Bolivia

Bolivia DIY

Change

The Bolivian currency is the Boliviano (BOB)

1 Eu = 8.97 BOB

1 BOB = 0.10670 Eu

Flight

Iberia

Cost 1109 Eu incl. tax

8/8 Turin-Madrid IB 8817, Madrid-Lima IB 6651, Lima-Santa Cruz TA 925

9/8 Lima-Madrid IB 7758. Madrid-Turin IB8822

I chose to land in Santa Cruz to avoid the  4000 meters shock at La Paz. I then climbed gradually, and by land. Anyway, I did have problems with altitude sickness

BOA (Boliviana de Aviacion)

Cost 383 BOB

8/11 Santa Cruz – Sucre OB580 07.50 – 08.35

Bought when I was already in Santa Cruz, directly at the airport, when I went to pick up my luggage which got lost. I was unsure to buy it in advance, and I was right.
I already spoke about Iberia in the Peru travel diary, so I avoid repeating myself.
Backpackers on various forums advised me not to go overland from Santa Cruz to Sucre, more than 12 hours on a rough road even in the dry season, with change in Cochabamba. The various companies do not use their best vehicles, not to ruin them, so the buses are wrecks. 40 Eu are then money well spent for a 40-minute flight, and BOA is a great company.

Inland transport

Bus

http://www.bus-america.com/linea_BO_Fs.htm

Bus trips are not the best in the world. Most of the roads are not paved, even from La Paz to Uyuni.
The Todoturismo bus, popular with foreigners on this route, over-recommended on forums and guides, is expensive (230 BOB), crowded, and not very comfortable (semi-cama narrow seats). I could not suggest an alternative company because unfortunately I used them, but I noticed, departing from Uyuni, there were other companies, and some of them had “cama” seats, so it is worth checking out

A great company I tested is instead O Globo, cama seats and prices much lower than Todoturismo. It was suggested to me by Bolivians. From Potosí to Tupiza the road is dirt and full of hairpin bends, I traveled by night and slept all the way. The Sucre-Potosi (collective taxi, a little more expensive than the bus, and much faster) is ok, a few bends, but well-maintained asphalt. No problem also on the La Paz – Copacabana – Puno road

Weather  / Recommended clothing

I took with me: a wool hat, gloves, down jacket (a old one, perhaps the padding was no longer at the top), two fleece, a softshell with light synthetic fur inside, thermal underwear. In Sucre I could still walk around in flip flops and fleece,  maybe in Tupiza windbreaker after dinner was a bit too much, in Potosi was absolutely necessary, at the Salar I sit at dinner and breakfast with everything I had.  At Copacabana warm weather, even if the height is the same as Potosi.

Altitudine sickness (soroche)

For info

http://www.guidestarmountain.com/files/324.pdf

The site is mainly dedicated to mountaineers, in each case the mechanisms are the same.
I knew I would had problems, remembering what happened in Ladakh, but the attraction for Bolivia was so strong that the fear of altitude sickness did not stop me. Already in Sucre, 2900 meters I got a headache, and so I immediately took Diamox, which has mitigated the symptoms, even if breath shortness accompanied me till the descent to Lima. It’s better not to overstrain on the first days, drink a lot and eat little. The Diamox, in Italy, with the medical prescription costs a couple of Euros. In any case, at local chemists’ (I checked in Potosi) “soroche pills” made with acetazolamide, the Diamox active ingredient, plus caffeine and painkillers, are sold.

Hotels

Everything found on the spot, except Tupiza. Very cheap. variable standards (excellent quality / price ratio in Copacabana, bad in Santa Cruz). A Tupiza there was no heating, just a lot of blankets, and out of bed it was cold. In the Salar + Lagoons tour, very basic accommodations, no heating (the condensation on the windows in the morning was icy, so even in the rooms it went below zero), no hot water, no flushing toilet, toilet paper to be disposed strictly in the baskets. There is always some idiot who does not follow this rule and clogs everything. In some places it’s possible to take a hot shower with 10 Bob, but not everywhere. At least one of the nights are spent in a salt hotel. The alternative are the Tayka Hotels, expensive, (I think that prices are about 100 USD per night), even there at night there is no electricity, and sometimes the hot water is lacking, so I do not see why spend so much money. Even the Tayka Hotels are built with salt.

I took with me a very warm sleeping bag, lend by a friend of mine, who used it in Nepal to sleep in tents at 5000 mt. I think it costs like a flight ticket .. I used it not only in the Salar, but every time it was cold in the room, or the blankets were dirty.
Going back to toilet paper, if there is a dustbin around, that’s where you have to put it. If you have doubts, ask to the reception

Communication

I bought in Santa Cruz a Viva sim card, it worked out great

Food

Many trouts and quinoa soups. At lunch I try to ate at the markets or at comedores, in the evening I went to restaurants. Tupiza is full of “Italian” restaurants, one is the copy of the other one, the food is not Italian at all.

Shopping

A paradise. In Copacabana, there are shops selling beautiful necklaces and earrings. To give an idea of the costs: a necklace and earrings set with precious stones (malachite) costed 70 BOB, 20 BOB a typical hat in soft alpaca wool, 70 BOB two pairs of gloves in pure alpaca.

Worth to go?

.. Claro que sì!! I liked it very much. The population is exceptional. The landscapes of the south western highlands are extraordinary. I would go back to see the Amazon, because as I read the Bolivian side is much less exploited that the Brazilian one, and also cheaper. While I was in Santa Cruz waiting for my baggage, I went around to get info about the Amazon excursions. Saimapata is very easy to reach, and I guess it is very touristy. I think it is necessary to go to Rurrenabaque, and buy there excursions, or Trinidad, and then embark on the ships which navigate the river, as in Garcia Marquez novels

The Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, both islands and Yampupata peninsula, who are anyway quite touristic, is by far better than the more touristic Peruvian side, according to what I saw when traveling to Puno. I would like to go back on the Isla del Sol, do the trekking, and sleep there.
Potosi is beautiful, Sucre a bit less. The only negative comment is that churches are open only at certain times.
I read before leaving that the population becomes proportionally more rude as you go up in the altitude. I did not have that impression, really. Everybody seemed very nice, when the local people enter In some bar, restaurant, shop, they greet everyone, even foreigners.

The thing that struck me is that in Bolivia every day there is a party, and a protest.
Music, bands, processions, majorettes, parades, and on the other side strikes and roadblocks, for any reason, in general categories of humble workers like campesinos who claim respect for their rights as human beings, but also feminists protesting against the rampant machismo; perhaps the only way to get really considered is to stop the traffic. Something to be considered, if one has tight connections and short time.
Secondly, it is the country in which more than others I see surviving ancient crafts who are disappeared in the modern world. Photographers in the squares, now with digital machine, with the assistant who roll out a curtain background behind the subjects to be immortalized,  secretaries sitting at sidewalks with their typewriters and people in line waiting outside the tribunals, the orange sellers peeling the fruits into a single, perfect helix.

The sky is pristine pure. The sun is so bright, the light is magnificent
Unfortunately people do not like at all to be photographed. At the Tarabuco market I saw locals throwing tomatoes to some tourists who were filming with their ipad. Almost all the women still dress in traditional clothing, men do not, but in Tarabuco, for example, I have  seen old men wearing the typical headgear similar to antique felt helmets the Spaniards used at the time of the conquest. The typical bowler hat adorning women’s heads is peculiar of the north, while in the south is replaced by a flatter one, like Argentine gaucho. The braids are tied with pom poms, or other wool ornaments

Bolivia is the country with the lowest income in South America. Unfortunately there are many poor people in the streets, most of them with children.

Disappointments / Crime

The same as for Peru. He never felt remotely threatened. I followed the normal rules of common sense.
I expected small annoyances by people working with tourists, like in India or Vietnam, but here things go very differently. Prices are not inflated, people are honest and nobody tries to rip you off… . it did not seem real to me… 🙂