Bolivia

The plan is to stay 7 days in Bolivia. Since the travel has been tough so far we decided to take it easy and take a few relaxing days, including a few nights of going out in Bolivia.

The 2nd day we went into the city to explore and book several tours. We noticed that the gunshots heard earlier are fireworks coming from daily protests. This seemed to be every day business in La Paz. At the Bolivia hop station we booked the death road tour and a one day trip to the salt flats in Uyuni. Both experiences are life changing, especially the death road, since it ranges from mountain tops to tropical rainforests and waterfalls. The salt flats are breathtaking, impossible to view without sun glasses and completely silent, stretching a 12000 squared km. We ended that day with a beautiful sunset, unmatched with any other I have seen before.

Furthermore, the cable cars are a beautiful way to have a panoramic view of the city and taking a dive into the witch market gives insight into the mysterious ways of La Paz. We took a walking tour during the afternoon that guided us through the city. Most remarkable fact: For every building built, a sacrifice has to be made, for small buildings these usually are lama’s, however for big corporations there is the urban legend that humans are being sacrificed. At first I didn’t believe this, but after asking multiple tour guides I was convinced of the legend.

Homeless people or drunk people are the easiest targets, probably being brought to a house where they get plenty of food and alcohol untill they can’t handle it anymore. Whenever the person passes out, the person has to be buried alive to being sacrificed for the Pachacamama(Mother earth). Due to the mixed opinions on tourism there seems to be one important advice: Don’t get drunk in La Paz, oops..

All in all, bolivia is breathtaking and gives a realistic view of how different the world can be, it is eye opening in terms of culture, politics and climate.

Tomorrow we will have our flight to cusco, back to Peru where apparently the most beautiful city still awaits us, including machu picchu, the rainbow mountain, independence day, the amazone(8hours away) and world class food.