Bolivia Between Protests

After nearly three weeks exploring Peru’s Sacred Valley and Lake Titicaca, it was time to move on. Our next stop was Bolivia. Between dodging demonstrations, we got a good taste of the country.

La Paz

La Paz, with a population of 2 million, is spread out in a crater-like depression. If you set out to design the worst terrain to build a city, you’d be hard-pressed to beat La Paz. The high altitude, steep cliffs and craggy ridges make for tough going. Overlooking the city is the snowcapped, triple-peaked Illimani mountain.

Our introduction to La Paz set the tone for our visit. The day of our arrival, striking miners had locked down the city, including barricades around the plaza where our hotel was located. Our bus dropped us off miles from the station and left us to our own devices to navigate the blockades. Fortunately the miners were in a festive mood and took no offense to naive tourists trekking past their lines. By the morning the blockades were gone.

La Paz does not have a wealth of typical tourist attractions. A long uphill walk from our hotel took us to Plaza Murillo, considered the main square, with the Cathedral and Presidential Palace. Nearby was the Basilica of San Francisco. We had a personal guided tour of the Basilica, then exited the church straight into another large demonstration, this time environmental activists. We escaped the protestors to wander through the Witches’ Market and its bohemian surrounds.

Mi Teleferico

One of the highlights of the city is a system of cable cars known as the Teleferica. It is the best and easiest way to get around the city. We took a circle tour of the entire network. The most interesting was the Red Line. It takes you from the notoriously dangerous neighborhood of El Alto over the brightly coloured houses in the Chualluma neighbourhood and the Cemeterio General, where tens of thousands lie in rest. A day spent riding the Teleferico is a great way to explore the city from a height and to see the different neighborhoods.

Despite its size and population, La Paz has a lot of natural attractions and day-hikes nearby. We only had time for a visit to the Valley of the Souls and hike through the moonscapes of the Palca Canyon. Though only a few kilometres outside La Paz, the rugged landscapes and bucolic little villages were a stark contrast to the big city.

Demonstrations

Demonstrations were the theme of our visit. The first two days were disrupted by the miners’ and environmentalists’ protests. The day we left for Uyuni we had to hike with our backpacks to the bus station because demonstrators, for reasons we never learned, stopped traffic. Our final two days in Bolivia there was a nation-wide general strike that again partially shut down La Paz. We had planned to visit Santa Cruz and Sucre, but a multi-week general strike and violent demonstrations in Santa Cruz squelched that idea. Despite the calls for a national general strike most people in La Paz carried on with their daily lives so we were able to safely head back to Peru.

Salar de Uyuni and the Siloli Desert

One of Bolivia’s premiere attractions is the Salar de Uyuni – the Uyuni Salt Flats. We’d hoped to take the train to Uyuni but because of Covid the train no longer operates. Instead we were relegated to a 9-hour overnight bus. There are lots of buses to choose from with different price ranges and comfort levels. We opted for the top-of-the-line company with large 160 degree reclining seats. A 9-hour overnight bus ride on washboard roads is about as much fun as it sounds. Still, we had a fairly good night’s sleep. We arrived in Uyuni bright and early the next morning to start our two-day tour of the salt flats.

Uyuni is a mid-sized, dusty mining town on the edge of the salt flats. We loaded into our jeep and headed off into the dazzling white of the salt. It is the largest salt flats in the world at 4,086 square miles. The salt flats are impressive, but most of our tour was spent in the equally impressive Siloli Desert that borders Chile and Argentina. In two days we visited diverse climates and landscapes, colourful lakes, a train graveyard, geysers, hot springs, flamingo colonies and fields of cactus.

Accommodation and infrastructure are limited. The few small hotels that exist are built from salt blocks. Nights got very cold; the multiple heavy blankets on the bed kept us warm. We packed in our own food, water and large five-gallon jerry cans of gasoline for the trip. Filling up the gas tank required siphoning through a hose from the jerry can on the roof to the gas tank. Nothing dangerous about that. There were no requirements to vacate the vehicle when filling, or even to ensure nobody was smoking. All was good. We all survived to tell the tale.

Madidi National Park

Our pampas tour in the Madidi National Park, located in the upper Amazon basin, was a complete contrast. Madidi NP is just 257 km north of La Paz but getting there requires a 21-hour bus ride over mountain ranges on treacherous roads, or a 45 minute flight down to Rurrenabaque.  For a change we took the easy option and flew. The plane climbs steeply out of La Paz airport at 4,000 m, circles to gain enough elevation to clear the mountains surrounding the city, then glides down to Rurrenabaque at only 275 meters elevation.

We then had a harrowing two-hour drive on an unpaved dusty road to get to the boat launch on the Rio Yacuma from where our multi-day tour started. We settled into our boat for our leisurely cruise on the river. It was dry season so the animals come to the river for drinking water. Much more relaxing to let the animals come to you rather than having to search for them in the jungle.

Caiman, Capybara and Jaguar

We soon saw scores of caiman along the river banks and drifting just below the surface of the river. At first it was a bit scary to be floating in a small boat a few feet from their strong jaws, but in a short time we relaxed and cruised along with a new sense of acceptance for these creatures. We were impressed that the cuddly-looking capybaras shared the river with the caiman. Their fat bodies would make a filling meal for the caiman. We saw endless varieties of birds, pink river dolphin, monkeys and even a jaguar leisurely watching us from the bank.

We spent a morning slopping through mosquito infested swamps looking for snakes. As we set out there was great anticipation since the day before groups had seen a cobra and anacondas. Despite our best efforts, we found just two dead anaconda. Not sure what we would have done if we had seen a live one sliding through the mud.

Sunrises and sunsets were beautiful, coupled with the sounds of the wild and exotic animal sounds of the jungle. A night ride down the river to see the eyes of the caiman, capybara and tortoises glow in our flashlights was exciting. Their eyes were like candles floating on the rivers edge, in hues of red, orange and yellow. Giant owls hooted from overhead while a variety of bats ate their fill of insects. Night was punctuated with strange sounds and smells and mornings were a bevy of activity as animals met a new day with great gusto. It was great few days appreciating nature.

To see more wildlife photos click on the Photo Gallery at the bottom of this post.

Dining Out

You may not think of La Paz as a great foodie destination. You’d be wrong. We tried two gastronomic restaurants, both of which are world class. Top of class was Restaurante Gustu (http://www.gustu.bo/en). Gustu is one of the top restaurants in South America. Its showcase 8-course tasting menu is less than $60 USD. We opted for the three-course lunch for $B155 – about $23 USD for a spectacular meal.

A bit more fun and funky, but just as interesting gastronomically, was Mi Chola (https://www.facebook.com/michola2228/). Our 4-course lunch was $B100 – about $15 USD. An unbelievable bargain.

Wildlife of Rio Yacuma Photo Gallery