When we arrived in La Paz, we checked into Hotel Elegance. When booking hotels, I read a million reviews so I have gotten pretty good at hotel selection. On Hotel Elegance, most of the reviews were positive with a few “a bit dated” comments. Since we do not really care about “a bit dated”, I booked the hotel. Once I had convinced the desk employee that I really could live without the “wonderful view from the seventh floor” (the elevator only went to the fifth floor), we made our way to the fifth floor. I am pretty sure that in 1972, the Hotel Elegance was a sight to be seen! Unfortunately, it had not been updated since that time. When I sat in the chair, the arm fell off. The sofas were something that not even a frat house would have saved from the trash bin and everything in the room was burnt orange. However, the room was clean and besides the fear of crashing out of the chairs, it was safe. The next morning, we began our day at the buffet breakfast that was also from 1972. Thank goodness for the pineapple and watermelon that kept us alive each day. The altitude of La Paz was over 12,000 feet above sea level so we were a couple of slow moving snails. We managed to make it to the San Francisco Basilica which was a grand cathedral that was very dark and ominous. I am guessing it costs too much to keep it well lit during the day but it was beautiful none the less. On this tour, we discovered that the Bolivians tend to honor their commanders that lost battles. We think it was because they have not won many battles in history so they must take what they can get. Our guide would say, “Here lies so and so. On such and such a date, he was defeated at the battle of ____. He is a great hero for us.” Thus the reason that Bolivia is landlocked (see previous blog about Guano Wars)! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town wondering why every other shop was a barbershop or a beauty salon. The current population of the metropolitan area is just under 2 million so based on our calculations, every person would need to get their hair cut weekly to support all the barbers and hairdressers. The funny part was that 99 percent of Bolivians had straight, black hair….not a curl or color to be found! We had a very busy second day which started with a ride on the teleferico which offered amazing views of La Paz. We made our mandatory stop at the cemetery and found something unique to Bolivia. Each mausoleum had a small, enclosed shelf where the family would put keepsakes and things that the person had enjoyed. For example, Bill’s would have a beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a small UGA bulldog with a bobble head and a boat (and of course, he quickly added “and a picture of you” just to cover himself!....wise man). After the cemetery, we made our way over to the Witches Market which we were both excited to see. People on Youtube made the Witch Market sound really cool….it was not. It was a replica of the usual cruise port with the same tourist junk for sale at each store. As we hunted for the supposed witches, we came across an Irish pub called “The Lucky Llama”. We could not pass by an Irish pub in the middle of the Witches Market in La Paz, Bolivia so we ate lunch. After further hunting, we finally asked where the witches were and we were directed to two small stores at the end of the street which had some petrified animals hanging on the storefront. I went into the store to try to find a curse potion as a gift for my daughter (yes, she would say, “Who doesn’t love a good curse potion!”). All I could find was tea that would make someone fall in love with you. What kind of weak spell is that? We voted that the Witches Market was our biggest disappointment we have had in all of our travels….that is a sad statement.
Our next sightseeing expedition was to visit the Valley of the Moon. It was on the far side of La Paz and it was like stepping into another world (see the picture below because it is difficult to explain). After an easy hike through the valley, we stopped by the La Paz Golf Club which claims to be the highest golf course in the world. We chose not to play a round of golf given the altitude issues but it was a fun item to check off the list. Our evening entertainment was the ultimate thing to check off one’s list. La Paz has an event called Cholita Wrestling which was a must see. Walking into the building was like stepping into a Las Vegas casino from the 1950s. The wrestling ring was center stage and we had front row seats. With music blaring and lights flashing, the show began. Cholitas are a major symbol of Bolivia. They are the women that wear the bowler hats, corsets and huge, puffy skirts. Now, imagine these woman in full regalia….wrestling each other. In true WWE fashion (no pun intended), one “good” cholita and one “bad” cholita would enter the ring and try to pull the crowd to cheer for them. As the “match” began, the Cholitas would climb onto the ropes and soar through the air with skirts flying to “land” on top of the other cholita. Inevitably, the two would end up throwing chairs at each other or spitting water on each other right in front of our seats. The night was raucous fun and we decided that anyone who could not have fun at Cholita Wrestling must have no sense of humor in their entire body. Our final day in La Paz was spent exploring the Pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku. We hired a driver to take us to Tiwanaku and he was an interesting source of local information. On our way into La Paz, we had passed a row of tents on the side of the street that was at least a mile long. We could not believe La Paz would have such a horrible homeless problem. Our driver explained that the tents were not for homeless people. Twice a year, the army holds its recruitment. Every Bolivian must serve a mandatory year in the service. The tents were filled with young people who wanted to be first in line on recruitment day because first in line meant the best assignment of location. He stated that “no one wants to be in the Amazon jungle…there’s too much oxygen there and we can’t breathe. La Paz is the top pick for recruits”. Seriously? Give us some oxygen! We found it humorous that their kids camp out for the service and we camped out for concert tickets at their age. Our driver also explained Evos Morales, Bolivia’s president from 2006 to 2019. As described by our driver, “He was a great communist and did amazing things for our people. At first. Then, he became corrupt and it was not good.” As usual, communism worked well…it was designed to make a select few have everything and the people have nothing in the end so it worked like a charm. As we travelled throughout Bolivia, we found it curious that cities where people worked hard jobs like mining hated Morales and people who were more reliant on government loved Morales. Politics are always the same story no matter where you are! Tiwanaku was interesting and had some well preserved ruins and an informative museum. As we walked through the ruins, dark clouds began to gather overhead and we jumped back into the van just as a storm began. A hailstorm. The outside temperature had just been close to 80 degrees so we were not sure how Bolivia managed hail. Our guide kept trying to talk us into stopping at a “must see” sight in the middle of a hailstorm but we voted him down and said we would just have to survive without another stop. After a great visit in La Paz, it was time to head to Uyuni to visit the largest salt flat in the world. Our flight to Uyuni was uneventful with the exception of our fellow passengers. We are used to being the minority in South America but this flight was different. We were the minority but so were the South Americans! The entire flight was booked by people from Asian countries. We had Chinese people, Japanese people, Korean people and I am sure others as well. When we arrived in Uyuni and met our tour guide, he commented in Spanish something about Asians and gave a big sigh. We later found out that for some reason, Uyuni was a top destination for the Asian continent. If you look at Uyuni online, you will see the entire town is about 5 blocks wide and 15 blocks long. The roads are dirt and only about 6 blocks had anything that would hold a tourist’s interest for even a few minutes. Outside of those 6 blocks the roads were ruled by dogs which ran everywhere and made the tour buses dodge and weave around them. At some point, the locals figured out tourism was a far easier way to make a living than digging salt and now it is Bolivia’s top tourism destination. For our first day of touring, our group had two vans so we were around 12 people total. We headed out of town and as we started on the main road into the salt flats, we came upon a toll booth. Just before the toll booth, our driver took a sharp left off the road onto a side dirt path and drove around the toll booth. We all laughed and our guide said, “Avoiding taxes!” Evidently the toll booth workers did not care because all day there was a line of tour vans passing to the left. Our first stop was at the Train Cemetery. Back in the day, mining companies in Bolivia set up trains to move minerals more easily. Now, the engines sit on the abandoned tracks, rusting in the hot sun and salt. It was a cool stop and everyone enjoyed climbing on the trains for pictures. The salt refining “factory” was next. It was a small building with a few mounds of salt and some processing tables. The salt was only used by locals and no exporting was done because the salt was low in iodine so not very healthy without some tweaking. As we drove across the salt flats, our guide explained the importance of hiring a professional tour because if tourists try to drive themselves over the flats, they do not know the dangers. Much like a frozen lake, the salt flats have parts that are not stable and cars can break through the surface and sink. The salt flat was once a lake that has now become Lake Titicaca as it has evaporated over hundreds of thousands of years (so much for climate change being “new” and caused by man). The flats stretch on as far as you can see and you had to wear sunglasses because the reflection was very intense. In the middle of the flat was an “island” that had cactus growing all over it. We spent some time walking around the island and it was like a different world. The next activity was the greatest marketing scheme ever devised by man. The perspective pictures! The guides took us out to a spot that had nothing in the background but salt flat and blue skies. Then, they set up pictures that made everyday objects look huge next to a person in a picture. At one point, the guide had us all dancing around in a silly way and moving in between cones he had set. When all was said and done, he had a video of us dancing (and prancing!) out of a Pringles can and then running back in as we were chased by a giant T-Rex. Steven Spielberg could not have done better! Evidently, all the tour guides compete to see who can come up with the most clever idea. Afterwards, the guide took individual pictures and then asked that everyone post them on social media so “others will come to visit our salt flats”. Very clever! Day one ended with sunset photos without any sunset but I managed to capture some incredible reflection shots despite the challenging lighting. Day two we were a smaller group of six. Two Peruvians who spoke no English, two Japanese who spoke English and us who spoke English and survival Spanish. Our guide kept forgetting about the Peruvians in the back seat so I would turn around and try to piece together a few words for them to understand so you can imagine how well that went. Bill finally prodded the guide to remember the Peruvians on occasion. On this day, we headed out to a volcano that jutted out of the salt flats. As everyone else decided they were going to hike to the crater of the volcano, Bill and I tagged along to see the burial cave with skeletons which was cool. After the cave, Bill and I headed back down the hill to wait in the car and we were so glad we did. The guide decided to take them to the top of the volcano which was an even further hike and when they returned, even the Peruvians (who were born and raised in Cusco’s altitude) were in pain. On the way back to town, we stopped at the most breathtaking area where the flats melted seamlessly into the sky and it was difficult to tell sky from land. As I tried to capture some of the beauty with my Nikon camera, I teased the young Japanese woman about using her cell phone when her country made the greatest cameras on Earth. Her boyfriend laughed loudly and said, “It gets better….her father works for Nikon!” Shame, shame, shame! I could go on and on about the Uyuni leg of the trip but I know you are tired of reading! Next week’s blog will be filled with planes, trains and automobiles as we round out our incredible time in Bolivia. ****More awesome pics on Pictures tab
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|