Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 563

Well since heading back to La Paz, we jumped on a bus south, headed to Oruro, twas a three hour bus ride where Jord and I were constantly getting weird stares because we couldnt stop laughing to Eddy Murphy on my iPod, then "Standing Tall" came on and we gave a cheer to the Ennis brothers (stuntmen) who we found out were in the film. Arrived in Oruro where we hit up Celebrity Chef Don Roberto, who invited us to his parents hotel in Cochabamba, and mayhaps on our way back to Santa Cruz we will stop by. As Jords blog noted he was really an amazing guy. If I could find a computer with windows XP I could post the pictures of our meal, this guy brought us the most delicious lamb Ive ever had ... read more

Salar trip with Josie the Kiwi. Left from Tupiza with Tupiza tours for four days. Also with Jack and Carolien, Denmark. Also with Liz and Ed from England. Hugo drove, Vicky cooked. ? guided. ... read more

The bus to Potosi from Uyuni was a nightmare. No toilets and I had stocked up on water expecting them - I was very grateful for the first stop after 3.5 hours. The driver was driving like a madman, swerving around llamas which were in the road - llamas are all over the Andes - farmed like cattle in the UK but without the boundries of fields. We had bought a newspaper the previous day and there was a story about a drunken bus driver who had crashed his bus killing 6 of the passengers and injuring many more. Apparently this is not uncommon in Bolivia. This story fresh in our minds and the steep mountain roads did not calm our nerves. We safely arrived at Potosi at 4pm and kissed Pachamama. Pachamama is mother earth ... read more

The bus we took from La Paz was heavily over booked which resulted in those who booked/arrived late having to sit and sleep in the aisle. Fortunately for us we arrived early (for once) and settled into our assigned seats for the overnight 14 hour journey. The driver's assistant had a penchant for very loud, violent films and en route to Sucre, he played three, all at 'old people´s' volume! seemingly unaware of the passengers disinterest and discomfort. The 20 minutes of white noise that followed each film was particulary mind-numbing and nearly drove us to dispair. All S.American bus journeys we have experienced so far end up taking much longer than planned and this was no exception. Some 18 hours later we bumbled into Sucre. Sucre was the original capital of Bolivia and was where ... read more

Well we left La Paz yesterday, we took a quick bus out of town to the place where we can get microbuses (basically a van) to the town of Coroico. Coroico is not has high elevation wise as La Paz, which was nice, but to get there one heads north east through the mountains. The trip started off pleasant enough, we climbed upward, I had a bit of a buggered stomache so I took a gravol. We saw llama´s and farms and even some snow! After awhile we started back down, into the jungle, clouds and rain and slippery mountain roads. Now, I saw pictures of this "highway" before leaving, it´s actually a popular mountain biking excursion, and judging from the shots I saw in La Paz, it looked like a narrow, wet, deadly road through ... read more