Bolivia Xmas 2016

The three of us were thick as thieves during these amazing 12 days! What a great trip :) We covered quite a bit of ground in such a short time. Here's the map, thanks to the GPS tracker lent by our tech sponsor Stephan! Thanks Stephan :) Full map here:  https://share.garmin.com/SimonDeconde Here's what we loved: the country-side: amazing landscape, great for hiking... We wished we could have hiked more! being immersed in another culture without hundreds of tourists around: the low season helped, but even in high season, we wouldn't expect Bolivia to be too touristy, especially more remote parts like Sajama the fact that even at 4000m+, there are still huge mountains around you the alpacas! :) Here's what we didn't like so much:  the approximate concept of time (see our posts)... The bus rides always take more time than announced, so you need to plan accordingly. If you have time, you can relax and probably even enjoy this difference in culture, ...

4am: This is it... Gotta wake up, take a quick shower and hop in a taxi. My flight takes off at 6:54am from La Paz International Airport and I don't want to be late. It's raining outside, I really hope the taxi driver will be there waiting for me at 4:30am as planned. After the shower, I wake up Max and Camille for a last good bye, and I take off! The hotel is quiet at this hour! 4:30am: I can only hear the rain thumping on the roof. I exit the hotel, open the gate, peek outside... and the taxi driver is here waiting for me! What a relief. I get in the car and we are off to the airport. This time, the taxi driver took the backroads to get to the airport. The ascent is steep, and the road is occasionally cut off by a small torrent of rain water which doesn't phase the driver. He barely slows down and drive straight through the gushing water. 5:10am: I'm at the airport on time, I pay the driver the agreed 60 bolivianos + 10 bolivianos tip for picking me up so early!...

~6am: The overnight bus has arrived in La Paz. We are all pretty tired, especially Max and I as we got the worst seats in the bus. We try to get breakfast at the Bus Terminal, but for some reason people don't want to serve us just a cup of coffee/tea. We had breakfast at these same stalls a few days ago, and they were happy to serve us. Weird. We decide to take off to the city and find our new hotel called "Espana hotel". Quick taxi downtown, and we're there. 6:45am: The hotel doesn't give rooms before 12pm, so we leave our bags at the reception and walk around the neighborhood to find a breakfast place. Everything is closed at this hour, including "Blueberries", the breakfast-place we went to last time, so we wait patiently for something to open. 7:00am: a fresh juice stall opens, so we jump on the occasion and order 3 massive fresh juices. The lady operating the juice stall points us to "Alexander", a cafe that is already open on the s...

7am: Great night at the Charles V hotel dormitory, we feel well rested. Camille stays in bed while Max and I go into town to book a tour of the famous Potosi silver mine. The infamous Potosi silver mine 7:30am: we have breakfast at the local market, in a little stall ran by a nice old lady. Tea, jam sandwich and ham sandwich for 7 bolivianos per person (1 USD). 8:00am: We locate the mining tour that we want "Big Deal Tour". It's the only tour company ran by ex-miners. They are very well rated, and they give part of the earnings back to the miners and their family. Going in, we meet two Norwegian girls, Silje and Ruth. Silje wants to visit the mine and asks to join us. After signing up for the tour, we have 45min to get ready. We head back to the hotel to sync up with Camille. 8:45am: we are back at Big Deal Tour with Camille. She'll chill downtown while we visit the mine. Max and I climb aboard an old mini-bus with 15 other people and are on our way. The ...