what is that child playing with?

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A lot of stuff to write about today as i have been sans internet for some time...

I beleive I left off having just arrived in sucre....which is a very pretty little town, where we spent a couple of days wandering around, buying cheap silver and cheap llama and alpaca wool tat...we also went on a trip to see some dinosaur footprints..which were prety impressive...altho as a group we behaved like a group of schoolkids whilst the guide attempted to explain them to us..

whilst there it was kirsten´s birthday...so a good night was had at a restaurant, bar and club...where wwe discovered that the bolivian clubbing scene has the oddest mix of music ever...some notable songs included; mani feel like a woman (twice), i will survive, land down under...all the classics....(indeed as i write this the internet cafe is pumping out ´no limit´)...but it was a great night - complete with the guys demonstrating their best breakdancing moves..and meeting one of my future bosses at work...

after sucre we made our way via the bumpiest and scariest taxi ride ever...imagine sheer cliff edges, no seatbelts and adriver who beleived it was necessary to overtake everything at speed..preferably whilst going round a blind bend....to potosi.

potosi is the world´s highest city...and it is where the affects of the altitude began to kick in...luckily the worse i experienced is a few pressure headaches and my ears popping for the first few hours..but some people in the group suffered really badly...but luckily everyone seems to have acclimatised now..

another strange affect of the altitude is just how hard any form of physical exercise is...walking up a slight incline tends to leave us gasping for breath and our heart rates increasing massively...so the lares trek will be an experience!...but again i think we are all getting used to it and its gettign easier to walk around the cities...

potosi is again very pretty...it was once the richest city in the world apparently...but is now pretty poor, but the colonial buildings - churches, money presses etc are still very impressive...although unhelpfully situated at the top of hills mostly...

after potosi we took a bus journey..again v bumpy...so much so that my bellybutton ring undid itself..which made me a little suspicious about the screws holding the bus together...but the scenary was very impressive..all mountains...we arrived in uyuni...

uyuni..appears to be in the middle of nowhere...but there are several trains and army bases...and a great bar called the extreme fun bar..where fun of th extreme kind was indeed had...we were only there one night as it was from there that we entered the salt flats...

the salt falst are...flat and salty...the remains of an inland sea....it is pretty surreal to see, but after travelling for a few hours the salt flats became significantly less flat and salty and far more dusty and mountainous...all the travelling was done in a 4wd jeep...

we spent three days driving around the salt flats/dusty mountainous place...the accommodation was pretty basic..and it was bloody freezing..below zero every night, and there was no running water - so the toilet situation was particularly pleasant...but despite that it was good fun...especially the hot springs on the last morning..

we also got a demonstration of just how poor parts of boliva are.....got a little bit of a suprise to find that the little girl at one of the places we stayed main toys were in fact tampon applicators...we gave her a toy llama to play with instead...

after returning from the salt flats..it was a night train - which was surprisingly ok..altho being woken up at 6 with the song one way ticket to the moon...was quite odd..then a 3 hour bus ride later..we arrived in la paz..

i am still in la paz...which marks the half way point of my first tour...we have got a change of tour leader, and one of the girls is leaving us unfortunately...so another good night out was had last night..for which we are all suffering today...but when cocktails are less than 1.50 it´s hard to say no....and also the fact that when we got - at about 1am - back a brass band then decided to practice outside our hotel..whilst the locals plied us with drink may also not have helped...

next i´m off to lake titicaca...

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Comments

[Rob Blake]

Sounds amazing so far..
This all sounds amazing so far and my levels of jealousy are increasing with each entry. p.s. Am I the only one childish enough to find the name Titicaca funny?