We thought that after a week hiking in the mountains in Sorata, the road blockage in Potosi would be resolved. However, 12 days after it started, the roads to Potosi are still blocked. The people in Potosi have several demands of the government, and the government has offered to meet in a neutral place to talk about their demands. But, the people in Potosi refuse to meet anywhere besides Potosi. It doesn´t seem like the protest in Potosi is going to be resolved soon. It is frustrating that we still can´t get to Potosi, but it could be worse. There were hundreds of tourists that were stranded in Potosi. Since all traffic to the city was blocked, there was no food getting into the city and all the ATMs ran out of money. Can you imagine being stranded in a city without food or money? Some of the tourists have been able to get out, but there are some that remain stuck in Potosi.
Tomorrow, we are going to try to take the bus to Oruro, and then take the train to Uyuni. Today, all the roads south of La Paz were supposed to be blocked due to another political protest of a law that was just passed. However, they postponed the road blockages until next week and just marched through the streets instead. We hope everything will be okay for traveling south of Bolivia tomorrow, but you never know what is going to happen in Bolivia.
Maybe by the time we do a tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the road will be reopened to Potosi. Otherwise, we´ll have to see Potosi on another trip to Bolivia.
Traveling in Bolivia is more challenging. We were supposed to travel to Potosi last night, but the road to Potosi was blocked by a political protest. So, we were not able to travel to Potosi last night, so it´s onto plan B. Bolivia requires you to have more flexible travel plans. Instead, we are traveling to Sorata today to do some hiking in the Cordillera Real range since the road to Sorata is actually open. Hopefully, by the time we leave Sorata the road to Postosi will be open again. 🙂
We didn´t go over any high passes on our hike around Isla del Sol, but they do not call it the Island of the Sun for nothing. The sun is incredibly intense on the island, and we both left the island sunburnt despite using lots of sunscreen. Unfortunately, our malaria medication makes us more susceptible to the sun, which was not good on Isla del Sol.
Today is the independence day for La Paz, Bolivia. They were celebrating 201 years of independence. There was huge parade with all the military groups and their marching bands. Check out the photos.
July 16 Independence Day Parade
Tomorrow, we leave La Paz and go on the Choro Trek which descends from the mountains into the tropical valley. This will be a huge change from the climate in La Paz. This will be our last post until we return to civilization in a few days in Corroico. 🙂
Basically we just walked around La Paz today and tried to get our lungs accustomed to being at 12,000ft. Here are our photos
View from our hotel
You know you´re in Bolivia when even the news anchors wear bowler hats
Cassie´s first Bolivian meal!
The famous llama fetuses. When you build a house, you are supposed to bury one under the foundation for good luck. We don´t know how these are created, and don´t want to know.
Plaza Murillo
Market in La Paz
We ran into some sort of cultual thing. There were 20 groups from each of the 20 cultures of bolivia playing in front of the presidential palace. There was a whole set of stands full of politicians. Every time one of the politicians would get up to dance, everyone would cheer. But we had now idea who any of these people were. I did learn that the ladies in bowler hats and Incan dresses can dance really well.
We heard loud noises that sounded like gunshots from our hotel this morning, but no one seemed to be concerned about it at all. We went for a walk around the city, and we discovered that the source of the noises was a political protest on Plaza San Francisco. We couldn´t understand what they were protesting, so we asked someone in the plaza. They didn´t know what they were protesting either, but this is something that happens in La Paz every couple days.
After a really long day of traveling, we made it to La Paz! Everything went smoothly, and we made it to our hotel in La Paz without a problem. Traveling into La Paz is not for the faint of heart. The airport is at over 13,000 feet, and we could feel the the altitude right away. Both of us were a bit lightheaded. Fortunately, the airport is above the city, so when we went to the hotel, we immediately went down 1,000 feet, which was much better.
On the street in La Paz
La Paz from viewpoint with Mount Illimani in background
