Bolivia!

Hello hello from Cochabamba, Bolivia! Gastronomy capital of Bolivia. Last time I wrote ( quite a while ago ) I was departing for Iruya and San Isidro, Argentina. The journey was totally fine and I didn't throw up. The magic of coca leaves! Here are some updates on the places I have been since then :) 

Iruya and San Isidro, Argentina : Iruya is a small pueblo in northern Argentina. The population is about 1500 and the town sits nestled in the mountains. I traveled there with a French woman ( cathleen) and the same German woman from before ( ute). We stayed at a hospedaje, which basically means that a family turns one or two of their bedrooms into a room where tourists stay when they come. It was nice! For 4 days though all I ate was tomatoes, yogurt, bread, eggs and cheese. Oh! And the occasional apple. Not much produce comes to Iruya bc it's so isolated. The mountains surrounding the town though are just breathtaking and huge and ancient! We walked for 2 hours to the next town of San Isidro which must have around 400 people. On the way there we met a little girl named Laura who told us that she has a hospedaje at her house so we decided to stay with her. During our walk Laura asked me questions like " in your city do people have pets like horses and donkeys? " " do you want to be a model? " and whether my city was the same size as Salta...I told her it was about 15 times the size and that no people did not have those pets and no I did not want to be a model. That night for dinner we had amazing homemade cheese empanadas, played with her cat Mitch and curled int bed early bc of the cold. The clouds rolled in and covered the mountains and the night was spectacular! We headed back to Iruya the next day and waited for the next leg of our journey to the Bolivian border. 

Border crossing/ Villazon, Argentina/ Bolivia: cathleen and I left Iruya at 6 am and met a woman from Denmark who we decided to travel with while crossing the border. We arrived at the order, you literally walk 8 blocks from the bus terminal in la quiaca, Argentina and you are at the Bolivian border. We waited in line for about an hour and a half to cross, meeting some Brazilian guys who now live in chile and enjoying the absurdity of this border. People were lined up with wheelbarrows full of anything from diapers to deodorant to rice to oil waiting to cross the border. The border control tried to charge me 135 dollars for a visa that I already have and tried to charge the woman from Denmark 300 dollars for a visa she didn't need to get into the country! But we made it out alive and spent the night at a hotel together drinking mate and eating apples. In the morning Cathleen and I headed out for Tarija, Bolivia and the woman from Denmark headed back to argentina.

                               

Tarija, Bolivia: this is supposedly bolivias wine country. I liked the city, it has a really pleasant climate, nice people, great food and relaxed vibe. Cathleen and I just wandered the streets of the small city, spending lots of the time in the plaza observing. For lunch I ate a typical plate in the central market: 2 fried eggs, peas cooked with potatoes and some kind of seasoning and rice. Delicious! There's not much to report from Tarija besides that is nice, pleasant, relaxed and definitely a booming city with lots of growth.

 

Sucre, Bolivia: let the adventures begin! Cathleen and I got to sucre at about 6 am after a horrid horrid night of sleep on an awfully uncomfortable bus. For those of you who don't know, Adrienne with very little sleep is a monster you don't want to come near. We didn't book a hostal before getting to sucre so we walked around for about 35 minutes looking for a place to stay and finally found a really nice hostal for only 5.50 a night with breakfast, wifi, a kitchen and terrace. What a deal! Sucre is beautiful! Is a unesco heritage site and here it what wikipedia has to say about it  The first "Grito Libertario" (Shout for Freedom) in any Western Hemisphere Spanish colony is said to have taken place in Sucre in 1809. Ironically, Bolivia was the last territory to gain its independence in 1825. In 1991, Sucre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The city attracts thousands of tourists every year due to its well-preserved downtown with buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. The city is beautiful! I took way too many picture of white buildings. When I was traveling in chile I met a chilean guy who told me he would be traveling through Bolivia around the same time that I would be there and s we kept in touch through facebook and met up in sucre! The next morning we would depart on one of the most amazing journeys of my life thus far.

Mataral, Valle Grande, La Higuera, Bolivia: Javier ( Chilean friend ) and I set out in the morning to  buy me a wool blanket, fruit, cheese and bread for our big camping adventure! We decided to follow the route of Che Guevara for a few days and visit the town where he was captured and killed. Our first buy journey was supposed to be 5 hours according to the bus company but in reality took 11 hours. At one point we stopped in a tiny tiny pueblo on the side of the road while campesinos loaded goats into the bottom of the bus. An 80 year old woman peed in front of the bus and then got on! Oy vey! We arrived at the part of the road where there is a fork to go to different cities at 3 am and the bus driver told us the city we wanted to get to was 45 km " that way". Thank god I was with Javier and he has a Tent! We walked for about 3 km and set up our tent in a safe spot on the side of the road. In the morning we were woken up by pigs snorting and cows being herded down the road by a man on his motorcycle. Our next move was to get to Valle grande, the town where Che's tomb is. We walked until someone gave us a ride, the sun beating down and the wind whipping my hair we drove through the beautiful mountains until we arrived in Valle grande. Because we didn't want to walk around all day with our backpacks we asked a woman at a tiny shop if she could watch them for us and she said of course! So we visited Che's tomb, wandered around, saw tons of HUGE birds, HUGE, and made our way back to the small store. The woman and her husband it turns out had lived in chile for a little while and were obsessed with Javier because he's chilean. So of cooouurrse they invited us to spend the afternoon drinking beer with them until it became too late for us to try and travel to the next town. They offered us dinner and a bed to sleep in for the night!!! Of course we said yes to both! The next day we woke up early, had breakfast with the family ( bread made with corn flour and topped with cheese, Yerba mate and oranges) and headed off to the next leg of our journey. We got a ride to la Higuera with two different people, driving through incredible scenery and traveling the path of Che!

My fingers hurt from typing and it is late here so I will write more either tomorrow or the next day! There is so much more to tell! I'm sorry my emails keep getting longer and longer. I hope you all are doing well and smiling every day!

Xoxo, 

Adge