monkeys, dinosaur footprints, uyuni salt flats, amazing nature.... Bolivia!

3 juni 2019 - Cochabamba, Bolivia

The time arrived to leave Argentina again and go to Bolivia, we just walked over the border and straight away it felt different, looked different, so weird with just 100 meters in between. Our first stop here was going to be Tupiza. A little town from where we wanted to arrange our tour of the uyuni salt flats. We did and the next 4 days were amazing, freezing cold at night, during the day sometimes hot, sometimes really windy, hail, we saw it all… But the views there are amazing: green, red, blue, white lakes with 3 types of flamingo’s, mountains in lots of different colours, its hard to describe…. Its one of the most impressive things I saw. We ended on the salt flats of Uyuni, which is a spectacle in itself, it’s a huge saltflat (zoutmeer) with a little bit of water on it which reflected everything. We took very funny pictures with the help of the guide. These saltflats are still being mined, like a lot of things in Bolivia.

We managed to get a bus and collectivo to Sucre the same day which was great. We liked Sucre straight away and the hostel was great one of the best we had. Everyone in the hostel went to party but as we were already up since 5 we rolled into our bed. The next day started bright and sunny so we went out to explore Sucre just to find everything closed as it was Sunday, we found a nice place to lunch and spent the rest of the day in the hostel. I had to arrange quite a few things for my house as the new renters were going in. In the evening we watched a movie together, which is so nice if you never watch tv or movies anymore. The next day we had to move hostel as this one was full☹ But today everything was open and we managed to arrange a tour to dinosaur footprints we wanted to see.

So off we went the next day first we walked a trail that was used by the inca’s they even paved it. Than we continued by car to the maragua crater, which we were not too impressed about, you really had to use your imagination to see this was a crater. But than the highlight for us was about to come, the footprints. While we were hiking there it started raining and the guide was off, not really waiting for us or helping on difficult parts. We saw the footprints when it was dry and they were impressive, it were 2 different footprints, one was a planteater and the other a carnivore. They are preserved as the footprints were in the mud and a  volcano erupted and covered the prints in vulcanic lava etc turning it into rock. Apparently there is a lot in the area. When we were about to leave I slipped on the rocks and fell. I really hurt my arm, the guide was behind me, he did not help me up, did not ask if I was ok, he just walked passed me. Even the driver was more concerned than he was. After half an hour of Claire helping me and looking after me he finally asked if I was ok and offered to put my arm in a sling. Which I refused as I needed my arm to keep balance as everything turned into mud. When we finally reached the car it started pouring down with rain again. But this time it was scary, lightening everywhere, thunder, the sides of the rocks had turned into waterfalls, the mud roads were very slippery and than its scary to have a ravine on one side. The ventilation system of the car did not work properly so they were messing about with a towel and at one point shampoo. There were moments in that car ride I thought we were going to die. But we managed to get back to Sucre and after a hot shower and some food we rolled into our beds. The next day my arm was swollen and the first signs of bruising started appearing.

Next stop was Samaipata, a relaxed little  town, we arrived at 3 o clock at night and than what do you do besides talking to the stray dogs… you go to the park and try and sleep on a bench, hahahaha😊 It was cold and hard so as soon as it was 7 we went to the hostel and knocked the door, luckily they let us in and we could sleep a few hours before exploring Samaipata. Funny little mix of local people and hippies. After a day of torrential rain luckily the next day the weather was good. In the morning there were lots of parrots around and managed to observe them quite well and get some good pictures. We went to a carved rock that was used by 5 different cultures, 2 of them pre inca. It was a very holy place and the whole rock was carved out for ceremonial reasons. I will let the pictures speak for it self. But we were very impressed and could just imagine how impressive it must have been when it was in use.

Santa Cruz was the next stop, but really just to stock up on things and go to a vegan restaurant, so one day later we were off to Villa Tunari. Where I would stay for a few weeks helping out at CIWY and spending some time with my friend Macer who is there for a year.

CIWY is a rescue center for wild animals, like monkeys, big cats, the occasional sloth, coatis etc. It was a very different set up than I am used to but it was interesting to see. Very hands-on and they had a system called runners. Here the animal has a belt around the waiste (monkeys) or neck (coatis and spidermonkeys) and they are on a system of ropes which they can move around on. In the past they released a lot of monkeys but some of them are now causing problems, coming to steal the food of the captive ones or coming to visit their mates (which is quite sad).

I made myself useful by clearing the enrichment room and fixing and making new cage furnishing, which was used straight away. Me and Macer were trying to come up with some solutions for some behavioural problems and tried various things, some of them worked which was nice. It was nice to be around the monkeys again and miss them already.

After my monkey adventure I went to Cochabamba and from there on a rough ride to Toro Toro, normally it takes 4 to 5 hours, it took us 7 to 8 hours. It appeared to be a funny ride, stacks of eggs on the roof, which we doubted if that was a good idea. Later on in the journey it appeared it wasn t and he came in with a big stack of dripping eggs, great☹ At one point we were stuck behind 2 really big trucks with heavy cement blocks, that could not make the curve in the road/ river. So no one could go anywhere as they were blocking everything. Everyone was involved in thinking about the solution and finally a big shovel came to make the curve wider and move some rocks etc. When he was done the first truck tried, made the curve but was so heavy he got stuck in the river. So off the shovel went to get a metal chain after all other efforts failed and pulled him out. By now we were already there for 2 hours.To kill the time we watching all the efforts and I learned a new game from some French people. Now it was the turn for truck number 2, he didn t even make it to the curve and got stuck straight away. Now our driver was getting fed up and found a great solution how we could get passed, so we did and finally continued our way. When we were finally there we found very cheap accommodation and the atmosphere was great, very welcoming.

The next day we went to the guide office to see what tours were there and as we were 6 people already we had a complete group. We decided to go to “ciudad del itas” in the morning, weird rock formations and beautyfull nature and to go caving in the afternoon. The caves were a challenge, crawling on my side through tiny holes, climbing up with ropes, descending holding on to a rope, walking on hand and feet. But it was very beautyfull and I was really proud of myself after we were back in the daylight😊 We were all exhausted and had an early night.

Next day we went on a walk to a canyon with waterfalls but on the way we saw many different dinosaur footprints, so cool and much better state than in sucre. The guide was great and explained a lot. My French friends left and I moved hostel. As I wanted to see the turtle cemetery the next day. I managed to find 6 people to come with me and it was very interesting to hear what happened and why all the turtle fossils were found here. Apparently the last bit of water was here so all the turtles and crocdiles went here and than also here the water disappeared so they died in this place. But its so weird to walk around and see fossilized turtle shells everywhere. Glad I went. After I came back I waited 3 hours till the collective back to Cochabamba was full and another rough ride started but this it did take 4.5 hours.

I went straight to the terminal as I wanted to get a night bus to Arica (Chili), when I got there they said it did not exist, only in the morning. As I did not fancy paying a taxi to hostel, sleep a few hours and a taxi again I decide to go for the bus to Iquiqui (also Chili). If I only would have known beforehand what was about to happen….

At 4.00 am the bus stopped and it took me a while to figure out we were at the border, lots of people were leaving the bus so I assumed we had to walk through customs with our bags (like the other crossings I did) so off I went but the border was closed. But everyone was heading to fake light in the distance so I did the same…. Well the next thing I saw felt like a movie, lots of people around a fire in the middle of nowhere, some police around. And as soon as they spotted me they asked me if they could help, and I found out the border was closed till 8.00. They advised me to wait in the bus.

So I did, as we were bus number 14 in the que, it took till 12.30 until we were cleared and heading into Chili…. Pfff what a trip

3 Reacties

  1. Huub:
    3 juni 2019
    Nice to read your story again carolien. I would have loved to see the footprints and cave... and I'm still wondering what the locals and police were actually doing at the campfire next to the border
  2. Carolien Grim:
    3 juni 2019
    Hahaha waiting for the border to open...
  3. Ramon:
    24 juni 2019
    Still onderweg? Gaaf dat je op die zoutvlaktes bent geweest. Wordt ook overheen gefietst. Hoe bevalt het om zo lang weg te zijn? Of ben je alweer terug?