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Published: November 10th 2008
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Well managed to negotiate chilean customs and immigration with my lack of spanish but not too much else! Oh well all adds to the experience i suppose!
Landed in Santiago after a 10h flight on which even the air hostesses didn´t speak english and my wee tv was broken so no movies! Santiago is alright, a few cathedrals and museums to see and lots of ice creams and hot dogs to eat! Seems to be the national food-i´ve never seen so many! Spent 2 days here then got a 24hour bus up to San Pedro de Atacama in the far north to cross over into Bolivia. And yes its in the middle of the Atacama which if u didn´t know is the driest place on earth. San Pedro is a cool wee town, all red and dusty and felt like proper south america. Elijah Wood was here on the same day as me! Saw photographic proof! My bus ride up was very comfortable seeing as i´d opted for the fully reclining seat that turns into a bed! Only here for the night but went on a tour to the valley of the moon, rolled down some mega sand dunes and
saw the sunset over the dunes and volcanoes which all turn pinky purpley. And had my first pisco sour-the national drink of many south american countries!
After that through to Bolivia via a 3 days Salar de Uyuni tour in 4x4s, the famous salt flats. Actually saw lots more than just salt, lots of beautiful green, blue and red lakes due to all the minerals and hundreds of flamingoes! Bloody freezing on day 1 though, wind was unreal and dug out all my hats gloves and jackets! Luckily days 2 and 3 much better and started to get warm but we were so high up-4200m at one point. Really felt the altitude, u walked uphill or ran a few steps and felt like u were going to faint or be sick! Day 3 on the famous salt flats which are amazing, all these cool hexagonal shapes and some fun photo taking. Stayed the last night in a wicked salt hotel where everything is made of salt, the floor, walls, beds etc. And so much warmer and cleaner than night 1! South american toilets take a bit of getting used to-no toilet paper allowed down but even still frequently get
blocked and are then just disgusting!
From Uyuni took a 6hour overnight bus up to Potosi with some Irish girls i´d met on the trip. Not a good journey, the road was terrible, the bus was crammed full of bolivians who would lean right over u as they stood the entire way, the seats were made for midgets and then i got really sick-was really quite grim. You would think that the bolivians might move away as i was vomiting right next to them but no! Think was a combination of altitude, the road and too much sun and wine beforehand! Luckily the girls were there as i was in no state to broach taxis etc to the hostel at 2am after the journey!
Potosi is the highest city of its size in the world at 4200m and was famous for its big silver mines. The big thing to do here is a mine tour-goingdown for a couple of hours into the real working mines. Absolutely horrendous. The place is so hot, u are crawling and stooping through these tiny passages way below ground and the air is so dusty u cant breath even through a dust mask
and bandana! Apparently all the miners die of silicosis in their 50s but its supposed to be ok for a few hours. There is arsenic on the walls and things. The miners work in such horrible conditions and only drink and chew coca leaves for their 12 hour shifts. Tried the famous leaves which are supposed to help with altitude sickness and lots of people use on the inca trail but they are horrible! Needs must i suppose! Got to play with some bolivian dynamite and blow some up down in the mines and outside. So primitive and not sure how safe really but i´m still alive!
After Potosi on to Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia (not La Paz). Is quite pretty for a Bolivian town as all the centre is painted white and has some cool old churches and buildings. Also has amazing dinosaur footprints found in a cement factory that go all across this limestone wall. Apparently is the biggest amount of footprints and the longest continuos trail in the world, but really sad as getting eroded very quickly and horrible to think how much was destroyed by the factory before it was protected.
Another
night bus up to La Paz but this one much better. Few days spent mooching round all the markets where they sell all the famous rugs and weird things like llama foetuses! Stayed in an irish hostel which awas nice to have english speaking staff for a while. Did the famous Worlds most damgerous road which has you mountain biking down this gravel road from 4700m to 1200m in 4 hours with sheer cliffs atthe side.Lots of people die each year and although the company was very good theres not a lot they can do for you if you fall 100m! Didnt look overthe edge too much as it freaked me out but got down safely and had a well earned feed at an animal sanctuary with so many cute monkeys that would clamber all over you!
After that took a very small plane to the bolivian amazon to do a 3 day pampas tour. The flight was an experience in itself-first over the andes and then the amazon before landing on a grass runway in the baking heat! The heat and humidity was so different to the rest of bolivia.The tour was very cool, hours spent going down
river in a motorised dugout canoe where there were so many alligators and capybara( big guinea pigs) and lots of huge birds, then we stayed in a lodge which was very basic for 2 nights. 2nd day went on a very tiring and hot trek through the pampas in search of cobras and anacondas, which our guide eventually found for us. Afternoon spent fishing for piranhas of which i caught 2! Bit strange fishing with meat! Cooked and ate them for dinner-very nice! Last day up at dawn to watch the sunrise before back in the canoe. Stopped off along the way to swim with the pink dolphins-bit unnerving seeing as it was the same place where we had fed an alligator that morning and he was still there and thought we would feed him again but all my limbs are intact.
Back in La Paz had a bit of a splurge and some haggling in the witches market for lots of throws and alpaca products which i promptly sent home, hopefully it will get there. La Paz is quite a party city for backpackers and after a few nights out was feeling a bit tender!
Last stop
in Bolivia Copacabana on the Eastern side of Lake Titicaca which is a lovely little town where you can laze around and eat trout. Went on a trek across the sacred Isle del sol which was very cool but a bit taxing in the heat. Heard from other travellers about the farmers blockading the road up to Cusco from Puno, which was supposed to be my route. Supposed to last 72 hours but had been going on over a week and lots of people were missing their inca trails. Was going to chill in copa a bit longer but thought i had better move on to Puno in peru and see if I could get up to Cusco.
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Henrietta
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So you have moved on from New Zealand! how long you gonna be in South America and where else you going next?