Page 5 of lmh Travel Blog Posts


lmh icon
lmh
July 23rd 2011

It is impossible to write about the wonders of the Iguazu Falls. It was definitely one of the highlights of tour trip in South America. From our first glimpse of the thundering magnificence of the falls we were on a total high! After settling into our hotel in Foz de Iguacu, the closest city to the falls in Brazil, we walked to the bus station and almost immediately caught a bus out to the national park which is 20 klms from the city. Once we arrived at the Visitor’s Centre we wasted no time on catching the transit bus to the ‘Path of the Falls’ bus stop. Our first view of the falls took our breath away. We had seen many photographs but they really don’t give you the full scale of the falls.. And the ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
July 21st 2011

Due to the delayed departure of our flight from Bolivia to Asuncion, capital city of Paraguay, we arrived in the city after dark. Thankfully I had pre booked a hotel and after a quick tour of the central city area our taxi took us to the Palace Hotel, an historic hotel in the old city. It proved to be a good choice, comfortable modernised rooms and wide corridors full of interesting old furniture and art pieces. After settling in we headed out to look for something to eat. The streets were surprisingly deserted - only a few footpath stall holders packing up for the night - but we were eventually able to find a chain style café and a bowl of soup. Later we slowly walked back to the hotel admiring the rather decrepit architecture we ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
July 18th 2011

Early in the morning Jaime drove us to the airport in Sucre - we were headed to the city of Santa Cruz (and nearly back to sea level at only 417 meters) where we planned on catching up with another member of the Argandona family, Rodrigo, before leaving Bolivia enroute for Paraguay and the Iguazu Falls. Unfortunately we found that our flight had been rescheduled and we had a four and half hour wait before departure though we managed to fill the time at the café and online, though the internet signal was very erratic. We had loved our time in the ‘White City’ and really appreciated how well our new ‘family’ had looked after us. The flight to Santa Cruz was brief, a mere 25 minutes, and a taxi took us to a hostel in ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
July 9th 2011

We left Potosi by taxi - sharing it with an elderly couple who were going to Sucre to catch a flight to Cocabamba so the man could have more cancer treatment. They were a lovely couple, really cheery and fun. The driver was playing Western music on the CD and our fellow passenger knew every song - he sang along and we had a competition to see who could name the song first. He won! A great drive - as with most of our high altitude travel - very scenic, though desolate in some places. I should imagine that it would normally be very dusty as well though the rain over the previous few days had dampened the earth. Unfortunately though there were too many plastic bags blowing in the wind. We arrived in Sucre three ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
July 6th 2011

Uyuni didn’t look any less depressing after a nights sleep - it was just much muddier as the thaw was well advanced, It was actually the first large town in Bolivia that we had been to that had predominately dirt streets - we had been expecting to see many more then we had, The roads connecting all the main towns were mostly surfaced as well, It wasn’t long ago that only 200 kilometres of main roads were paved. The bus was late leaving and we spent the time trying to dodge the drips coming from all the roofs - they were heavier than rain. There was total chaos on the street which served as the bus station as the previous day most of he buses out of the town had been cancelled due to road closures ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
July 1st 2011

Our first day in Tupiza - set at 2950 meters above sea level and surrounded by an amazing landscape of rainbow coloured rocks, hills and canyons - was spent recovering from our night of no sleep. It was near this town that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed after robbing a payroll from a small settlement 40 klms away from Tupiza. The colours in the hills really were vibrant and it was easy to appreciate them as we explored the town in the late afternoon as they were very close - Tupiza is only tiny. Jerry climbed to a hill above the town and had a great view of the surrounding countryside but that seemed too hard for me - I stayed in the hotel with my book! Next day we visited three of ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
June 28th 2011

We spent part of our 36th wedding anniversary on a bus driving across the dusty altiplano from La Paz to Oruro. It is a dusty windy city once renowned for its silver mines, since exhausted, then tin mining, also now exhausted. Today one of its main attractions is the Carnival held here yearly. This festival, now considered second only to the Rio Carnival is similar to the Gran Poder, as wonderful masks and costumes are worn by all the participants as well. The festival in La Paz went for only 24 hours - the Carnival in Oruro involves similar festivities for a week. Oruro is set at an altitude of 3770 meters on the altiplano (high plains) region which stretches from Lake Titicaca and extends nearly 1000 kilometres to the south western corner of Bolivia. The ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
June 20th 2011

The day after enjoying the Gran Poder parade in La Paz was spent quietly - mainly watching the locals clean up the immense piles of rubbish from the day before and dismantling all the temporary stands lining the streets. We had been told that there was to be another transport strike the next day - not good news for us as we were to fly to Rurrenabaque, the small town which was the gateway to the Bolivian Amazonian basin. The planes are never included in transport strikes (the strikes were because the government was threatening to take all cars over 12 years off the road - most taxis and mini buses) but it meant that we wouldn’t be able to get to the airport. The airport is high above the city - at least a half ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
June 18th 2011

The Gran Poder parade is La Paz´s biggest street party. It's not sponsored by Kodak but so many of my photos seem to have their logo in them. We were just sitting opposite the store. It's actually a religious festival that involves an enormous carnival-like parade through the centre of La Paz. Dancers, bands and street performers from all over the city and surrounding hinterland descend on La Paz for a spectacular show. And spectacular it was! Sixty four groups danced this year - and we presumed before the event that each group would only have a couple of hundred dancers. How wrong we were - in total over 100,000 people danced through the streets that day in a never ending stream of colour. The parade started at 7am with the President of Bolivia marching with ... read more



lmh icon
lmh
June 17th 2011

We were up early on our last day in Sucre to catch the bus to the famous Tarabuco markets which are held every Sunday in Tarabuco village about 64 klms from the city. The countryside that we passed through was stunning, the hills were multi coloured layers of rock strata and we also passed several canyons. It was very dry - however I’m not sure that the region would get much rain so probably looks like that all the time. The little town was buzzing when we got off the bus. The main tourist stalls were spread out around the main square - they were ablaze with colourful shawls, textiles and an endless amount of alpaca hats, socks and jumpers. There were, as expected, many tourists shopping and taking photographs. We first visited a shop run ... read more






Tot: 0.141s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 16; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0404s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 2; ; mem: 6.5mb