Sucre/ La Paz

The original plan was to go straight from La Paz to Uyuni, where the famous salt flats and other geomorpholigical phenomena are located. But Uyuni is even higher than La Paz, and I was still suffering from the altitude, so we decided to go to Sucre (which is only about 9000 ft, and which we had hearts very good things about) first.

Picture albums for Sucre and La Paz

Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, and still the seat of the judicial branch (the executive and legislative branches, as well as most business, are in La Paz). Sucre was also the city that started all of the South American revolutions against the Spanish in the 19th century-Bolivar and all his friends/fellow revolutionaries went to school here and got the ball rolling. Sucre is a lovely city and UNESCO World Heritage site, full of whitewashed colonial architecture and pretty little plazas.

We spent three days in Sucre wandering around, visiting museums of the Revolution, Indigenous art, and archaeology. We also took a walking tour of the city with a (highly recommended) agency called Condor Trekkers (they also organized our hiking trip to the Cordillera de Los Frailes). We stayed in an adequate hostel called Travellers Guesthouse, which weirdly made you provide your own toilet paper. Omar, the owner, made dinner for us two nights, and it just so happened that two of the guest played Irish fiddle (strangely one was Swiss) so we got an impromptu concert one night.

Mark has already covered our eventful and short hiking trip, so I'll skip that. We got back from that trip with no end in sight to the bloqueo and had to spend four more nights in Sucre before we could get a plane out, which kind of sucked because there wasn't much left to do there. I spent the first few days recovering, and we spent some time visiting the local markets.

Finally on Wednesday we made it back to La Paz for one night before heading to Puno, Peru (we decided to skip Uynui all together because we didn't want to risk even more days of being stuck in Bolivia due to the bloqueos). We had learned previously that one of the owners of Noma (that famous restaurant in Copenhagen) had just opened a restaurant in La Paz focusing on gourmetifying local food (there is also a cooking/waitering school). Restaurant Gustu had been open for only two weeks when we got there, and there were clearly some kinks to be worked out, but the food was fabulous. I especially enjoyed my llama steak with some kind of almond and banana sauce (sounds weird but was delicious). Mark had a rabbit and choclo (very big corn) dish with a corn cream sauce (no dairy) that was also great. As usual, the Bolivian wine sucked, but they made decent cocktails. The food was great, but I'm not sure how I feel about a restaurant, started by a Dane, that is supposed to be "preserving local food traditions" and yet charges the equivalent of two weeks income for an average family for one meal for two.

Thursday we took the bus from La Paz to Puno, Peru, via Desaguadero. We were promised (and paid for) a real bus with an on board toilet. What we got was a minibus into which we were crammed like sardines for the three hour drive to the border, where we were instructed to leave our stuff (sketchy) cross the border, and find a corresponding bus on the other side onto which our bags were apparently going to be delivered. Now, this is not a border crossing like US-Canada. This is a whole town which you have to wander aimlessly through until you find a shack that looks vaguely official and hopefully has some customs agents. Then you cross a bridge and wander aimlessly through the Peruvian side of town until you find the Peruvian agents, and then you wander through town some more, looking for a pile of bags that hopefully contain yours. We did, fortunately, but next time I would definitely not let the bags out of my sight, regardless of what the driver said. Then they loaded us onto another mini bus for the two hour drive to Puno. Let us just say that Bolivian buses are not like Argentinian buses.

Stuck in Sucre

Well at this point, we're stuck in Sucre for a little while. The long haul truckers have blockaded Sucre and Potosi since we arrived, so you can't get a bus to another city. On Monday, it's supposed to turn into a nationwide blockade so any bus travel will be pretty much impossible. They are protesting a new law that changes the way they can deduct gas from their taxes. My understanding is that the deduction rate is going from 100% to 75% and it's changed to a statewide level. So, you can only deduct gas bought in the state where you file your taxes. Obviously, for the long haul truckers, this is a problem and so they're shutting the country down. Maybe with the nationwide blockade, the government will actually acknowledge that the blockade exists. They don't right now. Also, on Monday, the transit workers in La Paz are supposed to go on a 24hr protest, which could mean that getting from the airport there to downtown could be tricky.

So, if the whole country is clogged on the roads, our only option is to fly and we have to go through La Paz to pick up our stuff that we left at the hostel there. Also, it doesn't look like it will be realistic to go to the Salar del Uyuni because even if we fly there, the tours might not be able to get out of town. So, at this point, we have the first available flight to La Paz booked for Wednesday. If the blockade lifts before then, we'll probably just take a bus over to Tupiza or Uyuni and try to do the tour. Otherwise, we'll try and fly to Peru on Thursday or Friday.

In the meantime, we're in Sucre and in the next couple of days, we'll probably try to head to the bigger market on the outskirts of town and to the castle. It's all up in the air, so we'll see.

Hiking Cordillera de Los Frailes

We set off good an early (5am) on a 4 day hike of the Cordillera de Los Frailles region with Condor Trekkers. There is a blockade around Sucre by the long haul truckers, so you can't drive directly out of the city. Basically, they just parked their trucks in the middle of the roads so that nobody could get by. They are protesting a reduction of tax credits on the purchase of gasoline. Though vehicles can't get out, it's possible to walk past the blockade, so that's what we did.

Pictures are in the Sucre album.

We took a taxi along with Mario, our guide, Edwin, our guide in training and Izzy a volunteer from the UK who in on her gap year and speaks Spanish. At the blockade, Mario went off though the trucks to see if he could secure a taxi for us on the other end. After about 15 min, he came back and said we had a taxi, so we opened up the back of our taxi and had a quick breakfast before walking through the blockade. Of course, on the other side, the taxi Mario had secured wasn't anywhere to be found. Apparently, somebody else came along and was willing to head out now, so the taxi left. As a result, we had to wait around for a while with a bunch of Bolivians until a small bus arrived that we could get on. This was a small bus with a roof that was perfectly fine for the typical short Bolivian, but Catherine and I had to duck. So, we had to stand for most of the 1 hour ride with our necks crimped into the ceiling.

The hike started at a shrine on the top of a mountain. It was a hybrid Catholic & pagan shrine that paid homage primarily to Paccha Mama, the pagan god of the Earth and also one of the trinity according to locals. The first section of the hike along the ridge of the mountain and afforded some spectacular views of the valley and the Maragua crater. It's not really a crater, it's really just a spot that is pulling apart, but it's quite spectacular with scalloped ridges ringing it.

For most of the hike, Edwin, Catherine, Mario and Izzy talked in Spanish, which was actually quite good for me because the conversations where long enough that I could string together enough words to figure out what was being said and as a result, learn new words and improve my Spanish ear. Mario and Edwin are both locals from Sucre who are going to school at the university, which Izzy is in her gap year before university and decided to travel South America for a year. She's planning on being in Sucre helping on treks until the end of June.

After a while of walking along the ridge, we started to head down to the first of two site for cave paintings. This site is hidden in a cleft of the mountain and simply contains a few black drawings. Some of the drawings had been stolen, so the authorities put up a metal cage over the cave to stop you from getting too close. They think that the drawings were painted by people in the area who were sheltering in the cave temporarily in order to communicate with other people who would be coming by later. Or they just could have been bored waiting out the rain. It's always a little bit of a guessing game.

After walking down the hill some more, we stopped for lunch, which was vegetarian and incredibly tasty. They way overpacked the lunch. It was sandwiches for the four of us and just filling options/salad for Catherine. There was roasted vegetables with rosemary, tomatoes, cheese, avocados, cucumber, lettuce, spinnach. They brought enough bread for the four of us to make 4, 10 inch subs each. A little excessive!

After lunch, we had a 20 min siesta and then continued on to the second set of paintings. These are much more extensive and less well hidden. They are just under and overhang. There is pictures of people, gods, animals and more.

After that, we continued down the hill, through patches of Eucalyptus forest and farm fields until we reached the river. We crossed on a suspension bridge and then followed the road to a small town where we stayed for the night. The people in the area are definitely just subsistence farming. They were harvesting their crops when we were there. The crops were mostly small fields filled with wheat or corn, clinging to sides of the hills. The farmers were harvesting using hand scythes the size of their palm, while the leftover stocks were being eaten by the goats, sheep and/or cows.

For dinner, we bought some rice from the local "store", which was really just half of some lady's one-room house. Then Mario made a vegetable sauce with the leftovers from lunch. We were tried and ended up going to sleep around 8:30.

Unfortunately, during the night, Catherine got sick, probably from something she ate. So, in the morning, she tried to eat some quinoa, but it was too salty and she couldn't eat much else. So, we slowly made our way to a rendezvous point. We were supposed to meet up with a group doing the 3 day trek but leaving the next day. Condor Trekers has a minimum of three people for a trek. There were 2 people set to go on the 3-day version on Saturday, but we wanted to do the 4-day version and leave earlier, so we left on Friday. The plan was to then meet the group doing the 3-day trek and Mario, Edwin and Izzy would just head back to Sucre. It turned out that there were two problems. First, Catherine was sick and it wouldn't be a good idea to continue on so we had decided to just head back to Sucre with the others once we let the other trek know what was going on. The second problem is that apparently, they couldn't get through the blockade and had to enter the area from a different location, so we wouldn't have been able to meet them anyway.

So, we waited for a flota to come that we could take back to Sucre. When the flota came, we got on and it managed to move about 10 feet before crapping out. After some diagnostic work, the driver figured that it was out of gas, so a kid was sent back to the closest town to get some diesel. When he got back, they tried pouring the gas into the bus, but the bus was tilted in a divet in the road, so the gas just poured back out again. So, we had to push the bus forward a few feet onto a rock. With more fuel in the tank, the driver tried to start the bus again, but it wouldn't turn over. So, he grabbed some tools and started working under the bus. I don't know what was wrong, maybe a popped clutch or something. Anyway, eventually, he managed to get the engine to turn over and the bus to move.

Oh, and one more thing, flota was so full that we couldn't even fit inside, so we ended up riding on top of the bus along the switchbacks and over the mountain. This turned out to have been better for Catherine because the fresh air and the view was infinitely better than being cooped up in the bus standing for an hour and a half. Also, because the roads wound tightly through the ills, so the bus couldn't go very fast anyway. It was fairly safe as long as you ducked for the low hanging leaves.

We got back to Sucre eventually, after crossing the blockade again and waiting for a while. It was definitely a Bolvian adventure. Though our trek got cut short and we didn't make it to the villages with the fantastic weaving, or to the dinosaur footprints, it was definitely a unique experience.

Oh La La La Paz

La Paz clinging to the valley

La Paz. Talk about a shock to the system. We flew in from Santiago and in the taxi, coming out of the airport, we thrown straight into chaos. Traffic going every which way. People going every which way. Some men carrying loads bigger than them, many round, short women in colorful ponchos with bowler hats on their heads. Of course we weren't even in La Paz yet, this was just El Alto at about 14000 feet altitude.

For more pictures, see the album.

As our taxi turned onto the "highway", there was a break in the buildings as the ground fell away and we got our first view of La Paz clinging to the walls and floors of the valley. La Paz is built in the valley of the Choqueyapu river that cuts down from the Alto Plano or high plateau. In the next 15 min, we drop 2000ft to the center of town and are thrown into the thick of market day, even though its Friday evening. There are stalls on both side of the street, people walking everywhere and cars filling any holes they can find. Most of the cars are actually small mini buses painted in a variety of striking colors. The taxi turns off onto a small side street and slowly climbs down between the fabric shops to stop in from of our hostel. Coming from BA and Santiago, which are recognizably European, La Paz is like an alien world that reminded me a little of images I have seen of India.

On top of the cultural shock, there was the altitude shock, which really didn't hit until the next day. We knew we were high so we took all of the normal altitude precautions like going slow and drinking a lot of water. The hostel even had free coca tea made by brewing coca leaves. Don't worry, to make cocaine, you also need gasoline, sulfuric acid and a strong base. The leaves, either chewed or brewed into tea is the native remedy for altitude adjustment.

The next morning, we still felt relatively ok, just slight headaches, so we decided to see if we could see the archeology museum. We walked down there and it was closed, so we slowly made our way back to the hostel. On the way, we poked our noses into a number of shops, especially textile ones that Catherine was interested in. We also stopped for lunch at a touristy place, but they made fantastic fresh pasta and fruit juice. Fruit juice is one of the best things in Bolivia. For the price of water at a restaurant, you can usually get a fresh made fruit juice that will knock your socks off.

When we got back to the hostel, we had a little siesta and that's when the altitude started to really kick in. We were both completely toasted. We were out of breath just walking up the stairs. We had splitting headaches and a touch of nausea. So, we slept, read and drank coca tea. By dinner we were feeling even worse, but we had to eat, so we went down to the restaurant in the hostel and had some chicken soup. It was probably the best chicken soup we've ever had. It was a fantastic fresh broth with a chicken back in it. We also talked to Annie, one of the other guests who said that it's better to chew the coca by whetting it and then putting it under the upper gums. So, we did that and went to bed very early.

It was a long night, but by morning, we were feeling a little better. We heard that there was a marathon on and I thought it would be fun to see. The idea of running a marathon at this altitude is nuts, so it would be interesting.  Since it was passing near the hostel, it shouldn't be too bad. So, after breakfast, we went down to the route. Turns out that the close point was km 3 so they were well past that point. It was about 2 hours after the start, but we thought the finish wasn't too far away, so we thought that we could go and catch the end. Well, long story short, it wasn't a marathon. It was only 14km, so by the time we got there it was over. However, along the way, we enjoyed the street festival that extended from the finish for 5 or so blocks. There was everything from kids playing with blocks, to ballet performances, to fresh coconuts and other food.

Catherine was feeling a little worse for the wear by this point so we slowly made our way back to the hostel, keeping an eye open for a place to eat. Unfortunately, it was Sunday, so there wasn't much available. After a while, we thought that the best idea would be to get back to the hostel and have their chicken soup. Unfortunately, when we got there, we found out that their restaurant isn't open for lunch. Catherine was not in good shape, so we asked the front desk where we could get some soup close. They pointed us to a hotel around the corner, so we went there for overpriced andean soup, made of quinoa, veggies and chicken broth. On the way out, we asked the front desk of that hotel if they had oxygen we could use. They let Catherine sit in the lounge on oxygen for 10 minutes, which helped immeasurably.

Valley of the Moon

After that, Catherine went up to the room to rest, while I went on an afternoon city tour by car. We were both supposed to go, but Catherine was not in good enough shape. The city tour way great. I got an overview of the different neighbourhoods, from the market area where we were staying all the way to the rich neighbourhoods a little further down the valley. The rich area mostly had large mansions and, as a special treat, international restaurants like Burger King and Subway. *sigh*. The two private high schools there teach an international curriculum so that the students can get into university in the US.

We also went by the prison, which has a unique setup. It's a prison for small time offenders like thieves and you can be there for up to three years. While you're there, your wife and children can come and live in the prison with you. Also, if you have the money, you can buy extra cells to either spread our, or even to run a little business on the side. At one point there were some enterprising prisoners who would give tours of prison life to tourists, but after too many of the tourists got robbed, the consulates and guide books recommend against it. So it doesn't happen as often now.

Turtle Rock

The tour also went just outside of town to the Valley of the Moon, which my guide said the rumor is that it was named that because when Neil Armstrong visited, he said that it looked just like the Moon. I find that incredibly hard to believe. First, it's unlikely that it wasn't named until the 1960's. Second, it looks nothing like the Moon. It's a forest of spires made of loose soil and rocks that are hardened every day by the sun and high altitude. During the rainy season, it can rain very hard, which causes mud slides all over the La Paz area (taking homes with it sometimes). In the valley of the Moon, the soil softens a lot with water and erodes significantly. My guide said that even the morning dew will soften the soil enough to mold it if you want. Then, as the sun dries it out, it hardens into cement. The Moon on the other hand is mostly loose regolith and hard rocks. It hasn't been shaped by water and so looks very different.

Finally, the tour also went up to the top of the canyon to get a view. We also made quick stops at the stadium, the central square, the broken Big Ben replica donated by the British, and calle Jean, the last colonial street in the city.

When I got back to the hostel, Catherine was feeling a lot better, but wanted to take it easy, so I explored the markets in the neighbourhood. The most interesting is the witch's market. This is where you can buy folk remedies for all sorts of ailments, along with charms for good luck or to ward off evil spirits. For example, you can get a mummified llama fetus which should be buried under the cornerstone of a new house to protect the home from evil.

Mask in the Ethnography and Folklore
mueseum.

The next day, we went to museums. We started by going to the Ethnography and Folklore museum, where the lights went out regularly. It's hard to see exhibits with the lights off!. They had a diverse collection of weavings, masks and dance regalia from the different tribes from around Bolivia. I thought the masks were the most interesting. They ranged from very simple wooden carvings in the Amazon regions to incredibly intricate dragon-like masks reminiscent of Chinese ones, but from the alto plano. After that museum, we went over to calle Jean. There are four museums there, but the only one open was the musical instrument one, so we went in. They actually had instruments from around the world, but of course, there are more examples from Bolivia. I really liked the guitars made from armadillo backs.

After the instrument museum, it was lunch/siesta time, so we walked back to the hostel and stopped for lunch at place with tons of locals that was offering a 3 course meal for about 2 dollars. It was actually pretty good. A simple soup to start, a huge main plate where I chose the fried chicken and Catherine had chorizo. The desert was a disgusting lime pudding from a box so we didn't eat that.

Calle Jean. The last colonial street in
La Paz. It's touristy, so it's empty.

After lunch, we grabbed a taxi to the museum of Bolivian Textiles. It's further away and needed a taxi to get to. It was a little complicated to get there because the lady at the front desk in the hostel told the taxi driver the wrong location, but we got it figured out. It was an excellent, out of the way museum. First, we had to ring a bell to get in and wait about 5 minutes for an older gentlemen to make his way down to open the door. Then he turned on the lights in the museum because we were the only ones there. It was organized to show the weavings from each of the native groups in La Paz and had good descriptions about what makes each of them unique and how the pieces are used, either in ceremony or in daily life. Plus, the signs were translated into English. It's a private museum and much better than the state run one we saw in the morning.

After that, we flagged a taxi to the archeology museum that I had wanted to see a few days ago, but was closed then. This time, there was a sign saying that it was closed for maintenance so we were out of luck. For two days in a row, the walk back to the hostel from this area of town had floored Catherine, so we decided to cab it. There was a fancy hotel Europa right beside the museum so Catherine asked the porter if they could call a taxi for us. Of course, due to some miscommunication, they gave us their private driver to get across town. It worked though.

Our dinner that night was at an expensive, touristy place with indifferent food, but we were able to try alpaca steak. It wasn't that much different that beef steak, but a little gamier.

Mendoza

April 16-17

More pictures for this post are in the album.

We arrived in Mendoza at 9:30am. We arranged an Air B&B stay with an older lady. She was supposed to pick us up at the bus station, but we never found each other and after an hour we took a cab. She helped us organize a bike tour of the vineyards in the nearby Valle de Lujan. Our first bodega was a tiny little outfit run by a charming older man who makes delicious wines. His were the oldest of any we tried, and slightly lower alcohol, so we really enjoyed them. We then biked to an organic vineyard, where we had lunch cooked on an open fire -- Mark had steak and I had scrambled eggs. Delicious. Our final vineyard was called Alta Vista and was a larger operation, that made very high alcohol, totally unappealing wines. We took the bus back to Mendoza, where we visited the Vines of Mendoza tasting room. There we had two flights of wine, one a sampler of Malbecs and one a selection of reserve wines from the Uco Valley, which is supposed to produce some of the best wines in the region. Again, the wines were generally too high alcohol (15-16%!) to be terribly appetizing. They also seem to drink them young, so there was no age to take the edge off. At Vines of Mendoza we learned that they have a restaurant at their private vineyard in the Uco Valley that is Francis Mallman's (the most famous chef in South America) newest venture. We signed up for an excursion the next day where they drove us to visit two vineyards and then took us to lunch at the restaurant, Siete Fuegos.

We got picked up at 9:00 the next morning and were joined by a lovely couple from Edmonton--about our age, and traveling for four months. We drove the hour and a half up to the Uco Valley to the first vineyard, Gimenez Riilli. It's a family affair that makes a few decent wines-especially the Torrontes and the Syrah. The Malbecs, as usual, we too young and too high alcohol. We then went to the Vines of Mendoza vineyard (they grow grapes and make wine for other people for $80,000US per acre you can buy land from them and they'll help you make your own wine) where harvest was in full swing. We got a tour of the operations and got to stir some of the fermenting grapes, along with a small tasting.

Finally we got to lunch! Siete Fuegos is an open air restaurant, where you eat at one long table under and awning. The chefs have been cooking over the fires since 4 am, and each course comes paired with wines from the vineyard. The idea is that the restaurant cooks one course with each of the seven traditional Argentinian open air cooking fire types. We started with empanadas, which looked delicious but I couldn't eat. Then we had salmon cooked in a salt dome between fires above and below, with roasted tomato. Next came goat that had been cooked in a pit. Then steak that was grilled on the open flame and lamb that was spit roasted on an open flame. Finally we got grilled oranges with dulce de leche. It was fabulous. And a lot- both food and alcohol. It's the first time I've been hungover before going to bed!

The next day we took the bus to Santiago, which was fine except they were doing construction on the road and we were delayed two hours. In Santiago we had only one afternoon, which we spent wandering. The city felt totally different on a weekday--much more vibrant and alive than on Easter Sunday. We had dinner at a place called The French Barbershop that had a spectacular ceviche and shellfish in cream sauce.

An album of some pictures from Santiago.

Now on to La Paz!

Overnight Bus from Buenos Aires to Mendoza

It's a 13 hour bus ride to Mendoza, so we opted for the deluxe bus where the seats fold down almost flat. It was a surprisingly comfortable ride, if a little ridiculous. We sat on the top floor at the very front so we were able to watch from above as the bus moved out of the city. They served a large dinner, although it had a number of prepackaged items that were nigh inedible. The warmed up portion of dinner was pretty decent: some chicken in a tomato sauce with peas and mashed potatoes. They also served wine and then after dinner, there was a bar service with the option of coffee, champagne or whiskey. There were options of movies to watch on the individual screens in either English or Spanish, but we just read and blogged until it was time for bed.

We slept fairly well except that the bus slowed down a number of times and woke us up. Apparently we're trained that on bus rides, if it slows, we are coming to the destination. About an hour and a half before Mendoza, around 8am, we woke up and they did a breakfast service, which was also fairly inedible. Anyway, we got into Mendoza at 9:15am pretty well rested. Argentina has great buses.

Chic Palemero

Our last day in BA we started by going to the gardens in the Palermo district. We started with the botanical gardens. It's fall, so there were very few flowers, but some of the plants were really interesting. There were a number of trees with very spiky trunks and branches from further north. Maybe they don't want big animals like monkeys to climb up them and get the fruit? For the most part it was relaxing.

Images for BA are in the album.

Then, we stopped at a cafe for a quick coffee and snack before moving on to the Japanese garden. It's one of the bigger Japanese gardens I've seen, although I presume there are some much bigger in Japan. They also have a sushi restaurant there that a BA native said was very good, but it was expensive and there are better places in the world (like San Francisco) to get sushi, so we gave it a pass.

We then walked to the old part of Palermo. Palermo is the current chic district and it shows. There were a lot of small cafes, boutique fashion stores and so on. Plus, there were a lot of kids on the playgrounds and buildings were at most 3 stories high, so it had a very neighbourhoody feel. We stumbled upon a celiac bakery, so Catherine was able to stock up on goodies. It's amazing how cognizant of celiacs Argentina is. We expected that the gluten-free awareness revolution probably wouldn't have made it here yet, but we were wrong.

After the bakery, we still hadn't eaten lunch and it was well past 2pm. We came across a famous parilla, La Cabrera that Catherine had tried to get a reservation for the night before, but was booked up. However, on Monday at lunch, there was plenty of space and they had a prix fixe lunch special. 99 pesos (or about $20) for a three course meal where we swapped the options. We had a first course of chorizo and caesar salad. A second course of chicken and beef with condiments on the side of pickled vegetables and so on. Finally, desert was flan. It was superb and the waiters were professional waiters, which was fun. The decor was homey and eclectic. The walls were stone and dark wood, while there were a number of interesting accents like mobiles of airplane models twirling from the ceiling, or decorative plates on the wall.

After that, we wandered around the neighbourhood some more and stopped in the central square to relax and people watch. Finally, we walked back to the hostel to pick up our bags before taking a taxi to the bus station and boarding the overnight bus to Mendoza.