Dec 19, 2011
Quick stop in La Paz
We finally made it to La Paz after an extremely bumpy bus ride that was 4 hours longer than expected as it had to bypass a huge blockade! We started our day off with a random buffet breakfast we found and were excited that there were options other than just bread and jam! After brekkie we headed to the Witches Markets on the side of one of many of La Paz's hills. We spent many many hours wandering the markets and checking out the products - most of which were llama/alpaca products - jumpers, socks, beanies, gloves, scarfs and...fetuses. Apparently the Bolivian's buy dead llama fetuses and place them under the front doorstep of a new home to bring good luck. Gross. Because we had such a great day at the markets we had to find a post office and do our first big mail home (to make way for more shopping!) Definitely recommend the Witches Markets to fellow travellers, there's ALOT to check out and it's all dirt cheap. Unfortunately after our big day of shopping it was straight back onto another bus and onto Peru!
Bolivian 4wd Tour
Uyuni is a tiny town in Bolivia where most vehicles are Toyota Landcruisers. It is one of 2 towns that operate 4wd tours around the Bolivian highlands and famous Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats). The most popular tour is a 3 day experience which we signed up for. The salt flats are massive! and because of this allow you to take the silly perspective photos. These were far more enjoyable to review rather than take as we soon learnt that the locals had the art far better mastered. After a day driving with little sense of movement we spent our first night in a salt hostel on the edges of the flats. All the walls, bed frames and chairs are made entirely of salt bricks. We were served llama steaks for lunch and all were fairly pleased with the taste. Rhi was excited to learn that the Bolivian's are major exporters of quinoa and we saw being grown on the sides of the road and through most of the areas we drove on the first day. The second day you head deeper into the highlands enjoying the more challenging 4wdrving and varying scenery along with some colourful lagoons. The girls were excited to see lots of wild flamingo's at the many lagoons. We stayed the 2nd night in a little village before our last and longest 3rd day. An early wakeup was soon followed by a sharp climb to our highest (5000m) point of the drive where we walked amongst the geysers - volcanic boiling mud pools. Shortly after we spent half an hour bathing in volcanic hot springs not far away. After another (green) lagoon we headed back to Uyini via some amazing scenery. Paul (one of the dutch couple making up our group on 5) and i did some decent rock climbing as you'll see in the photos during one of our last stops near a 90km long earth rise resulting from tectonic plate movements a long time ago.
An amazing 3 days of scenery, 4wdriving, joking with our Spanish translator (who liked to be known as Robert deNiro), showering with a hose and enjoying the great food cooked for us along the way we arrived back in Uyuni and organised ourself for the trip up to Peru. For all those travelling to Uyuni - some good pre/post salt flat tour fest (probably the most western-ised food in Uyuni) can be found at Minuteman pizza. A guy from Boston married a Bolivian lady and decided to start a pizza shop - a fab result - delicious pizza...we tried 6 different types!!!
An amazing 3 days of scenery, 4wdriving, joking with our Spanish translator (who liked to be known as Robert deNiro), showering with a hose and enjoying the great food cooked for us along the way we arrived back in Uyuni and organised ourself for the trip up to Peru. For all those travelling to Uyuni - some good pre/post salt flat tour fest (probably the most western-ised food in Uyuni) can be found at Minuteman pizza. A guy from Boston married a Bolivian lady and decided to start a pizza shop - a fab result - delicious pizza...we tried 6 different types!!!
Dec 9, 2011
En route to Bolivian salt flats.
This simply deserved a blog of its own. I thought over a years travel we would run into some interesting experiences. Didn't take long as we were only 3 weeks in.
We flew out of Rio with 2 flights with the same company to Santa Cruz. Problem was our first flight didnt get to San Paulo in time for the 2nd. We also had the issue that we were going to loose our 3rd flight to Cochabamba with another company as a result. We didnt panic and got great help from an english speaking Bolivian to translate the staff's advice. To cut a long story short we spent a night and following day in a 4 star hotel in San Paulo with buffet, gym and pool to boot, all for free and paid sweet FA (50 aussie cents) to get our 3rd flight moved.
We spent the next 40 odd hours travelling on planes, buses, sleeping in airports and getting used to the high altitude, which neither Rhi, Taz or myself had to many issues with other than feeling terribly lazy/unfit/headachey for a couple days. We spent a night in Oruro which is not recommended. We checked out the markets and had a great traditional Bolivian dinner but realised we were the only tourists and found it hard to get to sleep with gunfire in the distance.
All in all an interesting, character building trip down to Uyuni, Bolivia for our 4WD salt flat tour.
We flew out of Rio with 2 flights with the same company to Santa Cruz. Problem was our first flight didnt get to San Paulo in time for the 2nd. We also had the issue that we were going to loose our 3rd flight to Cochabamba with another company as a result. We didnt panic and got great help from an english speaking Bolivian to translate the staff's advice. To cut a long story short we spent a night and following day in a 4 star hotel in San Paulo with buffet, gym and pool to boot, all for free and paid sweet FA (50 aussie cents) to get our 3rd flight moved.
We spent the next 40 odd hours travelling on planes, buses, sleeping in airports and getting used to the high altitude, which neither Rhi, Taz or myself had to many issues with other than feeling terribly lazy/unfit/headachey for a couple days. We spent a night in Oruro which is not recommended. We checked out the markets and had a great traditional Bolivian dinner but realised we were the only tourists and found it hard to get to sleep with gunfire in the distance.
All in all an interesting, character building trip down to Uyuni, Bolivia for our 4WD salt flat tour.
Rio De Janeiro
We arrived in the large bus terminal and joined the even larger taxi line on our way to our Impanema beach house accomodation for some rest before exploring all (and theres a bit) that Rio has to offer.
FOOD
Our Impanema hostel was situated in the 'Cottesloe' of Rio so there was alot of good foodstuff to explore without walking more than 10 minutes. They love their Italian and Japanese food and we enjoyed both. The area and Rio in general seem to have a number of pay by the kilo lunch eateries which boast some awsome salads and marinated meats for you to fill you plate with. During our day on the beach we ticked off the coconut and straw option which we all agreed was very refreshing. The girls got obsessed with 'Viasete', an Italian resturant all of 30m from our doorstep. Around 10:30 pm we made the trek for the girls favourite chocolate brownie and/or hot chocolate. Other than that we did alot of our own cooking in Rio with 4 nights of Steak (massive), Hamburgers, Tacos and the favourite by far was Fish that Rhi baked. All the produce was great and very comparable to anywhere in Australia except about 10-15% cheaper.
PEOPLE
A very friendly bunch. All our tour guides were great and spoke good English and the hostel staff were great. The locals were also nice and I got involved with a bit of sport on the beach. Its an amazingly active place and I found it easy to sit on Copacabana beach and watch them play their style of volleyball (soccer rules). They love their outdoors and not wearing much. The girls got adventurous and purchased a pair of brazillian bikini's on the beach - photos to come! (joking)
CITY
AMAZING! A city peppered with cliffs and hills with tunels making it possible from West to East. Beaches are very good and thats coming from a Western Australian, although one day at the beach we noticed very little people swimming and later asked a pome and learnt that the currents were quite strong. My 5 minute dip pushed me at least 30m in one direction with good fun (however strong) waves. There is a massive lake in the middle of the city which the locals ski and row on. One thing that impressed us all was free gym equipment scattered everywhere throughout the city. Large areas of the city are areas where the poor live. These amazing growths out of the hills are known as the 'Favela´s' and our tour there was eye opening. Unfortunately these areas have in the past been run by drug dealers but with the Olympics and Football world cup visiting Rio in the next 5 years the authorities have began to clean up its slightly dodgey reputation and the city is becoming the better for it.
HISTORY
Not alot jumps to mind other than the well documented Favelas (movies 'City of God' and 'City of Men'). I think what we learnt from our visit is that this city is living in the now and i will not recognise the place if I ever return. With the two largest world events being hosted in the next 5 years and then a jobs boom as a result of a massive offshore petroleum mass, this place will become even more attractive in a decade.
If you like beaches, rockclimbing, soccer and interesting city landscapes - Rio is a must.
FOOD
Our Impanema hostel was situated in the 'Cottesloe' of Rio so there was alot of good foodstuff to explore without walking more than 10 minutes. They love their Italian and Japanese food and we enjoyed both. The area and Rio in general seem to have a number of pay by the kilo lunch eateries which boast some awsome salads and marinated meats for you to fill you plate with. During our day on the beach we ticked off the coconut and straw option which we all agreed was very refreshing. The girls got obsessed with 'Viasete', an Italian resturant all of 30m from our doorstep. Around 10:30 pm we made the trek for the girls favourite chocolate brownie and/or hot chocolate. Other than that we did alot of our own cooking in Rio with 4 nights of Steak (massive), Hamburgers, Tacos and the favourite by far was Fish that Rhi baked. All the produce was great and very comparable to anywhere in Australia except about 10-15% cheaper.
PEOPLE
A very friendly bunch. All our tour guides were great and spoke good English and the hostel staff were great. The locals were also nice and I got involved with a bit of sport on the beach. Its an amazingly active place and I found it easy to sit on Copacabana beach and watch them play their style of volleyball (soccer rules). They love their outdoors and not wearing much. The girls got adventurous and purchased a pair of brazillian bikini's on the beach - photos to come! (joking)
CITY
AMAZING! A city peppered with cliffs and hills with tunels making it possible from West to East. Beaches are very good and thats coming from a Western Australian, although one day at the beach we noticed very little people swimming and later asked a pome and learnt that the currents were quite strong. My 5 minute dip pushed me at least 30m in one direction with good fun (however strong) waves. There is a massive lake in the middle of the city which the locals ski and row on. One thing that impressed us all was free gym equipment scattered everywhere throughout the city. Large areas of the city are areas where the poor live. These amazing growths out of the hills are known as the 'Favela´s' and our tour there was eye opening. Unfortunately these areas have in the past been run by drug dealers but with the Olympics and Football world cup visiting Rio in the next 5 years the authorities have began to clean up its slightly dodgey reputation and the city is becoming the better for it.
HISTORY
Not alot jumps to mind other than the well documented Favelas (movies 'City of God' and 'City of Men'). I think what we learnt from our visit is that this city is living in the now and i will not recognise the place if I ever return. With the two largest world events being hosted in the next 5 years and then a jobs boom as a result of a massive offshore petroleum mass, this place will become even more attractive in a decade.
If you like beaches, rockclimbing, soccer and interesting city landscapes - Rio is a must.
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