Bolivia: The Oxygen Thief

After finishing up in San Pedro de Atacama, it was time to cross the border, and go up another couple of thousand metres into the world's highest country; Bolivia.

Ears: Ruby Troupe

We spent 3 days living at over 4000m and a good chunk of that was over 5000m, they reckon that any altitude over 2400m can lead to altitude sickness. So to prevent it they recommend only going up 300m per day. We went from 2500m in Atacama straight to 5000m in 3 hours, two days in hospital in Potosi was the end result for Hannah.

The border patrol between Chile and Bolivia.

The last thing you want to do at 4300m is push start a car.

Heerey, Nick, Myself and Hannah in some hot springs - check the Flamingo in the background.

There he is

Red Lake is this lake's name.

Full of Flamingos too.

The Salar de Uyuni, the Salt Flats are 50,000km2 of perfectly flat salt plains, with a few "islands" of land every now and then it actually gives the impression of being at sea, a really salty one..

Everyone tries to pull off some of these photos, not too sure why it became popular here, as you can pretty much do it anywhere in the world. Go down to the local footy ground and it can be done. After having a few attempts at it, we gave up.

On the Salt Flats, had to do it.

Nailed it.

Turns out the most impressive photo to do on the Salar is the following.

Nick and the Salar

The Dakar Rally goes through here now.

Would stop at a lot of places and they would try to make you buy stuff. Generally we were more interested in little dudes like this.

Went to the Train Cemetery just outside Uyuni for a look around, a train buff would love it.

Train Cemetery

Getting it done.

Witches Market in La Paz

After leaving the Salar, we ended up in Potosi, the worlds highest town at over 4000m. There are no photo's here as this is where Hannah took time out to suck in some tanked oxygen and I actually came down with a bout of bad Empanada, AKA Bolivia Belly, Heerey also had a needle in the bum for his issues too. After a few days however we soon found ourselves in La Paz, another "highest city in the world" this time a major one or something.

One of the things that stick out most for tourists in La Paz and the surrounding areas are the Cholita's.

Cholitas and a pidgeon.

The Cholita's are the indigenous women of the area, they dress in traditional clothes, and have that Bowler always perched precariously on their head. What most people don't realise is the Bowler Hat actually came from the Euro's in the 1920's. The story goes that when the English came over in the 20's to take advantage of Bolivia's rich minerals (silver, salt, anything), they brought over a heap of hats, that ended up being too small for them. So they ingeniously gave it to the local ladies saying it was all the rage in Europe. The ladies have basically worn them ever since, still thinking they are Europes #1 accessory for the season.

The way they wear it is also important, the smaller it is the better, as it is harder to keep on the head - hence meaning they are more proper when they walk around. If the hat is flat on the head they are married, if it is tilted to one side they are looking for love.

La Paz

San Pedro Prison - made famous from the book, Marching Powder.

One of the days in La Paz involved mountain biking down the Death Road, (real name Yungas Road), the ride starts at a height of just over 5000m and descends down to 1200m over 68km. It was a pretty cruisy ride, generally not needing to pedal for kilometres at a time. Some dodgy moments  with the local trucks were the order of the day.

After biking down Death Road, we ended up at this animal sanctuary. This is the guy who started it, he is basically the father of about 70 primates now.

La Paz

If the Cholita's are a bit weird to see for you then Cholita Wrestling is out of this world! Basically it is  like going to a real basic WWF or WWF (whatever they call it) Bout. Except it is done by the Cholita women and a few others. They get the tourists and locals involved too which made it quite entertaining.

The locals love it too.

The guys were actually some gringos in the crowd and got pulled up into the ring.

Saw Cholita Wrestling - one of the weirdest things you can ever see.

Theatre of Cholitas Dreams

We left Bolivia about a month ago now, the reason it has taken this long to post this is simply because we have been too busy seeing some amazing things and pretty incredible places. Time heals old wounds they say, and all in all looking back at Bolivia it was a pretty unique and incredible place. But it was a lot of hard work and discomfort for us.