Bolivia Part 2

To get to Rurrenabaque, the base town of Jungle tours, we had two options: By bus would take about 22 hours over curvy dirt-roads. The more expensive alternative would be a 45 minute flight. Since we had the luxury of having parents with us, we could choose for the flight. : )

It was the smallest plane we have ever flown with, with only 20 seats! It was amazing to feel the enormous change of air and temperature compared with La Paz after only 45 minutes. After settling down in our Hostel and exploring the village, we booked our 3 day Pampas-tour. Pampas is the lower ground Jungle dominated by rivers and water-animals.

We were with a group of 10 including the guide. After a 4 hour jeep ride, most of the tour was going to be in a small boat. Also our lodge was located directly at the river. During the tour we saw an incredible amount of different animals: hundreds of crocodiles, dozens of monkeys (mostly the cute squirrel-monkeys), many capybaras (worlds’ biggest rodents), some pink river dolphins and for the rest lots and lots of birds. We also went for a hike to search for anacondas, and even got lucky. Sven actually helped getting the anaconda out, holding it by its tale. After a brief view, we let it go again, being amazed how an animal that big could disappear in the shallow water that quickly!
Afterwards, we went a bit further with a boat to a spot for piranha fishing. At first, we were very unlucky, but after a while we (especially the guys) got the hang of it. We could even take them with us and eat them for dinner! Although those fish don’t have a lot of meat on them, they were quite tasty. Generally, we had deliciously prepared food for those three days! On our way back in the Jeep we got a last treat: Two wild ostriches (Straußvogel) crossed our road!

After the Jungle, we only spent two nights in La Paz, and went to see the football game Bolivia - Uruguay. Although the game sucked, the atmosphere in and around the statium was great! 
The morning after the game we headed towards our next adventure: Salar de Uyuni (the Salt flats). We took a bus to Oruro, and from there we continued by train. Although the train took quite a bit longer, it was a very impressive train ride over lakes full with flamingos and through no-mans’ land with only a few ghost towns, groups of llamas and vicuñas (family of the llama, only smaller) and sandstorms.

We arrived in Uyuni late at night time, and early the next morning the Muliars figured out the best Tour-operator, with which we left at 9:30. It was a three day tour of which most of the time we would be spending in a jeep. We shared the jeep with the driver Santos; a small and funny Boliviano, and two other tourists: Marc from Spain and Anthony from Australia.

Our first stop was a train cemetery, with cargo trains dating from the early 1900s’. Afterwards we continued to the Saltflats: enormous white flats reaching further than the eye could see. These ancient seas had dried out after they had risen to almost 4000m in altitude due to tectonic activity. All that was left was a thick layer of Salt. Underneath clear blue sky, this created an incredible ambiance and above all a cool optical illusion due to the absence of depth: great for pictures!  

We drove for many kilometers over these Salt flats, with a short stop at the Isla de Pescados: an island covered in many huge cactuses. After lunch in the ‘salt hotel’, we continued another couple of hours until we reached our first sleeping place – at this place, the tables, stools and even walls were made out of salt!
Before we started with the tour, we were told that it could get very cold, especially after sunset and at nighttime. And this is how it was – during the day it was already very windy, but the sun did a lot then. In the evenings we were wearing all the clothes we could possibly find, and soon snuggled into bed underneath 4kg of blankets and our sleeping bags. On day number two, we had the best experiences of the landscape: geysers (steam), various colored Lagunas, flamingos, a stone tree, hot springs, desert and volcanos – everything in one day. Words can hardly describe how beautiful it was! On the last day, we had a 7-8h drive back to Uyuni. But of course, what is a tour without any complications: we managed to have 2 flat tires on the 2nd day and another one on the last day. Good that Santos was our driver, guide AND the man who could fix all the broken tires : ). Overall, it was a very unique tour with stunning views and landscapes every single day.

Already since days we have been thinking of how to plan our next destinations and activities. The more we read in travel guides and talked to people, the more places we wanted to still visit. One other city on our list was Tupiza, a couple of hours south of Uyuni. Already the way there by bus was very interesting. The landscape slowly changed from sand desert, into stone and canyon regions. The rocks and stones kept on changing in color, presenting themselves in brownish, beige, black and even various red tints. It looked beautiful. Just before we reached Tupiza, the ‘Wild west city of Bolivia’, the valleys were filled with green trees just beside the river – a color we haven’t seen much in Bolivia until then!
Since the city presented a Clint Eastwood feeling, we could not resist to hire horses and experience the surrounds on 4 feet each. We booked a 7 hour horse trip, including a guide and lunch at the river banks. All 4 of us felt perfectly comfortable and really enjoyed the ride, even did some counter. Although Sven fell off the horse once – like a real cowboy – he of course just got back on the saddle right away again and managed to continue (almost) perfectly fine.
After finishing the tour, we all felt our butts and knees (Sven especially), but still continued with the night bus to our next destination: Sucre.

Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, and known as its most beautiful city. It was indeed a nice city with lots of colonial architecture, but a bit too busy for our sakes. We spent almost 2 days to explore the cute city, before we made our way back to La Paz.

The only thing that was still missing was the Death Road. The Death Road is known as the most dangerous road of the world: a mountain-winding, one lane dirt-road, with a very steep gradient on one side. Nowadays, it mainly serves as a great but scary downhill mountain bike adventure. All 4 of us were very keen on doing it, and nobody leaves Bolivia without a T-Shirt in the suitcase, saying something like ‘Death Road Survivor’!

The tour started at the main road at an altitude of 4700m. We received all the gear and had to test the bikes: definitely not the best with gearing issues and loose breaks, but we figured it all out.
The first kilometers were freezing cold and foggy, with losing sensation in all fingers and toes due to the temperature and wind. Afterwards, the actual ride on the Death Road started. The Motto was: always look at the road and never down the mountain ridge. The downhill ride there was supposed to take about 3 hours, until we reach an altitude of 1200m.
It did not take long until it started to rain very heavily and everybody was completely drenched, but that made it only more thrilling! It was great fun, and when reaching the finish, Pam could barely move her hands due to pain in her underarms: no wonder with the shaking of the steering wheel for that long! We finished up with a great lunch buffet, before we headed back to La Paz.

The next day was basically our last day together. Yes, 4 weeks have passed insanely quickly! It was Mo’s birthday that day, although unfortunately there was not much to celebrate since she got quite stomach sick. A very unspectacular birthday in bed this year : (. Xandi, Sven and Pam decided to check out the Zoo of La Paz, a great idea to have an easy day before departure.

After our last dinner, it was time for Mo & Xandi to finish up packing their bags. They left very early the next morning, and we had another very relaxing day before we were heading to the airport as well. La pròxima destinatiòn: Santigao de Chile.