Bolivia - Land of cheap everything (dynamite included)

La Paz, Bolivia - We made our way around Lake Titicaca and left Peru for Bolivia. I highly recommend Peru, especially outside of Lima, to go travelling in. It is cheap as chips, the people are super friendly and you can survive with minimal Spanish and the scenery and history is fantastic. I was going to miss the screaming hordes of schoolgirls though. They really have a thing for gringos.

After a quick border crossing and another stamp in my passport we headed to the world’s highest capital city, La Paz. La Paz is in a large valley, surrounded by the Andes mountains and is basically a huge market. I knew Bolivia was the poorest country in South America and expected La Paz to be a big shanty town but it had skyscrapers and a few wealthy sections and even the poor areas I saw weren’t that bad. I thought Peru was cheap but Bolivia was super, super cheap. Our first night we went to one of the best restaurants in town, which could also be an awesome restaurant back home, and had filet mignon cooked to perfection for NZ$5 and a couple of powerful cocktails for a couple of bucks each.



The next day we mountain biked 64km down the world’s most dangerous road where they have 200-300 people die every year and have had 9 mountain bikers die in the last 3 years. The reason for the deaths is due to the winding, cliff-hugging, single-lane goat track with a 400metre (1320 foot) drop on one side that has fully-laden trucks and buses going both directions in all weather. The road goes through rainforest so it is often misty and/or raining and the drivers aren’t the most patient in the world. The mountain bikers who died either fell over the edge or came around corners, smack bang into oncoming trucks. We basically had four seasons in one day while we did it. We started at 4700 metres in altitude and descended down to about 1100 metres. It was a great day and the company we went with, Gravity Assist, was brilliant and very safety conscious. We finished with a buffet and beer and then went back up the road in a bus with the wheels only inches from the edge.



We then spent a few days walking around the huge market that is La Paz and had Janine’s birthday the same night we said goodbye to 6 of the passengers so therefore it was a big night out.

Potosi, Bolivia - With a couple of new passengers, Marjorie and Paul, we headed to the highest city in the world which is well known for its mining. A group of us decided to check out the mines but first we had to buy presents for some of the miners. We bought a combo pack which included coca leaves (the ingredient for cocaine. They chew the leaves), 96% potable alcohol (which they swig to clear their sinuses), cigarettes (made with cinnamon, coca leaves, black tobacco) and most importantly a stick of dynamite with fuse and detonator and bag of nitro-glycerine. Yes, we bought the dynamite and equipment without permits or anything and Skank bought 3 extra sticks for blowing up later for only 50 cents each. You can basically go to the market and anyone can buy dynamite without any problem for less than a dollar a stick. Good old Bolivia. We trudged around the mines for several hours hearing explosions all around and knowing that the miners are pretty wasted on their combination of drugs and alcohol. We made it out alive and then got to blow up some dynamite ourselves which was awesome.



Uyuni, Bolivia - After some pretty rough roads where we nearly had a couple of head-ons with local buses we made it to this small town in the massive salt flats. We celebrated Sas’s birthday and then went on a day jeep tour of a steam train cemetery, the salt flats and an island covered in cactus. Out on the flats we took lots of silly proportion photos and one of us spelling out Bukima in very dodgy positions. We then watched the sunset over the salt flats before heading back for gourmet pizza and beer.



Tupiza, Bolivia - We had another rough day’s drive through riverbeds and made it to another small town set in a valley of very contrasting landscapes with eroded hills of all colours and bright green valleys. Jayne, Anna, Mark, Rebecca and I had a go at the triathlon which was a day tour on mountain bike, jeep and horseback all around the area and it was great even though all the equipment was Bolivian standards and very much in need of replacing.



We then headed towards the Argentinean border but bush-camped 30 minutes short of it for one night where Skank and I detonated the 3 sticks of dynamite, blowing up a watermelon, a rabbit hole and a carton of rotten milk. More choice fun in Bolivia with dynamite. Viva Bolivia. It was a pity we could only spend 10 days in Bolivia because I really liked the place and the cheap lifestyle.