"We travel initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the world whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more." -Pico Iyer
During our nearly 7 months of travel, we have witnessed some pretty strange things. Bolivia was no exception. It is a country full of beautiful varied landscapes, friendly people and weird stuff. I wouldn't say that Bolivia was any more weird than other places we have visited, we just managed to photograph the craziness this time. I am going to try to convey to you the wonderful mix of strange and beautiful things we saw during our journeys through Bolivia.
On our very first night in Bolivia, we were in a restaurant that had a television turned to the evening news. This is the newscaster. Nice hat! She's not being funny. Let me explain...
The strange part about this is that the women ALWAYS dress this way, even if they are paving a sidewalk or mopping floors in a bus terminal. Behold these women, unloading from the pickup truck with their shovels for a long day's work. Note that not all of the women are in the traditional dress, but the fact that any of them are is a bit odd.
Our first stop after the wonderful salt flat tour was Potosi, the famous mining town. We opted out of doing the mine tour but this photo below shows the beautiful mineral rich hill that looms over Potosi and helped make Spain very rich. Miners still mine for tin there.
But first we had to get to the bus station. This is where the strange comes in. Potosi isn't that big of a city. It's not a major transport hub either. However, in January, they opened this enormous bus terminal that is far bigger than the one in La Paz. It is beautiful, shiny and new. And a bit out of place.
The uneventful bus ride took us to the beautiful city of Sucre. Almost all of the buildings in the city center have been painted the traditional colonial white. It made me feel like we were in Andalucia, Spain, where there are many white villages.
But that doesn't mean Sucre doesn't have weird stuff. Check out their mini Eiffel Tower! We climbed it along with a bunch of teenagers.
On our last day in Sucre, there was a bike race between Potosi and Sucre. It was exciting to watch them sprint toward the finish line!
After Sucre, we took a night bus to La Paz, where once again we saw strange and beautiful things. Here is a shot of Plaza Murillo.
Our hostel in La Paz was located just around the corner from the famous Witches' Market where you can buy anything you need to cast your spells. Llama fetuses are buried under houses for good luck. Appealing. Those are real, people!
Speaking of blocking traffic, the city of La Paz has come up with a creative way to keep drivers in line. In the downtown area, people dressed like zebras stand in the sidewalks to make sure drivers obey traffic and to keep pedestrians safe. It was absurd but seemed to work. My theory is that you can't get angry with a zebra telling you to back out of the crosswalk.
At a nearby market, we spotted this incredibly cute baby alpaca. I want one!
We also took a walk to a wonderful overlook of the city.
At the overlook, there was a park with this slightly strange giant sized chess board. There were also bleachers for spectators.
After La Paz, we headed to Rurrenabaque for a wonderful tour of the Amazon River Basin. That will be a whole other post though. After the tour, we took a bus to the incredibly relaxing town of Coroico. We could have biked along the famous "Death Road", the most dangerous road in the world, in order to arrive. We opted for just enjoying the incredible views from the safety of our hostel terrace. It was a great place to chill out for a few days. Our place even had a pool.
Nothing strange here, except for the first time ever on our trip, we opted not to hike when given the option. Sometimes, it's necessary to just sit back, relax and enjoy where you are!
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