| Bolivia is one of only two countries in South America that is land locked and doesn't share a border with the oceans. What makes Bolivia one of the most unique countries in the western hemisphere is that it has the highest concentration of Native Americans than any other country. Over 60% of Bolivia's population are 100% Native American and maintain most of their traditional cultures. Bolivia also shares with Peru one of the highest lakes in the world, lake Titicaca which sits over 3,000 meters or 10,000 feet. With deep cultural roots and a diverse country sharing rainforest, deserts and high altitude mountains, Bolivia is a unique place among its neighbors in South America. |
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| After spending almost a month in Chile and Argentina, I arrived to the capital of Bolivia La Paz, and what a culture shock! In Chile and Argentina, both the population and the many cities could pass for Europe, but I found myself thinking I'm back in South America after arrived to Bolivia. Above are photos of the highest capital in the world, with parts between 3,000 and 4,000 meters. On the left is the lower and downtown area, on the right is a mural of La Paz. |
| With such strong native cultures and Spanish influences, I found La Paz to be a very unique city; definitely one of my favorites in South America. On the left is a street known as the witches way, where women sell souvenirs, mummified animals, and other goods. Also in this area are lots of restaurants, internet cafes, and other stores such as the one selling the native guitars on the upper right. |
| The portion of La Paz located at the higher altitudes is known as the poor areas. The surrounding photos are all from the upper parts of La Paz. There are markets and main streets with lots of shops that look much better than the photos I took, but it's definitely the lower class area of the city. Once I was taking a taxi and when we passed through this area the driver pulled over and stopped for no reason. I waited and after a minute I asked what was wrong and he then went into convulsions and slumped over with blood and mucus running out of his mouth. I seriously thought the guy had died and ran out of the car trying to get help. No one knew the phone number for the ambulance so finally some other man drove the car to the hospital. After several hours he ended up being okay and was able to talk again, but that was one of the nastiest things I have ever seen. I don't speak Spanish well so I never knew exactly what had happened to him. |
| With La Paz being the highest capital in the world, it's common sense that immediately outside the capital are more high altitude mountains. Some of Bolivia's mountains top 21,000 feet or over 6,500 meters, offering some serious mountain climbing. Above on the left is a photo of some of their mountains in the 5,000 meter range. On the right is a llama, known for living in the upper elevations of the Andes. |
| In altitudes above 3,500 meters, it never really gets too hot, but definitely gets very cold. Coping with the cooler weather is done by wearing several layers of traditional quilts, and the natives also chew on coca leaves or drink coca tea to help with the effects of the high altitude. South American natives are famous for chewing on coca leaves as they walk through the cities or the mountains of the Andes. |
| Lake Titicaca sits on the western border of Bolivia along with Peru. This is considered to be the highest lake in the world at 12,500 feet. There are other smaller lakes in the world that are higher, but since they are too small to support commercial ships lake Titicaca gets the honor. In Titicaca, dozens of commercials ships use the lake for trade, to transfer passengers, and others use it for recreation. |
| There are a few small towns here and there along Lake Titicaca. Above on the left is a small town where you can find ferries to transport cars back and forth across a small part of the lake. On the right are some kids fishing along the shores. |
| The natives of Bolivia navigated the waters by creating a unique boat made out of straw. Since trees are not common at these altitudes, the tall grass was all they had to work with. This tradition is still done today by some, above are two photos of these boats, one up for display, and the other on the right about to be set into the lake for the first time. |
| Bolivia's largest settlement in Lake Titicaca is called Copacabana, located near the border of Peru. Copacabana has a population of only 6,000 people, but has many attractions that make it a popular tourist destination. Above are two photos from Copacabana, one showing the entire town, and on the right some natives paying respect to a cross. |
| For such a small town, Copacabana has one of the largest and oldest basilicas in Bolivia. The basilica was created in the 1500s, and remains sacred both to Catholics and to natives because the church was built near the location of one of their sacred temples. |
| On top of one of the small mountains next to Copacabana is a large catholic shrine that also offers some great vantage points, which is where I took the photo of Copacabana itself. On the left is the shrine seen from a distance, on the right is a photo of the actual shrine up close after I hiked up to it. Not so easy at over 12,500 feet, but fortunately I had just climbed Aconcagua at 23,000 feet a few weeks before. |
| I'm not sure if this is a weekly event or some special celebration, but when I arrived to Copacabana there was a small festival going on with people dancing in the streets and playing music. I arrived on a Saturday so I figure it's something they may do every weekend. |
| Both of the photos above are from different parts of La Paz, but not too far from each other. The large building on the left acts as the parliment building for the Bolivian government. The colonial buildings on the right are along one of La Paz's main streets, where you can find places to shop and restaurants and bars. |
| Some parts of La Paz look pretty sketchy, and the city is also considered to have high crime. I had no problems and didn't hear of any other tourists I ran into having problems in La Paz, but it's always good to keep your guard up. The guy on the left looks pretty evil and there are a lot of his kind walking around. I wondered if they might be part of some gang or something, but later I found out that they actually just shoe polishers! I went down another dark alley once and right in the middle was a really nice restaurant seen on the upper right. |
| Also in the Lake Titicaca area is a large ruin known as Tiwanacu. Tiwanacu is actually a culture that was pre-Inca, and the first known civilization in Bolivia and other surrounding countries. This area in Bolivia is considered to be the Tiwanacu capital, and large statues, temples and other ruins are found here. On the left is one of the main entrances to their capital, on the right are faces of different local cultures the Tiwanacu were thought to control. |
| Above are more ruins from Tiwanacu. The large door on the left is known as the Gateway to the Sun, with the god of action, Viracocha carved at the top. On the right is a large statue still standing after over a thousand years. |
| The statue on the left is the largest known state remaining of the Tiwanacu. The mummy is also from the same culture, and along with the statue it is now located inside a museum. No photos allowed! I had to sneak these ones in. |
| One of the most popular places to travel to in Bolivia is a town called Uyuni. Uyuni itself isn't very interesting, but because there are so many popular attractions nearby there are plenty of places to eat and stay. |
| I'm not sure what the occasion was but when I passed through Uyuni there seemed to be a gathering of every kid in town out in one of the streets. There were some speakers set up and it looked like they were about to do either a little parade or some type of ceremony. Unfortunately I couldn't stick around and I had to take off before I could see what it was all about. |
| The main attraction near Uyuni is the large salt pan that is the result of a dried out lake, now the largest salt pan in the world. On the left you can see that it looks like the salt pans continue forever. On the right you can see some mountains in the background, with what looks like islands floating in the center of the picture. These floating islands are actually just mirages and are only smaller mountains. As you continue to approach the mirages, they will eventually go away and take their natural shape. |
| The salt pans are also a major industry for hard working Bolivians. Every day Bolivians put in long hours mining salt which has several uses in the country. On the left are salt mounds created by workers who shovel them into piles. If you stomp your heel into the ground, you'll find it's wet below the first layer of salt, so the mounds help the water drain out and let the salt dry. Later the salt is packed into the trucks and then taken to the factory such as the one on the lower left. There it is completely dried, treated with iodine and hand packed into bags like the worker below. Because this process isn't with modern technology and mostly by hand, the salt doesn't meet international regulations and therefore it can't be exported to other countries. |
| Some of the salt mined is used for construction, and is treated in a similar way like adobe bricks made from mud. These photos are from a hotel which is primarily made of salt. The walls, clock, and floor are all from salt bricks. |
| The tour I did through the salt pans and other areas was a road trip with a 4x4 jeep. An interesting stop in the salt pans is the Inca island which raises up to 80 meters above the surrounding terrain. The island gets its name because of Incas who were trying to hide from the Spanish conquerors and took refuge in the island. They were eventually all captured and killed, but the island was later named their honor. |
| The Inca island is covered with giant cactus and is a dry desert. The large cacti you see on the right are actually of different sexes, the one of the left is female, and the one on the right is male. |
| Outside of the salt pans in another part of southern Bolivia, I was lucky to get a local tour at night of some ancient cemetery. I didn't really understand what I was going to see, but this was one of the most interesting parts of my trip to the country. First we came to some very strange coral formations in the desert. The guy with me said that this used to be underwater so they formed ages ago. The upper right block is actually hollow and he told me to look inside. |
| I looked inside the hole in the coral and on the left is what I saw. The dozens of strange coral formations were turned into tombs and all had skeletons inside of them. On the right is another skeleton from another coral formation, while most had only one body some of the coral formations shared two skeletons in one hole. I was told these skeletons were from after the Tiwanacu times but before the Inca. They were put into the coral formations and the holes were covered with clay which eventually eroded away. This place was only discovered a few decades ago, and initially all the tombs were broken into to search for treasure. I'd assume that they were buried here after they died, but look at the first skeleton on the upper left. He has is back against the wall, knees to his chest with one arm around his legs and a hand on his right knee. There is no way dropping a body in a hole is going to land like that, so either he was propped in the position or was buried alive and sat like that until he finally died. This area doesn't seem to be known to archaeologists so I couldn't find out any more reliable info online. |
| Back to the rest of southern Bolivia: we passed through a desert known as the Dali desert which is very close to the border of Chile. It was named after Salvador Dali's paintings which some though resembled this area. |
| Other parts of the desert are rocky with huge formations of moss. The moss formation on the right has nothing to give you perspective but if I stood next to it would be almost as tall as me. I saw some lizards and other species of birds here but missed getting any decent photos. |
| On the left is a photo of me in the Bolivian desert, still very close to the border of Chile. The altitude at this point was over 4,000 meters, or over 13,000 feet. Some people have altitude problems at this height, but coming from Aconcagua the altitude wasn't much to me. I did however get either a nasty stomach virus or curse from the skeletons that I took photos from the night before. For the next week or so I was pretty sick and had a lot of stomach pains, but no fever or headaches. Despite being sick, I still went out and was able to take some photos of wildlife though, like the fox on the left and a picuna on the right. There are also large herds of llamas around here, and some type of Andean bear. I'm not sure exactly at what altitude the bear lives at, because the desert is so dry and lifeless I wouldn't know how a bear could survive in such an environment. |
| At 4,300 meters you will find several lagoons, some of them are fresh water which is how most of the wildlife can survive in this desert. The water is supplied by melting snow that comes of some of the higher altitude mountains. The water on the left is able to support life, but the green lagoon on the right is made of copper and arsenic, so it is deadly to both people and all animals. It does provide some great scenery. |
| This lagoon above is called the red lagoon, or laguna colorada in Bolivia. The red here is made from a type of algae which flamingos in the area live off of. The algae here gives the flamingos their reddish color, just like shrimp turns flamingos pink other parts of the world. |
| The flamingos on the left were pretty far away so I didn't get any good or clear shots, but they are the ones living in the red lagoon. I saw other flamingos in some of the other lagoons as well. The large bird was actually along a river at a lower altitude, not sure on the species. |
| The southern part of Bolivia has so many amazing things, but to top it off it even has geysers and thermal springs of a variety of different minerals. Most of this area is steaming and smells strongly of sulfur. You can find boiling mud, pools of oil or liquid red iron which is lava seen in the photo on the right. |
| The boulder on the left was a photo I took during sunrise as steam vents from the ground behind it. The area didn't always smell so good because of the sulfur but it was definitely scenic, especially in the early morning. Another favorite spot for tourists in this area is the hot springs that you can actually swim in. The hot springs are an easy way to warm up if you're willing to jump in. Outside its freezing temperatures, but the springs are like a jacuzzi. |
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