Traversing Bolivia

Sucre, Bolivia

Sorry about not updating – lack of internet, horrible connections, and the fact that I have been utterly sick for the past three days. But, here is my attempt at a lovely recap….

My last day in La Paz was rushed. I wanted to do some last minute shopping and then ship a package home before catching a night bus to Sucre, Bolivia. Everything in South America is SLOW, so of course I got held up at the post office which was unnerving since I was already pressed for time. In the end, it cost me $45 to send 5 kg worth of Bolivian goodies and I made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare. Funny enough, everything is on South American time, so our bus was 45 minutes delayed. I guess there was no need to rush after all.

La Paz, Bolivia & the Amazon!

La Paz, Bolivia

The bus ride from Cusco, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia went a lot smoother than I thought it would be. We left Cusco at 10:00pm and were surprised to learn that there were actually two different buses going to La Paz. The bus we booked would cross into Bolivia through Puno, while the 10:30pm bus would go through a sketchier crossing, but is much faster. I decided to just stick with our original, safer route.

I arrived in Puno, Peru around 4:00am and had to wait in a freezing cold station for one hour until our next bus. Not so fun. It only took 2 hours to arrive at the hectic Peru/Bolivia border crossing. The bus driver told everyone to get off the bus and receive our exit stamps from Peru and then we had to walk across a congested bridge to Bolivia, packed with locals and tuk tuks. Everybody was scurrying across, trucking loads of goods across the border. It was an interesting sight. Once across, we walked into the Bolivian immigration building and received our entry and visa stamps. Lucky for us Canadians, we didn’t have to pay the $130USD dollars like our American counterparts.

13 days before South America

I am one day past the two week mark. I am becoming more excited, but nervousness keeps creeping in. It’s not like I am completely new to this whole travel thing (as I’m sure you can tell), but every destination is different – every situation is novel. So, I guess I’ll have to embrace this feeling with an open heart and get a move on things.

I am trying to upload my Europe photos to Flickr, but for some reason, it doesn’t want to play nice and keeps shutting down my iPhoto. If there is anyone who can help out, it would be MUCH appreciated!

Stefanie has been in Toronto all week and we’ve been going over possible itineraries for our backpacking stint in South America. It took some blood, sweat and tears – well, maybe not tears but DEFINITELY sweat (from no A/C) and blood (due to a bike accident) to get a super duper awesome destination list going. I’m sure you’re all excited to read it! This isn’t in order, but is listed by country to make things a little bit easier. I linked some fun photos as well.

PERU
Lima / Miraflores,
Cuzco & Sacred Valley
Arequipa
Puno & Lake Titicaca
La Huacachina
BOLIVIA
La Paz
Rurrenabaque (Amazon Basin)
Sucre
Potosi (Highest city in the world)
Uyuni (salt flats)
CHILE
San Pedro de Atacama (driest desert in the world)
Santiago
Arica
ARGENTINA
Salta
Puerto Iguazu
Buenos Aires
Bariloche

I’m also thinking about traveling through Patagonia in Argentina to see some marine life, but I’m not entirely sure where to go between Buenos Aires and Santiago. I have about two weeks to get from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru, so there is room to take some interesting side trips and wander. I’ll be updating a few more times before leaving – so stay tuned!!!