Bolivia

At a breathtaking 4000m above sea level surrounded by Lake Titikaka lies Isla Del Sol, where according to Inca beliefs the sun and the moon were created. A sacret place for Tiwanaka and Inca beliefs, of which ruins can still be found scattered aloing the island. Words can do little justice to the beauty and serenity one experiences here on the island.

And yet here I am, ending my stay in Bolivia, sad because Bolivia has been good to me, still having to move on consoled by the fact that Peru is next on my way.

Bolivia a land of unparalleled natural beauty, breathtaking, literally due to the thin air you better get used to quickly. The land of coca, still legal and obviously cocaine, the land of uniforms & costumes yet manifestations and rebellions, a land so rich in minerals and resources yet full of corruption and poverty. This is Bolivia.

Thankfully it is not a tourist hotspot like it`s neighbour Peru and what a relief it was to experience after Brasil, to experience the Latin American energy which surrounds you in this amazing country.

My visit to Bolivia started with a long, muddy and rough 32hr bus ride from Guayaramerin to Rurrenebaque. Me being the only gringo (foreigner) on the bus, outnumbered also by chicken and monkeys travelling on the same bus, soon became known as the Italiano and centre of attraction in a long conversation initally about differences in our countries changing quickly on how to smuggle their gold and oro blanco into Italy. The craters and mud on the roads, unasphalted needless to say, meant that we got stuck a dozen of times saved most of the times by us getting our bare feet in the mud and pushing, which was amusing at first but quickly got boring by the third or fourth time pushing. A couple of times we had to rely on the benevolence of trucks passing by to pull us out.

This one time it was around 10pm , pitch dark and for the 50th time we got bloody stuck in a crater full of mud. So after hassling to open the door we struggled to get out. Pusing revealed to be useless. After half an hour of useless attempts the driver decide we were going to sleep the night. I was furious. There was no way i could sleep in the muddy and stinking bus at a 45 degree angle in a swamp full of bloody mosquitos. Luckily after half an hour of smoking outside, which helped in keeping mosquitos away, a group of trucks came to our rescue, by chance of course.
It took 2 trucks to pull us out and we were off again.

What a relief it was to get into a hot shower in Rurre. I spent my first day recovering from my ordeal of getting here and lazing around this lovelt riverside village. This is when i came upon a sign advertising tours to experience Ayahuasca, a natural potion made from roots found only in the Peruvian Amazon which gives you a natural trip and is said to be a lifechanging experience. Quite irresponsable to find it so easily accesible, advertised like it was the next Jungle tour when it`s supposed to be a deeply spiritual thing.

I pointed that out when I saw this English guy, Simon taking a picture of it. I found myself chatting to Simon who told me all about his alternative jungle trip in Madidi park. So I went out to check it out at San Miguel Del Balla, a local community in the region which has been doing Eco tourism for a couple of years. This is where i met Stefan, a great exrasta swiss guy living in Oslo, who happened to be doing some feild work on the community. By chance we both had booked the same pampas tour and decided to do the jungle tour straight after that.

Next day, Stefan myself and 7 other gringos headed to the Pampas trip with Anaconda. A 3 day trip in the Bolivian grasslands, promising to see alligators, monkeys, birds, pink dolphings and much more wildlife.

We did manage to see lots of wildlife, various types of monkeys, alligators, birds and swim an arm´s reach away from wild dolphins. We were lucky with our group and ended up having a very pleasant 3 days in the beautiful Pampas.

What a relief it was to get into a hot shower in Rurre...once again. Stefan and myself though had no time to relax because we had to do all the shopping and packing for our 4 day Amazon adventure...but that once again is a story for another time to tell.