Monday 15 October 2012

Photo story from Bolivia

Hi guys! Here we're with more pictures and little explanations of our 12 days in Bolivia. It was a quick visit but absolutely worth it. Our first stop in Bolivia was Copacabana. Not the famous beach in Rio de Janeiro but the city at Titicaca Lake Bolivian shore. From there we did a one-day trip to the "Isla del Sol" (Sun Island), the biggest in the Lake and Bethlehem of Inca civilization.



Beaches of Isla del Sol

First sacrifice table from the old Inca empire

 Alpacas on our way!
It almost bit Jordi

Construction workers at Isla del Sol. There are no motor vehicles in this island

After 2 nights in Copacabana we took a "bus" to La Paz, capital city of Bolivia. It's neither the biggest (Santa Cruz is bigger) nor the most beautiful city in Bolivia (in our opinion, Sucre was prettier) but really interesting and charming.

That was our bus to la Paz. Of course waiting to leave until gets full...

On our way, we even had to leave the van and cross by ferry

 La Paz downtown

 That's a llama fetus. Yeah, disgusting! They say it's good luck to bury one of those in your garden. We won't be the ones to try...

With Mirna, Karolina's friend met a couple of years back in Japan...


El valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), a spectacular geological formation...


 I'm not so shure

Look at the colours of the mountain...

Guapa! ;)

One of La Paz busiest streets

 The same street. Check out the careless of electrical safety :P


Afterwards we kept moving through Bolivia and survived the coldest bus journey ever to make it to Sucre. It was a double deck night-bus and we decided to sit in the lower part. Everything seemed allright until the coldness of Bolivian nights hit our faces through a not well isolated door. Freezing. We tried to fill in the holes between the bus and the door itself with paper but they were huge, massive! Very bad night indeed... At least Sucre, former capital of the country until 1899, when La Paz took over it, is a beautiful place, nowadays mostly a tourist attraction.

Fresh juice to kick off the Sunday morning ;)

 Sucre's main Square

 City Hall of Sucre


 Mr Sucre

 Exposition of a future artist :P

 Kotki

 Chocolate fair

 Chocolate glass shots

 Sucre at sunset


 Smiling breakfast :)

Polish vodka reaches every corner of the planet


 Don't ask us what the h.. was that. We have no clue yet

Later on we headed south again to Uyuni last "city" before the biggest salt flat desert in the world, Salar de Uyuni. It's a deserted place, cold and pretty expensive to be in Bolivia. Although the surrounding landscapes are stunning and the Salar itself astonishing. We took a standard 3-day trip around the Salar. 3 days in a Jeep (well actually in a Toyota Land Cruiser...) with two American guys and 2 Israeli (it turned out that they were all Jews though...) sleeping in "hotels" literally built out of salt, eating what was in our portable fridge and admiring amazing nature. Some parts of the journey were tedious due to the long hours just sitting in the car, but the overall experience was unforgettable. Lack of bathroom was also an issue as we both had some stomach problems...

 Our waitress in Uyuni!

 Sooo cute!

 They're everywhere...

 That's Uyuni city center!

 Train cementary. They used to place them in the middle of the dessert when obsolete


 A small part of the Salar still produces salt

Yiiiihaaa! Yes, it's made of salt...

We met a couple travelling around the world on those bikes. Awesome! 

 We could easily play with the perspective in the Salar



 Our favourite book and most important tool during those three months

 Cuando haces pop...

Our vehicle during three days in the middle of nowhere

First salt hotel

 Outside the "hotel". Check out the roof...

Giant typical cactus  from the Salar (Karolina is the one to the right)


 Flamingos. They are like pigeons in the Salar

 Funny signs

 What does it mean? Forbidden to fly???


This picture will be awarded by National Geographic;)


Stone tree

Desert, desert...


 6 a.m. We didn't want to leave the bed so early to see stupid geysers :P


 Geysers

 Hot Spring in the middle of the desert... Outside was terribly cold, but the water was around 35 ºC

Our first bath after 3 days without water contact:D

 Check out the frozen water and steam in the same moment


Llamas

 Sustainability and survival in the middle of the desert!

That was our last stop before getting back to Uyuni...

After that we crossed the border with Argentina.


More pictures coming soon. Buenos Aires, Iguazú, Rio de Janeiro ...