Hi! We are Hora local
it's quarter to three in Zorritos, Perú.
For the ones that haven't been following us
We are in the middle of a gap year, Alvaro with a sabbatical, i left my job to be able to travel.
and see the world before developing our careers.
For the ones that have been following us, you might have notices that it's been more that a month that we don't post a video.
and the reason why there has been a jump from Argentina to Peru
is because we have had technical problems.
its been disastrous. The hard drive in which we were saving all our videos and photos has died.
well, not fully died, as we've been able to recover some things, but there is a gap
there is stuff missing
this is the video about Bolivia. And as we have lost most of the videos in which we explain what we do and see
we've decided to do this video a bit different.
We entered Bolivia through the Uyuni salt lake
we did a three day tour on a 4X4 that leaves from San Pedro de Atacama all the way to the city of Uyuni
during those three days we saw breathtaking landscapes
not only the salt lake. From the very first day you see these amazing lagoons.
immense dessert areas, hot springs, and finally the salt lake
where we saw the most amazing sunrise that have possibly ever seen in our lives.
after that we get to Potosi
famously known for the gold mines. This mines were exploded by the Spanish when they conquered this region
mines that even today are still working. There has been a lot of materials coming out of this place.
the mountain is called "Rich Hill" and is truly rich as for 500 years
it has been mined for gold, silver, tin, lithium, everything they could imagine it was there.
also we discovered an amazing city. It was our first important city to visit in Bolivia
and we were really surprised
the historical city centre, the coin museum, the cathedral... we loved it
in Potosi we discovered what we would later see in the rest of the Bolivian cities
and it that as you get closer to the city, you cannot help wandering, where have I come to?
half built houses, all in plain brick with no paint
but all of a sudden as you get to the city centre,
in Potosi, in Sucre, Cochabamba....
they are just wonderful
beautiful plazas
lots of street live, lots of culture
I fell in love with Sucre, "the white city"
After that we went to Samaipata, which was not in our plans, but got recommended to us, last minute
we did some beautiful routes, we saw the Fort of Samaipata, which are these pre-inka ruins
that were later used by the Inkas and by the Spanish
there is lots there yet to be discovered, ruins that remain underground
we also did a route in the Amboro National Park
a giant fern forest
and then we continue our way through Santa Cruz to the Chiquitanias
we did that by train, the first train of our trip
and we got to San Jose de Chiquitos
with the idea of making a route across the Chiquitania and it's different villages
but the bus schedules where really bad, so we decide to walk a bit around San Jose, do some routs to see the pampas and the landscape of Santa Cruz
and improvising a little bit, we departed to Cochabamba.
discovering the magical adventure that are "Trufis"
Trufis are basically a mini van, with 10 or 15 seats
and this mini van has a destination...for example, Cochabamba
the drivers are usually parked outside of the bus station
you want to go to Cochabamba?
you pay your ticket, you sit inside the mini van... and you fall sleep
because the mini van will not move until is completely full
so you might be sat there waiting for 20 minutes.... if you are lucky.... or 3 hours if you are not
this was our first ride on a Trufi
and we manage to do all the way from the East side of the country to the West side
we took a Trufi from San Jose de Chiquitos to Santa Cruz
we got to Santa Cruz well passed midnight and even then we manage to find another Trufi that took us to Cochabamba
we fell sleep...and some time later (one hour)
we woke up when the driver turned the engine on, that meant we were leaving.
In Cochabamba we celebrated our second wedding anniversary.
we climbed to this hill where they have this Christ statue (like the Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro) we saw the sunset
and then we went out for a nice anniversary dinner
from Cochabamba we finally made it to La Paz
dealing with altitude again we could barely walk
but we were really impressed by La Paz. Not only the altitude, but it's mountains, it's cable cars
from which you can see the amazingly big city markets
La Paz is a city that leaves and breaths in the street
there are normal business, but they do everything in the street markets
you do shopping at the street markets, you have lunch at the street markets
I'm sure that even the big company contracts are also done in the street market ;)
The amount of people that you see, at all times, everywhere...is astonishing
I really loved La Paz, is an spectacular place.
we really liked going to La Lanza market in the city centre
and enjoy a two courses meal for.... 10 Bolivianos (£1)
you sit right next to local people, that right away notice you are foreign
they ask you where you come from, they give you advise
it's just great
there was this lovely gentleman that said to us: What I would give to become small and be able to travel in your pocket and see the world with you.
its really interesting to eat at the market because they are....
in the second floor the always have this dining area
and they have this tiny gaps in the wall... each with their own kitchen
with their stove and their oven
is like having your grandma cooking for you
In Bolivia, there is still not much information on the Internet
but you realise that as soon as you enter the city, all you have to do is to get a bus, find the main square
and from there just look for a hostel what ever you want... very cheap prices
things are done the old way..... you just go and ask
and now we leave to Rurre to the Amazon jungle (Rurrenabaque in the next video)
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