Touring South East Bolivia - Day 3

After a freezing night we made our way to one of the new 7 Natural Wonders of the World - Laguna Colarada 4270m. The lagoon was covered with Flamingos and an absolutely amazing sight. Due to the poor cloud cover we could not pick up the true colours of the lagoon but marvelled at its design nontheless. The next part of the trip covered 5 smaller lagoons and another volcano Caquella. We stopped for dinner just outside the Salar de Uyuni, the original reason for our trip. Our accomodation was basic huts made from Salt taken from the plains.

Touring South Western Bolivia - Day 1

We booked on a 4 day tour with Tupiza tours which took us all over South Estern Bolivia. It was probably one of the best organised tours I have ever been on. The tour took us by 4 X 4 from Tupiza across 650 miles of mountain, Lagoon, Slat flats and treturous terrain. I will break down our tour on a day by day basis.

Day 1

On our tour we were accompanied by a british couple ( Chris and Claire) as well as the local cook Isabella and the driver Wilmat.

The drive took us over the mountain ranges of Palala anbd Sillar where we saw Lamas and the most amazing mountain ranges and peaks. We averaged about 250 miles for the first day and stopped in village called San Antonio. No electricity and inhabited with local people. A truely authentic experience. We were given coffee and for dinner were served Lama meat with tomoto and mash potatoe. Temp ranging down to well below freezing point. Lights were out by 8:30 pm as we had to get up at 5 am the following day for our longest day of the tour.

Bolivia ............Aaaaaargh

The bus ride to the Argentinian- Bolivian border was pretty quick and we arrived on a cold Monday morning at around 6 am. My over tiredness from the 4 previous bus rides and from lack of sleep was quickly forgotten when I was told that South Africans needed a visa to get into Bolivia. Now you are probably asking that surely this was something i would of looked into before travelling to a new country. And yes it was!! See below

Bolivi

Passport required. Visa not required for tourist stay up to 30 days. Tourist cards issued upon arrival in Bolivia. A "Defined Purpose Visa" for adoptions business or other travel requires 1 application form 1 photo and $50 fee and company letter explaining purpose of trip. Send SASE for return of passport by mail.

I believe this website only applies to Americano !!!!!

Somehow through Spanglish communication with the passpost control I found out I needed to make my way to the Bolivian consulate a few streets up and get a visa. The consultae only opening at 9 am ie 3 hours later. After thoughts of just flying home to SA and giving up completely, I managed to catch a taxi to the consulate and sort the issue out. The town on the border looked similar a run down Alexandra, if thats even possible.

Bolivia is everything everyone every says about it. A shite hole!! But extremely cheap. The town on the border was Villzon. We stayed here for about 3 hours and then caught a bus to a town 2 hours away called Trupiza.

Trupiza is known for the location of the graves of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid and pretty much nothing else. On first view it looked like a one horse town with a few pizzarias to staisfy the local needs of Gringos passing through. After agreeing that we deserved some comfort after our travel ordeal we booked into the local hotel..Mitro hotel. The hotel was also know for organsing the best tours around southern Bolivia and even though they were not the cheapest they were definately the best.

Running the Brazilian Mullets

As stated in one of my previous posts - Beaching in Guayana - i said that I was interested in losing the normal straight back and sides and being abit more adventurous. After some debating and entising I manged to get Mike to join in the procedure and we headed off to the local hairdresser in Salta.

I was up first, as it was my idea, and sat in the chair as the hiardresser recreated my hair -do to try bring it in line with the photo we had shown him. Unfortunately due to the shortness of my hair it didnt quite come out as expected so I have been forced to wear a cap most of the time and have had to tell myslef that its only hair and it will be fine by the time I head home. Mikes was cool and with gel he came allot closer to the masterpiece we were expecting. I have edited the number of photos below for obvious reasons.

Mike Daly and Salta

After abit of missioning finally made it to Salta and hooked up with Mike and will be doing Bolivia and a part of Peru with him.

Should be a jol!!

We couldnt get much done in Salta as it was pouring with rain so the day was spent missioning around the city doing some sight seeing, getting our hair cuts and drinking coffee. Our bus to Bolivia was only leaving at 12:00 am so will had allot of time to burn. We found a ´non gringo´establishment for dinner where I tried the famous Argentinain meat dishes with chips and a glass of red wine. Our entertainment was live Tango dancing and some local singing. Looking forward to getting back to Argentina after Chile.

The Best Part Of Salta

The 1 litre beer!!!

Paraguay: Part 2

It was as tiresome as I imagined and I am usually a positive individual. Somehow over night Paraguay moved into a daylight saving zone and moved one hour back. So thereI was complaining why breakfast was not served asthe stated 6 o clock when it was actually five.

Taxi arrived and drove me to the bus terminal where it was evident that his meter wasnt on. If no meter means it time to rip touriste off. Taking out the sum of money I paid on the previous day for the same distance, the fee somehow doubled. After a few minutes of gibberish I met him half way and we both shook our heads.

Next step was to find a bus stop where an unmarked bus would appear to take me for a 1 and 10 min drive to a border called Falcon ie border between Paraguay and Argentina. I will attach a picture of the kind of busses that were in operation and you will understand why I decided to taxi it all the way for 180,000.00 U G ie about R350 ie my reasoning for this was that was what i would pay to get to the airport in Jhb.

Made it to border post where i was harrassed by people wanting to sell and rip me off in everyway. My response was No!

Was directed to immigration where I was not stamped with a Exit Paraguay stamp but an exit Argentina stamp. This I only found out once I had crossed the border. A lovely spanish lady offered to help me cross the border ie 2kms and later charged me 30 pesos. ie R90.

On the Argentinan side there was obviously allot of confusion as I had an exit stamp for a country i had just entered. Luckiliy both myself and the offical picked up on this and manged a big laugh where the error was corrected. Next on to an establishment which was not a bus terminal but merely a shop where a bus stopped to pick people up.

Made frieds with the local agent of the ¨¨terminal¨¨ and we spent the next 2 hours transalting Spanish to English on Internet. Her name was Rosana.

Bus of course broke down or shall i say it was serviced during the trip not before. We finally srrived in Salta at 6:30 this morning. But it does not end there......

Get off bus and not one atm works with visa and I dont have a single Peso on me as this is the first time I have stepped in Argentina ...right. Pouring with rain I spotted two other backpackers in the similar situation as myself and they gave me incorrect directions to the hostel where i was meeting Mike. So in the pouring rain and for about half an hour I walked around trying to find the address. Luckily I found a map so wasnt to bad.

Anyway things can only get better from here. Have met up with Mike and we are on track for Bolivia for a active prison viewing by inmates, white salta plains, amazonas jungle trekking and allot of hiking including spanish lessons, volunteer work and Im sure major stomach cramps.

Next post: Mike and I are doing the Brazilian mullet at 5pm today. It should be a lag. will keep u posted.