La Paz - Sorata (San Pedro Cave): 18/08 - 26/08

Happy Birthday Oisin! 7 years old 23/08/10

On this day La Paz` imposing mountain guardian was not so visible as I oriented myself and walked down into the manic city centre to find the Loki Hostel, one of the many party hostels in La Paz. It seems tourism in Bolivia is quite under-developed, except for expensive La Paz tour companies offering a choice of the following: mountain biking (mainly "The World`s Most Dangerous Road"; hiking around 3 or 4 routes; Salar de Uyuni (world`s biggest salt flat) tours; Jungle/pampas tours (always to Rurrenbaque). And then also people go to see cholitas (Bolivian señoritas) wrestling and visit the San pedro prison to take coke and marvel at the conditions of the subject of the book "Marching Powder". So if you go to La Paz that`s pretty much it - for all of Bolivia. No wonder most of the tourist population resort to party hostels and drinking, then pretend they loved Bolivia.


But the Loki was secure, central and packed with lots of mostly English speaking terrorists. The hostal is a beautifully renovated old building with a lively bar on Level 2 and the world`s highest oxygen bar above that. It was a great relief to dump my stuff and hit the city market for 80c fresh tropical fruits salad and 80c beef stew and rice. I also discovered humitas, a heartier baked version of tamales with cheese inside... mmm! The next day involved my usual hunt for the town`s best coffee with lukewarm results, a visit to the biggest cinema in Bolivia (2 screens) to choose from some canine cartoon (but I was already sick to death of dog shit) or Big Lips Jolie in Who is Salt¿ Good question. Another good question might be when will Hollywood be brought to justice for its consistent crimes against the environment (consumption) and general good taste?


The next day I visited Namas Te, a brightly and creatively hippy cafe/bar/playspace/residencial in a kind of mechanical sector but still close to town and indulge in a massive juice and soy `tinto` (the worst form of ultra-concentrated and bitter coffee). This soon made me vomit several times but I did wonder if extra factors wereñ`t at play in that there stomache. The sun recuperated me well though and that afternoon was entirely taken up on a freeeekn computer, doing stuff, things and writing my blog about updating my blog.

Loki has a nimpressive home cinema and several times I joined the slothing masses for various films there. Whilst in the culinary capital de Bolivia I decided to peruse some of the many international restaurants like Thai, Japanese, Moroccan, Mexican and steakhouse action. I finally settled on Thai in a lovely restaurant - unfortunately the food was too salty but still a fine dining experience for Bolivia. I net-searched pharmaceutical treatments for Giardia on the internet, went to a farmacy and bought and swallowed the tablets. They cost me $3, a metallic taste in the mouth, dehydration and 3 days of wiped-out anti-biotic hangover - yay!

I saw a women`s march in La Paz which brought out even more of the generic gun-toters of La Paz who make up at least half the population and I assume a huge chunk of Bolivia`s GDP. These being security guards, police of many types and the military. You all have small penises and/or flat arses. La Paz to me is kind of like a cross between Quito and Bogota. Filthy toileted streets, lots of beggars but refreshingly not many gringo-hunting fops - definitely gringo prices though. Like Lima the streets struggled to contain the surge of polluting diesel buses and vans in transit to various suburbs.

After taking a pounding from the antibiotics I finally left La Spaz for Sorata on the Tuesday, catching a 3 hour van from the Cemetery area. Beforehand though I had time to explore the local market with all kind of great produce and weird Bolivian stuffs - I was interviewed by persons with a camera for TV or something regarding what I thought of the market.

Sorata is a pretty little town set above a valley under Illampu and Ancuma, the impressive glaciated peaks of the Cordillera Real. I found my gringo hostel Las Piedras, an attractive abode pretty much done to perfection, save the midget clearance doorways and beds consisting of wooden slats, 2 inches of foam and some straw. Pete`s Place, (sort-of) run by two fat TV addicts, proved a wealth of guidebooks and maps from around the continent but failed to become the hoped-for meeting place for other trekkers. There I found out there had been a history of theft and armed robbery on treks in the area despite Sorata`s reputation for being the trekking Mecca of Bolivia. Later investigations revelealed that the local guides association was strongly suspected of orchestrating some of these robberies to ensure would-be independent trekkers continued to pay up the bucks. Ahh, guides... sometimes useful to have but... often arrogant, not knowledgable, will sabotage self-guided walks (removing way posts, signs etc) to get business and generally quite expensive. Not a fan in general I am.

My next day I spent walking to and experiencing the San Pedro Cave. Soon after starting I met Arys from France and Kataryna and Martin from Poland, also off to the cave. We stopped at Cafe Illampu, a Swiss-owned bakery with great bread, delicious cakes and coffees. The walk to the cave was reputedly beautiful but I was mildly underwhelmed, a thick smoke haze from the yearly idiocracy of campesinos burning their land definitely contributed to this impression. The walk past pleasantly with the Europeans though as we discussed travel anecdotes and plans and pleaded to the big white stone-Jesus that he didn`t jump into the abyss below :)

The cave is home to 2 rare bat species, one that feeds on mammalian blood... We descended into a grand hall with warm, dank air, impressive rock formations and stalagnights/tights/bites. We paddled boated on the little lake with crystal clear water then explored the nooks and crannies as we could. As we were all feeling very much at one with the universe we decided to create a timeless timelapse of masterpiece photography, spelling out our simple yet profound message to the world - see top photo.

We gladly saved legs by catching a ute back to town and I committed myself to the group`s plans to make the 3-day Glacial Lake hike starting the next day. As such we shopped for supplies, ate amazing pizza, retired for the night, got up and drank a pint of coffee at Las Piedras before readying ourselves for the hike.