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Italiano (Italian)
Eating in Bolivia is another activity for which some care must be taken. That said, while the suburbs are rather dire and run-down, the centers of the main cities I won’t say clean, but they are certainly tidy. Here, with more traffic, the exhaust fumes can be felt, and in highland cities, like La Paz, they further increase the difficulty of breathing. Everywhere hygiene is questionable, so one must be careful with food and water.
Dinner with Masha
In Uyuni, which is the base village for excursions into the Salar, a classic tourist hotspot, there really wasn’t much choice. Even thinking I was going for hygiene, I was attracted to a place that with a super grill on the sidewalk, flooded the main driveway with the good smell of flab. The usually inconvertible assumption is that if something grilled you eat it right away, it is also sanitized.
After the lady at the doorway flashed all her smile, which could count on a total of no less than five or six teeth, and seated me, I didn’t feel like backing down, despite the fact that the semi-darkness of the room couldn’t quite hide everything.
Illuminating, even metaphorically, a TV set turned on in front of which 3 ragged brats were laughing their heads off. They were watching the cartoon Masha and the Bear, and they were really funny. Caught up in the spectacle within the spectacle, the babies ignored me; shortly thereafter I began to bite into my llama chop (tasty, but rather heavy).
Halfway through the chop I could not help but observe a gentleman. He came in holding a large piece of some kind of raw, bloody animal on his shoulders, without any container, and thoughtfully placed it right on the decidedly filthy and already somewhat sticky floor.
Dinosaur footprints and the novel cousine
The most beautiful city in Bolivia is Sucre, which, despite not being very large, is also the constitutional capital of the country. It has several attractions, including a site where you can see sharp, many dinosaur footprints apparently climbing. In fact, due to earthquakes, that piece of land tilted and is now practically perpendicular to the current plane. This very special site is explored here.
In total I spent as many as 3 nights in Sucre, so much so that I recognized the stray dogs in the center. There are many of them in Bolivia, they treat them well and are quiet. I happened to see a girl walking by who met one and they greeted each other before going their separate ways busy. Obviously the dogs target tourists for food. A French couple told me that one there invited them to follow him and took them to the market, making it clear that he would appreciate it if they could get him something.
Having already experienced restaurants and bars that inspired me the most, for my last night in Sucre, my second-to-last in Bolivia, I treated myself to a novel cousine restaurant. They had a set menu of bites implanted well, with a modern take on cuisine from around the country. A zealous waiter explained each dish in detail, even telling me the origin of each food. I spent 3/4 times more than usual.
Up to that point I had emerged unscathed from all possible ailments; the next morning I vomited my soul and more.
I return home cursing unfairly against eating in Bolivia.
I stayed in the room as much as possible, they called me because it was check-out time. Also, I thought of going by cab to the airport, but since it was a holiday there were none and I had to walk 20 minutes uphill to get to the shuttle stop, refusing every few meters .
That day of stopover in Santa Cruz, before the return flight, I thought only of recovering and stayed in my room to fast. To my girlfriend of the moment in Italy I wrote:
I can no longer afford to eat strange things, in fact at this moment I am convinced that I will never eat’ anything again in my whole life
I do not blame Bolivia for this trouble. One must remember that one is not always the same, and even I, who used to eat anything, have become weaker.
I lived through the flight with the terror that every gut mumbling was a preamble to something else. Also, a very serious mistake, I was not in the hallway and spent the night sleepless, thinking that if I had to escape to the bathroom, I would have to climb over the obviously massive gentleman who was sleeping soundly next to me. This thing actually happened. I arrived quite well in front of the bathroom, which, however, was occupied. I began to break out in a cold sweat and felt that I was about to pass out. In those long moments I began to think about the repercussions of shitting my pants on the plane. Fortunately, the bathroom cleared before the patatrac.
Home trip Tour of Bolivia by the lone gringo
Previous stop Meetings during the Andean plateau tour
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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