Hola todos! Its been a few days since I crossed into Argentina, I had been moving quite fast since we left Sucré and haven’t had the downtime to keep up on this blog, so as per usual when we finish a chapter here is the post Mortem on Peru and Bolivia.
As per usual I will put a full summary of each place visited on the wordpress version of this post.
Peru:
My honest thoughts of what I seen of it. It is quite dare I say overrated, that said the RNG didn’t roll very well through a good chunk of it.
My overall experience of Peru can be summed up Started good when we arrived in Lima but then slowly then sunk into burnout between being ill, tourist traps and the general inertia that getting about was (too many bus detours and schedules with the Perú hop making travel days quite hard going)
Peru overall felt generally expensive with prices not really dropping much outside of Lima minus accommodation getting slightly cheaper as we
For most of my travel in Peru I used the @Peruhop and while some of their schedules made things hard I would recommend them as a first time in Peru especially if youve not been to anywhere else in latam and don’t want navigate the bus situation here.
In Peru I would also say I made the Biggest fail of the trip – skipping Macchu Picchu, however refer back to a post I wrote at the time (Burnout) it’s real and when it hits you have to take a break end of story. In general all of Peru or at least what I seen of it other than Lima felt like a big tourist trap, that said I cannot speak on the northern half of it as I never got there having skipped Ecuador.
In spite of all the things I’ve had issues with in Peru I met some nice people on the way both locals and other travellers and had some good times while I’ve been there.
When I eventually got to Bolivia and told my friend @not.the.real.ed.sheeran him and his fella both told me I got the wrong end of the stick with Peru and that I also missed out on some of the best food Peru has. Oh well es lo que hay!
Bolivia:
Overall Bolivia was generally an all round better time but not without it’s hiccups though I honestly don’t think there were any major lows of note on the Bolivia leg.
Bolivia is a country of many contrasts, being on the high Altiplano you have places like El Alto and Potosí where the altitude is so high up you struggle to breathe while the natives who are the majority population here go about their lives carving out their existence in these harsh places, then on the flip side you have colonial cities like Sucré, which are very clean and orderly and have a relaxed vibe to them.
Bolivia has the largest share of indigenous people to the overall population in all of Latin America (around 60%), which adds an interesting dynamic to the place seeing lots of people out and about in the traditional native dress.
In Bolivia I met some cool people in pretty much every place I stopped at and I think the type of company you have can really make or break a place.
I would also say we eaten pretty well in Bolivia and the traditional food was pretty good, notably the picante de pollo, chicken with rice/noodles in a spicy sauce.
What else to say? One major downside that I experienced in Bolivia was struggling to breathe up on the Altiplano, especially above 4000 meters, honestly it was a triple combo of altitude, being bunged up with mucous from hangovers of my head cold and the fact that air quality here in the cities is pretty bad, this is because they use a cheap nasty petrol that’s high in sulphur content and low octane meaning it doesn’t burn as well as other fuels so a lot of it ends up in the atmosphere and you smell it when you pass cars in the street. Yet despite that there isnt tons of smog in the air. Whatever the case it did a number on my breathing.
Overall despite it’s challenges Bolivia ends as one of the better countries I’ve done though don’t know if I would want to live there with the altitude and breathing issues, then again there is a whole other part of it quite low down in altitude east of Sucré which I didn’t do because time and the route I was on. Overall I very much liked Bolivia and could happily visit again.
Video link and Gallery at the bottom of the page.
Summary of places visited:
🇵🇪 Perú:
- Lima: Lima is very much a megacity having a population of circa 10 million – about 1/3 of all Peruvians live in Lima. The place is massive and there are many different districts some pretty safe and others quite dangerous. I mostly hanged around Miraflores and Barranco which are the safest and most popular places there among tourists though I did venture out to Callao which was a totally different place looking run down and sketchy and did at at one point accidentally wander up into up to one of the ‘cono’s’ and that was pretty sketch but I survived and all is good. The one thing I would say about Lima is it was the most expensive place on this trip since Mexico City and my wallet certainly felt it after we left there. All in all was quite a fun place and wouldn’t mind visiting again.
- Paracas: Our first ‘tourist trap’ town of Perú, this will be a bit of a recurring theme as we go down the list. Paracas was the first stop on the Peru Hop route to Cusco. Paracas is quite a pleasant little beach town in the Peruvian desert about 4 hours south of Lima and is a popular vacation spot for people in Lima. I certainly did not hate the place as I did a good hiking trip out of town and the main attraction, Perú’s ‘Mini Galapagos’ – Las Islas Ballestas. See my blog posts on them for the full story. To sum up Paracas it’s a 2/3 days kind of place and done as it is rather basic and once you’ve done those there isn’t much else. While accommodation was cheap, food and drink were similar prices to that in Lima and again this will be a recurring theme through Peru. The only thing I didn’t do here was hire a dune buggy and go out into the desert, but my reason for that was because I would be doing that in the next place. Huacachina. Which perfectly moves us on.
- Huacachina: Second ‘tourist trap’ town of Perú, Huacachina’s claim to fame is being Latin America’s only desert oasis, which it technically is though today its way too big to support itself naturally so they feed it with water from outside by pumps, another thing about this place is it is used as a poster child for tourism campaigns and is marketed like it’s this magical place in the middle of nowhere – it isn’t. There is quite a large city Called Ica, which is literally 2 minutes up the road from it. I only spent 1 night here before I moved on to Arequipa and I think that was just right. I arrived and did the dune buggy tour straight away and it was good fun but it really is the only thing to do here, once you finish the tour your back in the oasis but all that’s really here is a few restaurants and hostel bars selling food and drink at quite an inflated price for Peru, while not extortionate you knew you were a captive audience here. Definitely another one and done place.
- Nazca: I didn’t stay here but it’s worth a quick note as we did stop here on the night bus to Arequipa. Nazca town itself did not look like much to look at though from what I could see hotels were dirt cheap here but there wasn’t much going on here, most people just pass through to Arequipa and if they do stay here it’s one night or 2 to do the Nazca Lines flight. I didn’t do this as was quite expensive and if I did it would be a long wait for the night bus the next day so skipped on it. That said the Nazca lines are very interesting and would be something to see from the sky. Maybe one to revisit if I ever come back to Peru.
- Arequipa: To be honest I liked Arequipa, it is a Spanish colonial city that acts as a major economic and transit hub in that southern region of the Peruvian Mountains, altitude wasn’t too bad here (~2600 meters), climate was mild and easy going and met decent locals here as well. The city itself is quite a fun place to explore and the architecture in the old town felt very similar to that of Puebla’s old town back in Mexico. Arequipa has a unique sense of independence from the rest of Peru and it shows as there are brands of foods and drinks made here you can only get in the city itself, such as Arequipeña beer and Cola Escocesa. Outside Arequipa there are places to do on excursions such as la Ruta De Sillar quarry and the Colcca Canyon, though I never got round to doing the canyon tour I did enjoy the quarry excursion.I enjoyed Arequipa and if I went back would stay a bit longer than I did, it was quite a chill place.
- Cusco: Cusco is both a living city and another tourist trap destination, being the last big city before Macchu Picchu if you plan on going there. I initially was but I ended up having a major burnout episode here which meant I ended up leaving here without visiting the main attraction of Perú. Say what you want about this but when burnout kicks in you have to listen to your mind and body. End of story.Cusco city itself was a nice enough place with a pretty old town and some cool back streets to wander through and up the top of the mountain you have Saqsaywaman, the ‘Poor Man’s Macchu Picchu’ which is a cool Inca ruin and has some interesting history behind it, you can read the blog post on that one for the full story. I didn’t mind Cusco itself but the overall experience was one married by burnout and so a redo of this one is definitely on the cards if I come back to Perú.
- Puno: The last stop in Peru before Bolivia, Puno was a short stay though it was quite interesting being on Lake Titicaca, the main thing people come here for is to take a trip to the Uros Floating Islands, which is what I did. While interesting it did feel a bit tourist trappy but not as much as some of the earlier places visited. Puno itself is a small city and while it looked rundown it did look like it could be quite a fun place on a weekend having quite a good bar scene though I came here at the start of the week and didn’t want to stay that long as once you do the boat trip there isn’t that much else to see here. From there it was an easy hop across the border into Bolivia 🇧🇴.
🇧🇴 Bolivia:
- Copacabana: Copacabana was the first stop of Bolivia and my last stop on the Peru Hop route. Copacabana is quite a sleepy little town and being on the border with Peru it is a little bit more expensive than the rest of Bolivia being on Lake Titicaca and being on the Peru Hop tourist circuit. It was a sleepy place with everything shutting by 22:00-22:30 in the evening and generally not much to do there in the evening besides have dinner and have an early one. The main attraction here is the Islands on Lake Titicaca which there are regular boat tours out to. I did one of these yours to the Sun Island, which was quite interesting, again got a full blog on this tour if you want to see more. One note is if you wanted to you could do an overnight stay on that Island though as a solo traveler I imagine it would be quite boring after you’ve done the main hiking route of that island. No real hate on Copacabana but its such a sleepy place that makes it a 2 nights and move on place in my book.
- La Paz:The more relevant of Bolivia’s two capitals, I very much enjoyed my extended stay here, I saw quite a few interesting places, and met plenty of cool people here including my new best friend who is totally not Ed Sheeran. What more to say?La Paz is a very high altitude city being around 3000 meters with neighbouring El Alto being around 4000 meters above sea level, the only real downside to this place was the aforementioned breathing issues I had through Bolivia.In La Paz there is a lot to see and do, where I was staying down in Sopacachi there are quite a lot of cool bars and restaurants to check out. La Paz has a cool colonial centre as well where can be found the old parliament and the Witch’s Market, which is just a name for a large market selling various things but you get the idea. The easiest and most exciting way to get around La Paz is to take the Teleférico – the cable car system around the city. There are several lines which go round the city in a ring and take you up to El Alto, which is it’s own thing altogether. To recap El Alto is another large city which grew out of native migrations to La Paz to the point where it is now actually bigger in terms of population than La Paz. It is an interesting place as you see the natives in their traditional dress and the hustle and bustle of the markets here. I wish I spent more time up here checking out some more of the place. My friend who’s not Ed Sheeran did a tour up here of the Cholets, interesting buildings in a totally new modern art style, almost like Transformers which is what the natives make their houses into when they make it big up here. Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of them so you’ll have to Google it. My friend tells me that secretly this place holds the economic power of Bolivia; it’s the people up here doing all the large scale import export and I believe him on this.In and around La Paz there is plenty to do as well, such as an excursion to Tiwanaku, which is an interesting pre Inca ruin. There are also some interesting valleys to hike such as Valle de las Animas and Valle de la Luna, all of which I have covered on separate blogs. Another thing you can do which I never made it on is cycle along Bolivia’s Death Road, one to do if I ever go back there. All in all La Paz was a fun city and could happily visit again.
- Oruro: This place is another that falls into the 2 nights and move on category since while it was quite a relaxed place there really wasn’t much to see here. There is a large Inca statue on a hill I planned to visit but again as the breathing was being a problem in the altitude here I simply never got up there. Again though it was another place where I met friendly locals and had a pretty nice time in my short stay here, a decent enough place to stop at on the way south through Bolivia.
- Potosí: Potosí is famous or rather infamous for one thing; Silver mining and lots of it. When you get there you see the mountain of Cerro Rico which is where the Spanish Empire got most of their new world silver from back in the day and the fact this mine is still working and the fact there are still tens of thousands of tonnes of Silver down there after 500 years is mindblowing. I didn’t stay in Potosí long but the 2 nights I spent here was long enough. Potosí is not a place for the faint hearted. The air felt heavy here in the extreme altitude and even more so down in the mines. All I know is life is hard here and I feel for those guys who work in those mines trying to earn a living in such harsh conditions. It is a tough place but I would say it’s worth a visit simply because of the heavy history here and to give you a better appreciation of the comforts you take for granted assuming you are reading this from a western country. Potosí was hard but worth it as my final words here.
- Sucré: Bolivia’s Old and ceremonial capital was another interesting place and a good place to go if you want to dive into the history of Bolivia. The whole reason Sucré exists was because the Spanish didn’t want to develop Potosí into the capital because the altitude was too much for them so they built Sucré where the climate was more accommodating and set up the mints there. Sucré was the power base of Bolivia’s old elite and it shows in the architecture here. The city is a Colonial style city with most of the buildings being white in a very similar style to Popayán back in Colombia, though one stark difference to Popayán is it felt a whole lot less sketchy in the night, no need to be constantly looking over your shoulder. Sucré is a very slow and laid back kind of place and nice if you want to take a relaxing city break somewhere and just take in the vibe of this place. There are a few places outside you can visit such as Castillo Glorieta and ‘Jurassic Park’ (Parque Cretácico) which I have covered on seperate posts. I enjoyed Sucré but definitely think I overstayed here spending a week and a half here. The ideal stay here is probably 3-5 days depending on the pace you want to go at.
- Uyuni: Uyuni was my final stop in Bolivia and it is another 2 nights and done place. The main reason everyone comes here is to see the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni and that was exactly why I visited here as well, that and the fact it was the easiest place from where you could get a morning bus to Villazon, where I crossed into Argentina from.The Salt flats tour was a full and long day but it truly was an epic tour that was worth every penny. I have covered this on a separate post and plan to make a full video on the train graveyard and salt flats when I get round to it. Uyuni town itself isn’t much to see, it is a dusty small place which gives off a ‘hotel Bastardos’ vibe, if you haven’t seen that look it up on YouTube, hotel bastardos fistful of travelers cheques. Overall though the tour made this detour very much worth the time and money.
Video:
Photo Gallery:
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