Introducing our gourmet tour of Bolivia and dine at Noma’s owner’s new restaurant

This week saw the launch of no ordinary restaurant in Bolivia’s La Paz.

The founder of Copenhagen’s Noma, voted the world’s best restaurant for the past three years, has chosen the city as the home of his second venture, Gustu.

To coincide with this, HighLives has launched our gourmet tour of Bolivia- a seven-day journey taking in the best of the country’s produce that ends with a 15-course dinner at Gustu.
(Both Gustu and our tour were mentioned in today’s Guardian)

I’ve never been to Noma- with hefty prices, just 40 seats and a waiting list stretching years I don’t think many people have- but I’m very excited that the owner has chosen my home country for his next venture, which looks like it could lead to wonderful benefits for visitors and local people alike.

Gustu promises to deliver pioneering menus with 100% Bolivian ingredients with the aim of encouraging Bolivians to rediscover their own rich food culture. There is a cookery school to train local young chefs from poor backgrounds and plough earnings back to a non-profit foundation.

I think HighLives’ new tour gives a flavour of the region’s best produce and cooking. The country is full of vibrant markets, tasty street food and fresh, seasonal produce.

The tour takes in the wine-growing region of Tarija, where Gustus has built its cellar including the gin-like spirit Singani. It also includes Uyuni’s salt flats and the plains where super-grain quinoa has been harvested as a staple for hundreds of years.

It rounds off in La Paz, where vibrant markets burst with fresh produce and interesting snacks are cooked and sold on virtually every street corner. I sometimes really miss my mid-morning saltena- kind of a pasty sold with lots of dips and spicy toppings- and the fresh fruit juice stands. I have searched London's specialist shops for chuno- a freeze dried potato that produces a really unique flavour that tastes a lot better than it sounds! (I will be posting more soon about these tasty treats).


Bibiana
highlives.co.uk
+44(0)20 8144 2629
info@highlives.co.uk

HighLives launches gourmet tours to Bolivia, including Noma owner's new venture

HighLives Holidays is offering its first gourmet tours to Bolivia to include the second venture by pioneering Danish chef Claus Meyer, whose first restaurant was Copenhagen’s Noma, voted the world’s best restaurant for the past three years.

Meyer hopes his Gustu fine-dining restaurant, due to open next month, will follow Noma’s lead to put Bolivia on a path to its own culinary development by sourcing  ingredients only from within its borders.

HighLives, has crafted a eight-day experience for adventurous food-lovers to explore Bolivia’s little-known wine-growing region, the vast salt flats at Uyuni and the high Andes plains where the super-grain quinoa has been cultivated  for centuries.

Visitors then tour the vibrant markets of the high-altitude capital La Paz, which presents unique challenges to Gustu chefs to adapt to an atmosphere where water boils at just 80 degrees Celsius.

The journey rounds off with a spectacular 15-serving meal at Gustu, the centrepiece of the non-profit Melting Pot Foundation, which aims to train local chefs and develop employment opportunities for local young people.

HighLives can provide extended stays in Bolivia and the rest of the continent, using our local knowledge to enable visitors to experience the real Latin America. One option for gastro-tourists is a trip to Peru’s capital Lima, recently awarded world capital of gastronomy of 2013.

Itinerary at a glance:

Day 1: Arrive to Santa Cruz

Day 2: Flight to Tarija, Bolivia’s wine region

Day 3: Tarija, visit to wine producers and the wine region

Day 4: Tarija- Uyuni flight, visit to salt producer and quinoa plantations

Day 5: Bolivian desert safari – overnight in Tayka Ojo de Perdiz

Day 6: Flamingos and Lagoons – overnight in Luna Salada, Uyuni

Day 7: Flight Uyuni –La Paz

Day 8: 15-serving dining experience at Gustu

Contact HighLives
www.highlives.co.uk
info@highlives.co.uk
+44(0)20 8144 2629

High Altitude Detox in Peru and Bolivia.

Ensuring that you look and feel good is a strong part of Latin American culture. Many make use of spa treatments, exercise habitually to keep fit or simply dance away those extra kilos.

I try to visit Latin America at least once a year and as part of my most recent trip, as usual, I took advantage of the metabolising effects of high altitude, as well as visiting a couple of spa hotels and taking on a few new little challenges. I wanted to do a high altitude trek, and decided to prepare myself beforehand by keeping my exercise levels up and taking a vitamin supplement said to help me acclimatise to altitude quicker (Altivit).
When I landed in Lima, Peru’s capital, and was keen to make use of the facilities of the Westin Hotel Spa. Unfortunately, the spa treatments were fully booked so I had to make do with going for a swim in the pool and to use the gym to boost my energy and muscles working after the long journey from London.

My next stop was inland to Peru’s Sacred Valley, after a flight to Cusco and transfer to a wonderful hotel called Tambo del Inca. It is in a peaceful location with spacious gardens to practice yoga or relax for a couple of days.

This time I was lucky enough to have booked some treatments in the hotel’s spa. After a long journey, busy work meetings and the draining altitude effects, this water circuit was just heavenly. I felt so relaxed and looked much better, my skin was revitalised and completely hydrated: I felt like a whole new me after emerging from the last pool.

I was sad to leave this but my next adventure was waiting for me, one I have been preparing for quite some time.

My final stop was my native Bolivia, where I travelled to the Sajama National Park. My high altitude trek was a challenging, but certainly rewarding experience. I walked breathlessly among tiny dwarf tree in what is the world’s highest forest and reached 5,500 metres above sea level in some incredibly beautiful and little-visited scenery near Chile’s border.

Before flying home I visited a specialist in weight loss, who showed me that I had lost 3 kilos in a week. Once again I have proved that by keeping active while at high altitude I am able to lose more weight in a shorter period of time than I would have at at sea level.

I keep very active when away, walking as much as I can, adding some treks or biking. When at altitude it is important to drink lots of water and to be more moderate in intake of alcoholic drinks, helping the body to detox.

If you are looking to try something similar, visit our site and learn more about our high altitude detox, fitness and activity holidays.

I will keep you posted on my next high altitude adventures this year.

Here are some pictures of my trip. Enjoy!

Rio has its Christ, now Oruro has a Virgin

Last night we had our yearly fix of dance, Bolivian style at Friend’s of Bolivia’s carnival night in London. I was not disappointed, there was a good folkloric band, two dance groups and a disco.

As with many Catholic countries, Bolivia celebrates carnival and its does it in great style (read Gemma Bowes’ Guardian article on her visit).

Bolivia’s biggest carnival is held in the small mining town of Oruro, which comes to life once a year when more than 30,000 people dance in procession through the streets. Dancers in fantastically elaborate costumes are accompanied by brass bands and perform in front of Bolivians and the odd foreign visitor to honour the Virgin of el Socavon. (La Virgen Morena).

This year to kick of the Carnival celebrations President Evo Morales, himself a musician in the carnival in his youth, was part of the inauguration of the newly erected Virgen of Sovacon statue. It stands 45 metres high, seven metres higher than Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue and just a bit shorter than New York’s Statue of Liberty.

It certainly adds something new to the place, I can’t wait to get back home to see it. If you want to see for yourself, HighLives can help arrange a fantastic stay at next year’s Oruro carnival, or indeed a visit at any time of year.