Traveling bolivia in summer | Squat the Planet

Traveling bolivia in summer

RnJ

PilgrimAflame
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Taking a freak from freeform travel with 3 dear friends of mine who are more into the busing and CouchSurf thing. We're going to Bolivia, so it should be a lot of fun at any rate. All of them are into the idea of hitching and freight-hopping, but have never gotten around to trying either. And since they're onew to poor-country travel and are defaulting to fear, mistrust, and over-cautious preparation. That said, they are three of my top 5 friends of all time (one being my romantic cahoots-er -- my lady of choice -- whose actually up for anything), and I'm willing to stiffen up a little for this sort of summer in the Andes. And I appreciate the ways they're loosening up a bit with not knowing yet where we're going to sleep for the night.

So all that out there, I'm wondering if you have any experiences in Bolivia, or even in S. Peru where we will also be passing through.
We're trying to avoid bix-box tour
ism well enough, but of course it's tough to pass on the amazing natural beauty in these places, even when they're in the tourist industry's domain. So we'll be doing some sight-seeing and going to most cities/provinces.

Our generally default itinerary, unless and until things change, is Lima, Peru > Cusco > La Paz, Bolivia > Rurrenabaque > Santa Cruz > Potosi & Sucre > Uyuni > La Paz > Cochambamba > La Paz > Choro/Coroico > La Paz > Lima, Peru.

After the two tamest of us leave, my partner and I have another month to hitchhike/WWOOFing/looking to meet fun, active, critical, adventurous, truly Andean people and experience (obviously as capitalism free as is idealistically practical). I'm into extended my trainhopping experience there, but it's not looking too promising and my partner is planning to hitchhike against her family's will, so I think it's pretty selfish to put her in a situation she might not ye be ready. But she's a farm girl and hops fences with less inhibition than even I, so we'll probably have a blast together.

We're aiming to do the Choro Trek from La Paz to Choro on our own. Have you ever done it? Or the Mapiri trail? It's a 7-day hike, half of it through thick brush with fallen logs, and it's on a slow decline as far as navigability according to recent hikers.

We're also open to skipping the Choro Trek if there is a better way to spend out time in Cochabamba -- so-described to us as the "social justice capital of Bolivia."

Any info on where to find a women's wrestling event?


Thanks for your input. I'm not looking to travel an existing path, but also don't plan on blazing a new trail into random wilderness devoid of wonderful thinkers and souls!
 
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wizehop

Chasing the Darkness
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Hey Q I haven't been there myself but Mitch was there, he almost died of altitude sickness. Ill see if he can drop you an email over Gmail about his experiences down there.
 

RnJ

PilgrimAflame
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@roughdraft , The bump didn't go to my email, but somehow I started geting the weekly listings of posts again and figured I'd log in. What are the chances you just posted this to get my attention a week or less ago?

Yeah we went to Rurre and La Paz 2 or 3 times. Great country to be in. Was difficult to connect with the locals as much as we wanted, not many people can enough space and privilege to let you sleep at their house, but plenty of thrilling moments none the less. From La Paz to Rurrenabaque, we did bus down what portion of death road is still active, in a cheapass flota, us being the only whites on the bus, and that was for sure scarier then any train ridings in my experience. I nearly threw up and had to ask my now-wife Erin to take the window seat for me. In Rurrenabaque we met a missionary who let us tent out at the top of their property and the next day we got picked up to cross the river and work at the nearby animal refuge. It is hard to choose a favorite place that we went, but Santa Cruz and Rur are probably the strongest memories, actually. Uyuni was staging a blockade protest at the time, and we didn't want to predict if bribing taximen to get us through was actually gonna work though.

Too many memories to list here, but if any readers are looking for advice suggestion, I would love to do what I can.
 

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