♪♪ -It's said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Welcome to "Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out."

Today, we're steppin' out in Bolivia, South America, into an extraordinary world of natural wonders, ancient cultures, and vibrant people.

-Muy bien.

-Gracias.

-"Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out" is made possible by... -Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel to the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

♪♪ -There's a reason people call Myrtle Beach "The Beach."

There are 60 miles of wide sandy beaches along South Carolina's Grand Strand Coast.

This vacation destination has golf courses, attractions, food, wine, and southern sun.

♪♪ -At first encounter, El Alto La Paz, Bolivia, seems larger than its population of 2.2 million people.

A blend of Indigenous, Mestizos, and Spanish live on the chasm's edge, below towering mountains, on the face of steep cliffs or in the depths of the canyon.

Wherever you are, you are in the heights, as altitudes range from 12,000 to 14,000 feet.

Beyond the mountains lie the Bolivian highlands and the Amazon's tropical riches, which supply the scores of neighborhood markets that service the populous.

El Mercado Rodriguez is one of the largest and the perfect place for me to humanize the vastness by stepping out of my comfort zone and into the local life.

It's like a garden here in the middle of the street.

Wow.

I just want to stand here and -- And look at this.

This is amazing.

Let's go -- let's go look at these gladioli.

Now, these were the favorite flowers of my aunt.

We called her Tia, which means Aunt Aunt.

That just gives you an idea the matriarchal position she had in my family.

Now we're getting vegetables here.

But look how large this market is.

And how far will it go this way, Hector?

-Four, five blocks still.

-Four or five blocks.

This is just one of dozens and dozens and dozens of markets in La Paz.

It's hard to imagine where all this food is going, but it's going somewhere.

Hola.

-Hola, ¿cómo está?

Buen día.

-¿Cómo están?

Buen día.

Look at the different potatoes.

Sweet potato right here.

-That's the okra we had last night.

-And that's yucca.

-Por eso eres yuca.

[ Laughter ] -What did she say?

-"That's why he looks like a yucca.

-[ Laughs ] -"Guy's all white."

-So white.

So white, like the yucca.

Gracias, señora.

Oh, yeah.

That's good.

-This is sweet.

♪♪ -You know, people talk about being in Paris and sitting in a café and people-watching.

This is even better people-watching.

Sitting on a bench in front of the lady who makes coffee and watching the world go by in this one market.

There's 80 markets in La Paz.

Is this one of the most popular?

-One of the most popular, yeah.

It's cheaper, and it's fresh, as you can smell and see.

Fruit, vegetables, everything comes fresh.

-We came through the flowers.

The flowers is like walking through a garden.

Markets have been a part of everything I've done on my shows.

It's a good way to begin a trip in any country, 'cause it kind of sets you and gets you stepping out on the right foot, because it's where you get a sense of the people.

You get a sense of the different cultures.

Of course you get the sense of what the country grows, and you get to have a personal experience with people.

It's absolutely wonderful.

Begun in 2014, the beloved Mi Teleférico, "My Cable Car," which joins La Paz and El Alto, consists of 36 stations along 10 lines and is considered the longest aerial cable car system in the world.

Once you've struggled with the traffic below, you'll love it all the more.

More of a surprise than its cable cars are the General Cemetery of La Paz and the masked guide who leads me through it.

This is Oliver.

You may be wondering why he has a mask on.

He's a shoeshine man.

There has been a discrimination against the people who are shoeshine men.

For two bolivianos, which is about 25 cents, you can get your shoes shined in La Paz, and so it's considered a low-pay, low-esteem job.

And so they wear the mask so the people won't know that they're doing this job.

And it still goes on, this kind of of discrimination.

I guess you would say it's a classism.

Today, he's my guide, and this is what they're doing as an organization in order to make a better living and to raise themself up in the eyes of other people from Bolivia.

Oliver was also telling me that there are a lot of famous people that are buried here.

So you'll see statues throughout the cemetery.

A lot of the people that are coming here with flowers, they bought them at the many markets that are here in La Paz.

These ladders you see around here are for people to rent who have spaces for their loved one up higher on the mausoleums that are through here.

It's more expensive to have a lower one.

So you don't have to have the ladder.

You don't have to climb up high to work on your loved one's space.

If you pay the fee, the taxes that are part of it, you can stay in one of these vaults forever.

If you don't, then roughly around five years, they pull you out.

You can be saved as ashes in the smaller spaces, or you can be honored at home.

-Unos mil murales debe haber.

-Sí.

About a thousand murals here.

And they all depict different things that either connect it to the cultural, religious, or spiritual.

This one is a good example.

What's happened is, they've combined both the cultural aspect because it's a cholita the ladies who are dressed up with the wide skirts and the hats.

It's a cholita that's also a skeleton, depicting the Day of the Dead.

Like the shoeshine men and all Indigenous Bolivianos, once victims of class discrimination, Las cholitas have asserted their power and become icons of strength and perseverance.

Their original hand-me-down dress has evolved into designer attire.

♪♪ It's about 100 miles and three hours by car from La Paz to Lake Titicaca, at 12,000 feet, the highest navigable lake in the world.

Yet, in Bolivia, the journey, not just the destination, offers opportunities for unexpected happenings.

♪♪ ♪♪ Bolivia is a land of surprises.

And here's another one.

We were just driving down the highway on the way to Lake Titicaca, and we saw this group practicing in the streets.

There's a big competition going on of the Indigenous communities, and it's so wonderful is that we just happened upon that.

The people are here to share their culture, to share their dances, to share themselves.

And so we feel so blessed to being a part of this.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] After the festival, in the village of Chukinapi, I reach the edge of Lake Titicaca.

It's a peaceful shoreline walk from my stay at El Retiro to La Isla Sonata, where, in the glow of an Altiplano sunset, I catch my breath and feed my soul.

♪♪ This is Lake Titicaca, the second-largest lake in South America and the largest high-altitude lake in the world.

Well, that's impressive enough, but when you come out here, you have to realize how important this lake is to Bolivians.

Well, let's start with the idea that the majority of our body is made up of water.

So all humans have connection to the ocean, to the rivers, their lakes and streams.

But the Bolivians have particular interest as a landlocked country.

It once had an access to the sea, which it lost in a war.

So the shame of that and their lack of connection with the sea, with the ocean, is very palatable.

The Incas claimed that their ancestors rose out of Lake Titicaca, so it's good to understand the significance of this lake to these people.

They get their energies from this water.

It's good to realize that and honor it.

♪♪ La Isla de la Luna is one of Lake Titicaca's islands held sacred by the Incan and pre-Incan Tiwanaku civilizations.

On the isle are ruins of a temple where the virgins of the sun were chosen.

What was the purpose of it?

-Sacrifice and ceremony.

Let me show you.

-So who was in these rooms?

-These girls.

So they had to be prepared for the sacrifice.

-Oh, gosh.

-So they had to meditate.

They had to find a way to be on balance.

That's why they have these small niches for their kind of amulets, because they have elements to be connected.

-So they brought things that were meaningful for them.

-For them, yeah.

-To give them peace before they are sacrificed.

-Sacrificed, yes.

-How gruesome.

-That's it.

Yeah.

-How gruesome.

Do you have any idea when this was built?

-More or less, 2,000 years before Christ.

-2,000 years before Christ.

-Before Christ.

-That's a long time before the Incas.

-Before the Incas.

That's right.

Yeah.

Long, long time ago before the Incas.

Because the Incas last for only 300 years.

-So they really were a very flash-in-the-pan... -Oh, yes.

-...relatively speaking, civilization.

-Yeah.

So why is it that people ascribe everything, all the sites here in Peru and in Bolivia and entire area, to the Incas?

-Because the Spanish.

The Spanish, they found this civilization, this group, that it was already like organized, so then they started to talk about them.

That's why they say, "Oh, the Incas."

-Many of the sites in Bolivia and Peru and in the area are pre-Incan.

-Yeah.

♪♪ -Con permiso.

Estamos sacando... Muchas gracias.

-They ask for permission from the Mother Earth, because Mother Earth provides everything that they use here.

So everything is being taken from Pachamama.

So they had to give to the Pachamama something first.

-Back to the Earth.

-Yeah.

So then now the Mother Earth lets them do their work.

-So, he's spinning.

-He's spinning the wool.

We have alpaca, llama, and sheep wool.

-How long has textiles and weaving been a part of the Bolivian culture?

-You can talk about civilizations now, not generations, and even today, we have the same technique.

-Are there any effort being made to keep this artwork alive?

Is there young people coming and training with her?

Yeah, they.

-They do it here at home with their family.

-That's what's so wonderful, coming to a country like Bolivia, where people continue to respect their old traditions and customs and work to keep them alive.

Can you ask her -- Uh, she's 88 years old.

She's been doing this for 78 years.

Why does she continue to do it?

-Después de 70 años haciendo tejido, ¿por qué continúas haciendo?

-[ Speaking Aymara ] -Yeah.

Uh-huh.

-What'd she say?

-She's speaking in Aymara now.

-Yeah.

-And she said that she's still doing it because this is a way of living besides agriculture.

She has to do it because she has to get some money to feed the child for education.

-Sí?

Qué bueno.

-[ Speaking Aymara ] -Yeah, yeah.

She says, "Thank you.

We appreciate your visit."

She said in Aymara.

"We really appreciate that you came and you shared this time with us," she said.

-Mucho gusto.

-Sí.

-Muchas gracias, tia.

-Yeah.

-All right.

-Fuerte.

-Fuerte?

-You have to do it hard, strong.

So then it will be tight properly.

-And this takes her three weeks.

-Three weeks.

You are doing well.

You are doing well.

Well done.

Yeah, you know, it takes like three weeks for them.

So it can take like... -Five years.

Five years for me.

-[ Laughs ] Okay.

Good.

And this is labor-intensive, my friends.

Oh.

-It's said the Uyuni Salt Flats were formed by the tears of the female volcano Tunupa crying out for her child, the volcano Colchani.

The tiny village of Colchani, processes 25,000 tons of salt a year.

My efforts contribute a few tablespoons.

And, see, and you thought it was real easy to have salt come to your table.

This is what it takes.

This is labor-intensive work.

And if you ever... when you sprinkle that salt on your fries, think about how difficult it is to actually get this.

Whew!

♪♪ Wahoo!

Whoopee!

I'm riding on the largest salt flat in the world.

Believe it or not, this is almost 5,000 square miles.

It's amazing.

It was a prehistoric lake that dried up, formed this salt crust, and this is a fantastic vantage point, on top of my four-wheel-drive.

♪♪ Ah, oh.

Oh, there you have it.

Beautiful salt crystals from the Uyuni Salt Flats.

That water's quite cold, by the way.

And -- and the crust seems to be quite deep because I had -- I was in there a foot.

It'd have to be to withstand the weight of all the cars and trucks that come through here.

We stopped here particularly because of these little hills of salt.

I was told it's caused by the evaporation.

And then the wind catches that and creates these beautiful geometric designs.

♪♪ There are many ways people can enjoy the salt flats and ways to get out here.

Most come by car.

It almost becomes a parking lot here at the island.

But Pere, from Spain, came by bicycle.

[ Both laugh ] ♪♪ -And then now is the cherry on the top of the cake.

Yeah.

-Cherry on top of the cake.

-Salud.

-To adventure and to discover the world.

[ Glasses clink ] Llamas -- can't miss them when you come to Bolivia.

-Llamita.

-Uh-oh.

Llamita.

-[ Laughs ] -Cuatro dias.

-Cuatro dias -- four days old.

What a sweetie.

You know, they don't really use llama wool for very fine clothing because it's not as soft as the alpaca and the vicuna.

But they do use it for, you know, blankets and things that can have a little rougher texture to them.

Kind of like what she's wearing right now.

-¿Este también?

She uses that -- that little strap to kind of round them up.

Gonna teach me how to use this.

Okay, here I go.

♪♪ -[ Laughing ] -No, not very good.

I didn't get very far.

I think I dropped it here somewhere.

-Uy, se botó.

-Okay, okay.

Okay.

[ Dog barking ] Hey!

[ Both laugh ] It went 2 feet, I think.

No, maybe 10.

Usted es experta.

-Sí.

-...la mamá de las llamas.

[ Both laugh ] My journey through Bolivia has been filled with surprises.

There are many things I didn't expect to see or experience, wondrous things.

And yet there are also still mysteries.

Like these walls.

They're scattered throughout the landscape, some of them heading straight up into the mountaintops.

Who built them, and why?

Some say it was the Tiwanaku civilization, pre-Incan, that built them for corralling llamas, for designating agricultural lands.

What makes Bolivia an exciting destination?

There are surprises galore and mysteries yet to solve.

♪♪ [ Flute plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ As if being on the salt flats wasn't enough -- the largest salt flat in the world -- coming up here to the highest point, 15,400 feet, in the view of Tunupa, the sacred mountain, it's just one more amazing thing on top of another.

This is called a huaca, built by the locals in honor of the sacred mountain in this sacred spot.

So I would say putting coca leaves into the -- the huaca...

Thank you.

Thank you, Pachamama, for giving us the opportunity to be here, be in your presence, and to do what we can to make the world and ourselves better.

Altitude is a glorious thing.

As you ascend to a higher plane, your body and brain change.

There is some discomfort in the change, but Valle de la Pena is worth the effort.

When you return to a lower level, you're a different person, and your spirit and your consciousness have been raised.

By ascending physically, you have uplifted your energy and expanded yourself.

You're a new and different human being.

♪♪ [ Soldier shouts indistinctly ] [ Bugle plays ] ♪♪ Thank you for joining me on my Bolivia adventure.

"Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out" encourages traveling the world and bringing back more than just souvenirs from your journey but life-enhancing experiences.

While every destination offers memorable moments, others present the opportunities for revelations, insights, and personal growth.

Bolivia is one of those, and you have shared these experiences with me.

Bolivia is not a perfect place.

Its people still suffer unnecessarily from many developing-country woes.

Yet time and time again, they have taken on those challenges and made them an advantage.

It's a positive aspect of their national character, along with resilience, perseverance, and self-respect.

Bolivia has much to offer to those in search of the authentic, the unexpected, and the exhilarating.

For why do we travel?

-Por la aventura para descubrir el mundo.

-For the adventure and to discover the world.

And I would add, and its people.

-Muy bien.

-Gracias.

Till we meet again, this is Joseph Rosendo, reminding you of the words of Mark Twain -- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

May your next adventure always be your best.

[ Soldier shouts indistinctly ] ♪♪ -"Joseph Rosendo's Steppin' Out" is made possible by... -Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel to the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

♪♪ -There's a reason people call Myrtle Beach "The Beach."

There are 60 miles of wide sandy beaches along South Carolina's Grand Strand Coast.

This vacation destination has golf courses, attractions, food, wine, and southern sun.

♪♪ -For a DVD of any of my "Steppin' Out" adventures, or my companion memoir and travel book, "Musings: The Short Happy Pursuit of Pleasure and Other Journeys," call 888-876-3399, order online at JosephRosendo.com, or e-mail me at TV@JosephRosendo.com.

♪♪ Now that we've stepped out in Bolivia together, learn more at JosephRosendo.com, where you can follow my worldwide adventures through my e-magazine, blog, podcast, and social media.

Stay in touch -- 888-876-3399, or e-mail me at TV@JosephRosendo.com.

♪♪ -♪ Steppin' out ♪ ♪ Steppin' out ♪ -Buen provecho.

-Buen provecho.

-What do you call these?

-Ulupica.

-Ulupica.

-Ulupica, yeah.

-Hey, "pica" is in the name, so it must be spicy.

-It must be spicy.

-Let me try it.

-It's really, really spicy.

Just a little bite and... -Te va a picar.

[ Laughter ] -Whoo-hoo!

-Pica.

-What I do for "Steppin' Out."

Well, I'm steppin' out into a pepper experience.

My mouth is on fire.

-♪ Steppin' out ♪