http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America en-us Wed, 14 May 2008 01:45:34 BST Wed, 14 May 2008 01:45:34 BST First leg of the journey was from Cusco to Arequipa...a long journey of approximately 9 hours on a bus since I had never travelled on a long haul bus I thought I would splash out and take a sleeper bus 'Cruz del Sur' not bad it was cheap and comfortable. The bus left Cuzco at 8.30pm and would approximately arrive at 6am the next morning. I slept pretty well and upon awakening found myself in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Chivay/blog-275923.html Got home yesterday by 9pm after a 27 hour odyssey of travel. Herersquos a collective of what I spent in the first 45 minutes after stepping off the planeCab 35 dollars Subway Sandwich 4.50Cat foodLitter 5.75Bottle of water 200Total 47.25 or 378 Bolivianos.In the entire time I was in Bolivia I spend in total 1160 Bolivianos or approximately 4.40 Bvs per hour. I am now spending at a ra http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-275915.html I woke up on what was to be my last two days in Bolivia so looking forward to returning to La Paz so I could spend an entire day shopping for gifts for family and a charango for my cabin upstate which has a small collection of unusual instruments. La Paz in my not so extensive experience is definitely the place to do your shopping.It was going to be a good day as we were going by get this PL http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-275914.html 430amMark of course came in an hour later and noticing that his bed we had separate singles which was what was available so we were told until we found that Aaron had an absolute palace with a double and single bed in it methinks some funny business just went on en espanol was covered in his crap decided to pancake me on my little single bed and tell me that he was sleeping there. I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-275913.html a typical saturday in Peru Well I hope not because that was a hell of a saturday. Great fun but Peruvians just drink too much Drinking from 11 in the morning until 2 o clock at night eating chicharon fmouse pork dish in Saylla visiting Paolas country house and the temple of the water in Tipon a real masterpiece of hydroengineering witnessing the batism of new cars at the sacred church of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/Cusco/blog-275905.html Sucre is basically a hop skip and a jump from Potosi and it was nice to have a very short travel time about 2 hours on paved roads. Coming into Sucre is like driving into the Bolivian twilight zone. The surrounding hillsides are green and lush there are palm trees and cows and off in the distance you can see the white washed buildings with that unmistakable colonial Spanish appeal. Red tiled http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-275877.html My experience was bad enough last week but this is just horrible.Yesterday a bus going between the Bolivian and Chilean border swerved and yep went over the edge. I feel really bad for the families and I wish the survivors a quick recovery. Here's the article httpwww.cnn.com2006WORLDamericas0322bus.crashindex.html http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-275875.html The rest of yesterday in Potosi was basically spent taking it easy. We all needed it. It was nice to just drink tea take naps read books surf the internet and do NOTHING. Of course we did go back to our favorite bathroom errr..caf and then we partook in some traditional Bolivian music and ate traditional Bolivian food at a local restaurant for dinner. The instruments used here besides regular http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-275874.html Gringoes....as the South Americans call us tourists stick out a mile. Not just by the colour of our skin but we are the people standing in various states of respiratory stress gasping for breath as we climb the hills. And La Paz is a city built on the hills so its not so easy to avoid the panting as it is set at over 3000m. You cant help but be impressed by the scenery......its like the cit http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-275873.html Now that I've sobered up let me give you a few useful facts about where I am. Potosi is located in the southern part of Bolivia still high in the Andes at 13k feet still twice as high as Denver. It was founded in 1546 directly after they found silver in them thar hills. By the early 1600s it was the greatest silver producer in the world and had a population that topped many European cities of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-275869.html What a difference a shower and a few minutes not on the bus make. Potosi the city we will be in for the next few days is a crowded dusty silver mining town once considered the highest city in the world. It definitely has some charm. Vendors have pitched up street stalls all over. There are people everywhere on these slivers of sidewalks hugging roads that were obviously designed for horses http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-275868.html Everything about the bus system in Bolivia that you've ever heard is true. No what am I saying its worse.Turns out that our seven hour bus ride is on a bus with no bathroom and dodgy everything else. This and coffee and coca tea dont mix well. The road from Uyuni to Potosi consists of dirt and rock tracks up and down the Andes with no guard rails no rules no speed limits and cliffs off eith http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-275867.html After a harrowing eve in the cave hostel was exaserbated by equal amounts of caffinated coke as well as alcohol it was a sleepless night to be had by all. Still we were onward by 8am.The Altiplano tours second through forth days consist of driving around in some pretty amazing scenery. Most of it is actually quite otherworldly and I imagine some great star wars type movies could be filmed h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Uyuni/blog-275859.html We arrived last night to Uyuni a cute little one horse town basically there to offer gringos pringles bottled water cuban rum and the like. We are taking the most common tour down here a 4 day jeep trek into the altiplano hitting the regions highlights. Its a lot of driving but if you are one for roadtrips and arent that worried about really roughing it than this is for you. It is http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-275856.html There are four of us now Mark myself Hannah and Aaron our guide. We are on our way down to the Uyuni area to see the salt flats which is one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Bolivia in the first place. To get there from La Paz is a full day of travel. First a 3 hour bus ride to Oruro try saying that a few times fast then a train ride to Uyuni. In order to have to most au http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Oruro-Department/Oruro/blog-275847.html After leaving Easter Island several days ago we have been constantly on the move catching planes and buses and living as gypsies on the road. We landed at Santiago in Chile in the evening and headed straight out to catch the airport bus to the omnibus terminal. Here we hoped to transfer to the next overnight bus over the Andes to Mendoza and on... So we hopped onto the bus with precision timing an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Tucuman/San-Miguel-de-Tucuman/blog-275841.html Getting to Bolivia isn't actually all that hard. We had a big scare that our backpacks might not make it because they were insisting at the gate that we couldnt bring them on while we watched half a plane full of people drag on bags 34 times their size. Finally because the woman finally thought through the fact that taking them now and trying to send them on through to La Paz was not at all li http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-275840.html Hey everybodyToday will be my first whole day in Bahia. Yesterday I took a 9 hour bus ride from Quito to Bahia. The drive felt really long since I was so anxious to arrive in Bahia. It was a very beautiful drive though. We drove though the mountains and jungle surrounding Quito. I saw many rivers waterfalls and all kinds of animals. We also drove through many small towns and some larger cities. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Manab-/blog-275832.html Okay so here is the condensed version of the last 5 days down here...We left Charlotte on Friday at about noon and connected in Atlanta where we had a 3 hour layover before continuing on to Quito. Peter my dad and I decided to hit up the Duty Free store so we could have something to sip on in the airport but were dismayed to find that they did not give us our bottles right there but rather de http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Cuenca/blog-275795.html Relaxing in SorataAfter one and a half week in La Paz with all its noises and stress it was time to get out of the city.Sorata is a proper laidback place 4 hours drive outside La PazIt's situated on a hillside in a valley beneath the peaks of Illampu and Ancohuma.In the colonial days Sorata provided a link to the Alto Beni's goldfields and rubber plantation and was the gateway to the Amazon http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Sorata/blog-275787.html Brief IntroIguazu Falls is the latin Niagara Falls or so Ive named it havent actually seen that written any way as its stands alone on impressiveness. The falls are made up of 275 different waterfalls spanning an area 3km wide thought Id throw in a bit of geography as after all this is my fortay. Iguazu Falls borders Argentina Brazil and Paraguay and can be viewed froim all three countrie http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-275656.html 20 llamas and a dog named BeethovenIt is early in the morning around 6.30 a.m. when the bus drops us on a dusty road shortly after tambomachay outside of Cucsco. There are no people except very now and then some farmers which descend from the sourrounding mountain villages to sell there fruits and vegetables in Cusco. But my Peruvian friend Nancy her brother Cesar and me are waiting for somethin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/Cusco/blog-275611.html Saadan lyder overskriften paa dette afsnit. Lidt tvetydigt maaske hvad laver Ironman der Det kommer jeg ind paa senere. Det kan dog godt betale sig at se filmen saa er det nok lidt sjovere at laese lige praecis den afdeling men jeg har set den og jeg synes det er sjovt derfor er det med. Der kommer desvaerre ingen billeder i dette indlaeg da der ikke er noget CD ROM drev i computeren welcom http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-275600.html Bon Potosi vraiment une ville o je ne comptais pas venir mais sur la route du Salar... Finalement pas mecontent de l'avoir vu meme si j'ai zappe la visite des mines qui est l'atrait numero 1 ici En meme temps j'ai passe une soiree tres rigolote avec Rean et Julio qui tiennent une agence et sont d'anciens mineurs organisant des visites... Leur jeu c'est d'apprendre des expressions debiles http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-275595.html Nothing of interest to report today.I'm sick with a coldflu thing. I have no energy at all. I played outside with a few kids for a bit...long enough to get bit by ants all over my arm.I have to tell you about my snake dream. It was probably brought on by the zoo visit..cause there were lots of snakes there. Anyway last night i woke up and i swear to god there was a green snake on my pillow. I ju http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Santa-Cruz-Department/Santa-Cruz/blog-275591.html Voila deja quelques jours que mon avion survolait des collines et montagnes a n'en plus finir quand il fallut atterir...Il faut savoir qu'avec l'altitude apparement les pneus des avions sont differents les distances de feinage doublees etc...Et bien quand on atteri face une montagne au milieu des montagnes tout le monde freine Ctait jouisif quand l'appareil s'est immobilis a fait http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-275590.html