Travel Tips

So, we cross the Argentina-Bolivia border, walking. We leave a clean and quiet La Quiaca, to go to a dirty, nasty and dark Villazon. We directly take a bus to Tarija, our first official destination in Bolivia. The night in the bus is not calm at all, children are vomiting, the TV screen is really far, but the sound comes from a broken speaker and we only get some snatches, no more.... Whatever, we arrive really early in Tarija, and after a nap, we begin to discover the city that is so different from the rest of Bolivia, what we will learn later. Clean, full of nice restaurants (we ate like pigs for nothing), Tarija is a rich city, and was recently in the news, after the discovering of gas in the surroundings, and the state decision to sell it to Chile (the old enemy), as Bolivia doesn't have the means to industrialize the exploitation. People in general are refusing this trade, as the industialization could generate jobs in Bolivia and could lower the price of the gas for bolivians. Once we got the point, we leave Tarija; full of food, but aware that the bolivian problems are getting worse and worse, as manifestations pop up in every big other city.

Click here to visit Tarija...

Santa Cruz under the heat

After a 24 hours tiring bus ride, during which we were really close to death as some curves were really dangerous and some bolivian tourists talked to us during hours and hours (nice at the beginning; but when it's always about the same issues), we arrive at Santa Cruz, the most inhabited city of Bolivia, the most business-talking also. So, naturally, we await a busy city, with loads of sky-scrappings, full of shops and of trendy suited working people, like in Lima, Guayaquil or Buenos Aires... But, no. There are actually some sky-scrappings, but very few, the most of the city is really flat. We do a little tour in the downtown, before eating local food next to a brown rio. We spend our days planning a travel out of South America. Indeed, we are going to spend a fortnight in our friends' new house in French Polynesia. Not expected at the beginning of our trip, but it's a unique opportunity, as Chile and Raiatea (our destination) are closer than France and Polynesia. Apart from it, suffering from the heat and eventually only bewitched by the breakfast in the local mercado (delightful), we decide to leave (once again), heading to the jungle, Rurrenabaque.

The though way to reach Rurrenabaque (Part I)

First, we pass by Trinidad, in the North East of the country, first mandatory stop on our way to the to North West of Bolivia (why not...). We arrive there completely dead hot, and we are cheated by the fat owner of a bus company, who sells us some tickets to San Borja, while we wanted to go to the National Park of Beni. We can't get our money back from this spiteful guy and, really resentful, we take the bus, whose ride will be awful, tiring, dusty, and crowded, notwithstanding the surprising fighting roosters and the never-stoping kids whose energy will add some fun to this boring travel.

Click here to see what Trinidad hardly looks like ...

The though way to reach Rurrenabaque (Part II)

A little stop in a small village really crowded, just to eat some ham with a little blue plastic spoon (not easy, I shall say), and we arrive in San Borja, where it is the local banking day. The place is pretty cute, typical, full of wheelbarrows serving as shopwindows, but, above all, on the main place, people surprisingly dressed as their ancestors dance forever and ever, rythmed by the music of many brass bands. We will participate, to our modest extent, to the show whose first consequence could be noticed by anyone, the day after, as many men were trying to walk in the main streets, or were just backing a wall, next to the main market, obviously drunk. Nevertheless, our night will be feverish, because, though I had been ordered by Stef Reporter to kill every spider wandering around in our room (25 dead, 3 badly wounded), the mosquitoes were too quick for my bleeding hands, and we had to bear them during the night. Consequence : we woke up at 4 in the morning, sweating like a broken oil tank, and bitten to death. We hurry to eat our breakfast full of empanadas, in the local market, where many Charles Bronson faces gather on old benches to share very poor meals, and we take another bus to Rurrenabaque, our real destination.

Click here to dance in San Borja's streets...

After 6 hours of a terrible bus, during which we had a flat tire, of course, and had to wait for 2 hours under the heat, we successfully enter Rurrenabaque, so happy that we decide to stay long enough to enjoy the place... Long enough....

The city of Rurrenabaque was built on the edge of a large river, and is surrounded by unbelievable mountains, that take an important part in this paradisiac area for tourists. We are bewitched, but for the moment, we only think about booking a tour to go into the pampa, and we do it really fast, for a price really interesting (half the usual price, as there are few tourists in this period). The day after, we're gone, with 4 israelis and 2 swedish people, our guide Luis and the cook Gladys, for a 3 days adventure, that begins on a small boat... 3 hours to reach our camp, on a river whose sides are full of trees and green leaves, colourful birds, yellow chichillos (cute tiny monkeys), yellow but bigger capuchinos, ready to eat your hand with the banana you were holding in to feed them, shy crocodiles, howling monkeys (imagine Darth Vador yelling after being kicked in the crotch, and you will get a pretty good idea of these monkeys' sound). We finally arrive at the camp, a basic one, but with hammocks, so we can dream about lying calmly... but no, the hammocks are the best places to be bitten to death by the mosquitoes. And I don't tell you more about the toilets, so full of mosquitoes that you can try and shake your body like the King Elvis, but you won't avoid being bitten... Afterwards, we go back on our small boat, by night, to catch a young crocodile (1 meter large, though) and check the quality of our futur handbag... The day after, we look for snakes in the true pampa, with short grass around you, wherever you look...Swimming in the swamp, our guide, Luis, will find two anacondas and one cobra that our israeli friends will directly put around their neck in order to take some disgusting pictures (one anaconda, maybe impressed, will *** on them). During the afternoon, we go fishing piranhas (with some raw meat at the end of a wire, attached to a piece of wood, you can easily understand that we didn't fish anything), and, above all, a great ride on our boat to a lake where pink dolphins will play with Stef Reporter, feeling like Flipper, under a colourful wide sky that I will never forget. After a wonderful sunset, we come back at the camp to feed Antonio, the croco-pet, with frogs (Gladys' pastas were not good enough for him either). We wake up early in the morning of our last tour day (4.30), to attend the sunrise, that was also worth waking up... Then, we pack and take the small boat to go back to our starting point, stopping once again to feed the chichillos (Stef Reporter is fond of them). When we arrive at Rurrenabaque, still dreaming about what we had seen, we understand that the situation in the country had not improved at all during our tour and that we are not about to leave the city...

30 people killed by the army, La Paz totally jammed, demonstrations all around the country and organized traffic jams popping up on every important road... The President of the country is not a star anymore, but doesn't want to leave the scene and let the show go on... Of course, our flight to La Paz is delayed until the end of the problems over there and we have to wait in Rurre. At the beginning, it's OK : Rurre, it's a calm city and it's good to live there, and with our israeli friend, Bentsy, our swedish side-kick, Thomas, and some other gringos, we enjoy some happy lazy days on the confortable hammocks of our hostal and in nice restaurants. But, quickly, we realize that Rurre is about to be blocked, as the roads leading to the main cities around are now jammed. But, what will make us move to do something, it's Stef Reporter's fury when she realizes that there are less fries in her plate (unbearable for the 1st patato addicted woman in the world). When our israeli friends talk to us about evacuating the country, I decide to generate a flight to Peru. Yes. Alone or almost. An american guy takes in account my idea and tries to do the same with another company, TAM, the military one, while I try to make the Amazonas company move its ass... My first efforts are pointless, as the secretaries look at me as if I was raw meat, and I decide to be more active with the military company, that, after declaring that flying to Peru is not possible, puts me in charge of finding 40 gringos, mandatory requirement to leave the country. With Thomas and a flying Dutch, we wander around the city to find some gringo faces who would like to join us. The mission is almost accomplished, when we learn that our plane won't come to Rurre, as deputies and senators will be picked up all around the country to be brung to La Paz and read a message from the President who will officially renounce. Taking this new situation in account, we are not that disappointed, as we will finally fly to La Paz, but without knowing what will be the exact situation over there...

Click here to live in the jungle and in the pampa of Bolivia...

Our flight to La Paz will be a unique opportunity to watch great sceneries, as the green landscapes of the jungle switch to the mountains and the relief of el altiplano, the region of La Paz. We will stay only one day in La Paz, with Thomas and Juano, an argentinian traveler we have met at the bus station, because we say to ourselves that the tension has not lowered in two days (80 people killed during these riots...). Our ride from the airport located in the city of El Alto, above La Paz, and that is similar to a battle field (only indigenous people live there, and it's them who have led the demonstrations : also, the injuries and deaths are mostly indigenous ones), to La Paz, built on the flank of a mountain, was really impressive. We make a small tour of the city, and then share a typical argentinian mate prepared by our friend Juano. The day after, we take the bus to Puno (Peru).

Click here to fly from Rurre to La Paz...

If the bolivian events ease down for real, we will come back soon in this country !

La Paz "de compras"

Full of treks and fraudulous experiences, we leave Cusco to reach La Paz. A rip-off bus. Indeed, an old man leads us into the station, commenting that we will take the fastest bus. We should have been alarmed. Hardly arrived at the company office, we understand that the tiny old man, who had left running, had lied to us when selling the tickets, as the trip will last 7 more hours than foreseen, on the longest road to reach La Paz. Anyway, we arrive in Puno in the early morning, meeting there Luke and Terra, our canadian accomplices, and then we go to Copacabana (the bolivian border city). Our arrival in La Paz is a bit complicated, as we are left far away from the bus station, thanks to a hotel owner not really carin about his clients' will (who didn't want to become his clients at all). We have to walk up and down the hot streets of the city. We'll finally end up in a "love hotel", whose rooms shout some radio hits to cover the sound of the bolivian couples. Once in a new hotel, we wander arounf in our "tourists" fancy dress, going to the theater (Matrix III), buying some local handicraft (and a brand new guitar !!), clothes and souvenirs. Meanwhile, we visit the highly recommendable "Coca Museum", where we learn a lot about this prohibited leaf. After all these "compras", we ride again, in a cheap and tacky bus (in which kids sleep in the corridor !) to Potosi.

Click here to visit the highest biggest city of the world !

Mines in the head

Potosi, you maybe don't know it, was, ages ago, more crowded than Paris and NYC. Why ? Because its "Cerro Rico" (the moutain toping the city) was full of materials, among which gold and silver. These *** spaniards had decided to get it out of the country, in order to add some "prestige" to the showcase of their churches. Consequences : thousands of people were forced to work in the mines. During about 300 years, more than 6 millions people died in the mines, due to the working conditions down there. Even today, only one miner has retired at 60 (he now enjoys his 20 bucks a month offered by the state). So, why do they fo on working in the mines, even though there are now really few valuable materials in the Cerro ? Because they have no other option. We visited the mines, dressed like green miners. We had there a drink with the Tios, sort of satanic statues, alternative gods accepted by spaniards. We also saw the coca-chewing miners, of course, and a lot of unvaluable materials. In the end, we were more impressed by the history than by the mines. The 96 grades alcohol (the one the miners drink) has maybe blurried our vision. We won't stay much longer in Potosi, though we had time enough to enjoy the village feast and we meet some people we knew in France, incredible here...

Click here to go down in the mines...

Arrival in Uyuni, city with wide and empty streets, surrounded by dunes of sand. But, you don't know how much we wanted to be here !! Because, actually, Uyuni is the starting point of one of the most wonderful tours of our trip, that will lead us through a salt dewsert and sceneries from outer space in the South Lipez (ie : the south west of Bolivia). We wait for Luke and Terra to live this together, and we have a nice night in the (only ?) trendy bar of Uyuni (they even had french music !!), also shared with Itzhik, a lonely and peaceful Israeli. With this little group and 2 german-Swiss, we leave the dat after for our 3 days tour.
First stop in a train cemetery in the middle of the desert. Then, the salt desert of Uyuni : a huge, white and wide blanket, in the middle of which an old man with few teeth, chewing coca leaves, tries to explain how to extract and deliver salt. But, we don't understand what he says and don't give a damn, because we are amazed by the senery ! Still in the "salar", we stop at the Fishermen's island, a piece of earth full of cactus, floating on this white ocean. Once we have taken pictures of Itzhik, enjoying the vision effects of the flat land, we go out of it, and stop in a great salt hotel (made of salt, yes !), from which we make a short walk to see mummies in a cavern (with a baby mummy in a bucket : it's better when it doesn't take too much place !). At night, Itzhik and I will play guitar together, impressing Terra. The day after, with Stef Reporter, we wake up really early to watch the sun rising above the salt desert. And then, we're gone in South Lipez desert, with our driver still drunk and tired from a sleepless night, to watch lakes inhabited by pink flamingos, at the shore of which Luke desesperately tries to catch a bird to show us some tricks (he never succeeded, so we will never know the tricks). We also watch some unbelievable colourful mountains, smoking volcanoes, eroded stones with strange shapes and the Laguna Colorada, a totally red lake. Close to this lake, we spend our 2nd nidht, Stef Reporter and Itzhik recovering from a walk in unexepected swamps surrounding the lake (we laughed a lot when their feet sunk into the ground !). We wake up at 4 AM to go and watch the smoke of geysers, and then, everybody but Itzhik and me (the guitar association) has a bath in some thermal waters in the middle of nowhere, when, outside, it is so cold. Finally, we arrive at the Laguna Verde, whose colour makes the Licancabur Volcano more unreal. It's time to take a bus that will ride to Chile, San Pedro de Atacama.

Click here, just to imagine...

Bolivia is a wonderful country, that perfectly concludes our trip in South America. We still have one month of travel, but there will be 2 weeks of rest and fun in Santiago de Chile, separated by 2 weeks in French Polynesia. Then, Stef Reporter will take off to France, while Maillekeul will stay in the neighbourhood and see what he may do there... And it looks like there is a lot to do !