DAY 26 & 27: POTOSI

Welcome to Potosi... The highest city of its size in the world! It is located at 4070m above sea level and it's also very very cold!

Just like Sucre, there isn't much to do in Potosi other than walk around and enjoy the colonial feel of this unesco world heritage town.

Talking to my mom I said I felt like I was in Zacatecoluca, a town in El Salvador. The town must have been beautiful many years ago but now many buildings and houses are not well taken care of so it takes away some of its charm in my opinion... But still pretty in its own way.

Potosi is a mining town and still have some active ones. Some of the people in the tour got to go to a mine and met some miners... I skipped it since I felt claustrophobic just thinking about it!!!

DAYS 24 & 25: SUCRE

Made it to Bolivia's white city... Sucre! (Which is also the capital) 

So glad we are going down in elevation! Sucre is at 2800m above sea level (compared to 4,000m in la Paz) and I'm not out of breath all the time! Yeay!

We arrived in sucre on a Sunday so there was literally nothing to do! To my surprise, on Monday there wasn't anything to do either other than strolling the city itself and eating even more chocolate!

Sunday Mia and I went for a walk and ended up in a big park full of families having a Sunday fun day! The kids were renting motorized kids cars and having races around the park, others were in the playground or around the many jumpy houses around. It really reminded me of my childhood and going to the park on Sundays, it was so much fun! We also passed through many white plazas (apparently during the plague Bolivians thought that if they painted everything white the plague will not hit the town or it will stop)

After a cheery park stroll we decided to visit the "cementerio general" (general cemetery) where we got to explore around and see a whole lot of graves! 

It was interesting to see how the cemetery is built, they have many tall walls where the coffins are stacked one on top of the other. At the entrance of the cemetery you can find young boys with ladders who clean and put flowers for those people who are way up high!

We also found different categories... One of them for babies and kids :-( their little windows were decorated with toys such as cars and dolls... I felt sad for those who have lost their little ones :(

Sunday night a group of us went for a fancy French dinner at la Taverne. We had some delicious dishes such as goat cheese salad with rose petals and honey!

And the groups' favorite... Fillet mignon

Monday I went for a local market stroll and it was the same as every other local market. In this one the amount of potato sacks were even bigger than in other markets! Bolivians claim to have more than 4 thousand kinds of potatoes!!!! (that's more than Peru!) 

Bolivia is also well known for their chocolate so Mia and I made sure to go grab some!

DAY 23: LAST DAY IN LA PAZ AND ON OUR WAY TO SUCRE

Today I decided to explore the city on my own and take the teleferico to Los Altos.

A month or so ago la Paz got his first teleferico (out of 3 that the president is building) and it takes you from downtown la Paz all the way to the top of La Paz, Los Altos.

I got out of the hotel and was impressed by the number of vendors in the street! Apparently Saturday and Sunday are their big market days and it reminded me so much of home and also of the markets in Vietnam!

It was kind of crazy walking amongst many people and trying not to get hit by cars! 

Once I got to the teleferico I was impressed by it. The most impressive thing was that there were no lines! I got my 6 bolivianos round trip ($0.95) and off I went to the top of La Paz!

The view was impressive! I could see the whole city! The fun part was looking down at the houses and seeing woman washing clothes and hanging them on the roof!

The whole trip reminded me of the poor parts of El Salvador, people living under really poor conditions and having to put rocks or tires on their roofs so they don't fly away with the wind!

Once I got to the top the view was breath taking! SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL

I could see La Paz and behind it snow covered mountains. 

I decided to take a stroll around Los Altos and see what was going on. In reality I wanted to get a great view of the mountains and the city but I couldn't find any viewpoints until after a 15-20 min walk!

Since it was Saturday they were many families all around the street, I saw people with llamas and little ponies trying to sell rides for the kids! They even had a HUGE ice age mammoth that kids could climb on and take pictures.

I walked around trying to be discrete about picture because Bolivians really don't like their pictures taken and I'm always afraid they will throw stuff at me.

Bolivian hair dressers

Panoramic view from Los altos

Once I was done with my Los altos stroll I went back to the teleferico and the lines went all around the building! Luckily, I had my round trip so I skipped the line!

On the way down I noticed a cemetery.... It was huge!!! It looked like its own little city and it was very different to what I am used to. This cemetery had rows and rows of little "buildings" where they stack people (not the best way to describe it) but I was for sure intrigued about cemeteries in Bolivia so I know I need to visit one!

Once I got back to downtown I decided to not follow a map and get lost in the city. I followed people and followed the market!

Oh my! I was so impressed by the markets they literally have EVERYTHING on the streets! Every knock off shoes you can imagine, pants, bras, socks, food, toys... You name it, they have it!

I walked for at least 3 hours and the markets never ended! It finally came to an end when I found the hardware section... You could bargain the price of your sink, your toilet seat, and even a screw diver or a lightbulb... I was impressed!!!!

After so much walking I went to a highly recommended place to get a salteña (traditional Bolivian empanada) but on my way I happened to see a big parade with people dressed up in traditional costumes and dancing... Such a treat!

The salteñas

Street dancing:

So much walking made me tired so I went back to the hotel and joined some of the girls for lunch and made back on time for our night bus to sucre! 

DAY 21: WELCOME TO BOLIVIA

Today we crossed the Peruvian border and made it to Bolivia!

I have traveled to more than 25countries and have never witnessed something like la Paz... When we approached la Paz all I could see was a massive city!!! Houses all around... No green at all... My mouth literally dropped it was all brown and red from the houses all the way up the hills! I was really amazed by what I was seeing so I turned around to see if other people had noticed and literally the whole bus was taking pictures! It was incredible to see how quickly we changed the scenery and how massive La Paz is. There are possibly no pictures that would explain how shocking it is to witness la Paz for the first time.

Another thing that caught my attention is how Evo (the president) is everywhere!!! Pretty much half of the billboards have his face on it! Funny to see him in different "costumes" for example there was a billboard about water and there was Evo with a hard hat on the billboard!

I even read on some walls "Evo hasta 1950" (Evo for president until 1950)

A "funny" fact is that he is on his 2nd term as the president of Bolivia and wanted to run for a 3rd time and congress (or some authority) said no because the rules are that presidents can only run twice in a row! Cleverly, he responded that since he changed the name of the country to "Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia" he technically is NOT running for the president for the same country... Smart cookie this president!

We finally made it to the hotel which is "centrally located"... And by that I mean it is like I'm in the center of San Salvador... Which is not a compliment, it's kind of scary! 

I explored a little bit by myself until it was time to have our last dinner as a group and say goodbye to Sam and Jason :-(

DAY 22: LA PAZ

Today the whole group, except Bianca and I, went to do the famous "Death Road" (which is the most famous attraction in Bolivia) where they got to ride a bike from way up high down the hill on a deadly road with a cliff on one side... Zero interest in it! 

Instead, I took a free city tour of La Paz.

The tour started at the San Pedro prison where our two local guides gave us more info about it. So San Pedro prison is the largest prison in La Paz and is inmate run!!!! 

It was amazing to hear about the history of this prison! Many of the inmates have their families living in there with them and they all have jobs inside the prison!

In addition, all inmates in San Pedro have to pay rent for their prison cell. Many of the prisoners make money by selling drugs and the tour guides said that many times they snuck out the drug by tossing it on the street inside a diaper... So never ever pick up a diaper from there!

A while back inmates used to make money by running a tour visit for tourists. People even spent the night there partying but it got really dangerous, tourists were robbed and even raped so they decided to stop allowing people in! Anyway... What kind of coo-coo person would like to spend the night partying in a prison with delinquents?!? Crazy!

After the prison we were taken to the local market. The tour guides said not to take pictures without the woman's permission (the cholitas, the women who sell) because they believe that when a picture is taken they lose one of their 7 souls (but somehow it is ok if you ask) and they would also throw stuff at you such as a tomato, a fish, fishy water, or anything within proximity if they catch you taking a picture of them!! The market was pretty much the same as every other market we have been to with the only difference being that these ones where on the street.

Then we made our way to the witches market, or el "mercado de brujeria", where they sell all kinds of potions for whatever people need.

The thing that catches most people's attention is the dried llamas. Most of the stands have tons of dried llamas hanging; some of them have fur and some of them are complete dehydrated. 

The story goes that here in Bolivia before starting construction people need to dig a hole and put a dried llama, sprinkle some coca leaves and wine and then have a party to start the construction and if that is not done construction can't start! .. Strange!

There is an urban legend that says that for big buildings a bigger sacrifice is needed! So they need to sacrifice... A human!!! Apparently the amauta (or witch doctor) will go look for someone who won't be missed. The amauta will offer alcohol to homeless people and once they are very drunk they start saying that they don't have families etc so that person will be the victim! The witch doctor then gets him/her very drunk and takes the person to the construction site and throw the homeless in a hole and immediately they poor cement over him/her and the construction can start... So the lesson being: DO NOT accept any alcohol from strangers in Bolivia!! Haha

The girls also explained some of the potions that can be found in the witches market:

Follow me follow me dust: a white dust to be put on somebody's neck for him/her to fall in love with you!

Come to me come to me: dust for those in 2nd or 3rd base... Sprinkle some on their underwear for a little extra fun! Haha

The punisher: drops to put on your partner's tea if he/ she has misbehaved and it will turn that person into your B!tcH! Haha

And... Vigoron: bolivia's version of Viagra in a syrup form.

After so much witch talk we moved to a centro commercial (a shopping mall) that looked more like an organized local market. There, we had some time to try some Bolivian delicacies and some fresh juice... Yumm

We finished the tour by going over to the old quarter. We stopped at Plaza Murillo  where there is the presidential palace and there are 2 guards guarding the remains of the 7th president of Bolivia. While sitting there listening to the girls they told us that Bolivia has 2 Guinness records: one for having the most presidents in the least amount of times and two, for being the country that has had the most strikes! (Apparently farmers during the off season have boing better to do so they protest!)

The clock in this building has the numbers counter clock wise!

A gazillion birds flying over us

The last visit was to the top of a hotel where we got a pretty great view of La Paz!

We quickly left the hotel and got into a shared taxi... Direction: Calacoto... Purpose: a good lunch!

 It was almost impossible to get our own taxi to Calacoto since it was 25 mins away so we got into a taxi that displayed "calacoto" in the front. Bianca and I were the first two in the taxi and then we grabbed 3 more people on the way. I didn't know exactly where the restaurant was, I only knew it was en calle 10 so we were dropped off in the intersection with calle 10. From then, I asked around how to get to GUSTU! 

We walked rather quickly since they stop sitting for lunch at 3 and it was already 2:30pm. By 2:50 we were in the restaurant and were ready to eat. 

Gustu is supposed to be a very high end restaurant and it did not disappoint!

I loved the decor of the place, especially the rustic touches.

To begin, we were given some delicious home made potato chips with a cheesy dip on the bottom.

Then came a plate with cheeses and butters. The first butter is a coca infused with some sprinkled coca on top, next we have some with toasted quinoa, and finally a delicious creamy cheese.

For lunch we had: trout with pickled cucumber covered by a thin layer of frozen yogurt with fish eggs on top, creamy potatoes, and a zapallo purée with peppers and honey.

I loved that every time a dish (or drink) came out the chef would explained what we were having!

For dessert we ended up having a spicy ganache with chocolate ice cream topped with orange peels and chocolate cake... Delish!!!

The service was also phenomenal! Our server was very attentive and very nice despite us being there until late!

Once we were done with our lunch we walked back another 15-20 mins to the Main Street in hopes to get a taxi back to the cathedral. 

We had no luck! 

We didn't see any taxis and all the shared taxis were taken so we decided to hop on a mini bus!!!! Hahaha it was hilarious because at home I would never ever in a million years get into a "microbus" but when I'm traveling anything goes!

The mini buses cost 2.40 bolivianos ($0.34) and people come in an out. Ours had 4 rows plus the front so if the last person in the last row wants to get out then half of the mini bus has to get out, let the person out, and then pop back in... Hilarious! 

Here's our mini bus:

We finally got to our destination and nothing bad happened! Yeay

Tonight we had our change of tour guides and we met our new guide for the next two weeks, Daryl. To be honest I was disappointed that it wasn't a Latin American person! Daryl is an Aussie who has been traveling for the last 7 years, learned Spanish a year ½ ago and now is a CEO in South America. I feel kind of bad that the whole group is disappointed about not having a local as a guide but in all honesty I do believe that in South America having a gringo tour guide will be a little more challenging for the whole group. The good thing is that we will appreciate Ricardo a little more!