Bolivia
Adventures
Bolivia
“Salt of the Earth"
Salt of the Earth
“Power to the People”
Karl first visited Bolivia in 1995 on the first of two mountaineering expeditions to the Cordillera Real. At that time, Bolivia was very unstable, plagued by frequent protests, roadblocks and strikes. But when we crossed into Bolivia from Peru, we realized that Bolivia was a lot more stable than the Bolivia of 25 years ago, in large part due to 15 years of economic and political stability under the leadership of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president. Gone were the days of nightly curfews in La Paz and regular blockades on roads throughout Bolivia. Or so we thought.
Lake Titicaca, the Birthplace of Andean Civilization
We began our trip in Copacabana, a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
In Andean mythology, Lake Titicaca was the place where Andean civilization emerged from the waters and where the spirits of the dead returned to their origin. Today, Lake Titicaca is also considered by many to be the home of one of the earth’s 7 chakras. While in Copacabana we reconnected with our overlanding soulmates, Stefan and Thomas from Switzerland. Together, we got our rigs blessed by the head priest of the Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana, Copacabana’s 16th-century shrine.
Our friends from Cusco also connected us with an indigenous Taquileño family that we stayed with on Taquile Island, a small island in Lake Titicaca which is actually on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. The Taquileños are considered to be the finest weavers in South America and the family we stayed with were no exception. Although a handful of tourists visit Taquile Island each day by boat from Puno, after they left for the day, we were the only tourists on the island.
From Isla del Sol we headed to La Paz. In the mid 90s, La Paz was a terrifying place to drive. The streets were narrow and super steep, the traffic was horrible and there were no rules. But when we arrived in La Paz, we recognized that things had changed. The streets were still terrifying, especially in a huge vehicle like ours, making route selection essential. But the drivers were better and the traffic wasn’t THAT bad. Over the course of the next few days, we discovered that one of the reasons for this is the fact that Evo Morales has built a network of teleféricos in La Paz, including several connecting the city of El Alto on the altiplano to the city of La Paz below. This, combined with the fact that many colectivos (community taxis) had been replaced by large buses had reduced the traffic in La Paz considerably.
La Paz
Over the next few days while we got some maintenance done on our truck, we made the most of our time in La Paz, exploring its fascinating markets and neighborhoods including the Mercados de Hechicería, or witches markets. The vendors in these markets sell medicinal plants and potions and make offerings for Aymara rituals consisting of candies, dead animals and herbs. And the Yatiris (witch doctors) can help cast spells, perform rituals and provide spiritual advice.
While in La Paz we also learned more about Evo Morales. There were some things we liked, including his support of Bolivia’s indigenous population. But we nevertheless recognized that something had happened to Evo Morales that we had seen happen to other “leftist” leaders in Latin America, including Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua. Specifically, power had gotten to his head. Examples of this included his huge and completely out of place presidential palace in downtown La Paz. And he had decided to run for a third term from 2020-2025 despite the fact that the Bolivian constitution forbids it. Sometimes when you are traveling you need to trust your gut. And our gut said that the upcoming presidential elections on October 21st were going to be ugly and that we needed to get out of the country before they were held.
Sajama National Park
But we still had a few weeks left before the elections so we headed to Sajama National Park. Sajama National Park is home to the Sajama Volcano, a huge volcano and, at 6,542 meters (21,463 ft), Bolivia’s highest peak. The park is fascinating and seldom visited, offering opportunities to drive to lakes full of pink flamingos, to explore the world’s highest forest and to soak in hot springs fed by huge geyser fields. Sajama Volcano sits in the middle of the park but it is also surrounded by huge volcanoes in Chile to the south and west. One of the best parts about the park is that with the exception of a few locals and tourists in the tiny town of Sajama near the entrance of the park, we didn’t see anyone at all during our trip there.
After an unplanned trip to La Paz where we finally figured out why our rear axle seal was leaking and got it fixed once and for all, we returned to the witches market to get an offering made for our rig and the rest of the trip. For a few dollars, we got a huge offering to Pachamama, including candies, herbs and a bit of Lama hair and meat. We were told we needed to light it on fire on an island in the middle of the sacred Salar de Uyuni to maximize its effect. So we rolled up and out of La Paz to the altiplano and south toward the world’s largest salt flat.
Salar De Uyuni
The Salar de Uyuni is not only the world’s largest salt flat, it’s also the source of 50-70% of the world’s Lithium. In fact, a week or two before our arrival, campesinos had blocked the roads into and out of Uyuni, the gateway town to the Salar, in response to the terms of a proposed deal between the Bolivian government and a German company to mine the Lithium to create batteries. Fortunately, when we arrived the roads were open and we were able to roll onto the salar where we camped and made our offering to Pachamama. With the exception of a few trucks full of tourists who we saw at the big island close to the entrance to the Salar, we had the Salar almost completely to ourselves.
Power to the People
With a couple of days to go until the election, we headed south toward the Chilean border.
Unfortunately, the shit had already started to hit the fan and we ran into a roadblock in Oruro, a town on the way to the border. After talking to (and sympathizing with) the campesinos blocking the road, we recognized that they weren’t going to let us through so we attempted to drive around it. The “detour” involved driving up and over railroad tracks. It didn’t go so well. We made it up onto the railroad tracks but smashed into a cement staircase used to load passengers on the train in the process. Our truck was fine but the staircase didn’t fare as well. A few hours later, after negotiating with and eventually bribing some railway workers, we were on our way to the Chilean border with a day to spare before the Bolivian elections.
Unfortunately, when we arrived at the remote Chilean border we were told that we didn’t have the right paperwork for Oz to get into the country and that we had to return to La Paz to get different paperwork. But we knew that if we returned we might be stuck in Bolivia for weeks or months if the election didn’t go well. After an extremely stressful day of attempting to bribe and convince the Chileans to let us into the country, a few Bolivians explained the situation to the border guards and they finally let us through. And we were lucky they did since a day later, Bolivia exploded into chaos after Morales claimed he had won the election, his opponents led violent protests against him and weeks later the army finally forced him to flee to Mexico. If we had been forced to return to Bolivia we would have been stuck in one of the most chaotic and violent periods of Bolivia’s history, and that’s saying a lot.
Bolivia is one of our favorite countries in the world in large part because it offers such an amazing variety of off the beaten path adventures.
Here are a few of Our Bolivia Favorite Adventures.
