Potosi

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We woke up early and had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The coffee was absolutely awful and so after the first cup, it was tea for subsequent cups.


We walked into the centre of Potosi (a very pleasant little town but as we were so high - around 4,200 metres - every step marginally uphill was a struggle! We found the street where they sold silver but everything was closed as it was a Sunday. We had a wander down a few side streets then back to the main plaza where we both had freshly squeezed orange juice for about 22 pence each from a local stallholder. Back to the hotel. We looked for an Internet cafe as there was nothing open at all and the hotel Internet was too slow to open travelblog adequately. About a dozen of us then went for lunch at the local Market. Many of the food stalls were closed but about five were operating which served a variety of food, nearly all to locals. It was a bit of a 'lucky dip´ so both of use chose a piece of chicken, rice, a meatball and a schnitzel. It was all extremely tasty and only cost £2 for a fairly substantial amount of food.


We then went back to the hotel to load bags onto the truck and left for Uyuni which was about 5 hours away. There was a really good road most of the way with just the last few miles untarmaced and some precipitous drops to one side of the bus. We arrived too late to want to look aroumd but our first impression was that Uyuni was more like a western town with a wide main street and a railway line running through the town and a lot of dust everywhere. One could imagine John Wayne riding down the middle of the main thoroughfare on his horse!! There was so much plastic all over the outlying areas sticking to low lying plants like cofetti. It was really ugly and such a shame that all the outyling areas looked like the town tip.


We checked into our hotel, showered and then had a supper of pizza at the hotel with a glass of wine, water and coffee and it was all surprisingly good. We stayed chatting with a couple of the group then went to bed at 10.00 pm-ish.

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