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Published: April 22nd 2006
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We are now in Bolivia, done so much since I last posted not sure where to start! From Valparaiso we went to Vicxuna the observatory capital of CHile to do some star gazing! The observatory tour we went on was great and really interesting, nearly all the stars are different here because its in a different hemisphere, but you can still see the star signs and Orion. We looked through the telescopes at some open and closed clusters and at Jupiter and Saturn (which was gret you could see the rings) and then at the surface of the moon.
From Vicuna we went to La Serena, another coast resort and spent a couple more days chilling on the beach. Then we had a horrific 17hr bus journey to San Pedro in the Atacama Desert. Jamie got sick from the altitude on the bus because we went up so high so quickly, and I also got ill in San Pedro from fod poisioning! The village was great though its literally a backpackers haven in the middle of nowhere. We booked a tour to see sunset at La Valle de la Luna, a sandscape in the desert that looks like the surface of the moon. We walked aloing ´the great dune´to watch the sunset and it was beautiful.
From San Pedro we booked a 3 day jeep tour into Bolivia. The first day we saw a volcano explode, some geysers, beautiful lakes and flamingoes and llamas. We also took a bath in a natural hot spring! The second day we saw more lagunas, more flamingoes, more llamas, vicunas (like llamas but thinner!) and a lizzard, then we spent the second night in a salt hotel on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt lake in the world. It was really weird, everything was made of salt! Some local kids came and serenaded us on the pan pipes while we ate which was pretty amusing! (they werent great but very funny).
The third day we were up at 4.30 to see the sunrise over the salt lake. The lake isnt really a lake,. just a salt flat, but enormous! It looks just like snow but has the texture of fine gravel and you can taste it, and guess what it tastes like salt! We stopped at an island in the middle to watch the sunrise, got some great pictures with the cacti. We also saw a creature that was like a cross between a rabbit and a cat! weird. The tour finished at a train cemetry, full of dissused rusting trains from the old salt mine.
We met some great people on the tour and went out with them the night after it finsihed in Uyuni where we were staying. Ate some llama for dinner, its hard to explain whats its like but sort of a cross between beef and pork! Really nice though.
Yesterday we got the bus at 10 from Uyuni to Potosi, apparently a 6 hour journey. The bus broke down after about 2 hours in the middle of nowhere. After half hearted attempts at fixing the bus, including at one stage evryone pushing! we gave up and sat by the side of the road while a fight began between the owner of the bus company, (who happened to have been on the bus) and the passengers. The owner wanted us to wait for the next bus from the same comapny to turn up so she wouldnt lose custom. She did admit that it would be 8 hours at the least and there was no guarantee that we would all fit on when it did arrive anyway! So the passangers werent too thrilled with that idea. The fight was still continuing when we managed to falg down a passing flatbed truck, which thankfully was empty (apart from a few sacks of llama meat) so we all piled in! It took hours and hours in the boiling heat to get to Potosi, but i guess thats proper travelling for you and it was definately an experience as people hopped on and off! At one point we stopped in a tiny village for snacks and drinks and a crowd of children were shouting ´gringos´and pointing at us! We had to pay the truck driver 15 bolivianos each, on top of the 25 for the bus, but the journey still worked out at about 3 pounds each for the 10 and a half hours we were on the road!
So owe arrived here in Potosi late last night. Its the tallest city in the world and was the richest in the Americas due to the silver mountain that towers over it but sadly it is now very poor and many of the old colonial buildings are crumbling. Tomorrow we are going to the mint, and then on monday on a mine tour!
Keep us posted with any news from home. Missing you all when i have time! xxxxxxxxxx
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sue and rog
non-member comment
great
Love the news, almost felt we had been there, especially as today is Sunday and its wet and miserable!!