Author Archives: Björn

From Potosi to Uyuni

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We left Potosi in the morning; quickly the road became a bumpy dirt road, no good outlook for this six hours bus ride.
However – as soon as we left town also the scenario opened, revealing amazing views and more amazing views, some reminding me of the Grand Canyon, others of the Black/White Desert in Egypt, others of the area around Lake ErHai near Dali, China (except for the lake, of course). To summarize – for me it was the most amazing bus ride so far, independent from the road condition.

Sucre continued …

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Originally my plan for this day was to do a hike (Joyride‘s hike 3) – but it could not take place, as they did not have a guide for this hike. Instead of following Kathleen and the others to Locots (where they have been able to book a similar hike), I signed up for a horseback ride.
The ride was scheduled to start at 10:00 in the morning, however was moved into the afternoon due to bad weather conditions. This gave us some more time to discover town and visit the market, the Casa de la Libertad, as well as the cathedral.

In the afternoon (around 13:30) our horseback ride started, after about 15 minutes on the back of mine (named Tobacco) I realized that I got the slow one (thank god) – and that David got the crazy (= unstoppable) one.
After another hour I promised myself that the next time I will see horse, it will be on a plate and either cooked, grilled or smoked.

Sucre – Capitol of Bolivia

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We left Santa Cruz in the late morning; by bus we made it to Viru Viru International Airport (VVI) to get our plane (an aging 727)  to Cochabamba. In Cochabamba we had about two hours until we boarded the next (even older) 727 to Sucre.

We arrived at our hotel in Sucre at about 16:00 after a quick transfer from the airport (the smallest airport I have ever seen – with just one arrival and one departure gate).
After a short time to get settled, we met again for an orientation walk through town (laundry, cambios, activities, etc.) and ended up having dinner in the Joyride Cafe.

Often La Paz is referred to as the capital of Bolivia – however this is not true, the official capital of Bolivia is indeed Sucre. In the end power is shared between both cities (with the legislative and executive body being in La Paz and the prime/constitutional court being in Sucre) – Sucre though remains the constitutional capital of the Republic of Bolivia.

Santa Cruz de la Sierra

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After a night on the Death Train we arrived at our Santa Cruz hotel at about 09am. Most of us took some time off to get some rest, a shower or to enjoy the hotel pool. Around 11am David and myself left the hotel to get some water and to have a look around town – our plan was also to get some food sooner or later (only food we had that day so far consisted of the small breakfast served aboard the train).

Santa Cruz is the economical center of Bolivia – and its richest and most populated city. Main industries include oil, gas and agriculture. Santa Cruz also hosts Bolivia’s main gateway to the world – Viru Viru International Airport. However from a tourist perspective there is not too much to do and see in Santa Cruz.

After our short city tour we met with John and Wayne and had some food (burgers). I went to bed afterwards as I did not feel well; I woke up 4 hours later totally wet from my own sweat, still feeling weak, but better than before. At least I felt fit enough to join in for group dinner at a pseudo-Mexican restaurant (the food was rather tasteless compared to real Mexico and my favorite Mexican restaurant back home).

El Trem del Morte

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We left the Pantanal and we left Brazil. The border crossing was more than obvious, the paved street suddenly became a dirt road and the buildings on the Bolivian side looked run-down compared to Brazil. After the border formalities we got continued to the train station of Corumba. Ultimately it turned out, we were at the wrong train station (the booking agent got everything wrong, they quoted the wrong time and the wrong station) – consequently we needed a quick transfer to the correct station and ended up with five persons in a taxi (plus according number of backpacks…) for an interesting 20 minute taxi ride. The train was actually waiting for us at this station (we made up about two thirds of the first class car); we boarded quickly and the train journey started.
While we did not use the actual Death Train, our train at least used the same tracks on our 14 hours journey. The seats and seat arrangement were rather nice, however the ride itself rather bumpy and uncomfortable – I’d rather have a Chinese hard sleeper train…

Pantanal – Canoe & Boat Ride

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For this second day in the Pantanal the group had to split into two parts once more. The usual approach would have been that everyone makes up his/her mind and either the groups are arranged in 5 minutes or the tour leader assigns groups. However Leo made the mistake of mentioning this the evening before, so Amir quickly started to create tickets and raffle off the places for the morning boat ride (choice was boat ride in the morning and canoe in the afternoon or the other way round).
Anyhow in the end I was rather happy not having won in this draw – it turned out that my group had a covered boat for the boat ride later in the day (by this lowering the probability for sunburn), we also did see more capibaras – and we did not have Amir with us 🙂 …

So we did go ahead and enjoyed a canoe trip in the morning – after lunch followed by the boat trip around the two rivers – including a chance for a swim in Rio Vermelho.