Sweet Sucre

After the initial shock of Potosi, and Bolivian life itself, Sucre was a much easier going town, filled with colonial European style whitewashed buildings, and being at a lower altitude and in a more fertile area, there were actually trees! We hadn’t seen trees for a few weeks now, and were beginning to forget what they were, when BAM! What do we see? A grey gum tree. Incredible things. Love em.

We found ourselves a place to crash, which was actually pretty fancy (still super cheap – about $15/night) and set about checking out the centre of town. This place, honestly, had the best markets we have ever seen (at that point ;)) and again craving some freshness, dove right in and bought a whole bunch of incredibly cheap, super tasty cheese, fruit and veg. And AVOS! Chile had avocados, but they all had a weird taste, so we were hankering for a nice avo – and they ticked all boxes that afternoon.

We couldn’t figure out how these people could sell all the produce – it was amazing the volume of fresh food that was available, and there was probably 30 different stalls of just fresh produce. Check out the pics below, and you will know what we mean. Part of the markets (and we have to give this find to Vasiles) was a section of food stalls that sold full meals, and this was the real Bolivia –where they ate lunch each day. This place was absolutely run by the cholitas (older Bolivian women – hard as rock these ladies), and it was amazing how cheap and well you could eat. Sure the place might not have passed anyone’s sanitary laws back home, but we figured if others are eating it, then we wouldn’t die either. And it was great. We ate there pretty much every lunchtime, side by side with Bolivian men, women and school kids, each getting their chuletas (steak) with rice, salad and a drink – for about 80c. They had some killer chorizos too. MAN that’s was some spicy action!

After a few days of eating, relaxing and a night out boozing, we decide to check out some trips we could do in the surrounding areas, some trekking, some bike riding, others on horses and hello – whats this? Motorbikes. J. Hell yes. Vasiles didn’t trust his skills on a bike too heavily, and Boos Boos hates the things (motorbikes = hospital visit), so they took a couple of horses and a guide and Doodles met up with a local guys who ran these moto tours.

Having not ridden in about a year, Doodles was a little apprehensive about battling the loco Bolivian traffic on a motorbike. But all was well, and arriving at the rendezvous, what was waiting for him but a DT200, the same as he had thrashed around the Hunchy farm with Clancy, so it was like (excuse the pun) riding a bike, and off they went for 4hrs of fun in the surrounding mountains. No need for super detail, but it was an absolutely great way to explore the beautiful area, have some fun and guess what?! Mum – when I get home I buying a bike J.

Boos Boos was feeling eerily similar feelings about jumping on a horse again as the first and last time she rode a horse was when she was 16. The tour guide gave Boos Boos the biggest horse, Santana (hint hint nudge nudge: lose some weight gringa), which also turned out to be the leader of the pack. As I was being a bit of a whimp I was taking it easy but Vasiles wanted to feel the wind in his hair. Every time he attempted to pass us, Santana would get a trot up and cut off them off. At one point we were going through a town and Santana actually bailed the other horse up against a wall he was that determined to maintain is macho-ness – Bloody males! We arrived in a town where we were to have afternoon tea with an Italian/Bolivian woman. She was the sweetest little (she honestly came up to my chest – smaller than my mum!) woman I have met this whole trip. Feeding us bread and goats cheese and trying to talk to her in Spanish. Luckily Vasiles was with me as he did most of the talking. The day ended with us ditching the horses and catching a local bus back to the hostel to find Doodles in one piece (lucky boy!) and nursing a frio (cold) cerveza.

We ended up staying in Sucre for longer than we intended, as we got into the vibe of the place and it was a great place to setting for a while and embrace some Bolivian culture. The majority of Bolivians (as with most Sud American countries) are Catholic, so one thing we have found is giant Jebus and Mary statues. Sucre had a giant Jebus on the hill overlooking the city, so Doodles decided on some exercise one afternoon and climbed the hill to find Jesus – and here he is brought to your screen in all his metallic glory J.

We were off to La Paz next, and from what we had heard it was going to pretty hectic b-man, so spending a little extra time here was definitely worth it. A definite must do if you come to Bolivia – and don’t be a woos bag – eat in the markets baby!

We just paid 150 BOBS (about $40) for a super mega good cama seat for the 14hr trip to La Paz. We have heard it’s the worst – lets just wait and see…

Peace and Love

Doodles and Boos Boos

Potosi - I think I got the Black Lung Pa!

After being shaken up like a martini on the bus we arrived in Potosi, thinking shit – this place looks well dodgy, and we had no place to stay. After our trusty LP told us about the Koala Den (had to pick this place surely), we bundled into a taxi and it is safe to say that all three (Vasiles was with us also) of us feared our lives through the journey. The roads here are insane, there is no such thing as traffic lights, they don’t care about lanes they will veer out just to pass another car and when approaching an intersection they beep just before it. Which means “I am coming through and I am not stopping!”

We arrived at Koala Den and realized that the entire rest of the backpackers that were on the bus also decided to stay there. We all lined up hoping that there would be enough rooms as the prospect of looking elsewhere wasn’t greatly appealing. However, this time luck was on our side – and there were rooms aplenty.

That afternoon we thought we would head out and explore...what we found we loved. The phrase don’t judge a book by its cover is so true in this situation. Although the outskirts of town did not look appealing at all, the centre of town was alive with spirit and had a huge fresh (South American “fresh”) fruit and veggie market. We ran around like little kids in a candy store, (after eating nothing but friggin soup, rice and chicken for the last week) grabbing at treats and that night made a super curry...our first home cooked meal in a while.

Potosi was pretty chilled for us, lots of relaxing and reading, Vasiles learning how to take hidden camera shots out of the side of a hole in his bag, and a heap of eating. Bolivia is incredibly cheap – we weren’t going anywhere near our daily budget and were living like KINGS!

Once the wealthiest city in South America, Potosi sits on mountains (once) filled with silver veins, and this made the city famous across the continent. The hills are riddled with mines, and obviously, this makes up a big part of the work for the local men. Unfortunately, these mines are filled with dangerous dusts – Asbestos and silica dust being the main ones, and so any extended period working in the mines had hugely damaging effects on the health of the workers. Most get sick after working the mine for 10 years, but most have no choice as it is the only source of income for their families. The miners work in a conglomerate – each mining their own ore and selling it to the conglomerate which then refines it and sells it on. This means the workers work their own hours, and often do 24hr shifts several times a week if the price of silver is good internationally.

They run trips down into the mines with a guide, and having heard this was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience, Vasiles and Doodles signed up and headed off after breakfast one morning to check them out. Boos Boos is super claustrophobic, and decided to sit this one out, and after hearing the boys stories – was glad she did!

The trip started with a stop at the miner markets, where each miner has to purchase their own tools, dynamite and safety gear – these aren’t provided by any company. It is customary to buy some gifts for the miners to take down, and thank them for allowing access to the mine for gringo touristicas like us. This market was SO cool. Doodles (after spending a grand total of $10 AUD, came out with the following shopping:

1. 1 x Stick of Dynamite
2. 1 x Bag of fertilizer to enhance the dynamite blast
3. 1 x detonator
4. 1 x bottle of 96% sugar cane liquor (more like metho!), as being a Friday, the miners drink this stuff during their shifts to “warm up” for Friday night festivities.
5. 1 x 1kg bag of coca leaves + stick of bicarbonate ash stuff as coca catalyst.
6. 2 x bottles of soft drink

The dynamite was to be either given to the miners or saved for after the mine trip, to blow up in the desert. The coca leaves – well we got started on them straight away, they are a great herbal tea, and most people living at altitude here chew them. You need to rip out the stems, put a big chunk in your mouth and chew with your molars, making a big green ball of leaves. Then you take a bite out of the ash (which is basically bicarb soda, but tastes pretty much like dry pastey fishness – not great honestly). This ash releases the active alkaloids in the leaf, (of which there are about 14 apparently – don’t worry mum and dad – only one of these in the cocaine alkaloid) which quickly turns your mouth numb, gets rid of any headache and gives you a little boost of energy – very similar to having a coffee. It’s also very common as a tea, and they use it for a bunch of different herbal remedies. There is a lot of anger about the U.S anti drug programs coming into Bolivia and destroying all of the crops, as there is a large local market for the leaf, none of which are for cocaine production.

ANYWAY, back to the shopping – this liquor is DEADLY stuff. For some reason, once we were in the mines, and the guide found out I was Australian, he thought it was a great idea to keep giving me sips of the terrible stuff… I have to say, at 96%, I was feeling boozed by the end, and we were pretty sure he was hammered…

There was about 7 of us in the group, and for me being the tallest and fattest, I was bent almost double most of the way. The tunnels vary greatly in size, as some of them were made in colonial times when money was flowing, and so are large and easy to navigate. Others, which we got to close to the end of the trip, were the size of my body, so I was laying on my stomach pulling myself along with my hands, and my back was touching the roof! Funnily enough (or maybe it was the sugar cane booze), but after feeling apprehensive beforehand, once we were in the tunnels, you just seem to focus on going straight ahead, and not on being so deep under the earth.

These mines though, are just insane. It gets up to about 45 degrees Celsius down there, and they remove the ore by one of 3 ways. Firstly some carry it on their back in a hessian sack – each carrying about 40kg on their back as they climb up ladders and through these tunnels. The second way is with little wheelbarrows, where the miner runs along bent double pushing the barrow with about 100kg in it. The last way is the most common from films etc, with the mine cart, which when loaded weighs about 2 tons. 4 miners fill the cart, then alternate dragging and pushing it up to another level, on tracks, when it is unloaded into hessian bags and then winched to the surface.

After about 3 hrs, bashing my head/back/everything, sweating like crazy and getting harder and harder to breath – we were well and truly ready for the exit, and when it came it was so very sweet! While we chilled out and enjoyed the cool fresh air, our guide grabbed our dynamite and proceeded to make up a bunch of bombs, light them up, and then pass them round for 1 min 30 seconds of photographic gold! Shortly after, a 14yr old Bolivian kid grabs the bombs, and runs like crazy into a bare patch of ground before high tailing it out of there before they blow the S*@t out of him. I hadn’t seen dynamite go off before, and wow, what a way to see it.

After 5hrs of sweating, climbing, drinking and chewing coca leaves. We were understandably looking and smelling incredible when we arrived back to the hostel, much to Boos Boos’s pleasure! My mouth was totally green from the leaves, so it was a hot sight!

This was one of the most amazing experiences I have had, and definitely gave another definition to the OH&S lessons I learnt back in Industrial Chem days… Bolivia doesn’t know what OH&S is! And it rocks!

The following day we jumped on another incredibly safe bus, bound for our next stop north – the apparently beautiful town of Sucre. See you there!

Peace and Love

Doodles and Boos Boos

The Andes, Uyuni Salt Flats and welcome to Bolivian madness.

We set off from San Pedro to embark on our 4WD trip across the Andes into Bolivia not really knowing what to expect. First stop was our first border crossing so far in the trip...a little unsure how this was going to go down, not that we had anything to hide (we got rid of all the drugs and weapons in San Pedro ;)) but it is a still slightly nerve racking and intimidating process. Bolivians in uniform, standing around with their machine guns, stamping the passport with a little excess force. It all went fine of course, going as smoothly as a babies bottom, and as you can see, there wasn’t much of a “customs”, so we could have brought in the guns and drugs anyway… ah well – next time.


After the border formalities we were ready to jump into our car and head off as it was friggin cold man! The border is at about 3000m, between two snow capped volcanoes, so the wind was just blowing down the valley and hitting us in the face. VAMOS!


Slowly people who had just spent the past days coming south from Bolivia jumped out and other people got in to head north, until there were no cars left… this was our first main tour agency experience, and having heard horror stories about dodgy trips we were starting to think we got a raw deal. With quite a pretty big language barrier, standing around like fools not really understanding what was happening a dude starts telling us in Spanish to get into a car that was not even a 4WD.. hmm ok – Bolivia here we come! We needn’t have worried at this point (except some madness driving – 100+ks on a dodgy dirt road), we arrived at the first large salt lake for breakfast. After finding out our actual 4WD was still on its way south and wouldn’t be there until the afternoon, we had some breakfast and got to know the group. Our crew consisted of two cars with 10 people in total. Our car consisted of us, Vasiles, and a Dutch couple who had fairly good Spanish, so we were ok language wise.

We piled into this piece of shit Toyota Landcruiser (that had to stay either going or parked on a hill to roll start), and spent the morning driving around the area, which has three main beautiful salt lakes as well as a hot spring. Of course Doodles couldn't resist the opportunity for a swim. It seemed like a great plan at the time, nice and hot in the water but once out he and Vasiles were faced with a 30 knot ice wind that proceeded to freeze his titties off. These lakes are incredible to see, they are super shallow but Doodles was convinced they were deep enough to windsurf on… next trip hey doodles?








The first afternoon we had the choice of 2 different routes to take. The first meant we could stay in a nice 'warm' hostel where the temperature would only go down to 0 or staying in a hostel (which was at a higher altitude) where the temperature got down to -20. The second route meant that we could go see the giant rock which is shaped like a tree. The call was made (for some reason – when writing this we are shaking our heads in wonder the the groups decision) to head for the hostel, which is at about 4300m. Hindsight is a bitch. It was freezing. We literally wore every piece of clothing...Boos Boos using a sarong as a scarf. We were not prepared for these conditions at all. Bloody Vasiles had spent time in Patagonia before he came up, so had a nice comfy warm cold weather sleeping bag… bastard!


Boos Boos innocence is tainted forever after this night as the toilets were honestly the most disgusting thing ever experienced (worse than anything ever seen in a hospital) - they did not flush... after a night of about 25 people staying there they were not a pretty sight. She attempted to go as I was busting! But just ran out of there gagging for fresh air. Vasiles got a brilliant photo of them but we feel it is in everyone’s best interests too not put it up here.



While at this hostel we met a crazy Austrian couple that was riding their pushies the same way that we were driving and had been riding from Argentina all the way up for the last 4 months. There is probably nothing that makes you feel more like a slack bastard than someone riding the same way you are sitting on your ass in a car! It was tiring just sitting in the car driving over the sand and rock let alone riding a bike through it. This would be some of the hardest terrain to ride over – soft sand riddled with rocks, no water, and at about 4000m… great fun!

The next day we checked out some incredible (and stinky) geysers (and not the English geiser – the volcanic ones ). You could definitely bottle the white/grey mud and sell that stuff as a fancy face mud mask. On a side note – there was some incredible money making schemes devised on this trip… you wait and see!




Anyway, soon after this, our drivers told us that there was a road blockade (we weren’t sure how this was possible as there was not really any roads…) so instead of going to the famous Uyuni Salt Flats to sleep for the second night, we would make a detour for Uyuni town – which is built close to the salt lakes and was to be our final stop the following day anyway. We had heard many stories where the drivers make this excuse because they can’t be bothered to go there, so we were a little hesitant to believe them and a little pissed off that they were trying to pull this on us. There was not much that we could do so we went along with it. To avoid the blockade we had to take the 'back road'. It was pretty hilarious and a little concerning as the drivers got super lost, stopping every now and then, getting out conferring with each other looking at the mountains trying to get their bearings.






We finally made it to Uyuni in one piece checked into a hostel, a sweet sweet flushing toilet and a hot shower. A few days later we actually found out through a fellow traveler that there were actually road blockades and her 4WD along with several others were held captive for over 24hrs. The reason for the blockade was an American owned mine in the area had promised the Bolivian workers electricity and running water. The American miners have these luxuries, but the Bolivian miners and their families do not. We could understand their motivation but to hold captive carloads of people, throwing rocks not allowing them out of the car is a bit much. Thus in the end we were happy that the drivers took their long detour, as a cold 24hrs sleeping in the 4wd would have been shocking.

After our good night sleep we headed out to the Salt Flats, it is mind blowing, white saltiness for as far as the eye can see! The area is about 400 km2. With the white background it makes for some interesting photos... as there is no perspective of distance (insert digi SLR dreams here!). Someone who knew what they were doing could get some incredibly cool shots here. There are some islands in the middle of the flats, where 1000yr old giant cacti grow – and its absolutely incredible to sit on top of the islands and look as far as you can see at a totally blank white canvas. Incredible stuff!






We spent another night in Uyuni at a neonazi hostel where we weren’t allowed to put our bags on the bed, we could only have one 5 minute shower (they timed it if you were any longer they were there knocking on the door...maybe they should employ Bolivians in Brissie?) if we wanted another we had to pay, had to be back by 11pm, we could charge our camera batteries and phones but not computers or Ipods. Strange!

The next day we were pretty keen to get moving, the rest of Bolivia was calling, and so we jumped on a bus (no cama this time – there were still no chickens though… there was however an onion man who jumped on with a bag of fresh onions –Boos Boos LOVED it). Instant lesson learned on this trip: F*@k – Bolivan buses are DODGY and the drivers are insane. 5hrs of bumps, oniony fresh air and a few near rollovers, we arrived safe but slightly battered in Potosi, famed for its silver mines, which was once the most wealthy town in South America…

Peace and Love
Doodles and Boos Boos

FINALLY! Catching up on Chile - San Pedro de Atacama

Yeah yeah - its been a while since you heard from us. We are actually in Colombia now, and the niggling feeling in your mind like an unfinished assignment is getting our asses into gear and getting everything down in 1,s and 0,s - for you and for us.

So over the next few days (hopefully ;)) we will be taking you on a magically journey from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile where we left you last, north through the mountains of the Andes, through loco Bolivia, into very slightly less loco Peru, dash through Ecuador and find yourselves sitting next to us on the next bus through Colombia on our amazing journey.

OK - where were we?

San Pedro de Atacama - The Atacama Desert - Chile.

Watching the sunrise over the Atacama desert, in northwestern Chile, after a long 13hr night bus journey was the perfect way to welcome us to San Pedro de Atacama, a small town built on one of the few oasis's (or is that oasi'... hmmm damn grammar) in the Atacama desert.

The sheer distances in this place are astounding, as the sun pops its head over the horizon, it reveals a landscape incredibly different to anything we had seen before. The 6000m Andean volcanoes interrupting the horizon, the rest of your vision filled with giant seemingly endless stretches of sand, rock and some cacti for good measure. Simply amazing. A few llama around, but not many. Apparently it rains about once a year, although some locals tried to convince us it had been dry since 2006. We were ready to believe that when you look around the surrounding environment. San Pedro is at 2500m, so you do feel like the air is thinner and you get tired more easily - especially coming straight from sea level overnight like us.

The town is very small, maybe 500-1000 local residents, but this towns primary economy is tourism being a very good stopover point, being practically on the border of Bolivia and Argentina. It is also situated to the north of the biggest Chilean salt lake - Salar de Atacama, and its proximity to the Andes means awesome trekking, climbing (they do climbs up a lot of the volcanoes, ranging from about 5300 - 6200m) and great mountain biking. Also, because of the abundance of giant dunes, sand-boarding is pretty popular, and there are heaps of local companies who take you out to the dunes, rent boards - they use snowboards mostly, and try and get you drunk on free pisco sour as you watch the sun go down over the desert.

We found a sweet little place to stay, which incredibly enough had a small moat-like stream running through the middle, which was really relaxing - muy bueno! After getting our bearings after the night bus (i.e afternoon siesta) we organised to head out into the dunes sand-boarding, with a crazy Chilean/French guy. This might not mean much to some, but he was a dead set ringer for Damo from Goodtime - hilarious stuff in Doodles brain. Sand-boarding is very similar to powder snowboarding, except for a heap more friction, so its slower, and of course no lifts, meaning we were trudging up these giant dunes all afternoon. Tiring but super fun, especially after we only just arrived that morning and were now at 2500m, so we were feeling like unfit bastards!

We got some video on the GoPro, check it out below:

The sunsets in the desert are incredible, amazing colours and the landscape feels like your on the moon (drinking picso sours of course). Pisco is made from grapes, but is super strong, like a liqueur, and honestly - it gets you hammered! Two drinks down Boos Boos was stripping off and heading down the dunes on the sand-board in her undies.... OK that's totally untrue.. but you get the point - its STRONG!

The next few days flew by, being a really relaxed spot, with heaps to check out, eat, drink etc. We had organised to get the 4wd into Bolivia a few days after we arrived, so we had plenty to time to take it easy and do a few trips in the surrounding desert.

Doodles decided to borrow a mountain bike and test his unfit lungs against the desert, heading off in search of a swim. The Lonely Planet (curse that brilliant yet often incorrect book) was telling me there was a waterhole just south of the town, so after riding around for about an hour trying to find water in the middle of one the worlds driest deserts, I stopped and asked some locals (in brilliant spanish of course). I didnt understand much of what they said in return, but im sure that there is a universal facial expression that says: "Gringo dude, look around you! Your in the MIDDLE OF A DESERT and it hasnt rained in a year - there aint no cool little swimming hole here!"

So, after this little blow to the afternoons plan, I went in search of (funnily enough) Valley de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). Stupidly forgetting any cash for the entrance fee, a sneaky off road journey took him to a less visited part of the valley, which was totally bizzare! This was definately where they faked the moon landing! I found it! Cop that NASA, the Lid has been Blown on this little conspiracy theory! Anyway despite the thrilling news that Doodles couldn't wait to tell the world, this landscape was nothing like I had seen before, so much so I cant even describe it well in words - check out the pics below (sorry about dodgy photography - yet ANOTHER moment on this trip wishing there was an SLR in my back pocket).

The day before we left, we took a trip out to some salt pools, called Laguna Cerca (we think..). These were in the middle of a dried up salt lake, but were about 3m deep, and had such a high salt concentration you couldn't put your head under (although some monkey fools did, ending whinging about their eyes stinging and copious amounts of mucous coming out their noses... idiots!), and you floated halfway out of the water! Seriously, try as you might to sink, it was not happening, and it was pretty hilarious trying to not end up on your belly or back, the natural flotation kept trying to flip you over.

A day or so before we left, we caught up with Vasiles, our English architect friend who did the Spanish course with us in Santiago. He was heading into Bolivia too, so we convinced the fool to join us (he did have better Spanish too, other than being a funny cat - so there was definitely a hidden agenda :)).

8am - we leave San Pedro via immigration to officially end our stay in Chile, and wind our way up to the Andean plateau, where we start our 3 day journey over the Andes into Bolivia.

CIAO CHILE!

Peace and Love

Doodles and Boos Boos