Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 529

I´ve arrived in Santa Cruz the 15th, and the past few days have been crazy. I met with the director of the program for foreigners on Friday and enrolled in my 2 classes at the university, met some of the professors there, and had a tour of the campus. I also bought a cell phone, approximately the same price as in the US, $35. Most everything in cheaper here. For example, you can get a buffet style meal for $2 and can take a taxi for less than US $1! All of the people i´ve met in Bolivia have been so nice and welcoming. My host mom is very hospitable and kind. She does everything she can to make me comfortable. There are also 6 other students living in the house. 3 are from Bolivia, the ... read more

The Border crossing between Argentina and Bolivia at Villazon is amusing. The two countries are connected at this point by a bridge, with immigration offices on both sides. The funny thing is that nobody enforces the people going to Bolivia to enter them, so one can just walk by. This is what happened to me by mistake. When I tried to correct it, I realized that crossing back to Argentina wasn't that simple, but after some explanations I managed to stamp my passport. The border town of Villazon wasn't too inviting, so I took straight away a train to Tupiza, a few hours away. I was expecting Tupiza to be similar to Villazon and the image I had of Bolivia - a 3rd world country with allot of poverty and problems. But actually I found a ... read more

This is just a little something I never got around to typing up. They say that your ability to make (good) decisions is impeded at altitude. After the stunt I attmepted to pull one night in the Cordillera Real, I believe it. It was sooo cold that night. Rich´s thermometer measured minus 5 inside their cosy tent of two. I had my sleeping bag sealed up (that´s inner baffle and hood-two cords in total) to leave a breathing hole the size of which an antarctic seal mid-winter would laugh at. I also had my MP3 player (think earphone cords) so there was a lot of excess cord in the sleeping bag with me. When the chills set in I lay in denial for a while first, dreading getting out and layering up a bit more, as ... read more

At 4070m Potosi is the highest city in the world; it also has been declared an UNESCO world heritage site since over 2000 colonial buildings have been catalogued there. The city is a maze of narrow paved streets which hide some exceptional 16th and 17th century colonial architecture. The source of the city’s wealth is Cerro Rico, a mountain that dominates the city and which contains vast deposits of silver. Since the state run mines were closed in the 80s, small groups of miners work as cooperatives to extract silver, zinc, tin and lead. Cerro Rico is one of the few working mines in the world where tourists are taken on guided tours; it was one hell of an experience. After being kitted up in overalls, wellingtons and a hard hat we stopped off at a ... read more

Quick blog to show some pictures of La Paz.... Most of the time here was spent watching the world cup games, but we did manage to get to the Valle de La Luna which was pretty cool (see the pics). Plus afterwards I went to a cactus plantation which to be honest was pretty lame except for a bridge across a canyon. It had been fenced off by barbed wire so I figured it must be unsafe.... I however tried standing on it just to ´test´it out. It kind of rocked to the left a bit. On the side I was on the barbed wire had been pulled down so you could easily walk onto the bridge, however at the other side it was still all intact. There was a path down and then up the ... read more