Welcome to Bolivia!

Bolivia is indeed a land of superlatives. It may be South America's poorest nation, but it is a fascinating place, we hesitate to say, one of the most interesting countries we have visited yet!

Not only does it have the world's driest desert, but also the world's highest city and the world's largest salt lake. This while about a third of the country falls into the Amazon jungle. And what's more, it's the only country in South America with a majority indigenous population, which makes Bolivia colourful, and culturally alluring. We have been absolutely charmed by this wonderful country, and hope to be back one day.

Tripping the light fantastic on the Salar!

Without doubt, the Salar de Uyuni is the most bizarre place on earth for so many reasons. Not only is it the largest salt lake in the world, but it also contains an "island", which is home to some of the world's largest and most impressive cacti.

The lake holds around 10 billion tons of salt, and driving across it without sunglasses can be an extremely painful experience. And then there's the temperature - cold...freezing actually, even though the sun is shining, meaning sunburn is an acute likelihood.

We ventured across the salt in our Toyota 4x4 as part of a tour arranged through Pamela Tours in San Pedro. We were slightly nervous of the tour, having heard that once we get to Bolivia, our driver could turn out to be drunk most of the time, the Toyota could break down a lot, and we could hate everyone we were touring with to the point of wanting to murder them and bury their bodies in the salt.

Fortunately for us our driver, Santiago, was totally sober, Toyota is still the best thing to come out of Japan, and we got on famously with Caroline, Emae and Mathieu (all from France). The worst thing to happen to us was that Santiago got a little tired of us all on the last day, and dropped us off early in Uyuni (claiming that he had no more petrol...hmmm). Still, we got to see some stupendous sites, such as this sunset over the pink lake, Laguna Colorada.

Oh, and if you were wondering whether all that salt had any adverse effect on us, I would say, not at all.

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Altitude sickness in the world's highest city!

After 3 days on the Salar, we intended to only spend a day exploring Potosi (accent on the i), but were made to linger longer, partly because this is a charming little city, and partly because of the sick feeling in our heads.

At 4100m, Potosi is the highest city in the world, although it is more famous for its silver mine, Cerro Rico, which once made the city the largest in the Spanish empire, even bigger than Madrid. Silver was discovered by a Llama herder who got caught out in the cold one night, and lit a fire, only to discover the fire started to leak a shiny molten liquid. Potosi exploded onto the international mining scene until the collapse in silver in the last century. Cerro Rico is still mined for silver and tin today, and it is possible to do an underground tour of the mine, which includes buying the miners dynamite and coca leaves as gifts before entering the largely family-run enterprises. Unfortunately, as with all mines, conditions are not great, with life expectancy being only a couple of decades, children often working the mines. Cerro Rico has been responsible for an estmated 9 million deaths since the Llama herder made his discovery.

Fortunately for Potosi today, tourism feeds the city's buzz, and we decided to spend a few days just wandering the old streets, lunching on Llama steaks and soup in its little restaurants, and joining the throngs of young and old as they paraded up and down its streets every evening. We finally decided to drag ourselves away, leaving the city with lots of fond memories.

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Chilling in La Paz

As with all large cities, arriving in La Paz was a slightly intimidating affair, especially at 5 o'clock in the morning. We quickly got the first honest-faced cabbie to whisk us off to our chosen hostel, and got checked in and feeling a little less skittish as quickly as possible. We had met so many travellers who had had "stuff" happen to them in La Paz - bags slashed, pockets picked, cameras stolen. We were determined not to be another sad traveller tale!

But the travel fairies have been kind to us, and we have had a very pleasant experience of this fascinating city, one of the highest in the world, and, if you count it rather than Sucre as Bolivia's premier city, the highest capital city in the world. While the disparities between rich and poor are evident, and responsible for petty crime which is apparently on the increase, this should really not put any traveller off La Paz, the city which has become the face of the Altiplano and its people.

We ended up spending four days in La Paz, wandering its colourful streets full of women selling fabrics, bags, jewellry and llama foetus' (as you do!). We also befriended three super-friendly Brazilians - Camilla, Cristina and Natalia - and ended up spending quite a bit of time with them, discussing Bolivia, Brazil, Europe, football, drinking, and generally putting the world to rights with them over lunches and dinners.

In the end, we felt quite at home in La Paz...well, as "at home" as anyone can feel in a city where little old ladies point at the gringo (Marc) and giggle.

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Amazonia

After weeks breathing thin air and freezing our tails off at night on the Andean Altiplano it was time for some HEAT. And heat (and humidity) we certainly got! We took a short flight from La Paz to Rurrenabache on the edge of the Amazon basin, and from there we took a 6-hour boat trip into the 10,000 hectare Madidi National Park (check this NatGeo gallery for more info).

Over the next 3 days we were treated to over a hundred species of bird, mammal, insect and reptile, none of which we'd ever seen before. In fact, Madidi's tropical rainforest area contains over 40,000 species of plant alone!!!. Thanks to our guide during our stay at the Chalalan lodge - the uncannily knowledgeable, and absorbing Alejandro - we were shown at least a small subset of the Park's unique flora and fauna.

Chalalan's a community eco-tourism project set up and run by the inhabitants of a local village. With the tourist revenues, the villagers have been able to finance education, infrastructure and medical necessities for themselves, as well as put an end to its' previous reliance on the logging industry. Solar energy powers the whole lodge. River water is treated and filtered for public use. Waste is either taken back out of the park on the tourist boat (10-seater max with a small outboard), or is treated and recycled on site. All food is gathered or hunted in the Park or grown in the village. Beer comes on the boat though! But the empties go back the same way. A pretty cool operation.

We started every day at 5.30am, like it or not - it was impossible to stay asleep with all the weird and wonderful noises coming from the jungle. First there were the Howler Monkeys who emitted the strangest, almost alien-like screech. Then there was the resident Great Potu, a nocturnal bird that turns itself into a branch to the naked eye during the day. And finally there were all manner of insects. These were the noisiest of all. All were unseen but at least 4 were identifiable instantly (if not scientifically): the dentist's drill beetle, the trance DJ bug, the water-sprinkler cicada, and the 24hr-welder/metalworker ant. It all added up to aural assault and battery.

The flight in and out of Rurrenabache is worth a mention too: a 16-seater twin prop craft, which looked like it had been leased out for troop drops during some clandestine war in the 1970s, got us from A to B. But A to B involved a significant change in altitude, air pressure... and crossing The Andes. Plus the cloud was patchy: now you see the mountain, now you don't. The descent was ear-popping, and felt a wee bit like the pilot had handed the controls to his 8-year-old nephew just for the laugh. The runway was... grass. With wild pigs on it. But we got there (and back) in one piece. And no pig casualties were reported.

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The Question of Coca!

One cannot visit Bolivia without coming into contact with the Coca leaf, the plant we "westerners" usually associate as the base element to cocaine. Bolivia is a prolific producer of Coca, and has therefore, become as synonomous with the drug as...well...Colombia.

The funny thing is that most Bolivians chew Coca on a daily basis, not for the assumed "trip to the stars", but because it is intrinsic to their history (Coca has been chewed for many centuries) and tradition, and very much part of their way of life. In fact, there are specific ceremonies to chewing the leaf, which include making small sacrifices to Pachamama (remember her?) and warding off evil spirits.

We decided to try chewing Coca ourselves, and were quite stunned at how bitter, and dare I say, downright foul the leaf tastes, even when sprinkled with banana or palm ash. The effect is said to be energising and euphoric, and it suppresses appetite. All I got was a totally numb mouth and tongue, but then again, I could not sustain the chewing for longer than a couple of minutes.

The interesting thing about Coca is the way that the manufacture of cocaine for mainly western use has impacted the traditional chewing of the leaf in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. The US's largely ineffectual and politically-shady "War on Drugs" means that traditional growers are often caught in the cross-fire with crops poisoned, and their traditions and livelihoods under threat. In addition, more cynical commentators accuse the US of using the War on Drugs as an excuse to conduct covert exercises in South America, funding pro-US leaders, sustaining civil unrest with leftist groups, and installing US bases in Coca growing areas. Nevertheless, the use of the drug in the US (the biggest market in the world) and Europe continues to grow - where it is clear that as demand is so great, supply prevails.

In Bolivia there is a determination regarding the growing of Coca, with emotions towards the War on Drugs running high. Evo Morales, Bolivia's leader of one year and a former Coca farmer himself, is determined to push the accountability for the use of cocaine back from whence it came, and force the US to deal with their homegrown demand, and leave the indigenous people of Bolivia to their century-old tradition of chewing the noble, but quite yukky Coca leaf.

In his address to the UN shortly after coming to power, Morales held up a Coca leaf and expressed his outrage at the impact of the War on Drugs on Bolivia: "They've preached all over the world that coca is cocaine, and it's not. They've satanized a Basic ingredient of our culture. They've spent millions in eradication and fumigation, and what have they achieved? Nothing." He criticized the US's "certification" system, denying poor countries aid unless they signed on to the drug war, as "humiliating" and said if there was to be a certification system, it should be done by the UN and not the US. "Certification must not become a re-colonization instrument of our peoples," Morales said.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Christy McCampbell said she had "very serious concerns" about Morales' coca policy and said that the U.S. would review Bolivia's drug policies again in six months' time. Without significant change in the Morales' program, Bolivia could face decertification - the loss of some $100 million in U.S. government aid in the fight against narco-trafficking.

Clearly this debate is far from over, not so long as the love affair with cocaine continues to flourish in the US and Europe.

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