Bolivia

We've been gone for almost a month now, and between landing in Santa Cruz on the first day, and leaving Bolivia for Peru a few days ago, we've seen quite a bit of Bolivia. I started writing down our itinerary, telling you something about every place we visited, but with only a sentence or two for each I felt I'd sell the country short, making this sound like a report and not the small adventure it is. All the impressions, the smells and sounds of Bolivia are hard to capture in writing, and cannot be simply written down in one short afternoon. So below, there are some of our pictures that we used in our German travel blog, the one we write together to keep our families informed. They are in chronological order, and end on the salt flats in Uyuni, one of the most spectacular things we've seen so far.

There are a few things worth noting about Bolivia, some we did expect, others we didn't. 

I'll go with the food first, this is a food blog, after all. If you ever visit Bolivia, do not expect to eat well. Especially if you are vegetarian. We had some decent food, some tacos once that were pretty good, but Bolivia is just not the place to go if you visit a country for its gastronomy. Down below is a meal we had at a market, the rice and french fries would normally be accompanied with fried chicken, but like at this market, we never actually had troubles finding anything to eat. It's just that you might end up eating Pizza three days in a row, or you'll have to order an other greasy omelett. 

On the other hand, we are quite happy about the fruit situation. Since parts of Bolivia are tropical, you can get fresh fruit juices at the markets, with fruit that you can't get where we live. In Sucre, we'd go to the market every morning, getting a huge glass full of fresh orange and maracuya juice for about a dollar.

 

And then we were kind of surprised by that fact that it is currently winter in Bolivia. I did my reading back home, about the weather and the season and the temperatures we'd encounter on our trip. What I did not factor in that unlike in Switzerland you can't just go inside a house and be nice and warm and cozy after spending the day outside. Until now, central heating has not made its way over the pond and even electrical heaters are rare. So for the last maybe two weeks, we were freezing. Especially on the tour through the salt flats and the beautiful beautiful landscape we drove through before reaching the salt flats. We have been back down a bit for about a week now, and while it is still winter here, it really feels good to not be sleeping in all the clothes you own. 

Experiencing the altiplano is so strange. It really is just soo flat, and it looks a bit like you are at sea level, being surrounded by mountains, but then you realize that you already are over 4000 m over sea and that back home you can get to this altitude that easily. There'd be lots of climbing involved.

I feel like I am complaining about Bolivia, when I just don't find the words to summarize the last 4 weeks into coherent sentences. It has been great traveling this country, and it has been strange saying good bye already last Sunday morning. We are in Cusco now, leaving tomorrow to hopefully reach Machu Picchu on Saturday. There are strikes and maybe road blockages planned for tomorrow, so please wish us luck.