Bolivia Six month backpacking trip through Bolivia, Peru and central America: update 5/14
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 15 September 2024
Updated on 15 September 2024
I’M STILL ALIVE!!! I believe I ended the last post by mentioning that I was going downhill mountain biking on the world’s most dangerous road. Even back on the bus, I survived.
After the mountain biking tour and three days chilling in a mountain village (Coroico), I took the bus to Rurrenabaque. Even though Rurrenabaque sounds like a first-class metropolis, it turned out to be a small village with internet so slow that I set the Pinball high score in the time it took Hotmail to show “inbox.”
In Rurrenabaque, I did a Pampas tour, which translates to searching for anacondas, seeing pink river dolphins, fishing for piranhas, and petting crocodiles (all 100% pure nature). We also swam in the river. Naive as I am, I blindly believed the guide when he said it was absolutely safe (or my Spanish isn’t good enough yet), while half an hour earlier, we were fishing for piranhas and crocodiles were everywhere in the same river.
On the bus ride (18 hours) back to La Paz, I finally got “the flat tire.” It took 2 months to cross that off the list. I mean, without a flat tire from time to time, you might as well book a vacation in Western Europe.
Back in La Paz, I went to a foreign barber for the first time in my life. Now, my Spanish isn’t good enough to explain how I want my hair, so I pointed to a cool hairstyle for him to imitate. But for 75 cents, you can’t get mad if it goes wrong.
I took a walk through a canyon near La Paz with Jerome. The canyon itself was a 5-minute walk long, but the complete walk, including transportation back and forth, took half a day (totally worth it, so if you happen to be in La Paz soon, ... highly recommended). The walk ended in Palca, a mountain village. There, I asked four times if there was a bus back to La Paz and got four different answers (as always in Bolivia): the first said “in 10 minutes” (lucky us!!!), the second said “just left” (bummer!!!), the next confidently claimed that a bus never comes to Palca, and the fourth said it might come, but maybe not. I think the last answer is probably the closest to reality. So, we walked to the next village and waited for a lift. After 20 minutes, a car with 2 men in the front, 3 women on the back seat, and a boy in the trunk arrived. When we asked if we could ride along, the women got out to squeeze into the trunk (the men stayed comfortably in the front). After insisting, we convinced them that it was better for us to be in the trunk so they could sit comfortably. It’s incredible how women are sometimes treated as inferior here in Bolivia (or how humbly they present themselves).
Finally, today I went to the doctor because I have inflamed bumps (probably mosquito bites from the jungle) on my chin (yes, you get to hear everything). It’s quite different from the Netherlands. While shopping at the market, you see a sign “medico” somewhere, walk in, and ask if he can take a look at your face. After 5 minutes and only 1.5 euros poorer, you’re back on the street with the prescription, which you use to buy your medicine at the pharmacy across the street.
That’s it again. Plans for tomorrow are Isla del Sol (island with nothing but sun!), half of which is already in Peru, and then fully into Peru.
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Traveled route: La Paz, Potosí, Sucre, Tupiza, Uyuni, Salar de Uyuni, Cochabamba, Villa Tunari, Coroico, Rurrenabaque,Most Dangerous Road of the World, Isla del Sol
next country: Peru
Six month backpacking trip through Bolivia, Peru and central America: update 6/14
Napaykullayki kgochu!
This might sound more like Nepali, but I’m still in South America. To add a cultural touch to my emails, let me disrupt your simple worldview that they speak Spanish or Portuguese throughout this continent. The above greeting
Bolivia
Did this story inspire you to go to Bolivia? Read more on what Bolivia has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.