Blogs from Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 152

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South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni April 20th 2005

Fra La Paz dro vi med en meget daarlig nattbuss til den gudsforlatte byen Uyuni, lengst sor i Bolivia. Uyuni er utgangspunktet for turer i den naerliggende saltorkenen, som hevdes aa vaere den storste i verden. Orkenen er fyllt med alleslags merklige landskaper og er tross sine elendige reiseselskaper og ekstreme kulde et populaert reisemaal for backpackere. Vi la ut paa tur i en meget sliten Jeep sammen med en tsjekker, en slovaker, en israeler, en sjafor og en kokk, og forberedte oss paa det verste. Etter tre dager med vakre landskap, elendige overnattinger, daarlig musikk, vulkaner, masse salt, geyshirer og varme kilder kom vi oss over grensen til Chile og endte opp i den lille byen San Pedro de Atacama. Fin tur, elendig reisebyraa :)... read more
Isla Pescado
Midt i orkenen
Solnedgang

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni April 19th 2005

Vi hadde satt kursen mot Bolivia och närmare bestämt La Paz, men först skulle vi innom Puno som ligger pa den peruanska sidan av Titicacasjön. Här tog vi en dagstur för att besöka dom flytande öarna och en annan ö vid namn Taquile. Dom flytande öarna bebos av Uro indianerna och är flytande vassöar med plats til tva til tre familjer. Det tar dom ca tre manader att konstruera en ny ö som varar i rundt 15 ar. Dom är ocksa nagra jävlar pa att fixa vassbatar och det var ocksa här som Thor Heyerdahl hittade expertis til sin expedition över Stilla havet. En vassbat pa runt 10m tar mellan 20 til 30 dagar att bygga och när den inte längre duger sa tas den upp pa land och används til att odla potatis. Pa den ... read more
"The worlds most dangerous road"
Huayna Potosi
Äntligen pa toppen!

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni April 1st 2005

I had always planned to visit the Bolivian Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni), I just didn’t realise that it would be such a mad dash to get there. This trip was next on my list after the bike ride but I hadn’t actually researched transport or booked anything in advance. This policy which seems to be working quite well, I’m saving money by paying at the pointy end and I have less stress about whether I am going to be in the right place at the right time. BUT… It requires some quick decisions. I chatted to someone about it in La Paz one morning and, an hour later, I had all my stuff packed and had leapt onto a three hour bus ride to Oruro to connect with the train to Uyuni. Talk about cutting ... read more
Run!
Am I downwind?
Money Shot Flamingos

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Potosi February 17th 2005

After a grueling, yet effortless 4 days inside a landcruiser, we landed in the town of uyuni for a few hours to wait for our bus to potosí. Daniel, the swiss i met on the salar trip, and i were headed for potosí together, and had a few goodbye beers with marta and luca (our other salar partners) before we got on our bus. but it was the wrong bus. we had tickets for ¨trans. 11 de julio,¨ and were on the bus for ¨turismo 11 de julio.¨ a little angry and confused, we got off and sure enough, there was another bus, labeled ¨trans. 11 de julio¨ waiting in the same street. we got on after having our bags strapped to the top of the bus only to see a bag in our seats. after ... read more
Dynamite, accelerant, a fuse and some cigs
Gunk
Effeminate stance in front of cerro rico

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni February 13th 2005

Sorry folks, its been a while since i´ve written, but i am a lazy man on vacation. Lets begin with about 2 weeks ago when I embarked on a 4 day, 870 km tour of the southwest portion of Bolivia. i was alone for this leg of the trip - tom was nursing his death road wounds in la paz and chrissy was out galavanting with bolivia pcvs. this is known to us travellers here on the gringo circuit in south america as, ¨the salar trip,¨ because the highlight is supposed to be the ¨salar de uyuni,¨ a salt flat that is unbelievably white in the dry season and full of water in teh wet. right now is the wet season, so the pics you will see whenever i get around to adding them will be ... read more
more salar
LandCruiser on the Salar
Isla de los Pescadores

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni December 8th 2004

So we arrived in Uyuni at four in the morning after the bus journey from hell. It took two hours longer than it was meant to and the driver hopped off the bus every half our to perform the very technical act of banging the front wheels with a piece of metal! However we got there and were on a Salar de Uyuni tour by 10:30 am that same morning. In fact we had our choice of tours and had tour operators following us around the central plaza (competition is fierce). We decided on a group called Reli tours as they were upfront about costs, gave us a really good explanation of the tour and showed us the Land Cruiser (which was in good shape - kind of an important piece of kit). We set off ... read more
The Train Graveyard
Solitary Vicuña
Piles of Salt ready to be collected

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Potosi December 7th 2004

The highest city in the world So the day that we arrived in Potosi, the highest city in the world, we booked a tour to the famous Potosi silver mines. The next day, we started the tour by suiting up in special trousers, jacket, wellies, hard hat and head torch (complete with stylish belt). We went to the miner's market where we were able to buy as much explosive material as we wanted (as can the Bolivians for their fight against the destruction of the Coca fields by the Americans, in fact a miner can send his children to buy explosives!). The explosives that we bought were presents for the miners. At the market we were shown the ingredients in making an explosive, dynamite (there are three kinds, Bolivian, Peruvian and Argentinian, apparently Peruvian isn't any ... read more
Explosives anyone?
Don´t we look sexy??
The smelter

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Potosi October 5th 2004

Hola from Potosi in Bolivia, the highest city in the world (about 4,100m). We've been quite busy over the last couple of weeks - here's why... In Bonito we spent our last day visiting the Blue Cave (a cave where the water is deep blue). It was then time to find some more wildlife so our tour headed to the Pantanal for 4 nights in luxury accommodation. The Pantanal was fantastic with an amazing array of birds and wildlife all over the place (including green parrots in the tree outside our bedroom window). We explored the dry bits on foot on a guided trek. For the flooded parts we spent a day on horses wading through the metre deep water. Some of the shallower areas we visited on the back of a jeep. And of course, ... read more
Our friend
Sucre
Jurassic Park


Hola amigos, Well, the last week has been one of the most exciting ever. I'm writing you from Arica, in the far north of Chile, on the border with Peru. (i just realized that this is a little long, oops) Last Saturday we left early morning to catch a flight to Calama, in the Chilean Altiplano (means high plains). Unfortunately our plane had some technical problems so we had to stop in Antofagasta, and take a bus to Calama - pain in the arse. Luckily it was only a 3 hour trip, thru nothing but desert. Spent the night in the little desert town of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile - very cool little place. We found a room in someones home and paid almost nothing for it. They promised us hot water for the shower ... read more
Laguna Colorado
"Rock Tree"
A Bolivian village we passed through

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni September 4th 2003

After staying a week in groovy backpackers gathering spot San Pedro de Atacama we decided to do a tour to Bolivia. We chose Turismo Colque as they promised us that we could get a ride to Potosi. I wanted to do more than just a usual trip to lagoons and Salar de Uyuni. Early in the morning we said goodbye to Chano and squeezed into a van full of Japanese, Englishmen, Germans and even a couple from Poland. Hearing all those stories about beautiful landscape, a very severe frost and altitude sickness, we couldn’t wait to get on a 4WD at the Bolivian border... And we could wait to get back to San Pedro too!!!! it's true what they say about Bolivia, everything it's true. And Boliva is a dream, a perfect dream, but it could ... read more
Bolivian border
Laguna Verde &Licancabur
Laguna Verde




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