B-B-B-Bolivia gives you back your B-B-Bounce

---

Hi again everyone,

Well this is just a quick blog entry to say hi again and I hope you are all having top times wherever you may be! I thought I would load up a head of photos onto this entry since the last one was sadly lacking in them, so I hope you enjoy seeing the sights. Also, I have to admit that it is raining here so I am killing time in an internet cafe until it stops!

I am continuing to have a top time in Bolivia. I sent about 6 days in a wonderful city called Sucre. It is a very beautiful city with a very Italian feel to it - lots of whitewashed colonial buildings with red brick roofs. The surrounding countryside is also gorgeous with lots of opportunities for hiking and riding and I did a great walk to some ancient Inca cave paintings.

In Sucre I also stayed with the most generous and warm Bolivian family who adopted me as a fully fledged member of their family about 5 minutes after I arrived. I did some spanish lessons to brush up as well - for any one who is interested in learning spanish I highly recommend Bolivia as everyone is very laid back, so they all talk nice and slowly and are easy to understand!

From Sucre it was on to Potosi, the highest city in the world at a whopping 4060metres. Lugging my backpack around that place was hard work, let me tell you! But it is also a really interesting place as it is the site of some huge silver mines - most of them are now depleted but the were a huge source of wealth for the colonial Spanish, who exploited and manipulated the indigenous population to make as much money as possible. I visited the mines and got to view Bolivian OH&S standards first hand, ie they are non-existent. Cracked wall and roof supports, giant holes all over the place, no proper lights or elevators.....most of the miners have a life expectancy of about 50 so it makes out lives in Australia look pretty cushy.

And the final stop over the current week has been Tupiza, the Wild West of Bolivia. This place is absolute pure gold - it is full of huge cacti, big canons and crazy rock formations. I went on a jeep and horseriding tour and was very disappointed that I don´t own pistols and spurs to make all the photo opportunities complete. I did manage to get nice and sunburnt though, since I am in the desert at altitude so the UV factor is about 9 million.

Hope everyone is safe and well and having fun!

Anyway

---

Photos

The view of Sucre
Its just like Florence expect with a tenth of the tourists at a twentieth of the price. You can´t complain about that value.

Mama Vicky and I
My lovely host mum Vicky in Sucre

The mines of Potosi
Me in my mining best, about to experience the worst OH&S standards Bolivia has to offer.

Tupiza, the wild west of Bolivia
My best (but still fairly pathetic) wild west pose next to a cactus.