The wonderful thing that is bottled Bolivian coke

Maybe you've heard about or noticed the popularity of "Mexican Coke" in the United States. Mexican Coke is basically Coke brewed and bottled south of the border and shipped across to the USA. It differs from the American variety—and is arguably superior—in two important ways:

1. It comes in a glass bottle. Of all the materials that beverages are bottled in, I'm pretty sure glass is the most inert, so it doesn't impart any flavor into the beverage. Personally, I think glass is best to drink from, followed by an aluminum can, then cardboard (ever noticed that paper-y taste that comes from milk in a box? Yuck!) Mexican Coke comes in glass so doesn't have that aluminum can taste.
2. Mexican Coke is made with real sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup. I'm not going to go into it here, but HFCS is really bad for you and has a chemical taste that some say ruins American Coke. The Mexican recipe calls for cane sugar, just like the original recipe. 

So for all those out there who swear by Mexican Coke, I have something even better for you...

Bolivian Coke.

Why is Bolivian Coke better? Well, again, it's made with real cane sugar. So even though it's bad for you, it's still not as bad as Coke made with high-fructose corn syrup. And again, it comes in glass bottles so you get a pure taste. But here's where Bolivian Coke differs from Mexican Coke sold in the USA—it comes in returnable bottles! 

Why are returnable bottles so great? A few reasons...

1. When you're bottling what is basically flavored sugar water, the bottle is probably the biggest expense. By allowing people to buy Coke in glass bottles and then return the bottles, The Coca Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, reduces the cost considerably! It's cheaper than water here!
2. No plastic bottles filling up landfills and harming the environment
3. Coca Cola makes Coke available in a variety of sizes:

2.5 liters (huge!) for $1.50

2 liters for $1.25

1.5 liters for $1.00

1 liter for $0.80

1/2 liter for $0.40 (this is the one we usually get, it's perfect for two people)

190ml—basically a few gulps—for only 15 cents! It's like going back to the 1950s!

So while Mexican Coke is great for those in the USA—and I would't recommend eating tacos without it—we'll continue to enjoy the national beverage of Bolivia: Glass-bottled pure-cane-sugar returable-bottle available-in-myriad-sizes Coca Cola!

By the way, if you're interested in finding Mexican Coke near you, check out this site!

http://wheretofindmexicancoke.com/

Michael

Trip to the waterfalls at Coimata

Drive just 10 minutes outside the city of Tarija and there are some extremely beautiful places to visit. One of them is Coimata—a wilderness reserve that offers great hiking and photo-snapping opportunities. We recently went there with our friends from New Zealand. It was great to get away from the noise of the city and connect with nature. Check out the photos below!

Michael and Samantha at the waterfall

The hike to the waterfalls was pretty steep. We had to climb a sheer rock face that had been polished slick by thousands of years of running water and thousands of bottoms using it as a slide. Tough to walk up!

Shimon’s trying to decide if that murky water is deep enough to take a 15-foot jump into—turns out it was!

Samantha starts off the cannonball competition with a 9.2 (nice form!)

Michael takes a dive into the black, trying to avoid the sharp rocks on either side of the swimming hole

The whole group (minus Ana, the photographer)—on the rocks

Needed to rest a bit after all that diving...

The grill was primitive to say the least—but highly effective. We built a small fire pit from river rocks, gathered sticks and leaves to start the charcoal burning, and threw the meat on. I don’t think Smokey the Bear would consider it “forest-fire safe”…

Enjoying lunch—the meat was grilled to perfection!