Bolivia
3 juli 2014 - Jeffreysbaai, Zuid-Afrika
Hey everybody,
There it is again: travelstorytime!
Our first stop in Bolivia was La Paz. We arrived there with a quite reasonable night bus, very early in the morning. The hostel (Loki) was great, it really had everything. It was a huge building (We think it was an old fancy hotel.) with plenty of dorms and private rooms, a tv room, table tennis, pool table, tour desk and a huge bar/restaurant on the top floor. From the bar you were able to see almost all of La Paz with behind it the Andes. What a view. You can probably imagine that we took our time relaxing, partying and socializing.
After all of this we wanted to take a bus to Rurrenabaque, a small town in the Amazon area, to do a tour through the Pampas (the wetlands). When we asked locals and other backpackers which bus we should take, people were laughing in our faces. The bus to Rurrenabaque goes for a big part over the Death Road. Yes, it is as dangerous as it sounds. Right. Well, the decision to fly led us to the worst plane ride ever. Very small plane+a lot of turbulence+a bit of altitude sickness+not being able to see anything because of 45 minutes flying IN the clouds=extremely nauseous. But, the big advantage over taking the bus is that we stayed alive. So I guess that is something we should feel comforted by.
The tour was amazing. After driving for three hours on a "road", we stepped into a long boat with six chairs. We sat comfortably watching all the beautiful nature pass bye and above all, a lot of different animals. We had the luck to see a lot of monkeys (big and small), parrots, turtles, a huge range of different birds, crocodiles and the most special to us: the pink river dolphin. The lodge was built on poles and stood a meter above the water. Everything was open, instead of windows there were only screens against insects. Under the lodge were some crocodiles, each of them has gotten a name of the people who run the lodge. I feel they should maybe do what the airport organisation does and put a huge sign there: MIND YOUR STEP. Don't be alarmed, we still have all our hands and feet. We went to a sunset bar, very beautiful, and on the way back we spotted crocodiles with our torches. (Their eyes light up orange if you shine a light towards them.)
The second day Oscar the guide told us that we were going to swim with the pink river dolphins. We were very excited! We arrived with the boat on a kind of lake and the guide told us to jump out of the boat. 'Hmm, oke... So there are no crocodiles here, or what?' I thought, but Janneke went straight in haha. She couldn't wait to experience it. Soon they were nibbling at her feet and coming on to her side. After making a couple of pictures I also jumped in. No time as the present! And it was amazing. Truly amazing. The dolphins really want you to touch them, to swim with them and to play with them. Wauw. If you haven't done it yet: this is an experience you will never forget, we definitely recommend you to do it as well.
On the final day we went out to do some piranha fishing. After feeding a lot of fish with the meet we put on the hooks, finally some piranhas started biting. They are actually quite pretty, with silver, orange and red colours and a shiny skin. Oscar killed them for us, very nice, and afterwards we had them for lunch back at the lodge. There is not a lot of meat on them and they tasted a bit like river, but nothing tastes as good as a fish you actually caught by yourself. Not that I plan on making it a hobby, just to be clear.
From Rurrenabaque we flew back to La Paz and of course stayed at the same hostel as before. Janneke decided to join a tour to go mountain biking on the Death Road. At first I was planning on going, but after hearing the stories about how it was quite heavy for your hands and shoulders, I thought it was physically better for me to not do it. Janneke really enjoyed it, it was awesome. It was an adrenaline rush to go down and see the cliffs beside you. The day she went it was very misty, so it all became a bit mystical. And when she finally came back to the hostel, I was happy to have her back in one piece. Well, in one piece, it was a big strain on the body so she was very sore the next couple of days. And ironically when she was not on her bike but when she was walking, she slipped and fell hard on her back. Nothing serious fortunately, but the size of the bruise kept surprising me!
After a few days we took the bus and then the night train to Tupiza. Wauw, we were some lucky bastards in Bolivia. The train was again the worst we have ever taken. Due to the cold, the air filled with the smell of gasoline, the slamming of the door right next to our ears, the noise and the constant shaking, we were unexpectedly unable to sleep. Well, we are not going to repeat that again! So after Tupiza (We found out that there was actually nothing for us to do in that city, so moving on.) we thought we were smarter and took the bus. Hm. You know, I will just leave it to 'Hm.'. Use your imagination and add a few drops of disaster. There you have the description of the bus ride to Uyuni. On the highlight: Janneke had the best meat ever during the lunch in the middle of nowhere and the landscape was amazing!
After all this it was time to do something better with our time: the tour to the Salar de Uyuni. It was really great! We saw the huge vastness of the salt flat, made awesome pictures, climbed a volcano, saw cacti as big as a house and enjoyed the beautiful sunset and sunrise next to the village where we were staying. It was very, very cold but that just does not matter very much when everything you see is very beautiful. Also, thanks to Jason, Laure and Geoffrey for making the experience even better!
After a good bus ride we arrived on the second of june in our perfect little art hostel (CasArte Takumba) in Sucre. Janneke was taking a shower so I took the chance to sneak out and buy her some presents! In the evening we went to cafe Amsterdam to chill a bit and play some cards. At six o'clock our time, so twelve o'clock Dutch time on the third of june, I arranged for some champagne to be brought and a birthday song to be played and gave her two movies she really wanted to watch. Janneke was very surprised haha, even more because she didn't expect anything to happen before it was the 3rd. But, Janneke was born in Holland, we were in cafe Amsterdam and as far as I knew, her birthday started then and there!
The next day she skyped with her parents, with my parents and she got a big purple birthday cake. (Pictures follow.) I was very happy that it all worked out! After eating a big piece of cake we went out to go horseriding. The start was a bit weird, the guide was late and when he arrived he drove straight over a dog... Well, after this it can only go up we hoped. The horses were very nice, Benjamin and Hector. Benjamin was friendly and obedient and Hector was huge and he just didn't care. For some reason the guide thought it was a good idea for me to go on the huge horse, and Janneke with all her experience on the smaller horse. After a while we figured it was not really the best, so we switched horses. After this it went better. The landscape was beautiful and Janneke had the best time riding on a horse again. There was one small incident of me falling off the horse because it got startled by a plastic bag and me not grabbing the reins because I was protecting the camera that I just took out of its casing. But, besides a hole in my elbow and a hoof print on my hip (It stepped on me quite softly, so there was only a bruise!), it was all alright haha.
The rest of the days in Sucre we watched some Marvel movies that we bought for a very reasonable price, went to Cafe Amsterdam a couple of times, booked a flight to Santa Cruz (Again the road was too dangerous to go by bus.) and visited a dinosaur park. In the park they had the biggest sculpture in the world, a real sized Titanosaurus, the huge plant eating dinosaur. Next to all these other great real sized sculptures, you could look at an enormous cliffside made of limestone where there were more than 5000 dinosaur footprints that have been there for 65 million years. Very impressive.
The flight to Santa Cruz was not a problem and the hostel was very nice. The weather wasn't really with us, but we just put on our ponchos and go out in the heavy rain. You are Dutch or you are not! We did some sightseeing, chased some pigeons, spoke to a mentally impaired but very friendly man and both bought a great dress at a boutique. Then it was already time to board the plane to start our 3 day journey to Africa!
Janneke will tell you how the travelling went and about our time in South Africa. For now, thank you again for bearing with me, I hope you enjoyed it again!
Big hugs and kisses, Fleur
There it is again: travelstorytime!
Our first stop in Bolivia was La Paz. We arrived there with a quite reasonable night bus, very early in the morning. The hostel (Loki) was great, it really had everything. It was a huge building (We think it was an old fancy hotel.) with plenty of dorms and private rooms, a tv room, table tennis, pool table, tour desk and a huge bar/restaurant on the top floor. From the bar you were able to see almost all of La Paz with behind it the Andes. What a view. You can probably imagine that we took our time relaxing, partying and socializing.
After all of this we wanted to take a bus to Rurrenabaque, a small town in the Amazon area, to do a tour through the Pampas (the wetlands). When we asked locals and other backpackers which bus we should take, people were laughing in our faces. The bus to Rurrenabaque goes for a big part over the Death Road. Yes, it is as dangerous as it sounds. Right. Well, the decision to fly led us to the worst plane ride ever. Very small plane+a lot of turbulence+a bit of altitude sickness+not being able to see anything because of 45 minutes flying IN the clouds=extremely nauseous. But, the big advantage over taking the bus is that we stayed alive. So I guess that is something we should feel comforted by.
The tour was amazing. After driving for three hours on a "road", we stepped into a long boat with six chairs. We sat comfortably watching all the beautiful nature pass bye and above all, a lot of different animals. We had the luck to see a lot of monkeys (big and small), parrots, turtles, a huge range of different birds, crocodiles and the most special to us: the pink river dolphin. The lodge was built on poles and stood a meter above the water. Everything was open, instead of windows there were only screens against insects. Under the lodge were some crocodiles, each of them has gotten a name of the people who run the lodge. I feel they should maybe do what the airport organisation does and put a huge sign there: MIND YOUR STEP. Don't be alarmed, we still have all our hands and feet. We went to a sunset bar, very beautiful, and on the way back we spotted crocodiles with our torches. (Their eyes light up orange if you shine a light towards them.)
The second day Oscar the guide told us that we were going to swim with the pink river dolphins. We were very excited! We arrived with the boat on a kind of lake and the guide told us to jump out of the boat. 'Hmm, oke... So there are no crocodiles here, or what?' I thought, but Janneke went straight in haha. She couldn't wait to experience it. Soon they were nibbling at her feet and coming on to her side. After making a couple of pictures I also jumped in. No time as the present! And it was amazing. Truly amazing. The dolphins really want you to touch them, to swim with them and to play with them. Wauw. If you haven't done it yet: this is an experience you will never forget, we definitely recommend you to do it as well.
On the final day we went out to do some piranha fishing. After feeding a lot of fish with the meet we put on the hooks, finally some piranhas started biting. They are actually quite pretty, with silver, orange and red colours and a shiny skin. Oscar killed them for us, very nice, and afterwards we had them for lunch back at the lodge. There is not a lot of meat on them and they tasted a bit like river, but nothing tastes as good as a fish you actually caught by yourself. Not that I plan on making it a hobby, just to be clear.
From Rurrenabaque we flew back to La Paz and of course stayed at the same hostel as before. Janneke decided to join a tour to go mountain biking on the Death Road. At first I was planning on going, but after hearing the stories about how it was quite heavy for your hands and shoulders, I thought it was physically better for me to not do it. Janneke really enjoyed it, it was awesome. It was an adrenaline rush to go down and see the cliffs beside you. The day she went it was very misty, so it all became a bit mystical. And when she finally came back to the hostel, I was happy to have her back in one piece. Well, in one piece, it was a big strain on the body so she was very sore the next couple of days. And ironically when she was not on her bike but when she was walking, she slipped and fell hard on her back. Nothing serious fortunately, but the size of the bruise kept surprising me!
After a few days we took the bus and then the night train to Tupiza. Wauw, we were some lucky bastards in Bolivia. The train was again the worst we have ever taken. Due to the cold, the air filled with the smell of gasoline, the slamming of the door right next to our ears, the noise and the constant shaking, we were unexpectedly unable to sleep. Well, we are not going to repeat that again! So after Tupiza (We found out that there was actually nothing for us to do in that city, so moving on.) we thought we were smarter and took the bus. Hm. You know, I will just leave it to 'Hm.'. Use your imagination and add a few drops of disaster. There you have the description of the bus ride to Uyuni. On the highlight: Janneke had the best meat ever during the lunch in the middle of nowhere and the landscape was amazing!
After all this it was time to do something better with our time: the tour to the Salar de Uyuni. It was really great! We saw the huge vastness of the salt flat, made awesome pictures, climbed a volcano, saw cacti as big as a house and enjoyed the beautiful sunset and sunrise next to the village where we were staying. It was very, very cold but that just does not matter very much when everything you see is very beautiful. Also, thanks to Jason, Laure and Geoffrey for making the experience even better!
After a good bus ride we arrived on the second of june in our perfect little art hostel (CasArte Takumba) in Sucre. Janneke was taking a shower so I took the chance to sneak out and buy her some presents! In the evening we went to cafe Amsterdam to chill a bit and play some cards. At six o'clock our time, so twelve o'clock Dutch time on the third of june, I arranged for some champagne to be brought and a birthday song to be played and gave her two movies she really wanted to watch. Janneke was very surprised haha, even more because she didn't expect anything to happen before it was the 3rd. But, Janneke was born in Holland, we were in cafe Amsterdam and as far as I knew, her birthday started then and there!
The next day she skyped with her parents, with my parents and she got a big purple birthday cake. (Pictures follow.) I was very happy that it all worked out! After eating a big piece of cake we went out to go horseriding. The start was a bit weird, the guide was late and when he arrived he drove straight over a dog... Well, after this it can only go up we hoped. The horses were very nice, Benjamin and Hector. Benjamin was friendly and obedient and Hector was huge and he just didn't care. For some reason the guide thought it was a good idea for me to go on the huge horse, and Janneke with all her experience on the smaller horse. After a while we figured it was not really the best, so we switched horses. After this it went better. The landscape was beautiful and Janneke had the best time riding on a horse again. There was one small incident of me falling off the horse because it got startled by a plastic bag and me not grabbing the reins because I was protecting the camera that I just took out of its casing. But, besides a hole in my elbow and a hoof print on my hip (It stepped on me quite softly, so there was only a bruise!), it was all alright haha.
The rest of the days in Sucre we watched some Marvel movies that we bought for a very reasonable price, went to Cafe Amsterdam a couple of times, booked a flight to Santa Cruz (Again the road was too dangerous to go by bus.) and visited a dinosaur park. In the park they had the biggest sculpture in the world, a real sized Titanosaurus, the huge plant eating dinosaur. Next to all these other great real sized sculptures, you could look at an enormous cliffside made of limestone where there were more than 5000 dinosaur footprints that have been there for 65 million years. Very impressive.
The flight to Santa Cruz was not a problem and the hostel was very nice. The weather wasn't really with us, but we just put on our ponchos and go out in the heavy rain. You are Dutch or you are not! We did some sightseeing, chased some pigeons, spoke to a mentally impaired but very friendly man and both bought a great dress at a boutique. Then it was already time to board the plane to start our 3 day journey to Africa!
Janneke will tell you how the travelling went and about our time in South Africa. For now, thank you again for bearing with me, I hope you enjoyed it again!
Big hugs and kisses, Fleur
kus van Ellen en John