Now that all of my fingers have completely thawed (bar left hand ring finger which still has no feeling in the tip..hmm.) I thought it was time to recount one of, if not the, best experiences of my life. This time last week Kath, Benny (fellow volunteer from Switzerland) and I were couped in the back of a small toyota, winding our way through rocky fields towards the Andes mountain ranges. Our sights were set on the peak of one mountain in particular, Hyuana Potosi. At 6088m, Hyuana Potosi is not only one of the tallest in the Andes, but in [View Full Entry]

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Hola amigos! In true South American style it has taken much longer than it should have to get this blog up and running, but here ´tis! We have now been in the amazing city of La Paz for 2 weeks and in a few words, everything is great! We feel very lucky how everything has fallen into place and we have really settled in to la vida boliviana. So, from the beginning. The flights were all on time, fun and fairly uneventful, bar the fact that I left my laptop on the flight between Tahiti and LA, which I am still [View Full Entry]

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Sorata is our last stay in Bolivia before we head back to La Paz (again) and take the flight to Quito in Ecuador. We have been here for the last four days, and it’s been raining for most of it. To say it reminds me of a holiday in Wales would be an understatement. We arrived here to the sight of a road that suddenly stopped, the road we were on, and the road we needed to be on to get to Sorata. A landslide the night before had wiped it off the side of the canyon wall and we found [View Full Entry]

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Before I started this trip, I was sure that I wanted to see Machu Picchu and do the Inca trail, but there is a 3 months in advance reservation required. After further investigations I decided to join a tour for 3 weeks, so that I was sure to do the Inca Trail and have some company for a while. Even though I must say it is very easy to travel around Southamerica alone, I always meet people heading the same direction. So there we go, a group of 7 meet in Lima to join this 3 weeks tour through Peru to [View Full Entry]

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...after the mines we decided to continue our travels with Tanja and Francisco and went to Sucre. A beautiful town/city just noth of Potosi and the Bolivien capital. The bus drive here was fantastic, winding our way through the Altiplano along a dried up riverbed on the side of red soiled mountains speckled with trees. After 6h we arrived in Sucre and found a hostel to stay in. We then set off to find something to eat. We came a cross a nice looking and from our guide books recommended French resturant. This must have been a Bolivien upper class [View Full Entry]

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We're now in Peru. Thank god. They nearly didnt let me leave Bolivia...i'll get to that in a minute but first an update on our last few days in 'lovely' Bolivia (i only write that with muted sarcasm becasue Bolivia has really pissed me off in the last 24 hours, i love it really!!) So we ended up getting delayed in our Amazon oasis, Rurrenabaque for another day as we were rained in meaning no planes could fly. By the end of our week there we were getting a bit fidgety and as everyones stomachs had turned to sludge we were [View Full Entry]

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Nov 6, 2009 There were a few things Justin’s Grandpa was worried about before we left for our trip. One of them included how well we’d take the altitude at the highest capital city in the world at 3660 meters, La Paz. Since Justin and I had already been through our share of high altitude cities including Potosi, Bolivia (+4000 meters), and places throughout our Uyuni Salt Flat tour such as the site with the geysers at 5100 meters, we thought we’d be fine. Walking to the bus terminal in Arica, Justin and I decided that we’d watch our luggage carefully. [View Full Entry]

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The surreality of La Paz is perhaps expressed no more distinctly than in the "Valley of the Moon", or "Valle de la Luna" as it is known here. Where in England, could you find a city, where moonscapes flank its edges? Quite normal here though, normal in this capital of Bolivia, a microcosm of the strangeness of its mother country. We visited the valley this morning, but I'm still not sure what to make of it. What can you make of it really? It just is. On the way back we saw the country's Presidente; Evo Morales, or so we thought. [View Full Entry]

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Following our 3 day adventure around south west Bolivia hanging out in hot springs and amusing ourselves, with what we have all decided are the campest animals in the world, Llamas, we arrived in lofty La Paz, the second largest city in Bolivia. I had heard alot about La Paz, mainly so from the book i read last year called Marching Powder, which tells the story of a Brit who got locked up in a prison in La Paz for trying to smuggle a shed load of coke out of Bolivia to the UK, smart guy. But La Paz really is [View Full Entry]

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TITIKAKA 31.10.2009 SEKÄ LA PAZ, BOLIVIA 1.-2.11.2009 ”Kävele hitaasti, syö kohtuullisesti ja nuku paljon sieluparkasi vuoksi”, kuuluu bolivialaisten neuvo vuoristotaudin karttamiseksi. Reppumatkailijat kertovat legendaa, että kaikki aina sairastuvat La Pazissa, Boliviassa. En uskonut ennen kuin ensimmäisenä yönä sairastuin oikein kunnolla. En tiedä mikä osa siitä on vuoristotautia, mikä vatsatautia. Mutta nukkunut olen ja nähnyt sitäkin vähemmän La Pazia: ensimmäisenä päivänä nukuin kahteen asti iltapäivällä ja viime yönä yksitoista tuntia, minkä jälkeen jouduin pudottau [View Full Entry]

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