La Paz

Bolivian Expectations: Hostels

by Ekua on January 18, 2010 · 10 comments in backpacking,Bolivia,d.i.y. travel

As I was preparing for traveling through Bolivia, I noticed that there was very little information on what I might find there. I know that not knowing what to expect and figuring it out upon arrival can be part of the fun of travel. But sometimes a little preparation allows you to make the most of spontaneity. And in a challenging destination like Bolivia, not being prepared for what might come up can potentially leave you S.O.L. in Middle of Nowhere, High Altitude, Bolivia.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from visiting the country as it is an incredibly rewarding place to go to. I just want to present a realistic view of what it’s like to travel there and delve into the practicalities of the impractical act of budget travel in Bolivia. First up: Hostelling.

» Staying Warm

Traveling during Bolivia’s winter (June-August) is often recommended for drier weather (which means better road conditions) and for solo travelers who want to meet other travelers (because it is high season). But the extreme cold can make it a tricky time to be there. Trying to stay warm in order to get a good night’s sleep was a recurring theme of my trip. There was no silver lining of toasty cabins and hot cocoa so I eventually learned a few things about how to fall asleep in a subzero room.

Don’t expect:

  • central heating or even carpeted floors. If it’s freezing cold outside, it will likely be freezing cold inside your hostel.
  • to always have a nicer and warmer sleeping option available. Bolivia is a cheap country to travel in and you often get what you pay for.

Expect:

  • to have to bundle up. Make sure you’re warm as you can be before you try to sleep. Getting out from under your covers in a freezing cold night to put on layers isn’t fun, and neither is having a sleepless and restless numb-toed night.
  • to bring a sleeping bag and/or extra blankets to stay warm. You can also ask a receptionist if your hostel has extra blankets available.
  • to be able to buy what you need there. There is an abundance of llama/alpaca gringo gear for sale in the markets so you can stock up on wool socks, gloves, hats, hoodies, and blankets to keep you warm at night. If you don’t want to take your purchases home with you at the end of your trip, you can always leave them behind for another traveler.

» Water and Showering

Another recurring theme of my trip was shower avoidance. After shivering yourself to sleep, the last thing you want to do is wake up and hop into chilly water. So sometimes you won’t shower. And when you do, it will likely be quick. Try not to think about what you smell like, instead give yourself a pat on the back for your environmentally friendly ways (even if they are forced).

Don’t Expect

  • 24 hour hot water. A lot of hostels will have a window of time where hot water is available, usually during daylight hours.
  • that a hostel that claims to have 24 hour hot really does. In my experience, hostels that explicitly stated that they did, really had 24 hour cold to lukewarm water. So you might be better off with an honest hostel that gives you a hot water time frame.
  • running water. Water is scarce in Bolivia. There may be times where you’ll have to brush your teeth with bottled water or flush the toilet with a bucket of water.
  • to have a towel provided. Bring along a quick drying towel.

Expect

  • that if hot water is available, it might only be a trickle of water. To access the hot water in some hostels, you can only turn on the water a little bit. If you want more pressure, the water will be cold.
  • to take advantage of having a hot shower when you get a chance.

» Party Hostels

Party hostels can be great places to meet other travelers and let loose. And they often have more amenities (such as hot water and warmer bedding) than smaller, more local hostels. However, they tend to harbor all sorts of losery travelers with questionable motives. If you want to stay in party hostels, use them sparingly, and don’t get sucked into staying for an extended period of time.

Expect:

  • to choose your hostel wisely. Chat with other travelers who have already visited a city you’re heading to and get the scoop on the hostels there.
  • to book in well in advance if you want a small dorm or private room in high season
  • to keep track of your hostel purchases. Some hostels let you charge food, drinks, etc. to your room and it’s important to have a sense of what you’ve bought so you don’t get overcharged when you check out.

Don’t expect:

  • to sleep

» A lot of this information is specific to traveling in the Andean part of Bolivia. Some of this information can apply to the Andean parts of Peru as well.

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Down and Out in La Paz

by Ekua on November 9, 2009 · 4 comments in Bolivia

August 10, 2009

I had fun plans for my last day in La Paz, but ended up spending the whole day trying to resolve my money issues. My ATM card was gone. Though my trip was winding down, I didn’t have enough cash to complete it. I went from bank to bank trying to figure out if I could get a cash advance with my credit  card. It was impossible because the only card I had was American Express. Don’t listen to AmEx’s slogan. Do yourself a favor and leave home without it. Outside of the U.S., it’s useless.

After hours of waiting in the longest lines I’ve ever seen in banks, trying to communicate what I wanted, and constantly being told it wasn’t possible, I gave up and went back to the hostel. I tried paying for my hostel bill with dollars. But each time I gave the receptionist bills, she took them to a back room where the manager inspected them and told her to tell me they couldn’t accept them. In Bolivia, you’ll often get completely tattered Bolivianos after completing a transaction. But for some reason, dollars, which are widely accepted, have to be neat and perfect. I was already scared of running out of money and this stressed me out more. If a foreign-run business wasn’t going to take perfectly acceptable money from me, what was going to happen as I continued on with my trip into even less developed places?

I went to talk to the manager and explained the situation I was in. I asked if he could accept my dollars and he completely refused. It was appalling the way he handled everything. He didn’t try to relate to my situation and acted like all that mattered was me paying my bill for my room, food, and drinks. All 34 dollars of it. And with no rips in the bills, even if the tear could only be measured in millimeters. He then had the galls to say that if I wanted to give him my 40 dollars, he would take my money at a low exchange rate and not give me any change back. It may sound like a small amount, but 6 dollars can go far in Bolivia. With my uncertain situation, every little bit mattered.

I was very upset and disgusted and took off to find a place that would take my money. Just two blocks around the corner, I found a money exchange place that took my dollars, gave me a good exchange rate, and only cared about whether or not my bills were real.

I headed back to the hostel where I discussed this with both the manager and hostel owner. I felt like I’d been lied to about how “ripped” money was never accepted in Bolivia and that they cared about nothing more than money. For your information, the hostel I stayed at was called Wild Rover. I absolutely do not recommend it.

I was catching the night bus to Uyuni that night and needed to sign up for a tour to begin the next morning. Two of my hostel roommates from England who were very cool and chill had signed up for a tour with three other people. There was one spot left that I could sign up for. I looked all over for their company but couldn’t find it. I found another one that had been recommended by some other people and haggled for a discount since I really was low on cash.

Back at the hostel, I finally packed my stuff up and hung out in the courtyard with one of my English roommates. I was approached by the hostel’s finance person who was clearly sent to smooth things over so I didn’t leave the hostel with a bad impression. She did seem really nice and understanding, but it didn’t erase how awful the manager and owner were.

By then, I’d gotten a Visa International emergency cash phone number. It was my last hope before asking a family member to wire me money. I called them and finally, there was a breakthrough. After such a frustrating day, I couldn’t believe how accommodating and helpful the Visa people were. They set me up with a claim and said I could pick up the cash at any Western Union within three days. If I couldn’t get to a Western Union within three days, I could call them back on a toll free local number and they would set it up again. I wish I had known earlier that I could do that. It would have saved me from a day of stressing out. But now I know!

I went back out to chat with the English girl. She’d had her phone stolen that day. She was in a crowded area using it to take pictures when someone knocked it out of her hand, grabbed it, and ran. In the past two days, I’d heard many stories of stolen and misplaced goods. There were two other ATM card losses, two purse snatchings, and my French roommates had their things stolen by fake tourists and police. I don’t want to discourage anyone from visiting La Paz, but it’s definitely a place where you have to be careful. It’s too bad my time in La Paz ended like it did, because I really did enjoy the city.

My English roommates were on the same night bus to Uyuni so I caught a cab with them to the station.  On the bus, they served us a small dinner. It was unexpected and welcome after running around La Paz  all day on one empanada. They also gave us blankets for the journey. It was already cold, so we innocently wrapped ourselves in them. There was a welcome notice for each person which warned us not to drink to much of the complimentary water they gave us because it would be a bumpy ride. It seems like they must have had issues with people wetting their seats in the past. After the Amazon jeep ride, the bumpiness of the road seemed minor. What they really should have warned us about was how incredibly cold our night would be.

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Tainted Times and a Tiahuanaco Tour

by Ekua on November 8, 2009 · 0 comments in Bolivia

August 9, 2009

I’d returned to La Paz on a Saturday and wanted to check out the city’s club scene that night. I went out with a group of people from my hostel and it was fun for awhile. But I quickly noticed that a large chunk of La Paz’s gringo party crowd were not people I wanted to associate with. La Paz, even more than Cusco, attracts a crowd that is there for the sole purpose of partying hard. They’re the kind of people who give 20-something backpackers a bad name.

Two of my of my roommates that night were part of that crowd. They were the most obnoxious ones I’ve ever had in a hostel. One, who had regurgitated her dinner before even having a chance to go out, passed out on a bed that didn’t even belong to her. She woke up in the middle of the night and decided it was a good time to have a long conversation with a random person in the room while the rest of us were trying to sleep. That is just a small glimpse of the night. I love nightlife, but I really don’t understand the need to be that extreme and travel thousand of miles to do nothing other than party. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night.

I’d signed up for a tour to Tiahuanaco on Sunday and could not bring myself down from my bunk that morning. I eventually did and tried to hurry, but I was still the last to get on the mini bus. I was late and I’d held everyone up. It doesn’t feel great to be that person in a group of complete strangers.

I shrugged it off because I had bigger problems than lack of sleep and being shunned by my tour group– I’d lost my ATM card. I think it must have happened at the ATM on Saturday afternoon, but I hadn’t noticed the card was missing until night when I was going out. It was late, so there was nothing I could do about it then.

It was a two hour drive to Tiahuanaco. We began our tour in a museum adjacent to the ruins. The tour guide was awful. He rambled on and on about trivial speculation. It was hard to follow him because he would sporadically switch between English and Spanish. After awhile, I got tired of pretending like I was listening to him. I found a chair and had a seat.

I was sympathetically approached by girl I’d noticed earlier. In her multicolored head-to-toe llama gringo gear, she was impossible to miss. She wore a llama wool hat with earflaps, a llama wool sweater, and striped pants that resembled pajamas that were tucked into combat boots with wool llama socks sticking out of the tops. These were all in neon shades blue, pink, green, etc. We chatted and she seemed as crazy as she looked, but it was cool that someone else was not into acting they were understanding what the guide was saying.

Tihuanaco - Stone FaceMy Amazon tour guide had been great. He let us know what everything was, but didn’t go into much detail. He let us be in the moment. I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Tihaunaco as much with the guide’s incessant talking. So when we reached the ruins, I decided to take off on my own. I reveled in the in the color combination of rust-colored ruins and brilliantly blue sky. I ran my fingers along ancient walls made of multi-sized bricks that created beautiful patterns. I looked into the eyes of stone carved faces that had long lost their detail. I imagined what looked like its inhabited days.

Tihuanco - Hole in the Wall

Tihuanaco - Vanishing Point

Tihuanaco - StatueI eventually rejoined the group and maintained a safe distance from the guide. When everyone felt like they’d had enough of the ruins, we went for lunch at a restaurant nearby. I sat with the neon llama girl from England who’d approached me earlier, her French friend, and a Bolivian American guy. The two girls had met in Peru where they were supposed to volunteer. But Peru got worried about swine flu and closed all of the schools, so many people had to cancel their volunteering assignments. After that, they decided to travel together through Peru and Bolivia. The Bolivian-American was visiting relatives in the city of Cochabamba, and taking the opportunity to travel to other parts of Bolivia.

For lunch, we had a choice of chicken, beef or llama. I wanted to taste the llama but didn’t want to order it. The French girl let me try a piece of hers. It tasted like a cross between lamb and pork. We had a lively conversation over a long meal before heading back to La Paz.

Back in the city, we were dropped off at the Witches Market. I headed straight for an international call center to get in touch with my bank. The good news was that there were no extra charges on my account and I was able to cancel my card. The bad news was that there was no way I’d be able to get a new card before I left Bolivia. It was a Sunday so I’d have to wait until the next day to see if I could use my credit card to get a cash advance at a local bank.

The two girls I’d met on my Tihuanaco tour were staying at the same hostel and I met up with them to go out to dinner. The English girl had lost her ATM card as well, so our goal was to find something cheap to eat. I’d imagine we’d find a great local hole in the wall place, but we ended up on a street full of Bolivian fast food joints. We eventually settled on a place that seemed really crowded and like the place to be. On the menu were things like hot dogs, hamburgers, and popcorn chicken. There was a complicated ordering system that we didn’t understand. The workers saw that we were clueless and took pity on us and took care of us. We sat down to eat our burgers. I can’t say the food was tasty, but it was edible and didn’t give me food poisoning.

Back at the hotel, my obnoxious roommates had moved on and were replaced with two French women I’d seen on my bus from Puno to Copacabana. I slept soundly that night and hoped that I’d be able to resolve my monetary issues in the morning.

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