On the edge of a coma

---

We are currently in Potosi struggling for breath and suffering from severe altitude sickness. This isnt strictly true, we both had a slight headache for a few minutes in the night and Lucy got out of breath going uphill today. As I have never known Lucy not be out of breath going uphill I dont know how this has been interpreted as altitude sickness. However after consulting our guidebook we were pleased to discover the best thing to recover from our ´illness´ is to take it easy so we are using it as excuse to do very little. Walking in the street today we were overtaken by a massively overweight 4ft 6in old lady. I would have tried to overtake her back but her walking stick kept getting in the way and I didnt want to walk in the road.

Bolivia so far has been very entertaining and we havent been always as lazy. Following a couple of days in Santa Cruz eating cakes and ice-creams we moved on to Sucre, Bolivias capital. Here we went on a number of walks around the city, climbed a wobbly Eiffel Tower replica with completely unsuitable tiny steps, just one of many Bolivian health & safety hazards. In its defence I did discover when I descended that it was for children and not my completely unsuitable size 11 feet or fat arse bumping into the sides and shaking it. We also went for a walk to the top of the hill with another Christ statue overlooking the city. One morning we caught the super camp dino- truck to the dinosaur footprints on the edge of town. These were really impressive as now they are on a cliff over 2500m above sea level but were originally on a beach. We also ate more cakes and ice-cream.

We arrived in Potosi yesterday to a fiesta in full swing. Marching brass bands, dancers and ridiculous outfits were paraded through the streets. The outfits alone must have taken ages to design and the bands were very impressive. Temporary stands were constructed (a genuine health & saftey hazard) and a big wheel that looked like it had about a 50% mortality rate. Everyone was hammered, they had been drinking and dancing all day and it was to continue until 4a.m. It was a great atmosphere, everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves and the whole town seened to be there. One friendly man offered to create a large family with Lucy. He also gave me a beer, it seemed a fair swap to me.

Our plans are now to stay in Potosi a few days, acclimatise as its over 4000m high and visit the silver mines (health & safety isnt an issue, there is neither). The only worry is that Lucy has just checked the weather forecast on the BBC and it is a minimum of -19 for Thursday in Potosi. Its really warm until the sun drops then it turns a bit nasty. We will update in a few days with our frostbitten stumps.

---