Still southbound and once again in the freezing Altiplano, we continued through barren and dry landscape while regularly stopping on the way to observe and take pictures of the free-roaming llamas, alpacas and vicunas. But before we continue with the marvelous landscape of the Sajama National Park it is time for another edition of "everyday Bolivian experience". This time - fueling up the tank :) The government regulates the fuel costs and defines different prices for foreigners than for Bolivians. If a local can buy fuel for around 3,5 BOB/L (0,45€), the official price for the foreigners is about 8,7 BOB/L (1,1€). But as usual in South America and especially in Bolivia, almost everything is open for discussion. If you are cunning enough to ask for a service without the receipt, some gas-station employees will happily enter the local price into the computer while actually charging you a slightly higher price. We usually ended up at 5 or 5,5 BOB/L which meant that we payed far less than we should have and that the employee went home with some extra daily paychecks in his pocket. But it hasn't really worked out every time and it very much depended on the mood of the employee and our bargaining skills. Many times we would visit as much as five places before being able to fill-up for a lower price - but with our way of travelling every cent counts and we tried to haggle as much as possible :) Back to our travel itinerary... National Park Sajama is just at the northern Chilean border and encompasses the volcano Sajama and its close surroundings. The volcano, also the highest Bolivian peak at 6542m, is mostly surrounded by wilderness, filled with vicunas, rhea birds (a South American variety of emu) and plenty of thermal springs and geysers. We spent two days soaking up in the hot thermal water and trying to stay warm during the night when the temperature dropped under -10°C and our water bottles were freezing inside the car where we were sleeping (we didn't dare to use the rooftop tent). We filled two 5L plastic bottles with boiling geyser water and left them under our bed - we're not really sure if they actually helped in a way. After heating up the car-engine on the powerful Altiplano sun (we slept at 4500m again) so that our cooling system became liquid again, we continued with great anticipation towards our next destination.
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We are always a bit excited before entering a new country. The fictional borderline drawn by the people may not bring a difference in the landscape, but the changes in currency, food and the people's habits along with the wish for an easy border-crossing is always something that excites the mind, spices things up and in a way reawakens the adventurous spirit. Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in South America and with the highest share of indigenous people of all of them and we were really looking forward to discovering it. After dealing with the formalities on a very modern customs office, we entered the country just to be stopped in the first second by the military that insisted we entered in a wrong spot and made a serious offense that was just an excuse to extort some money from us. Several soldiers took Gasper into a windowless room and asked for an offering to the statue of saint Mary that stood on a table in the corner of the room in order for us to continue the way. After insisting that our papers were fine and that we haven't done anything wrong for some time, a senior officer entered the room that apparently didn't approve of the extortion methods and all of a sudden, everything was fine and we could continue without any need of paying the money. This is Bolivia, that we encountered over and over again in the following weeks and there are several occasions where we could have it our way just by being confident and stand behind our words. Bolivia's capital La Paz lies just a couple of hours' drive over the border thus also being our first stop in the country. We set-up our base in El Alto, which is the biggest of the many suburban settlements around La Paz and lies on the Altiplano edge overlooking the valley in which the city extends into the distance. We camped in a family-run backyard parking lot that included all the necessary amenities and the security (we even had a friendly guard dog once again:) ), while enabling us to enter the city center through the modern system of cable-car lines that are doing an impressive job as a substitute to subway. We visited the interesting city cemetery, where thousands of little boxes filled with personal possessions and flowers remind the people of their passed ones. There are even multi-story buildings in the cemetery that are dealing with the lack of space. La Paz is also full of open-air street markets, where fruits and vegetables mix with unhealthy looking meat stands with the hot sun and the flies having as much access to the food as the person buying it. Just aside, whole blocks of the city are dedicated to spare car parts, most of the stores dealing with tons of wrecked car material from where they try to pick out the still functional pieces. All in all, the city is as vibrant as one can expect from a South American capital, with a touch of Bolivian craziness that adds to the experience. On many occasions during our travels, we have found ourselves in a middle of beautiful landscapes just by leaving the main road behind to make a detour on many of the rural dirtroads connecting the smaller villages. This is when we really appreciate the possibility to travel with our own car since a bus ride to these remote places would include a great deal of planing and way more time to get there. One of the most enchanting places we found like this was Tinajani canyon, somewhere in the middle of the Peruvian mountains on our way towards Titicaca lake. Our wild campsite was surrounded by towering rock formations and a charming little river that seemed uncapable to actually dig out the place even with all the millions of years considered. We hiked to the cliffs of the canyon and picked up a friendly dog companion on the way that wouldn't leave our side afterwards. He was a bit too enthusiastic to defend us from the howling wind at night by barking at it:) The next day, just a few kilometers down the road, we encountered a vast field of the endangered plant puya raimondii or "the queen of the andes" that once again blew our minds by their crazy shape and size. From the beautiful Cordillera Blanca, we continued our way south, making a short stop in Lima on the way. The city is huge and the traffic chaotic. Arriving from the north, the shanty-towns didn't seem to have an end while we were slowly advancing into the city. We parked the car at our accomodation and continued by bus. It is amazing how a half an hour bus-ride can take you from dusty barrios and filthy street markets through broad colonial avenues directly into fancy modern areas with sea-view apartment buildings and chic restaurants. The huge differences still amaze us even after some months of travelling in South America. In the fancy part, we were finally able to buy a replacement lense for our camera though and enjoyed some of the metropolitan benefits like marvelous cafeterias and restaurants before quickly continued from the city to advance through the central Peruvian highlands towards the cultural capital Cuzco. |
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February 2019
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