Week 4 of South America overland trip

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Had a nice lazy day in La Paz before starting the next leg of our adventure. La Paz is a big busy bustling city - you could say there's organised chaos! Some parts are a bit grimey but we found some gorgeous quiet streets and squares after a bit of exploring. Our group (including new team member Barbara, a Liverpudlian Aussie!!) all went out for dinner that night but the service was so slow that we were late for our welcome meeting with our new guide Christian from Chile! Eek! We managed to telephone him and he came to the restaurant to have the meeting instead! Christian is a very different character to Roland as he immediately tried chatting up the lone females in the group! The next day we went on a 14 hour journey (!) to Uyuni by bus then train, nearly missing the train that only runs twice a week! (Tour leaders fault, not ours!) We were rudely awoken during that night by what we thought was an earthquake but it turned out to be Christian the tour leader up to no good!!! With the lack of sleep we were bleary eyed when we visited a train cemetery the next day where loads of old steam locomotives have been abondoned. Jen bought yet another 'essential' wooly hat for the cold evenings!! We then headed to Isla Incahuasi, a small boulder island covered in cactii in the middle of the gorgeous white salt flats. After the local guides cooked a fab lunch we went further into the salt flats and took fun pictures (see attached). We spent the night in a hotel made of salt but despite it being below freezing outside we were nice and toasty as there was a log fire, plenty of blankets and wine! The following day we passed an active volcano which borders Chile and visited many lakes of varying stunning colours with pink and white flamingos. On our way to the next 'hotel' we came across large rocks in the middle of a desert - all weird and wonderful shapes, including a tree! That night the whole group slept in a dormitory with manky sheets and no heating so we were all in a great mood as it was well below freezing that night! To top it all off, Jen was awake the whole night with a very dodgy stomach which continued throughout the whole of the next day where we had an 8 hour journey in a 4X4 on extremely bumpy roads back to Uyuni. Not nice! On the way back to Uyuni we also passed some geysers and hot springs so the rotten smell of sulphur didn't make Jen feel much better! After a bit of a lie in, and thankfully Jen feeling a lot better, we travelled 6 hours by bus to Potosi (on yet more bumpy roads!) which is the highest city in the world at 4100m. Potosi is famous for it's silver mines (Cerro Rico) which we explored the next day. Every year many miners die because of poor working conditions so a nice safe trip for us to go on?!? From a local shop we bought some dynamite (!), fags and coca leaves (they chew this to give them enough energy for the long hours they work) to give as gifts to the miners. Gordon also gave away his old walking boots as a gift as he only needed them for the Lares trek and didn't want to carry them around the world! The miners blew up 3 sticks of dynamite while we were in the mine! The noise was deafening and also pretty scary! The tour guide also lit 2 sticks of dynamite outside the mine and put them both under our bus before running down the hillside with seconds to spare and putting them under a rock! No health & safety rules here! We then travelled to Sucre that afternoon via a political protesters road block! We had to get one taxi to the roadblock, get out and walk for 10 mins with heavy rucksacks past the protesters and then get into another taxi at the other side! Also scary stuff but thankfully the protesters were peaceful despite all the huge rocks lying in the middle of the road! We are now in Sucre, a stunning white city, where we have a couple of chill days.

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Comments

[Maz]

I Hear the Village People R Recruiting
Love the overalls but I think I can hear the village people calling !!!!! Altogether now "It's fun to stay at the YMCA, it's .........." Love the pictures, really cheered me up after having to sample school dinners today at Alexander's school - what an experience that was!!!!! Probably close to what Jen had that made her poorly is all i will say

[Auntie Sylvia]

Manky sheet, dodgy stomach and jokers with dynamite - wish I'd been there!