{"id":3563,"date":"2014-03-19T23:38:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T22:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/j-ontheroad.at\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2025-09-12T14:06:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:06:00","slug":"no-mcdonalds-in-bolivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/en\/2014\/03\/19\/no-mcdonalds-in-bolivia\/","title":{"rendered":"no McDonalds in Bolivia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Album<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eHere at Titicaca Lake,
my bottom needs a little break.\u201c
Admirer of fine literature know \u2026 He’s a poet manqu\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13.03. \/ 14.03.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 nights in Tupiza. It’s sunny and hot.
Actually, I wanted to follow the footsteps of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Reportedly, the two were shot in San Vicente, which is about 110 km from Tupiza, in a firefight with Bolivian soldiers. I stopped the project in less than an hour. The single-track winding gravel road leads through the mountains and I only made about 15 to 20 km. It would have taken 5 hours in only one direction. So I explore the surrounding area and spend a leisurely day. There is a bizarre landscape here too, free of charge, if you have a vehicle to go there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15.03.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Tupiza I go to Potosi. For the second time I torture myself through the horrendous traffic in the high-altitude city. This time I was lucky with the weather. The rainy season seems to have ceased. It still rains every day, but there are only brief showers in the afternoon or evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early evening I went for dinner with two Canadian girls and an American. Later in the evening again with a Belgian and two Swiss girls. We are moving within a few blocks around the hostel. After dinner we ask a few locals on the street where we can go for a drink. They tell us where it is safe and where not. On the main square a very drunken local person starts to talk in English with us, better dressed, around 30. He could not speak a straight sentence. We listened to him for a while. The Belgian guy in our group, I can not remember his name and simply call him B, is then pulled aside by another local person. I get suspicious. What is it, what can not be discussed in front of the group?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B then said to us, the local person can bring us to a pub. I do not trust him. We walk two blocks, then the locals, we met before, shout from afar. „Hey, Hey, No, No – Not in this direction, it is an unsafe neighborhood.“ The other one disappeared shortly thereafter. We chat for a while with them and try the high percentage liquor they have with them. Then we visited a small, dingy but nice Hard Rock pub, where a few people were sitting in their black leather jackets and dark appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16.03.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ride from Potosi to Oruro is, again, a highlight. In cold but sunny weather, I drive most of the time over 4,000 m above sea level on a road through a wonderful landscape. It is a dance with nature.
Oruro, however, is not really a highlight. It starts raining and after having some food I stay in the hotel room and watch TV.
There is a monument at one of the city exits where you can see the dominant industry (extraction of raw materials) and who has influence on it (China). The monument is a huge miners helmet and before that there is a dragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17.03.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As beautiful as the ride was from Potosi to Oruro, as terrible is the ride from Oruro to La Paz. It is just a big construction site, as it is being extended from 2 to 4 lanes. Old heavy trucks and buses pollute the air with their stinking exhausts. The suburbs of La Paz are a true horror. La Paz is again one of the cities where  traffic rules are not valid. Everyone is driving like he wants. You approach the city from about 4.000m above sea level, driving about 10km through the ugly suburbs, then you reach the edge of the plateau and you are really surprised by what you see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You look down into a wide, deep valley. On all slopes, no matter how steep and high, nestle houses of red and brown bricks. At night, it seems like thousands of candles are lit.
According to Wikipedia, the deepest point in the city is around 3,200m and the highest is at about 4,100. According to my GPS device, the historic center is located at an altitude of about 3,600m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I drove through the suburbs, I had a negative impression. In the evening and also after it got dark, I walked through the city. Crowds of people throng through the streets, lots of cars are stuck in a traffic jam. The city is unique and has its own character and charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone told me that there is no McDonalds in Bolivia. First, I ate a salad in a restaurant. The salad was not enough and I went to one of the fast food restaurants to eat a burger. The ambience, setting, process of ordering food,.. does not differ from large international chains … and it also did not taste very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at the hostel, I looked up on the Internet. And here is a typical example of how media spread false information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonalds has actually withdrawn from Bolivia in 2012, they could not make business here.
In the media, they told: The Bolivians „show respect for their bodies and are very careful what food they eat“, they were suspicious of the fast food, the local „fast food“ such as empanadas are preferred, etc. Incorrect!
Here in the center of La Paz, there are at least five different fast food chains, working on the principle of McDonalds, Burger King, KFC. Almost on every second corner you can find such a restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19.03.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I leave the city and go to Copacapana on Ruta2. Man, was I glad when I left the traffic chaos behind me.
About 40km before Copacapana it is necessary to take a short distance by ferry. The ferries are very simple flat wooden boats. Fit to carry two cars or small trucks.
While I was waiting, Peter from Germany arrived. We went together to Copacabana, where we checked in in a nice hotel at the beach. The Peruvian border is only 9 km and we still have some Bolivanos left.
According to Wikipedia Copacabana was once an indigenous religious center, today it is primarily a tourist village, consisting of hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops.
Nevertheless, the area is pretty nice here, and Lake Titicaca is really big, water tips the horizon. So tomorrow I leave the next country behind me and visit Peru again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for reading, J\u00fcrgen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Album \u201eHere at Titicaca Lake,my bottom needs a little break.\u201cAdmirer of fine literature know \u2026 He’s a poet manqu\u00e9. 13.03. \/ 14.03. 2 nights in Tupiza. It’s sunny and hot.Actually, I wanted to follow the footsteps of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Reportedly, the two were shot in San Vicente, which is about 110 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,27],"tags":[161,339,491,525,791,1029],"class_list":["post-3563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-201314-america","category-bolivia","tag-bolivia-en","tag-fast-food-en","tag-la-paz-en","tag-lake-titicaca-en","tag-potosi-en","tag-tupiza-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5299,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions\/5299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-bauer.at\/wp_america2013\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}