Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 558

It’s the 3rd day of the Carnival, no, not Rio, or Salvador, but downtown La Paz, and the energy and excitement and danger are just as full-on. In fact it’s been full-on from Uyuni, thru’ Potosi, Oduro and La Paz…the primary danger being getting soaked as packs of young, and not so young, roam the streets, armed to the teeth with water ‘pistols’, military design, star wars colours and shapes, awfully phallic, giant purple, bulbous headed, red, yellow and green shafts, the pumping action by grown-up boys, sheathed in their plastic condom coveralls, even Siggies greatest critics would have to believe this one! also the water bombs, 12 for 1 Boliviano (about 12 cents) luckily the general aim is shithouse but this also means more potential of getting hit by wild throws! All along the street, ... read more

In this episode - the 3-day Tour, The Rasta Llama, Gringo Bingo and the search for the Lost City of the Drinkas….and also getting to Potosi, Carnival in Oduro and La Paz. (mainly due to cyber USB phobia in Potosi and Oduro without which this would have been in long ago!) Well, hasn’t Bolivia turned out to be another gem! Back in the land of cheaper prices and good service. Pity to have missed so much of Chile South but you know…and maybe things were better down south as one has to say that not only was Chile expensive, the service in many places was not up to scratch, and Bolivia has the prices and friendliness of my experiences in Argentina. As the road into Bolivia had been closed we had come in thru’ Calama and ... read more

Day 1 Highlights: Left Uyuni, the nearest town to the Salar, in our fleet of jeeps, and made our way to the salt factory, and met the owner and his 8-year-old daughter who worked all day filling up salt bags. For this she would earn the equivalent of a pound. Next we headed to the Salt Flats. They are dazzling! Pure white ground as far as the eye can see, it's hard to open your eyes without sunglasses. I didn't have any so I bought a pair at the Salt Hotel, and they lasted a whole day before the lens fell out! We took the mandatory cheesy photos (holding someone in your hand that's actually very far away) but they didn't really come out. The Salt Hotel was amazing though, built entirely of the salty stuff, ... read more

Hi all! First up, just wanted to say sorry we haven´t sorted out the maps so that you know where we´re going. The maps on the web site are really difficult to work, but hopefully we may figure something out. Oruro is west of the country- I think that´s enough info :) What a journey!! So the bus to Oruro was due to leave at 11.30pm. We had a few rooms in Potosi to leave our stuff in. Me being me decided to sleep for half an hour, then we got ready and went to get a cab to the bus station. Once downstairs Melanee said the bus was late- whopeee!!! another half hour sleep for me!! Then once again we got ready and set off for the bus station. The bus was a perfect example ... read more

Welcome to Bolivia! After 24 hours of travelling after leaving the Pantenal we made it to our first stop, Santa Cruz. This hasn't got its own entry because we were only there a day and half of it was spent recovering from the long journey. However, it was a pretty town and the afternoon was spent in an Aqua Park having loads of fun! We loved the swimming pool as I was a bit fed up of sharing my water with fish and Eric had loads of fun playing on the slides. They managed to coax me onto 2 of them once, one involved a vertical drop and the other a swirling tub where you drop down the middle. Not particularly my idea of fun but it was ok! The people in Boliva look a lot ... read more