Bolivia

Santa Cruz

Our hostel in Santa Cruz was absolutely amazing and I'd recommend anyone stay there. It was called Jodanga and there was a pool (might have turned Becky's hair green but hey), happy hour and you even got eggs for breakfast! We met a good group of people including some Kiwi boys and played Grand National and a game called Mafia. I'd never played it before but it's like wink murder, but you have to lie and try and convince people you're a civilian and don't have a Mafia card (my spy skills clearly made this really easy for me- ha). We all were pretty tipsy and Becky was told she would need proper shoes, not flip flops, to get in. A really nice Brazilian lady so kindly gave Becky a beautiful pair of high fashion, bright blue jelly shoes to wear. They should seriously be a staple in every girl's wardrobe but Becky was SO ungrateful and left them (on purpose) in La Paz. I'm gutted, they were just so nice.




We squished as many as we could in a taxi and headed out to a few bars. The first was a really cool Sheesha bar where we all sat and chatted. We decided we wanted to dance so went looking for another bar. The next one we went in was really hidden and you had to knock a door to eventually get in. The woman was off her face which should have been a clue but we paid and went In anyway. It was the most surreal place i have ever been to. It was a house with a garden where everyone but us was on drugs and dancing like they were in space. It was like being at the hippy bit of Glastonbury again but in Bolivia. If you made any sudden movements the person near you would jump out of their skin and cause mass panic for all of two seconds before they forgot and went back to their dancing. Safe to stay we didn't stay long! We got our money back and headed to a bar that had a Bolivian band playing. I had never heard of them but they had some pretty hard core fans!

As well as bars and night clubs, Santa Cruz had a beautiful centre. There was a beautiful square with a cathedral, a market, parks and, most importantly, an Irish pub! It was really weird though because everywhere we chose to eat seemed to have some sort of Charlie Chalk's esque play area. It was so hard to fight the temptation to jump into the ball pool.




Sucre

After a few days in Santa Cruz we headed to Sucre which is the chocolate capital of Bolivia apparently. It was so beautiful and had some gorgeous churches. We did a tour of a,few but one in particular was awesome. The guy took us up onto the roof and into the tombs below the buildings. It was so scary! There was also an amazing restaurant where I had the best carbonara of my life.




Uyuni and the Salt Flats

After Sucre we headed to Uyuni to book our Salt Flats tour. We checked into our hostel quite late at night and when we were showed to our dorm there was already someone sleeping there. In my tired state I assumed it was a German/Dutch/Swedish guy because all I could see was what I thought was blonde hair. How wrong I was. I got in to my bunk was just about falling asleep when the guy rolled over and it was an old man! Why on earth would an old man stay in a dorm?! Was not expecting that at all. Becca saw the look of horror on my face and it was so hard to hide our giggles. The guys was an American called Barry and he was lovely but my God could he talk. I got stuck in the corridor talking to him as he listed all the Welsh people he had ever met. I didn't mind at first but ten minutes and about twelve names later I had lost all interest.

Anyway, the main reason we were in Uyuni was to book our tour. We were won over by a woman who said we'd be in a jeep with two other British boys and was going on about how it would be three lovely girls and three lovely boys. This won us over because by this point poor Sammy had been on his own with us three girls for so long and we thought he'd appreciate male company. We got up the next morning and waited eagerly to find out who the other two in our group would be. As the clock ticked away, our options got more and more limited. There were a lovey-dovey couple, two Spanish hippy girls or sow Japanese people. Where were our British boys?! Our jeep finally arrived with a really moody Argentinian couple already on board. I don't think I saw them smile once. Our driver, Edwin, was an absolute legend though! He encouraged us to play music and sing along much to the couple's dismay. Edwin was loving it though and he gave us sweets and the meals we had were awesome. The salt flats were absolutely breath taking. We rode on top of the jeep across the salt desert and took loads of photos. We got a bit too creative and tried to use my passport but ended up chasing my Bolivian visa across the salt which we retrieved luckily. Other highlights included seeing lamas, flamingos, coloured lagoons, geysers and aquas calientes. It was so amazing to bathe in warm water in the middle of the Bolivian mountains.












La Paz

Blank. We had our first experience of the Wild Rover Hostels and can't really remember much. It involved a lot of games of dice where you throw two dive and whoever gets the lowest buys everyone playing a shot of their choice. Shots of baby Guinness, Fermet and whiskey later, it's pretty obvious why we don't remember. We danced on the bar, had copious amounts of free shots and lost pretty much all our belongings including our dignity. Lethal!




Somehow we were convinced to sign up to cycle death road. If you research it, it tells you not to do it between December and January or on a hangover, so guess what? We did exactly the opposite. We got up at obscene o'clock and set off to the top of death road. It was still pretty dark and we were less than prepared. We looked RIDICULOUS. I was covering as much of my face as possible with huge sunglasses to hide from the world, Becca was wearing Becky's free jelly shoes and Becky had had about 30 minutes sleep after having helped a naked guy (I won't mention names) wandering around the hostel in the middle of the night. We started the descent on the 'easy bit'. Nothing about it was easy. In fact when we got to the rest point, all of us wanted to cry. We were soaking, frozen, couldn't see more than a metre in front of us, Becca had thrown up in her helmet, I wanted to die, the boys were trying to convince each other to give up and we hadn't even got to the hard bit. Luckily the hail and rain cleared and the rest of the day was dry. We all successfully got all the way down the bumpy cliff edges and rewarded ourselves with beers when we got to the end. The pain wasn't over! I couldn't straighten my fingers because I'd gripped the brakes so hard and my arse, Jesus I couldn't sit properly for days because the seats were so uncomfortable. Cheap massages in Asia couldn't come soon enough!




The other time I ventured out of the hostel bubble was to go for a curry- typical Brits abroad. The curry house was renowned for having the spiciest Vindaloo in South America and Stephen, one of the boys we were with, spent the whole afternoon harping on about how he'd eat it with no trouble. We got there and even the waiters were warning him off it because it contained 40 whole chillies but he ordered it nonetheless. I have never seen a guy sweat so much in my life! I tried THE tiniest bit and my mouth was on fire. I don't know how he did it but somehow, after about ten attempts he ate the whole thing and got the t-shirt before eating a whole pack of Becky's gaviscon whilst he insisted he felt fine. We got back to the hostel bar and you could smell him before you saw him. Funnily enough he went to bed early that night, can't imagine why!




Copacabana

After La Paz we decided we needed a few days to recover after Wild Rover as we all felt physically and mentally broken. We went to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca where we planned to go to Isla de Sol and relax. Beck and i got really excited at the prospect of pedalos so rented one and had a romantic half an hour pedalling away on the beautiful Lake Titicaca looking like massively oversized children.




There was a power cut across Copacabana the next morning so none of us could get any money out at all. Luckily Sammy had some we exchanged some pounds we had for really shit rates and borrowed from Sam until we could get some. Unfortunately this meant that Becky's laundry she had put in the night before wouldn't be ready. This also meant that the laundrette closed! They'd left the shutter a tiny bit open but no one was there. Our boat was leaving in half an hour and operation roll under shutters went underway in true espionage style. Wet washing retrieved- mission accomplished.




Sun Island

Later that afternoon we got to Isla de Sol and were astounded to be confronted with a massive mountain. Thanks for he heads up guys in La Paz. There were no cars or anything modern at all just lamas and donkeys. We had to climb this mountain with all our bags, including Bill. It was not a pleasant experience, especially at altitude and in the fragile states we were in post La Paz. Cue massive hissy fit/panic attack from me (love being dramatic I do). Anyway we got to the top and collapsed in chairs looking out on the most amazing views. Two Aussie guys we met in La Paz were there and were the best examples of short man syndrome I've beer encountered. They were going on about all their laddy experiences in Wild Rover and how many girls they'd shagged. I'm not being funny but one of them was my height and the other had a casual rainbow braid on he back of his head. Totally believable... NOT.




The next day we went on the '4 hour walk' around the island. The name Sun Island makes you think beaches and cocktails so we weren't expecting the hiking involved in the island's activities. We got the boat to the north side of the island as the Aussie boys 'ran it in 1h20'. pfffft as if! Anyway we set out on our trek with handbags and sandals looking like right knobs. It definitely took us more than four hours and at every check point we seemed to have to pay more money to get to the next stage but it was so worth it. The views were incredible and we saw Inca ruins and a sacrificing table that they used to sacrifice little girls on- so eery. At one point we stopped to get water and cookie rations and carried on our merry way when ten minutes later we heard a instant wailing. We turned round to see. Tiny Olivia's woman from the shop chasing father her. Becky went back a bit to meet her and we opulent tell if she was giving birth or what but she was in distress. She started counting out pebbles and telling us we owed her money. She'd struggled to add up what we owed her at the stall so we guessed it was something to do with that. We gave her some money just so we could get moving and I still don't really know what we gave her money for. We kept going and finished the walk in about 5 hours and were absolutely nackered. Straight to bed for me!




Bolivia was such an amazing experience. It was so different to Brazil and Argentina and so cheap! The highlights for me were definitely the Salt flats and La Paz and the people were just so nice. The untrue is still pretty much untouched and all the women still wore traditional clothing and carried their babies in coloured scarves on their back. A culture shock but still a fantastic experience.


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