Trailing to Patagonia: Bolivia Highlights

After we made our escape from Peru into Bolivia (see our last post to read about that story!), we had to go directly to La Paz, the capital, to get our official entry paperwork done – the town where we entered Bolivia was so remote that we couldn’t get it done there. We spent some time in La Paz, and from there visited many other cool places in the country. We spent 3 weeks total in Bolivia (not enough time at all!) but we were starting to feel the time crunch – we were supposed to be in Puerto Montt, Chile, by the end of October. We made the most of what time we had; we saw and did some amazing things! It was hard to pick just the best pictures, but here are a few “highlights” of Bolivia, to share some of our journey with you:

La Paz - We spent 4 days here, doing visa paperwork, playing bagpipes in the plaza, and exploring the city.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, at almost 12,000 feet.

Plaza San Francisco

Artesanias!

Outside the stadium on game day.

Cochabamba - Another pretty city in Bolivia, on our way to Carrasco National Park.

Check out the sign - driving from La Paz to Cochabamba there are some steep grades!

Cochabamba

Carrasco National Park - Where the Andes and the Amazon converge. A very remote area; you can drive until the "town" (which is a handful of wooden shacks) and beyond that is rumored to be a heavy coca production region. On the way there are some river crossings with very rickety bridges that look like they might give in at any moment. We had to leave Cubby behind for this one. We had intentions of camping, but as you can see, it was pretty wet and cold, and also nearly impossible to camp in the dense jungle. It was a cool place to visit, packed with waterfalls and lush vegetation.

The "town" - this is coca growing region!

by the river

Wow!

Potosi - "The silver city", located at an even higher altitude than La Paz, once one of the richest cities in the Americas until the silver mines were depleted. Today Potosi is one of the most touristic cities in Bolivia.

We parked along a street a little outside the city center, and returned that day to find this party happening all around Cubby - for us this was the coolest part about our visit:

Salar de Uyuni - What a place! Unlike any other that we have visited - a MUST in Bolivia. This ENORMOUS salt flat (the world's largest) was once covered with water, that long since evaporated and left more than 4,000 square miles of thick thick salt crust. There is an "island" in the middle, called la "isla del pescado", made of coral (because it was once underwater of course) and now covered with cactus. The first time I've ever hiked on coral!