Bolivia

After another 16 hour overnight bus journey from the border town of Coromba, we eventually made it into Bolivia. We had an overnight stop in Santa Cruz planned, however upon arrival, Esteban informed us that there was political unrest in Sucre which meant nobody could come in or out of the city the following day. We decided to miss out our night in Santa Cruz and fly directly to Sucre. That night we got fairly intoxicated in a gringo hangout called Joyride.

The next day we met the new members of our group. All sound enough, some sounder than others, some complete wallies, but makes for an interesting trip! We had a couple of chilled out days in Sucre which included a full body massage and facial (well deserved after Pantanal). I also decided to visit an orphanage which homed around 25 girls aging between 4 and 17 some of whom had babies. We learnt that some of the girls had been abused and were brought there by police or social workers. Others were simply left there by their parents who couldn´t be arsed to care for them. We bought little presies before going to the orphanage, such as sweets, hair clips etc. They were so overjoyed at such little things, it was really heart wrenching. I felt a bit lame just popping in, leaving a few goodies and then disappearing off again but we were told that the kids really loved the visits and looked forward to them. So it´s all relative I guess!

We (me, Neil and Kio, a newbie)also planned a mammoth mountain bike ride through the city and out into the mountains to the 7 waterfalls. It was exceptionally tough it has to be said. We cycled for 2 hours and then embarked upon a massive hike which included climbing vertical waterfalls! Our tour guide, when questioned, said it was completely safe. However, after managing to climb to the 5th waterfall he told us this was as far as he'd ever been with a group!!! Welcome to Bolivia!! However, all of this paled into insignificance in comparison to the return journey on bike. With our bums extremely sore and the searing heat we were´t looking forward to the initial 5km constant uphill mountain! All in all we covered 25km none of which was flat! But we made it much to our delight, v proud of ourselves indeed and was a fab day.

After Sucre we headed to the small city of Potosi, famous for its silver mines which bankrolled the spanish empire for almost 300 years and took approx 8 million lives, (mostly indiginous locals and african slaves). The altitude by this point meant a 10 minute break was required after walking up the stairs (4000m). We visited the museum to see how the silver coins were produced. However, the highlight was visiting the mines themselves. Before doing so we got kitted out in overalls, wellies, helmet and head torch. We then made a stop off to buy coca leaves (which the locals chew non stop in order to stay alert and avoid altitude sickness and hunger). We also bought tobacco, dynamite and crackers (all pressies for the miners). We got to taste the 97% alcohol that the miners drink every Friday when they make a toast in the mines to the devil "Theo" who they pray to not to take their lives. There is a statute of both Theo and the Pachamama (mother Earth) in the mines where these toasts are made, see the photos.

It was an incredibly humbly experience to say the least. The conditions in which these people work are atrocious, health and safety is not a major player in Bolivia! We had a go at digging etc to see just how hard it was - very hard!!

After a v quick shower, we hoped on the bus to Uyuni, a v small, dusty town in the middle of nowhere. Here we stopped before embarking upon our 3 day 4x4 excursion in the salt flats, one of the most highly anticipated element of the trip. Unfortunately I (Lee) was as sick as a parrot for the first day of the trip and could not remove myself from the car without throwing up. Whilst I had a little nap and/or was sick, the others attempted to take some cool photos and explore fish island.

That night we stayed in the Salt Hotel, a hotel made out of salt funnily enough. Again I was in bed for the duration but Neil and the rest of the gang drank plenty of whisky whilst playing wink murder by candlelight for 4 hours!

The next 2 days I felt a lot better thank god and the sights were awesome, volcanoes, lagoons, lava, flamingos, Llamas, thermal baths (which I hopped into, gorgeous). We also went to the old train cemetry, the first trains ever in South America, now just heaped together in the desert....see photos.

Overall the salt flats were amazing, like another planet!

Next stop, La Paz. Here we walked around the witches markets, intrigued by the Llama foetus´s on display (these are another offering that the locals make to the Pachamama to keep them safe from harm). All very bizarre!

That night we went out with our group to say goodbye to our tour leader, Esteban, as we were about to meet our new tour leader for the Peru leg of the trip. It was great night of drinking in Mongos. The next day we said our sober farewells to Estaben and met our new guide and 9 new peeps joined the group. However, before doing so we tried to get into the famous San Pedro prison but it wasn´t meant to be. 5 lads had just got in before us and then opposite the prision at least 30 gringos had congregated hoping to be let in. However, the guards came over to all of us and told us to get lost basically. I don´t think they like it to be so conspicous that they let tourists in, especially given the practice is so corrupt. We also heard on the grapevine that a German tourist got in and video recorded the whole thing and posted it on You Tube. Apparently it made it on to German news etc, so now there´s been a big clamp down on tourists entering the prison. However, Neil wasn´t to be deterred so easily by corrupt Bolivian guards with machine guns...he therefore tried his luck at a side entrance only to be told in no uncertain terms to disappear!!

Anyhoo, we´ve now got a massive group of 16 peeps and still getting to know them so can´t really comment at this point. At this stage we´re now in Puno in Peru. Neil and I were due to travel around Lake Titicaca and do a homestay, however, due a bad stomach bug (4 days of squits) our new tour guide, Paula, recommended we didn´t go as toilet facilities are non existant. Instead a doctor was sent to look at me and I´ve now been prescribed 3 different doses of pills, antibiotics, electrolytes etc. Oh joy of joys. Was pretty gutted couldn´t do homestay but on the up side I get to meet my sister (for those of you who don´t know is travelling from Lima to Rio). Every cloud has a silver lining as they say.

That´s all for now peeps, so peace out and big love,
L and N. xxxx

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