After Rurrenabaque and another hair raising flight (there´s something even more sinister about turbulence over jagged peaks) we arrived in La Paz to arrange our trip south to the Salar de Uyuni. We hit a bit of a snag though - the national election for the legislators was two days away and the entire country, everything, shuts down for these types of events. We´re still not clear on who exactly was being elected because it wasn´t the president nor his cabinet. We figured it might actually have been the country´s supreme court and other ´law maker´ types. In any event La Paz was facinating during the election day because not even cars were allowed to drive around. What is usually a snarling mess of pollution, traffic and noise, with sidewalks covered by vendors of everything you can think of, became a fairly quiet and pleasant place. Kids played soccer in the middle of the road and families picknicked in the city´s various plazas. Even the normally oppresive pollution wasn´t so bad. La Paz is the highest national capital in the world, sitting at something like 8000ft. It is mind boggling to look at on first arrival because it is built where a city shouldn´t be built, clinging to the sides of a steep valley with some large Andes peaks as its backdrop. We wondered how cars or plumbing made it to some of the places higher up. Also, the rich in La Paz don´t live high up like in most western cities but lower down because its easier to move around at the lower altitude. This high every meter counts. We spent the day walking around and repeatedly saying things like ¨La Paz isn´t so bad, when there aren´t any cars or people around¨.
We saw the outside of the parliament and president´s residence and then continued on to the main cathedral where the road protesters (read a previous post to understand) were positioned. A journalist told us that the UN was perhaps going to come and hear them plead their case. He also told us he was jailed for 3 months for making films about the plight of the people who will be affected by the road. We continued on to the San Pedro prison. This prison is famous for the fact that prisoners inside actually pay their own accomodation (up to $20,000 for nice digs) and can buy day passes to see family and friends. We met an American inmate, done in for cocaine possession 12 years ago, who was due to leave in a few weeks and was being let out daily to ´re integrate with society´. This guy was high off his mind, making it clear that cocaine was pretty easy to come by inside. The prison, which is an old spanish fort, used to let tourists in for tours until residents of a formal southern hemisphere penal colony started abusing the visits to buy cheap cocaine (Aussies, eh?). This of course could all be lies told to us to get a few Bolivianos out of us, but I found it entertaining. Elise I think had other thoughts (aka GET ME OUTTA HERE!). At least she could watch the prisoners kids playing soccer in the plaza right in front of the jail...awe, how sweet. What?! Next day we were off to Oruro on the bus. Unfortunately we don´t have too many great pictures of La Paz to put on the blog right now because we don´t have the small camera with us.
Oruro. Not much to say about it. Not super nice for a visit. The outskirts look like a town that was destroyed by bombs. The inner city was alright, but the only reason we were there was to wait for the train to Tupiza and the country´s southwest. The hotel was awful, really awful. The food was good, we ate well.
Après un autre vol mouvementé de Rurrenabaque nous sommes arrivés à La Paz pour organiser notre voyage vers le Salar d'Uyuni. Petit problème dans nos préparatifs, l'élection nationale des juges était dans deux jours ce qui signifiait que tout allait s'arrêter pour l'événement. La Paz fut fascinant durant cette journée .Seules les voitures autorisées pouvaient conduire autour de la ville pour aider les gens à aller vote . La ville, qui est habituellement un vrai désordre, beaucoup de pollution, la circulation et du bruit, les trottoirs couverts par les vendeurs de tout ce que vous pouvez imaginer, est devenue un endroit calme et agréable. Les enfants jouaient au soccer dans le milieu de la rue. Même la pollution normalement intense n'était pas si mal. Je n'ai pas eu à marcher avec mon foulard sur le visage. La Paz est la plus haute capitale nationale dans le monde, 3600m. C'est une ville construite dans une vallée entourée des picsa enneigés des Andes. Les riches vivent au bas de la vallée et plus on est pauvre, plus on doit monter pour rentrer à la maison. Nous avons passé la journée à marcher en se disant que " La Paz n'est pas si mal, quand il n'y a pas de voitures ou trop de personnes dans les rues".
Oruro. Pas grand chose à dire à ce sujet. Pas super agréable pour une visite. Nous avons du y séjourner pour attendre notre train à Tupiza. L'hôtel était horrible, vraiment horrible. La nourriture était bonne, nous avons bien mangé.
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| Oruro. At this altitude you should appreciate what we went through to get this shot./Pas grand chose à dire, mais quelques images. |
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| Getting into miners country./Pays des mineurs. |
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| And seeing what miners generally think of President Evo Morales/Les opinions sont partagées face au Président Morales. |
Finally we caught a rolling train (the only regular passenger train still functioning in Bolivia, with the exception of a once weekly trip to Chile) from Oruro to Tupiza, via Uyuni. We left at night and didn´t really see much until the next morning when we arrived in the country around Tupiza. I was distracted from the scenery by the movie we were watching, "Terrible Boses", especially the parts where references to "poor Bolivians"are made. To be honest, the Bolivians on the train thought it pretty funny. I thought the movie was hilarious and can´t wait to see it in English.
Tupiza itself was a very cool place, nestled between a river and red mountains in the background. The town has a definite tourist feel, largely because the tours for the Salar de Uyuni can start from there. We met a french canadian couple (Sam and Kim) and the four of us made arrangements for a 4 day 4x4 tour through the Salar starting two days later. The following day the four of us went on a guided 5 hour horse riding trek through some of Tupiza´s surrounding countryside. It was good fun. They gave us cowboy hats, leg protectors, horses that would not veer from the trail at all, a good lunch and a seriously hungover guide. This guy slept every chance he had. He told us he woke up at 5 am but we´re pretty sure he went to bed then. Despite the sore asses it was a good way to spend a day. Made the beers later taste all the much better.
Enfin nous avons pris un train d'Oruro à Tupiza, via Uyuni. Tupiza était un endroit très cool, niché entre une rivière et des montagnes rouges. La ville est assez touristique , en grande partie parce que les tours pour le Salar de Uyuni peuvent commencer de là. Nous avons rencontré un couple de Québécois (Sam et Kim) en sortant du train et nous avons organisés ensemble notre tour de 4 jours en 4x4 dans le Salar. Le jour suivant, nous sommes allés faire du cheval pendant 5 heures à travers les paysages entourant Tupiza. C'était très amusant. Ils nous ont donné des chapeaux de cow-boy, des protège-jambes, des chevaux têtus, un bon lunch et un guide avec une sérieuse gueule de bois. Le pauvre dormait à toutes les chances qu'il avait. Il nous dit qu'il s'était réveillé à 5 heures, mais nous croyons que c'était plutôt l'heure à laquelle il s'était couché. Malgré cela et le mal de fesses, encore une fois, que de beaux paysages.
Here are some pictures:
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| Our guide keeping a close eye on things./Notre guide:) |
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