Chile on Fire, Enchanted by Bolivia
Plus Latest Posts from February, 2023
Enchanted
Bolivia is turning out to be a surprise favorite.
We arrived in Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia, and fell in love. (What does it mean to be the “constitutional” capital? Despite the president and congress residing in La Paz, the barber I chatted with insisted that there was only one capital, and it’s Sucre.)
The ostentatious Spanish architecture is painted white or natural stone. Turning a corner on any of the busy streets might reward you with a surprise: an adorable plaza tucked away in a little nook, a bird’s eye-view of the city, a cobblestone pedestrian street lined with arts and crafts.
Getting lost in the Mercado Central is like a psychedelic trip. You pass through mountains of fruit, which morphs into mounds of veggies, then fresh-baked flat-breads, the gamey smell of unrefrigerated raw meat, stacks of cheese wheels, piles of eggs, a maze of stalls plying grains and oils, a courtyard lined with fifty juice stands. Everyone asking “que va a llevar? [what are you going to take?]” as you walk by.
Last night we went to a dinner and show: two full hours of folkloric dance mixed with a light show and way too loud music. If you ever visit Sucre, Origenes is a must-see.
Exceeding Expectations
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from Bolivia. I knew nothing about it except that it was one of the two land-locked countries in South America (that sucks, no beaches) and has the lowest per-capita income of all South American countries. Not a good first impression.
While scrolling through Airbnb and hotel reviews, I noticed people went out of their way to give praise when the shower had hot water. (That’s how you differentiate yourself from the competition? A hot shower?)
I expected this to be a hard month of deprivation that would build character and make us more thankful for our privileges and all that.
The shower was indeed tepid. But other than that this place is a paradise! The meals are so cheap it feels like stealing. The coffee’s good and the chocolate’s good (harvested from the jungle, not farmed). From the little we’ve seen, Bolivia is pleasing to both the eye and the gut.
A Tough Border Crossing
Bolivia won our hearts, but she played hard-to-get.
Well, that’s one way of looking at it. More accurately, a privileged American family thought they could just walk across any border they wished with no more hassle than having to stop for a passport stamp.
It turns out Bolivia has some self-respect and actually makes you get a visa in advance (as well as charging Americans a $160 per person fee — only crisp, clean U.S. Dollar bills or Bolivian cash accepted). Since we had neither the visa nor the $800 in cash, that was a major setback.
Compounding our sudden dead end at the border bridge was a severe case of altitude sickness suffered by our oldest boy. You can read the long version of the story here.
Chile On Fire
Similar to the western United States, Central Chile is riddled with forest fires in the summer. (It’s summer in the south when it’s winter in the north).
We had a somewhat firsthand experience of this. Toward the end of our lovely stay at Fundación Retoño (which I described in my last newsletter) we were lounging in the living room gazing out the wall-to-wall picture windows at the wheat field and the blue mountains punctuated by towering volcanoes in the distance.
Out of nowhere, an ashy gray plume rolled in from the left like a bulldozer. Within minutes the clear, sunny day turned dim gray. The sun became a pale orange orb. The smokey air stung the eyes and lungs, like being on the wrong side of a campfire.
We walked outside and asked our host if she was worried. No, not yet. But she told us to pack our bags and get ready to flee, just in case. They were monitoring the situation.
The smoke endured until late morning the next day, but nothing happened to the farm. (Only last year, a tractor exploded in one of their fields, causing a fire that came within meters of their living compound.)
A few days later, the day we left to head north, we saw the scorched fields and forests that had supplied all the smoke only a few short miles from the farm.
Plus…
We visited Santiago, the capital of Chile; took a bus over the Andes; toured Argentina’s wine country (Mendoza); and hiked through the beautiful painted hills of Salta and Jujuy in northern Argentina.
You can see our progress on the Slow Camino map.
Latest Posts from Slow Camino
Because of the rapid travel through Chile, Argentina and now Bolivia, we got a bit backlogged on our blog writing. But hey, at least we squeaked one in before this newsletter!
Sickness and Unpreparedness Upend Plans at Bolivian Border
By MATT - FEBRUARY 26, 2023
A child battles altitude sickness as we arrive at the Argentine-Bolivian border bridge without a visa. This is a story about the lowest point of our gap year.