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I mentioned it in the last blog, put here are some pictures of myself and some others playing around on the salt flats...endless fun trying to take the perfect picture!
Bolivia a great country for travelling- the poverty is everywhere to be seen, but at the same time its a fun place to be, because things are so unbeleivably different to back home.
For example, we went to Potosi which is a mining town. Here the workers slave away for a pityful wage in horrible conditions and then the get lashed on 96% alcohol at the weekends....The average life expectancy of a miner is about 45yrs. We went on a tour of the mines, which beforehand you go to a miners market where you buy presents to hand out to the miners as you walk around the mines on the tour, so we bought some coca leaves, %96 alcohol, and dynamite...The tour guide let me roll up a stick of dynamite into a ball and then stuck a detonator into it, he then performed a controlled explosion on the hill side...just for the hell of it!....The best bit though was on the way home in the mini-bus after the
mine tour, I realised that I had some dynamite and detonators left over that i forgot to give to the miners. I gave it to the tour-guide and he shouted out the window to a miner who was walking down the street minding his own business. The miner looked over to the bus, puzzled as to why we were calling to him....The tour guide gave him the bag of dynamite, and when set off again..I looked out the back of the bus, and a big grin came on the miners face when he looked in the bag, he was like a child on christmas morning...he even looked up to skies as if to thank God for what he had just beem given!
Next stop was La Paz...what a place!...A capital city at 3800m altitude
La Paz is a crazy city...people drive around without their headlights on at night, i couldn´t figure out why!
Stayed in a massive hostel full of bloody irish and english people....can´t get away from them at all!
Did the infamous "Worlds most dangerous road" on a bike, which I supposed to be scary but actually it was extremely safe and boring and
is just a big marketing scam as far as i can see....i was so disappointed by it that I´m not going to put any photos of it up!
However, i did finally get my fix in La Paz.....I got a group of like minded people together at the hostel and we did two days of serious knarly, rocky, steep, fast, adrenalin-packed downhill riding in the mountains surrounding La Paz.....It was cool, you get driven up a mountain for about an hour in a minibus, with the bikes on the roof...and when you get to the top, you get onto your two-wheeled machine and then spend about an hour riding down on singletrack....some of the best biking i´ve ever done!!....there´s one trail called Ayma, which is on the "New world Disorder 6" dvd(for all you biking enthusiasts!).......The best thing though, is when you get the bottom, the driver is waiting in his minibus, to drive you up to the top of the next mountain!
Interestingly, my Dutch friend, came on the downhill ride, but fell off on the first 100meters of the ride, he hit a bump, fell off into a ditch and dislocated his shoulder!.....unfortunate, but you have
to laugh, he´d hardly sat on his saddle, but already he was off to hospital! (Mam, if you´re reading this, don´t be worrying about me....I´m a much better rider than he´ll ever be, I would never do such stupid things!!)
After La Paz, I headed to a little town in the mountains called Sorata..it was heaven after the crazyness of La Paz.. It is supposed to be the mountain biking mecca of south america, but when I arrived the bike-hire place was closed....so I soon departed(very disappointed) On the bus, I was siting beside two old bolivan farmers who were all excited when they seen me pull out my MP3 player, saying how beautiful it was..so I stuck some Whitestripes on(good and loud!) and let them have a listen!...they loved it!
So now i am in Copacabana, my last stop in Boilivia. Yesterday I walked the length of Isla del Sol, were legend has it that the whole Inca religion thing began....I seen a few Inca ruins and then hiked up to the top of a mountain that overlooks lake titicaca for another magnificent sunset!
Our first night in copacabana we stayed in a hostal that was
1 pound per night for a private room!....it was a bit sketchy though, no hot water and a 10pm curfew, so tonight we are living it up in a luxurious hotel on a hill...with hot showers, nice beds, hammocks, and lovely food.
So i´m off now to relax before getting a 10hour bus to Arequipa tomoro..
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Simon
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Colours
You always point out your red or blue t shirt, but you keep quiet about the brown underpants!