Leaving Cochabamba...Onwards to Rio...

So tomorrow is my last day in Cochabamba. I am flying to Asuncion, Paraguay tomorrow afternoon, spending the evening in the airport, (fun times! Though I have experience of sleeping in Asuncion airport, so I know a good place to sleep!) and then leaving very early the next morning for Rio.

As much as I am excited to go to Brazil (less excited about dealing with Portuguese) and looking forward to seeing a new country, I will miss Cochabamba.

I am hopeful that I will be coming back to Bolivia and Cochabamba in August, however the visa regulations have changed, so I have absolutely no idea whether I will be allowed back in to the country and if I am, whether I will have to pay an extortionate amount of money. In typical Bolivian style, no one has any idea about the new immigration rules.

I have absolutely loved every minute of my time in Cochabamba, the people, the climate, waking up every morning surrounded by beautiful scenery. Travelling at the weekends has been amazing, every trip was different, I feel like in Bolivia wherever you go, you never see the same thing twice, the country is full of different extremes, its like several countries in one. Bolivia is a beautiful country and one still largely untouched by tourists which makes it even better!

I will miss Cochabamba and all the amazing people I have met here. Hopefully the next chapter of my travels in Brazil will be just as good.

Vive Che!

We found out late last week that there was a new public holiday in Bolivia to celebrate the Aymara new year, usually it is only in La Paz that this is a day off but this year it spread to the whole of Bolivia, this meant that we had Monday off work, so a 3 day weekend and I finally got to do the Che trail.

We set off on our full cama bus which was very comfortable indeed at just after 8 o clock on Friday night. The bus journey although comfortable was one of the worst I have endured during my time here, infact only topped by the return journey! The trip was filled with a bad western movie, a crying baby, a woman who had this disgusting hacking cough which sounded as if she was being sick, people smoking on the bus, and the most unbearably stuffy and humid conditions. All in all a very fun 12 hour ride, punctuated by a 2.30am toilet stop in the middle of nowhere, with some pretty grim toilets lit by candlelight, probably for the best that we couldn´t see very much to be honest!

We arrived in Santa Cruz at around 7.30ish, quickly grabbed some breakfast and took a taxi to the stop where the micros and trufis depart to Samaipata. We finally located a micro and set off not long after 9, the trip wasn´t a long one, maybe 2 and a half or 3 hours, but this bus was packed, some people actually stood for the entire trip, others just sat in the aisle! The road was pretty bad but we finally got there around lunchtime.

Samaipata was absolutely beautiful, probably my favourite place I have visited so far in Bolivia. It was clean, quiet, not polluted, had lovely restaurants and places to stay, the people were very warm. It felt very mediterranean, we only stayed a day but I could have stayed for weeks!

We grabbed some lunch in a nice little cafe called La Chakana, I had falafel for the first time in 2 months and it was so bloody good, I miss falafel and houmous so much! After lunch we headed off in search of some tour companys to get some quotes for the Che trail, we went to one which was pretty expensive and after this we stumbled upon a group called the road runners, they quoted us a much cheaper price and seemed like fun guys so we decided to go with them on the Saturday morning.

We sadly did not get a chance to go to El Fuente, the Inca ruins in Samaipata, because it was too late in the day, this was a shame because they are supposed to be pretty incredible and also everyone was descending on the town to celebrate the Aymara new year at the ruins. We went for a little hike up a hill and had a great view over the town. As everyone was apparently flocking to the town for the celebrations we were told it was going to be extremely difficult to find a bed for the night. The road runners suggested some places to us, and thankfully the first place we tried had room for us. We got a room for the 5 of us, four of us had beds, Jamie ended up on a mattress on the floor! in a hostel run by this really sweet old couple and it was only 25bs each (2.50!) very cheap, it was a marked improvement on the dive of a hostel we stayed in in Chapare.

We went to a restaurant in the evening and just chilled out, got an early night in preparation for the Ruta Del Che. We went back to La Chakana in the morning, for breakfast, I had an absolutely massive bowl of fruit with yoghurt was delicious! Maarten our Dutch tourguide picked us up just after 9 and we set off in our 4 x 4 truck for the trail. The 5 of us and our driver crammed into the truck during the first part of the trail but after that we spent the majority of the time in the back of the truck, which was incredibly fun, you got great views, although a totally numb bum was the price to pay!

The route to Vallegrande was a beatifully scenic one, surrounded my mountains as far as the eye could see. We arrived in Vallegrande at lunchtime and after having some mediocre Chinese we set off for the town of La Higuera the place where Che met his end. We got to the Churo, the mini canyon, where Che and his followers were captured at mid afternoon. We hiked around 45 minutes, most of it downhill, to the place where Che and his group were surrounded, many were killed and the rest taken to La Higuera. It was extremely surreal being in the place where all this took place. We even saw the rock under which Che was hiding when he was shot in the leg and the game became virtually all over. We then had a pretty tough hike to get back to the car, especially as we had to do it before nightfall, this meant walking far too quickly, up a very steep route! We finally made it back to the truck just before dark and then set off to the tiny village of La Higuera. It felt pretty creepy to be sleeping in the town where Che was murdered.

We stayed in this really nice hostel for the night (all included in our tour price) owned by a lovely couple who were vegetarians! The village only got electricity last year so the only places in the hostel that were lit were the kitchen and bathroom, the rest was lit by candlelight which was really pretty. They made us a delicious omelette for dinner, which must of contained at least 6 eggs it was absolutely huge! We chilled outside and then went to bed, the rooms were really nice. I then discovered that I had been bitten to shreds overnight in Samaipata, forgot to put my repellent on, oops! They did a pretty good job, in particular the one who bit me on my eyelid, which caused it to swell so that I looked like I had been attacked!

On Sunday morning we set off to the schoolhouse (now a museum) where Che was executed, it was unbelievable to be on the ground where he was killed, but at the same time incredibly sad. The museum had little artefacts and told the tale of Che and the guerillas, and there was a big wall with messages and photos of people who had visited. We went to try and speak to the lady who served Che his last meal but unfortunately she was not in, which was a shame.

After this we set off in our truck back to Vallegrande, the route was again incredibly beautiful, and we stopped along the way to have a picnic in the mountains, which was very scenic indeed. We got back to Vallegrande and went to the laundry room in the hospital where Che´s body was exhibited after his death, it was chilling to see the place well recognised from the famous photos after his death. The place has now been covered in graffiti and messages from people who have made the pilgramage to this spot. We paused and reflected here for a time.

We finally headed to the secret grave which was undiscovered for many years, the bodies no longer lie here, they were exhumed, and Che´s was returned to Cuba. The bodies were hidden for many years, and once they were located, the only reason they knew it was Che was because his hands had been cut off, something which was done so that he could not be identified infact worked in completely the opposite way

This marked the end of the Che trail, I am so glad that I got to do it and I can leave Bolivia and indeed South America content in the knowledge that I managed to fulfil one of my main aims of my trip. We took in beautiful landscape and scenery, stayed in picturesque towns but most importantly we followed the trail of the last moments of the revolutionary icon. I will never forget the trip, it was definitely my favourite I have undertaken in Bolivia.

We left Vallegrande on a "semi-cama" bus which infact was just a regular coach! Me and Rocio were stuck in the backrow so our seats did not recline at all, it was truly the most uncomfortable 12 hours ever! The road was the most awful I have been on in Bolivia, I could not see much of it, but it just felt truly horrendous, it was so bumpy. Add to this a woman next to me who was leaning on me and snoring, a couple of really loud obnoxious German girls, and the bus getting a flat tyre at 2.30 in the morning meaning we all had to get off and wait at the side of the road! and you have the bus journey from hell. Safe to say I got pretty much no sleep, but it was worth it for the weekend we had had.

The Che trail was amazing and I feel extremely lucky to have been able to visit all the different places we did over the weekend. Vive Che!

Villa Tunari

This weekend we decided to visit the Chapare region of Cochabamba, it is about 3-4 hours away from Cochabamba, so we decided to leave at 9am Saturday morning, which meant it was obviously a great idea to go out to Pimienta the night before. I got home at almost 5am and after polishing off a banana sandwich in the hopes that it would ward off a hangover, I had what I would define as more of a nap than a sleep. For having had 3 hours sleep I was surprisingly feeling fine and a lot more awake than other people. We didn´t actually all get to the meeting point until after 10, that extra hour in bed would have been lovely! We then got onto the bus to Villa Tunari which we were told would be leaving in half an hour, so we boarded and an hour later we were still stuck in bloody Cochabamba. Apparently the buses don´t leave until they are full and his estimate of a half hour was hugely ambitious! We were greeted by a number of sellers for the next hour, including one women who told us "No hay manzanas in Chapare". Which was total rubbish, as most of the fruit in Cochabamba comes from the Chapare! She just wanted us to buy her apples!

We finally left around 11.30, at which point a salesman stood up on the bus and gave us a monologue about protein, how a vegetarian diet is lacking in it, among other things for the next hour or so, to try and sell us his Maca Powder, which I am told by Will was pretty disgusting. The bus took bloody ages to get to Chapare, it was not a fun trip due to being unable to open our window and being sat next to a cholita who took her shoes off for the majority of the journey. We kept stopping, and one time we were stopped for so long and it was quite close to Villa Tunari which meant it was incredibly stuffy and humid.In the end we all just wanted to get off the bus. This ambition was foiled by the driver who did not stop at Villa Tunari and went straight past it. Most of the Bolivians on the bus just turned round and were asking us if we were going to Tunari because we had just passed it! So after getting off the bus we had to a taxi back to the town.

We finally arrived in Chapare at around 5ish, the hope of getting there for lunch was ambitious, and none of us took any food for the journey! The first thing that hits you is the heat, it is very humid and this is during the winter! I would hate to feel it in the Summer. We walked around the town for a bit which was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, it was a pretty cute little town actually. There was a parade, which went on all weekend, to celebrate San Antonio, the towns patron saint.

We wandered round the town looking for a hostel that was recommended by the lonely planet and rough guide as the best budget option, and at 5 pounds each, it was very cheap. We had 4 rooms between us, I roomed with Amy. Our room was a bit of a dive, there was a dead cockroach that greeted us, no sheets on the beds, dead bugs everywhere, and the best of the lot, there was actually cat poo on the floor which Will stepped in and smeared all over the floor. He did clean it all up for us though bless him! It was pretty disgusting, she did bring us some sheets though. Alice, Annie and Catherine actually had a pretty nice room, and she brought them towels and toilet paper, which nobody else got, apparently we were not as popular with the owner!

We headed off to find a restaurant, and went again with the rough guides recommendation of the best restaurant in town, the san silvestre, this time it was a bit more accurate. We had a good meal, and I got some veggie food, some eggs, rice, fried yucca and salad, which was all pretty good but very filling! The restaurant was filled with animal skins and snakes in jars, so it wasn´t really my kind of place but at least we got some edible food. We headed back to the hostel and chilled in the "good" room for the rest of the night.

On Sunday we woke early, I actually risked a shower and it was not bad at all, it was cold but I was so disgustingly clammy that it was quite refreshing plus it was quite powerful. Me, Alice and Jamie walked into town to buy some breakfast for the group, we managed to find some bread, plaintains, mandarins, and some yoghurt and juice drinks which we took back and ate at the hostel. Then we set off to the monkey park Parque Machia.

The park is a rehabilitation center for injured animals. We got there quite early and headed straight for the monkey area. We got there and there was like 3 monkeys and they were all tied on leads to trees, totally confusing as to why they were in captivity, it was a bit shit and everyone was quite disappointed, but we headed off on the hike to the waterfall in the park. We went on a pretty good hike mostly uphill, along the way stopping at a nice viewpoint and then carrying on to the two waterfalls. Anything a Bolivian defines as a waterfall is just not, its literally just falling water, just a trickle! But it was pretty cool all the same. After the hike we decided to go back to the monkey area and thank god we did.

The second visit to the monkey section was so much better, there was absolutely loads of monkeys and they were all off leads, just roaming around, we could not have anything on us at all, as the monkeys wanted to steal everything. They were so cute, playing with each other, and jumping and climbing all over us. Jessica had the most up close and personal visit from a monkey, it climbed down her top and just stayed under her t-shirt, much to the amusement of everyone else. It was so cute there, I really did not want to leave the monkeys.

We headed into town and had some lunch, I had an absolutely cracking vegetarian omelette, was absolutely delicious. Then we headed off for our white water rafting. The company picked us up and drove to the place where we would raft too. I had no spare shoes so borrowed this amazing looking zip up boots, which were totally practical for rafting, not so for walking on rocks. The rafting was fantastic, it was category 2, so not amazingly difficult, but we were pretty awful none the less. He even made me switch sides with Katherine because I was so rubbish at it! We followed our guides commands on when to paddle forward, backwards, stop, and when to get down in the boat. It was so much fun. We stopped half way round and all jumped in off this really high cliff, I was pretty scared at the top but managed to do it in the end. The guide had to pull us back into the boat which ended with Amy rather hilariously being pulled right into the guides crotch! Highly amusing for the rest of us. We finished our rafting and headed back to the hostel to pack.

I was getting changed in the bathroom and saw something large move out the corner of my eye, I thought it was a moth but when I turned it leaped and I saw it was a frog, needless to say I screamed! I have no idea where it went or where it came from, but it scared the life out of me. We left the hostel and headed for the bus stop.

We were told that the last trufis leave at 8pm so getting there around 7.15 we thought we would be fine. How wrong we were! On arrival we were told all the drivers were too tired and no one was going back to Cochabamba until the morning. We were absolutely screwed, but thankfully this one guy offered to take us, if we paid a little bit extra, which we were more than willing to do. I was fully prepared to go back in a fruit truck, I just wanted to get back that evening. So we left around 8, and after around 3 hours, of which the driver was on the wrong side of the road for a large majority, we finally got home.

I really liked Villa Tunari, the climate is tough, it is so hot and sticky. However it was a really beautiful place. It is the beggining of the Bolivian Amazon basin, so it was pretty spectacular. I didn´t get bitten once, insect repellent must have been really good! Poor Amy got bitten a lot! It was a really peaceful and relaxing place, and it was an awesome weekend, we all had such a great time.

I have just found out that next Monday is a public holiday, so I am very tempted to do the Che trail this weekend, hopefully that will work out this time.

Cochabamaba Valley

Found out pretty last minute that we were not allowed to take the Friday off work so we could not do the Che Trail, absolutely gutted as I was really looking forward to it. I hope I get to do it before I leave at the end of the month as it is the one thing I really want to do.

Thursday was a bank holiday in Cochabamba, it is Corpus Christi so being in a Catholic country that means day off work but also pretty much everything being closed. I decided to not waste the day off, and wandered around the city, I tried to locate the supermarket, which I stumbled into. I really do not like going to the supermarket here, they are far too westernised and it does not make me feel like I am in Bolivia. I then decided to buy some mandarins from a street vendor I only wanted a few but when she offered me what I thought was 10 for 20bs I thought why not, instead she proceeded to stack over 20 into a bag for 10bs (1 pound) so I had to carry around 20+ mandarins with me for the better part of the day.

I met with some other volunteers and we tried to go to the Palacio Portales which I have already been to, but is a pretty nice place, unfortunately it was closed. And so began the epic fail of a week. I had not really felt well all day and came down with a pretty bad fever on Friday so I did not end up going to work after all. Oh the irony! I stayed in bed all day, as my host family fussed over me.

On Saturday we went to Villa Albina which is Simon Patiños other house in Cochabamba, a mansion he built for his wife. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed, it is only open 9-11 on a Saturday. So Simon Patiño defeated us for the second time in a few days! All we saw was a damn cow. We went to Pairumani park which was less of a park and more of a campsite though we did go on the swings so it was definitely worth it. After that we headed back to Quillacollo which is a little town outside Cochabamba. In the evening we went to the cinema to see Prince of Persia which when we got there obviously both showings would be in Spanish because that was just the sort of day we were having. Despite the website advertising Sex and the City 2 that was also not out. So we ended up (tragically) having to see the bounty hunter, which is definitely in my top 5 worst films I have ever seen and I could not even dignify it with a small review, it was utterly dreadful.

Sunday saw us head to the Quillacollo market which was pretty big, not as big as La Cancha but just as crowded. I did not buy anything and was pretty put off by the amount of raw meat everywhere, especially the bits which still had teeth attached. Gross! We headed to Sipe Sipe, which is a nice little town for a wonder. Not much there, and also a lot was closed as it was a Sunday, but we found a nice restaurant and had a good walk around the town.

So that was my week pretty uneventful, and still pretty dissappointed to not have been blogging about the Che trail, but fingers crossed I will get there at some point.

Gran Poder Festival in La Paz

Very last minute decision to go to La Paz, but after hearing about the festival of Gran Poder happening on the weekend, decided it was definitely worth a trip.

We left Cochabamba on friday evening on the night bus to La Paz. This was my first experience of the Cochabamba bus terminal and I have to say it was not an experience I will soon forget. It is so congested, and there are so many people crowding around, there is not much order or organisation and the constant attempts by companys to try and get you to take their bus by shouting their destination in your face is quite unpleasant.

We headed over to where we assumed we would board our bus from and typically it ran on Bolivian time so was a bit late. We finally located our bus and boarded. We got the semi-cama which means the seats recline a fair way. There is also the regular, and full cama which has seats that are virtually beds, but this is quite expensive.

There were 12 of us in total so we had our own comparment on the bottom of the bus which was awesome. It was generally pretty comfy though I did not manage to sleep much. I was drifting off at one point to awaken to Rocio conversing in Spanish with some random Bolivian and I wondered what the hell was going on, turns out that someone needed to go to the toilet but we could not get out of our compartment as it had a weird way of opening the door so they were knocking to get this guys attention and then he was letting us out.

The bus stopped a few times along the way, once when we were barely out of Cochabamba for quite a long time. I slept between 3 and 5.30 and then drifted until 6.30 when we arrived in La Paz.

We got off the bus and it was bloody freezing, I had heard it was much colder in La Paz but was not expecting it to be as cold as it was. We walked to our hostel called The Adventure Brew and they very kindly allowed us to check in and go to our room. There was a small problem when only 5 of the group had taken their passports the rest of us took photocopies, but they finally accepted this and checked into our room.

Our room was in the Adventure Brew Two which was a short walk down the road, we had our own 12 bed dorm which was cool. It was clean and had a great view of the street where the parade took place. We dumped our stuff and headed off to find some breakfast. We went to a really nice cafe where I had some muesli and yoghurt, and then we set off for the parade.

Before we went into the cafe everyone was still setting up for the parade but when we came out it was in full swing, and we staked out a place along the route. The streets were lined with people but we managed to find some really good seats along the route, which we paid 20bs for (2 pounds) and we settled in to watch the parade.

The Gran Poder happens once in a year in La Paz between May and June, there are around 25,000 dancers who spend thousands on their costumes. It has been going for many years, and apparently gets bigger and more impressive year on year. There were many different indigenous groups partaking in the parade. It was so vibrant and lively. The parade started around 10 and it went on non stop until 11, the sheer scale of it was very impressive. More so the dancers and the viewers lining the streets, who started drinking pretty early. We were constantly passed by people selling food and drink. We left the parade around lunchtime with the added bonus of a bit of sunburn.

We went in search of some lunch an headed into an Italian which looked ok, but was not. It was the worst meal I have had in Bolivia. It was a simple fettucini with tomato sauce not much to go wrong you would think, but the sauce was awful it was so tasteless just watery so I ate barely any of it. We then wandered the streets of La Paz for a bit, including a trip to the witches market where I bought a few souveniers and some coca candy. I refrained from buying a llama fetus, the sight of it was enough for me.

We headed back to the hostel, where I had a very cold shower, apparently everybody else managed to get the hot water to work apart from me. After I had got in I realized I had forgotten my shampoo, thankfully had my handy travel wash with me so that was fine.

In the evening we went to the adventure brew bar which was really nice, we also got a free beer each with our stay, the colonia was really nice. We headed out in search of a shop to buy alcohol but after traipising the streets of La Paz with no success we decided that everyone was probably at the festival so there would be no where to buy any. We decided to head back and just buy a crate of beer from one of the street sellers.

After several huaris and a game of ring of fire, we merrily headed off to bed. I was absolutely freezing in the night, mostly because I somehow came out of my liner, and only slept with one blanket when we had two, silly me.

We woke early, the hangover was not nice, but I decided to go with some of the others to buy our return bus tickets as we had to get them beforehand. We headed back to the hostel for our free all you can eat pancake breakfast (3 is all I can eat!), if you stayed there for more than a few days I think it would be less than that aswell.

We then headed off in search of the witches market, it seems that the people of La Paz were equally hungover as they rose pretty late in the day. We found it, and it was several streets of artesenias selling handcrafted goods, alpaca wear, jewellary, it was really nice and I will definitely go back there when I return to La Paz.

We headed back to Cochabamba at 2pm, the bus ride was not too bad, about 7 and a half hours this time round. We did not have our own compartment this time, but I am pretty sure that the bus was upgraded to a full cama as the seats were way comfier, they were like arm chairs. We were on the top of the double decker, thankfully I was sat in the second row as the view went from beautifully panoramic as we left La Paz to somewhat terrifying as we neared cochabamba, the roads were windy and the driving perilous. Being overtaken by an oil tanker on a blind corner is not very fun. We also stopped numerous times along the way and picked up random hitchikers inluding a small child. This was in the middle of absolutely nowhere, you just wonder where these people have come from and where they are going.

La Paz was a really cool city and I am looking forward to going back and seeing more of it. The altitude is really high there, I think around 4000m above sea level, but again I suffered no adverse effects other than feeling a little out of breath when walking up hills. It is very different to Cochabamba, very vibrant but that may have just been because of the parade. There were a lot more tourists in La Paz aswell, in Cochabamba I have seen barely any other tourists during my 5 weeks here, but in La Paz they seem to be everywhere.

The scenery and views of La Paz as I have found in all Bolivia are beautiful, surrounded by mountains, inluding the stunningly beautiful snow capped peak Illimani. I cannot wait to go back and see more of it.

This week I am hoping to do the Che Trail, Santa Cruz, Samaipata, Vallegrande and La Higuera, I really hope I get to do it.