Blogs from Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 146

Any jeep tour will take you through this remote and stunning landscape. We drove through mountains with huge snow capped volcanic peaks, as well as strange high altitude deserts and we encountered no problems until the tyre blew out on the long road home.... read more

Disclaimer: this is a pretty long email. Potosí · a lot of images, scenes, and emotions I´m taking from Izzy´s letter to her parents. I´m totally ripping her off but she has some pretty amazing insights. So - co-authorship of Patrick and Izzy. The stories you hear of the inhuman cruelty of the Spanish conquistadors in their drive for gold and silver? The infamous mines that made Spain the glory of Europe and the Spanish galleons the prize of British, Dutch, and French pirates? The epicentre of the New-World wealth Christopher Columbus told of when he returned to Ferdinand and Isabella? Welcome to Potosi. The town of Potosi is high up on the altiplano of Bolivia, at about 4,100m. Potosi calls itself El Patrimonio de la Cultura y la Humanidad. But not in the same way ... read more

Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest salt flat has an area of about 12000 square km. That's a whole lot of salt! In January, February and March the salt flat is covered with water which reflects the sky and creates an impression of walking on an endless mirror. Absolutely surreal! Bolivia has some really weird stuff! It's a big country with over 1 million square km, three times the area of Finland, and only 8.3 million people living there. It's a scarcely populated country with everything from high mountains to rain forests. And some of the most unbelievable scenery we've ever seen, I must say. In the past Bolivia has been in war with all of it's neighbours and lost a lot of land to them. For a long time it's been looked down upon by ... read more

Before I started my travels down in South America, I had many visions of the obstacles I would face over those two months. Fears of theft (and worse), endless challenges with communication, and threats to my health from illness and questionable food were top in my list. And while we have found all of these concerns to be well justified, it has been our constant struggles with transportation that has proven to be the greatest challenge of all. The greatest agonies we have faced have been the result of endless waits for buses, or, often worse, the bus rides themselves. These hardships didn´t really begin until we tried to leave Arica, Chile for Uyuni, Bolivia. We had to wait four days before we could catch a ride to our first stop in Bolivia, forcing us to ... read more

From my last entry we were actually delayed leaving La Paz. We boarded our bus and packed up at 8am, only to hear that there was a protest from locals in a town called Ureros, which was 4 hours away, and the main road to our next desination of Potosi. They had closed the road because of this protest, which are apparently quite common. So we spent an extra day in La Paz, which was fine by me, so me and a couple of lads found an English bar and had a great breakfast and an English cuppa, and we watched football, Man Utd v Blackburn on tv. Then just went shopping again, its very very cheap here, and then had a good night out, ending a great day. Te next morning we were up and ... read more