Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 566

South America » Bolivia » Chuquisaca Department » Sucre December 4th 2005

Days 21, 22 & 23 After a couple of flights we were in Sucre, a beautiful small city with white colonial buildings. Our hotel was gorgeous and had a big court yard in the middle of it. Sucre is the richest city in Bolivia and it shows!! The next day we went on a city tour to the cemetry - sounds odd but it was really interesting as all the tombs are encased over ground or in monuments and then went to see some dinosaur tracks. It was unbelievable, there were these 80 million year old dinosaur tracks that were found when digging in a concrete factory, they're still digging away next to them and they're not protected in any way!! We then visited a textiles museum - again doesn't sound that enthralling but it was ... read more

Uyuni to La Paz

South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz December 4th 2005

Tiwanaku Lama

AndyToni

It didn´t take long for Uyuni to live down to our very low expectiations for the place - Emer´s description of the place implied that we wouldn´t want to spend long there and found nothing to contradict that assessment. However leaving wasn´t as easy as we had hoped. Our plan was to take the ´luxury tourist bus´ to make the notoriously unpleasant journey to La Paz more bearable and not likely to break the bank at $25 for the 12hour journey. However after waiting for several hours for the agency to open we were told that the bus was cancelled that day (Friday) due to protestors blocking the road (something to do with some elections due later this month) and we would have to wait until Sunday. Not really what we wanted to hear! However when ... read more

San Pedro - Salar de Uyuni

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni December 3rd 2005

Die grosse Freiheit

Stefan

Plaene sind dafuer da, sie zu aendern. Die Tour von San Pedro zum Salar de Uyuni in Bolivien wurde mir von einigen Leuten so empfohlen, dass ich sie unbedingt machen musste. Und ich hab es nicht bereut. Tag 1 Wir haben uns um 8 Uhr morgens bei Pamela Tours in San Pedro getroffen. Es stellte sich schnell heraus, dass ich eine sehr nette Gruppe erwischt habe. Lawrence und Amy aus England, Frans aus Holland, Katia aus der Schweiz und ich. Alle mehr oder weniger im gleichen Alter. Zunaechst bot uns der Veranstalter an, Geld zu wechseln. Das nette Angebot nahmen natuerlich alle gerne an un tauschten Bolivianos zum Kurs von 10 zu 1000. Leider sollten wir bereits beim ersten Stop feststellen, dass das der Obernepp war, denn der eigentliche Kurs ist ungefaehr 10 zu 500. Naja, ... read more

Bruised Bums in Bolivia (Horse and Jeep Adventures in the Altiplano)

South America » Bolivia December 3rd 2005

Llama at Laguna Colorada

Carl and Nicola No Fixed Abode

Back into Bolivia and the Journey to Tupiza When we crossed from Argentina to into the Bolivian border town of Villazon, we were hit by the all to familiar smell of Coca leaves, they were everywhere and everyone was chewing. The sheer number of bags of leaves on sale made us wonder if a large quantity wasn’t destined for the other side of the border. We soon found the bus station and purchased an onward ticket to Tupiza, as we had an hour to spare it seemed like a good time for lunch. We found a place close to the bus station where we were served a good meal by Bolivian standards. The tiny proprietor took a real warming to us and asked us lots of questions about South Africa and when it came to leaving ... read more

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

South America » Bolivia » Santa Cruz Department » Santa Cruz December 2nd 2005

Disco and Rat

Days 19 & 20 After a day travelling from the Pantanal we arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia!! First impressions of Bolivia were all good. We had a wander around Santa Cruz and went to the massive market and craft markets - Bolivia is sooooo cheap, it's fantastic!! We then chilled out and had a swim in the hotel's pool and went out for a mexican meal which cost about 1.50 for a main course!! ... read more

Into Bolivia

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni December 2nd 2005

Sunrise over Laguna Colorado

AndyToni

We have just completed the 4x4 Salar trip from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia and it certainly lived up to the very high expectations we had from numerous recommendations. Our journey started early in San Pedro but shortly after starting we came to an abrupt halt at the Chilean exit point with a long queue to get out of Chile (we didn´t think it so bad that people would queue to leave...). Once we finally got our passports stamped it was back into the bus for the hour journey to the Bolivian entry point. At over 4300m this border control was little more than a shed with a flag flying outside. We paid the entry fee which we are told is necessary but a complete scam to extract money from tourists - scam or not ... read more

This one´s for Carlos

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Tupiza November 29th 2005

No surprise that this

Anything for the quiet life

Now I diffently couldn´t leave Bolivia with running around in the Land of Butch Cassidy and good old Sundance. So I arrived in Tupiza with the plan to follow there last few fateful days. Tupiza is the site of the bank they intended to rob. Now it is just a sleepy little town with tourists going to the salar, or here for what I am.... read more

A fitting symbol of the bolivian police?

Lake TiticacaDon’t Laugh

South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz November 28th 2005

Along Lake Titicaca

Sean and Shannon

November 26, 2005 (Puno, Peru) Sean: After visiting Machu Picchu we spent the day wandering around Aguas Calientes, just bumming around after our long day trekking up and down the stone steps and alleyways (the Incas must’ve had great leg muscles). Even with our previous night’s refreshing slumber, we didn’t dally about until the wee hours and went straight to bed. The next day it was up early and out the door to catch the train and head back to Cuzco. After a fairly uneventful 2 hour train ride we managed to catch a cheap ride for the final two hour leg into Cuzco. Side note: Today was Thanksgiving and in keeping with tradition and the spirit of the pilgrims, I ate grilled Alpaca. It was quite delicious. It tastes like a very lean beef, but ... read more

A short trip to Sucre

South America » Bolivia » Chuquisaca Department » Sucre November 25th 2005

The plaza de armas

Anything for the quiet life

Unfortunatley with this wedding in Chile in a few weeks I have run myself short of time. But I couldn´t leave Bolivia without seeing Sucre. Sucre is probably the prettiest city in Bolivia. I hear it is very much like Santa Cruz, but unfortunately I have had to give that a miss too. It is (the town centre anyway) is very colonial and still painted it´s orginal white. It is very tranqual after La Paz, and I am pleased I came up for the weekend. So I only have two days to see Sucre. And the stink thing is that one of those days is a sunday, and everything is closed, so really only have one day. So Monday morning I took a trip out to a cement works where they have discovered the largest collection ... read more

Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia/Chile border

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni November 23rd 2005

Salar De Uyuni

tom and scott

Leaving Potosi we travelled South West to the border with Chile and after meeting up with a Dutch lawyer and an English couple, we continued the gringo trail with them across the Salar de Uyuni and into Chile by 20 year old Toyota Land Cruiser. (That´s a 4x4 for the ignorant amongst you...and for the girls, a blue car!!). The Salar De Uyuni is the highest slat flats in the world (there is a pattern developing in this Blog in terms of altitude!). It is a bizarre landscape which looks like you are driving on snow, however the "snow" is dotted with desert islands covered in Cacti. Pretty impressive. You can also eat it, which is always a bonus, but I think the eskimo rule regarding yellow snow similarly applies here! On the Chile side of ... read more

Brief history of Bolivia

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1...more history

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