Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 14

After a much needed sleep in we went to breakfast which was surprisingly good consisting of cereal, yoghurt, Strawberry milk, tea and coffee and a ham and cheese roll which was yummy once the ham had been removed. We then wandered the streets of this charming little town taking care of various errands as we went and finally stopping at a nice little restaurant on the central plaza. Here we had seafood dishes in the middle of the world's driest desert in the shadow of ghe Andes at 2500 metres. At 4pm we went on our first tour of the day I was not impressed, we climbed a hill in the afternoon heat to look at a dune, looked at a whole in the ground dug by salt miners, visited a rock formation called the Three ... read more

Fünfter Rundbrief: Zweite Etappe Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia Nachdem ich aus Brasilien zurück nach Santa Cruz gekommen bin, erwartete mich eine neue Etappe mit der Kirche meiner Freunde, die ich im November schon besucht hatte. Ein Projekt, das ihre Kirche hat heisst Radical Bolivia und dient dazu dass sich Menschen für die Evangelisation begeistern und in ihren Kirchen sich einbringen können. Deshalb organisieren meine Freunde einmal im Jahr – im März – ein Wochenende, wo sie Begeisterte auf spielerische Art schulen in Evangelisation, Teamarbeit und vieles mehr. Denn ganzen März durch gingen wir als Team in verschiedenen Kirchen dieses Projekt vorzustellen, um neue Menschen dafür zu begeistern. An unserem Ausbildungswochenende hatten wir zum Abschluss einen Evangelisationsanlass geplant, um das Praktische anzuwenden. Diese Anlasse geschahen immer am 3... read more

Dragging myself from the oxygen deprived city of La Paz, I booked myself yet another bus headed North to Copacabana, Bolivia (no, I could not stop the song in my head) which was to be my jumping point into Peru. As a bonus Copacabana is right on the shores of Lake Titicaca, try not to laugh, which sits at a dizzying 12,500ft and according to Inca legend is the birthplace of the sun. This seemed like a good segue into Peru so I decided to stop and spend the night on the island and enjoy a sun filled day of hiking and get a first glimpse of Inca lore. After a good night's sleep in Copacabana I set out the next morning and caught the first boat bound for the two hour journey to Isla del ... read more

Feeling better after my first bout with some bad food my next stop on the trail was Potosi. I met a limey named Matthew on the Salar de Uyuni trip who is heading the same way as I am so we joined forces as we both had interest in going into the silver mine of Potosi. Potosi was founded in 1546 by the Spaniards and has an elevation of 13,420 feet making it one of the highest cities in the world. It is dominated by Cerro Rico or "Rich Mountain" and this was a main source of Spanish wealth back in the colonial times. Today Cerro Rico is still a working co-operative silver mine although the ore is much less abundant today. This was the reason I had come here. I wanted to learn the miner ... read more

It is not every day you take a bus and are asked to leave the bus, take a boat across the water whilst your bus travels on a small wooden boat across the water, for you to hopefully meet it on the other side, but that’s exactly what happened on the way to Copacabana. The town itself, Copacabana is situated right on the bank of Lake Titicaca. When we arrived we hadn’t noticed google maps had decided to change our hotel to a different hotel. After checking in and getting to our room we then realised we were in the wrong place and had to sheepishly check out and find our right hostel. Our first day we headed up the hill next to the ... read more