Blogs from Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 139

Sad to leave the family in San Pedro but managed to get up for the 8am start from town. Met my tour group, a British bloke and a German couple. Got a small minibus to the border to stamp out of Chile and then continued to the Bolivian border. Casually driving down the main (tarmaced!!) road and napping when a sudden swerve to the left takes us off the road and into the dirt. Everyone is shocked but we are calmed by being told the main road goes to Argentina, we need to drive through the dirt for Bolivia, what country are we going to!! We get to the border (a shack in the middle of nowhere) and have to pay the dodgy guard for entry. Then our driver prepares breakfast outside (great for me as ... read more

After scrambling to find people to go on a 4 day jeep tour of southwest Bolivia, I left Tupiza on 20 May with a driver/guide, a cook and 5 Israelis. For a country with a small population, I am amazed at how many travellers you meet from Israel. Not only that, so many places in South America have menus/signs written in Hebrew, as opposed to English. We'd paid $95 each, which covered everything for the next 4 days. Our guide was called Martin and like most Bolivians he had seen too much sun and had sun-burnt leathery skin. He also had several teeth missing. Sonia was our cook. It was like being back home as she both acted and looked like my mum. Day 1 was spent driving through mountain ranges, herds of llamas and small ... read more

Hallo ihr Lieben, nach so viel (wunderschoener) Natur in den letzten Wochen, war es mal wieder Zeit auch der Kunst & Kultur ein wenig zu froenen. So hat uns unsere Reise diesmal mitten hinein in laengst vergangene Zeiten gefuehrt. Und in was fuer Zeiten! Potosi galt im spaeten 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhundert als eine der reichsten Staedte der Erde. Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts zaehlte die Stadt bereits 120000 Einwohner - ausser London konnte damals keine Stadt in Europa eine solche Einwohnerzahl vorweisen. Das Ganze ist um so verrueckter wenn man sich klar macht, dass Potosi auf schlappen 4070 m liegt und dass in solchen Hoehen praktisch nichts Essbares fuer eine solche enorme Einwohnerzahl gedeiht. Wie also kam es, dass Potosi einen solchen fabelhaften Aufschwung hinter sich legen konnte? Die Antwort ist einfach: Silber. Wie ein ... read more

"The United States seems destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty." (Simon Boliva, El Libertador). During my trip through the amazing and remote South West of Bolivia, I looked out of the window of the Toyota 4 wheel drive towards the horizon. I was looking towards the Salar de Uyuni (the worlds largest salt flats). But it looked as if some of the landscape had been rubbed out. Light headed as I was from the altitude I would swear that it looked as if the mountains on the horizon were hanging unsupported in the sky. To check that I wasn't hallucinating because of altitude sickness I took a photo. It proved the visual effect was real, even if not quite as dramatic as I saw it in my minds ... read more

After a tricky time in La Paz finding a bus out of the city to Uyuni (due to bus strikes), we set off on the long journey south. We arrive in Uyuni at 6am after a cold and uncomfortable bus ride. Needless to say it´s absolutely freezing when we get of the bus and set off in search of a warm room to catch up on some sleep. Finding that many places have no beds available we start panicking, our hands and feet turning to ice. So, at 7am we find ourselves banging on The Palace Hotel door until an old woman pops her head out the window and lets us in. After a few hours sleep I wake up, my feet still feeling like blocks of ice and able to see my breath in the ... read more