La Paz

So, I made it back to civilasation after seeing all those lakes, mountains and flamingos. It was a relief to be back among life and people, the beating heart of a city even though La Paz was a mass of orange brick and concrete cheap buildings and still at a very high altitude, it was more that a bit cold. As far as I'm concerned, it's impressive that a city even got built in a place like La Paz, if it was up to me I wold never have bothered.

The main highlight of La Paz for me was the witch market, llama foetuses being the main attraction. You could buy all manner of gringo get up too, jumpers, trousers, skirts, hats, gloves, the lot. I like the colourful knitwear. The other good thing was the warm duvets in the hostels, overshadowed somewhat by the awful showers - it's freezing outside, can we really risk showering in something guarded by a flimsy plastic curtain? NO. The extremely high probability of the water going cold just as you got all soapy was also not fun.

La Paz made me ill for no rhyme or reason, I can't work out what I ate. Unable to enjoy the nightlight that everyone else was raving about I spent most of the days trying to make myself better.

We went to watch a strange kind of Lucha Libre - Cholita wrestling. Local women in a wrestling ring, very odd costumes worn by the male fighters, horribly staged fight moves, the novelty wore off after a few minutes but it's worth seeing if you are ever in La Paz. You need to get yourself up to a place called El Alto, which overlooks the rest of the city and by consequence is higher up and even colder. Wear the gingo jumper you just bought at the witch market, you will need it!

Some random pictures:

Flamingos


I can't say much about the Salt Flat tour, I thought it was pretty boring. I sat in a jeep freezing cold for three days and took some pictures of flamingos. I love flamingos


The only highlights was the stary stary sky where we stopped on the second night which this was somewhat overshadowed by the freezing temperatures and the fact that I couldn't even get warm enough to sleep under three blankets. The stars though were the best I've ever seen. No light pollution given that we were in the middle of nowhere. Amazing. I tried to take a picture but neither me nor my camera seemed to be capable of capturing it. Guess you'd better go and see for yourselves! Not - just go somewhere mountainous but more human friendly. We're seriously not supposed to exist at 4000m altitude, leave it up to the flamingos and pumas they seem happy up there. 

The train cemetery

A very large salt lake, the most impressive thing about it was the hexagon shapes that formed on the surface and the fact that it was blindingly bright if you weren't wearing sunglasses

Yeah, representing ALL nations, kind of...

Llamas with earrings, this was a highlight of the trip, seriously

It clouded over, so so bleak, so so cold. Never again, get me back to sea level

An offering to Pachamama, you would have to believe in mother nature up here, otherwise you'd just give up

Some dramatic landscapes, yes

Reflections, I had a lot of time to reflect. Saw a lot of lakes, a lot of mountains reflected in lakes

FLAMINGOS!!!

Baby flamingo

Flying flamingos

I spent a lot of time looking at these flags and out of the windows of the jeep.


Doing this confirmed to me that gringo tours just aren't what I'm after from South America but I fear it could be hard to escape.


I'll be happy to also get down to a more agreeable altitude, defrost.

A Tupiza, Tupiza, Tupiza

The border crossing was a painless experience. We got our passports stamped as locals waltzed past not seeming to need to do anything to move from one country to the other. A dusty street dog had been following us for a few minutes, flopped down, back pushed up against the wall, sleepy. I feel sorry for all the street dogs, their limp walks, cuts and sore, bald patches, the sad look in their eyes. Huddled up at night time on pavements or in town squares, life looks hard.

Although we were feeling decidedly Andean rather than gaucho in the lead up to the border, Bolivia seemed very different to Norther Argentina. A simple town presented itself to us in the glow of the afternoon. It seemed peaceful, or at least I was, thankful to be sitting, no longer walking with my heavy backpack. Women in skirts and knitted cardigans, hair in plaits. Sacks of coca leaves for sale, sacks of pasta, sacks of everything. The whole town was out of power and people were languishing in the park, not much else to do. Ice cream sellers were pushing carts around, a lady came and found us with a selection of lipsalves and nail clippers. A child was pushing an older brother or friend in a wheelchair. A dog bound up to me, jumped up at me and seemed to want to play. I didn't so much appreciate his dirty paws but his excited face won me over.

We got a collectivo to a town called Tupiza, paying with Argentinian pesos. The drive was spectacular. Normally not that bothered by mountain scenery, I feel trapped, I much prefer the sea. But the cold blue glow of open sky as we drove through twilight enveloped me in the cosmos and the cosmos of my own thoughts. The sky at this time of day is more of a phenomenon than any turquoise sea, it's weightless, you can't see how deep it is, your eyes can't focus you don't even know what you're looking at. The brighter stars began to appear as the ever changing curved peaks etched and framed the sky, like a gateway to space. Stargazing up in the Bolivian mountains must be wonderful. We sped along the winding roads, dreamily gazing out the windows. I was so relaxed, it was a harsh shake back into reality to have to get out and find somewhere to sleep for the night and think about practicalities like the new exchange rate, where to eat, talking to other human beings.

Tupiza was basic, internet was non-existent, slow, no wifi. I felt that we were really remote by the point, but it was probably going to be like this for a few days.

It was still a novelty to see cholitas walking around in their skirts and jumpers, carrying bundles of on their backs wrapped in bright woven fabric. They even carry their children around like that. Alarmingly the much older women are permanently hunched over after years and years of transporting their things in such a way.

Disappointingly I wasn't in a snap-happy mood, so these are all the photos I have of the stop off in Tupiza.