All over Sucre right now there are flags boasting the bright red, yellow, and green Bolivian colors with signs that say, “Sucre, la sede sí mueve!” We came during a movement between Sucre and La Paz, where Chuquisaqueños are trying to move the government to Sucre whereas Paceños are sticking together to keep it in La Paz. It will still be weeks before the actual decision is made, but it seems that there’s a lot of heat between the two sides.To get to Sucre, we drove 3 hours through the altiplano (high plains) watching farmers tend to their land where cows, pigs, and llamas grazed openly. It was such a relaxing trip. After traveling by bus from city to city, we were so excited to hear that there were private cars that drove groups of 4 from Potosi to Sucre. Turns out that this is a regular thing in Bolivia. It costs about the same amount to take a station wagon or minivan with enough room for all your things as it does to take a crowded, stuffy, slow bus, and you get to your destination much faster. Sucre became a 5-day vacation within a vacation. We found the cutest place to stay that seemed like a converted convent, but the staff swore that it’s always been a hostel. Our room was turquoise blue with two single beds, creaky hard wooden floors, a nightlight, and balcony windows that overlooked the street in the center of town. For 40 bolivianos a night, $5 USD, we didn’t want to pack our bags and head to the next city. Our excuse was that that we had better start getting into better shape if we were going to be visiting another city that was as high up as Potosi was. So we went to the park in the early afternoons to work out. Well, on the walk home we’d pass the orange juice lady, so we had to buy orange juice for 2 bolivianos. And then we'd pass the girls selling salteñas (sweet empanadas) for 1.5 more bolivianos, so we had to refuel anyways. Turns out, the jump start workout was such a shock to our bodies for days later, especially Javier’s, that we couldn’t manage to put on our backpacks and move around anyways. So we stayed and stayed.
We worked out again. Walking lunges, step-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, reverse pull-ups. Jump roping was hard enough. Forget jogging! The most entertaining part was that random kids would come up and watch us…and then mimic us. Girls asked if they could borrow our jump rope. Boys were doing push-ups, their little arms struggling to hold their bodies up. It was adorable! They’d even count reps with us, first in English, then in Spanish. Jav and I ended up buying lollipops for the kids we’d meet on the way. So we’d pass them a sucker, and even if we only had one, it would just get passed from one mouth to the next. *sigh* Just adorable!
Potosi is the first Bolivian city we made it to that’s built on a series of hills. All day – up and down, up and down. Something tells us that this is going to be a trend in this country. The Bolivians climb right up and shoot right down, but there are also taxis and micros that do it with no problem. Potosi is the highest city in the world with an altitude of 4,090 meters (13,419 ft) above sea level. With the lack of oxygen in the air, visitors definitely feel the difference in their body right away. It’s so hard to climb up a flight of stairs, it takes time to adjust, and you just have to move slowly.
Pulling into Potosi, it’s obvious that this is a mining town. There’s a long history of people traveling here looking for work, getting horrible assignments, and getting paid even worse. That’s one side of Potosi. The other side is the center, which is good times with plenty to see and do. People are always flooding the streets with something to sell. Traditionally dressed women offer freshly squeezed orange juice and sweet empanadas, children have carts where they sell a variety of nuts, teenagers sell sweets like slices of cake in the afternoon.**Side note** The 10-hour bus ride from Villazón to Potosi was the worst bus ride EVER!! You’re either sweating balls during the day or freezing your ass off at night. The lesser of two evils? Make sure to find a comfortable bus if you are ever forced to take this trip.
We crossed the border on foot from La Quiaca, Argentina to Villazón, Bolivia. Everything’s so laid back here that people could probably cross without stamping their passports. It’s a much different experience from crossing between say Arizona and Mexico. Unfortunately, there were road blocks up all over preventing people from traveling to Potosi or Sucre, the main cities people visit on the tourist route. Apparently this happens all the time in Bolivia, an interference the locals are accustomed to. All you can do is wait until the bus companies sell tickets again. We had to stay in the Villazón for 4 nights. Like many bordertowns there was not much to offer aside from poverty and thievery. It was here that we discovered the Bolivians love for pollo spiedo (rotisserie chicken) and it was here that we loved and lost our taste for it, too. For $1.50 USD you can get a half a chicken with fries, rice, a salad and a drink. It’s delicious! Just not every day.
Economy housing close to the bus stations has been the best bet for finding a place to crash. We’re not traveling with a guide book, and running around the city with these backpacks looking for alojamiento is just so draining. So when we arrived to Jujuy, we found a cozy room with cable and hot showers for a few bucks a night. From Jujuy we took a daytrip to Purmamarca, a pueblito a few hours away that’s a stepping stone to visiting the Salinas Grandes, one of the many salt flats in the Chilean, Argentine, and Bolivian regions. The drive up the mountain (La Cuesta de Elipan) is the road you have to climb before heading back down to where the salt flats are. Once you arrive, what a fun place to play with depth of field.
We shot up to the north of Argentina after a few days in Mendoza and San Juan – just to try the tenedores libres (all you can eat restaurants) and empanadas. An 18-hour bus ride, front row baby!, got us to Salta and that’s where the real fun and beauty began because the northern desert of Argentina is a breathtaking drive in any direction for days and days. To get a glimpse of what the scenery was like, we visited a tourist agency that showed us a 20 minute slideshow of what to expect – twisty roads, tiny pueblos, stretches of chiseled mountains changing colors at every curve, and $3 lunches at restaurants along the way. After the preview, there was no way we’d be doing this tour with anyone but ourselves, private transport, and the leisure of stopping and going on our own time schedule.
We rented a chiquitito rojito autito and took a road trip down to Cafayate, up to Cachi, and back to Salta in 2 days. The freedom of driving a car again was such a delight. We raced through farmlands and vineyards until the highway brought us to the mountainous desert and steadily followed a river at the base of the canyon. One of the first major attractions was la Garganta del Diablo, the Devil’s Throat, a rainbow of reds carved into a mountain where visitors can hike up the “tongue” until they reach the back of the “mouth.” Tourist vans and cars filled the entrance, but the crowd only seemed to walk up to the part where the actual climbing and hiking began. Fome! Continuing the trek was well worth the sight, especially because we pretty much had it all to ourselves. On the way down as we jumped and slid down the boulders, we overheard a woman asking her man, “If I go up, how will I get down?” ...to which Jav said, "I'm glad you're a cuatro por cuatro."The views continued to change around every turn. Rock formations had cut outs of windows, animals, and even castles that looked like fantasylands from The Lord of the Rings. Everything appeared even more brilliant as the sun set, igniting the mountains to their maximum. We made it to Cafayate where we continued with our empanada taste testing tour. This time we tried rabbit empanadas. Tasted like chicken. There wasn’t much of a night life there, so we got back on the road. But there wasn’t much to see driving at night either, so we parked the car a little off the highway. We had no idea where we were because there was no light, no cars, no houses, nada. Not even the map seemed reliable. It was a little scary, but at the same time it was comforting being in one of those places where the stars are electric, and the faintest ones can be seen forming part of the Milky Way. We locked the doors, got under the covers, and slept till the sun came back out. Morning came and t
he now dirt road lead us through the desert from pueblo to pueblo. Every one had it’s own quaint picture perfect iglesia calling me to photograph it. There were beautiful desert cemeteries, too, that were gorgeous to photograph just for their location and decoration.
Jav got to a point where he was sick of driving on the main drag. With the open desert all around, he was antsy to do a little off-roading. Instead of considering that we were in a rented hatchback unlike any of the monster trucks the locals drive, he turned onto a 4x4 side path, which turned into a whole ‘nother story for the day. As the car started to pout and moan after a minute in the sand, Jav decided to turn her around. He turned her around and she gets stuck! We had to flag down help from the main road, jack up the front tire, cover the sand underneath with flat rocks, and then try to push her out of there. Finally, about 15 men came walking through the desert out of nowhere. (…because that happens in stories like this...) and they offered to help give us a push. Jav drove back to safety on the main road as I walked back with the men. “Where you from?” the Argentines asked. “Chile,” one of the original guys who was helping us replied. “Oh, that makes sense,” the man said. It was too much! Here’s the photo of the helping hands:
After Cachi, the road descended through a green gorge on a road known as the Cuesta del Obispo. It’s amazing how different the scenery is in just a few kilometers drive. 18 wheelers were huffing and puffing their way up as we were smooth sailing all the way down through twists and turns. The sun went down and put an end to this leg of our trip. The next morning we returned the car and headed to San Salvador de Jujuy to explore more of Argentina’s naturaleza.
My stuff’s been stuffed into a big red backpack again. Only this time there’s a big blue backpack right by my side on the next part of the journey, too. Javier decided to pack up his life in Chile to travel up the backbone of South America with me (yay!) … who knows where to; just up. I’ve always been a solo traveling project, so now everything’s going to be a big change. Jav is definitely a part of my life from Chile that I wouldn’t have wanted to leave behind. We got him a pair of hiking boots, sketched out a plan, and said a very tearful goodbye to his family. Tickets across the border bought him his very first stamp on his newly issued Chilean passport. We arrived to Argentina!We’re roughly going to head up through Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador before making it to Colombia to find work for 3-6 months. Then we plan to keep heading up Central America, maybe even make it to Mexico and be able to cross the border into the US. Along the way, we’re open to the unknown and whatever going from city to city means -- like jumping into volunteer or social work projects and of course photographing, practicing English, and experiencing culture shocks along the way. The best advice we were given before we left was from Mr. & Mrs. Miranda: "Tienen que ser uno."
All over Sucre right now there are flags boasting the bright red, yellow, and green Bolivian colors with signs that say, “Sucre, la sede sí mueve!” We came during a movement between Sucre and La Paz, where Chuquisaqueños are trying to move the government to Sucre whereas Paceños are sticking together to keep it in La Paz. It will still be weeks before the actual decision is made, but it seems that there’s a lot of heat between the two sides.
We worked out again. Walking lunges, step-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, reverse pull-ups. Jump roping was hard enough. Forget jogging! The most entertaining part was that random kids would come up and watch us…and then mimic us. Girls asked if they could borrow our jump rope. Boys were doing push-ups, their little arms struggling to hold their bodies up. It was adorable! They’d even count reps with us, first in English, then in Spanish. Jav and I ended up buying lollipops for the kids we’d meet on the way. So we’d pass them a sucker, and even if we only had one, it would just get passed from one mouth to the next. *sigh* Just adorable!
