kid who shouted and screamed for no reason, except to get attention. Make of
that what you will.

We decided to stay on the train until it reached Oruro. From there we caught
a bus straight to La Paz. It was cold, wet, and both of us struggled to walk
up the street without gasping for breath. It was also a Sunday night, so the
streets were empty and most of the shops were closed.

"Bugger this," I said to Tim, "Let's go and get some beers."

So took a taxi to a place called Mongo's. It had been recommended to us. No
one told us that it was also shut on a Sunday afternoon.

"Arse, where else can we go?" I asked Tim as he had the guide book on him. Just at that moment another taxi disgorged a couple of girls.

"Hello," they said.


"It's shut," said Tim.

"Oh, do you want to come with us to find another pub then?" they replied.

We didn't need asking twice, so we all bundled into another taxi and
one of the girls asked the driver to take us somewhere we could get beer.
It turned out these two girls where Dutch. Like most Dutch abroad they were
slightly mad. Or as Tim and myself say, "craashy Dutch people". Anyway we
proceeded to get drunk and tell each other our various stories. They needed
to be up at 7 O'clock the next morning to go for a bike ride, but as this
was the second from last day of their holiday they had decided to get
totally wasted to celebrate. I have no idea if they made it to the bike
ride or not.

The next day, Monday October 28th, we set about getting some airline
tickets to Rurrenbeque. The only option was to fly by military airline. I
was disappointed to find out that we would not be flying into Rurre in a
Hercules, but in an old Fokker.

Once in Rurre the first thing we had to do was remove the layers of clothing
that we had been wearing. La Paz is about 3800metres above sea level and
when we left in the early morning it was bloody freezing. Rurrenbeque, on the
other hand, is at about 800metres and is in the middle of a jungle!

The first day in Rurre we spent sitting in hammocks watching the rain.
Brilliant we thought. The next few days are going to be a bit shite if this
rain doesn't stop. The next day we headed off into the Pampas for a three day
safari.

On the way there we stopped off at a roadside hut to stretch our legs and
get a cold drink. Two guys on bikes had also decided to stop there for a
break. From the looks of their bikes they were serious cyclists, loaded down
as they were with all sorts of packs. After chatting to them for a while we
found that they were 16 months into a cycle ride from Anchorage in Alaska to
Ushuaia in the far south of Argentina. They were also Dutch.

We had been promised loads of wildlife and we were not disappointed. Our
guide told us that if it had not been raining the day before we would have
seen even more things. At camp that evening we were just being told of the
activities we would be doing the next day, like snake hunting and Piranha
fishing, when it started to rain. It rained all night, and in the morning it
started to rain even harder. There was nothing for it except to go snake
hunting in the rain. Our prey was the famous anaconda. It took our guide
about two hours of wading through Caymen and Cobra infested swamps before he
found a nice 6 foot long Anaconda. Excellent, I thought. I'm standing here
soaked to be bone, up to my knees in mud, and now this guy wants to drape a
huge, angry snake around my neck. One of the girls on our trip stepped
forward to have her photo taken with it, and next it was Tim's turn. Then the
guide suggested that I put the snake around my neck.

"I don't do snakes," I told him. The look on my face told him not to hassle
me about it.

In the afternoon the three girls and Tim went Piranha fishing in the rain whilst
I stayed in bed with stomach trouble. They actually caught quite a few, but
once fried and served there didn't seem enough meat on them to be worth the
effort.

On our final day we awoke to find that the rains had dried up and the sun
was shining. Typical. But at least we all managed to get sun burnt sitting
on the boat on the way back.

When we arrived back at our hotel we found that there was no water for a
shower. How can this be, we thought, it had been pissing down for the last two
days. After asking several people we found out that after a heavy rainstorm
the water would always be knocked out for a few hours. Something to do with
having too much of the stuff. Anyway, after lounging around for a few hours
Tim suddenly asked me how much a bottle of water cost. I told him it was
about 4 Bolivianos for a big bottle. After saying something about paying 40p
for a shower he disappeared out the door. Tim soon returned with a couple of
water bottles and outlined his plan. You can probably guess what it was. We
have kept the bottle top which we knocked a hole in, just in case another
emergency shower situation arises.

Monday it was time to fly back to La Paz. After settling into a hostal, Tim
wandered into town to book a mountain bike ride for Wednesday. I slept all
day as I was feeling a bit sick, from tummy trouble and just a vague feeling
of illness. Tuesday I went to book my bike ride and got back to the hostal
to find Tim sweating on his bed. I asked him if he was alright, and he said
no, and that he had found a good doctor to go and see. I said I would come
along as well as my stomach trouble still hadn't cleared up and it had been
about a week now.

And that just about brings the story around full circle.