Uyuni didn’t look any less depressing after a nights sleep - it was just much muddier as the thaw was well advanced, It was actually the first large town in Bolivia that we had been to that had predominately dirt streets - we had been expecting to see many more then we had, The roads connecting all the main towns were mostly surfaced as well, It wasn’t long ago that only 200 kilometres of main roads were paved. The bus was late leaving and we spent the time trying to dodge the drips coming from all the roofs - they were heavier than rain. There was total chaos on the street which served as the bus station as the previous day most of he buses out of the town had been cancelled due to road closures ... read more

We spent part of our 36th wedding anniversary on a bus driving across the dusty altiplano from La Paz to Oruro. It is a dusty windy city once renowned for its silver mines, since exhausted, then tin mining, also now exhausted. Today one of its main attractions is the Carnival held here yearly. This festival, now considered second only to the Rio Carnival is similar to the Gran Poder, as wonderful masks and costumes are worn by all the participants as well. The festival in La Paz went for only 24 hours - the Carnival in Oruro involves similar festivities for a week. Oruro is set at an altitude of 3770 meters on the altiplano (high plains) region which stretches from Lake Titicaca and extends nearly 1000 kilometres to the south western corner of Bolivia. The ... read more

The Gran Poder parade is La Paz´s biggest street party. It's not sponsored by Kodak but so many of my photos seem to have their logo in them. We were just sitting opposite the store. It's actually a religious festival that involves an enormous carnival-like parade through the centre of La Paz. Dancers, bands and street performers from all over the city and surrounding hinterland descend on La Paz for a spectacular show. And spectacular it was! Sixty four groups danced this year - and we presumed before the event that each group would only have a couple of hundred dancers. How wrong we were - in total over 100,000 people danced through the streets that day in a never ending stream of colour. The parade started at 7am with the President of Bolivia marching with ... read more

We arrived in Copacabana, the town which sits on the edge of the sapphire blue waters of Lake Titicaca, late on Sunday afternoon. We had been passed reroute from Sorata by many cars decorated with flowers and upon our arrival in Copacabana we saw cars being decorated in front of the Cathedral in the main square. The fascinating custom - the Blessing of the Automobiles, takes place here every weekend. It is like a spiritual insurance policy - once you’ve had your car blessed presumably you’re less likely to have a car accident. Since our arrival in South America though we’ve seen dozens of roadside shrines to road accident victims (many decorated with the broken windscreen or tyre from the car) - unlike most Australian shrines there are very rarely only one cross - we’ve regularly ... read more

La Paz was an amazing city - we ended up spending a few days longer there then originally planned due to me not being well. We flew from Cusco in Peru over the massive Lake Titicaca - it was a very impressive body of water seen from above! We could see the snow capped peaks of the Andes mountain range as well and combined with the bleak treeless contours of the Altiplano it was a memorable flight. We had pre-booked accommodation at the lovely Hostal Naira and arranged a taxi pickup from the airport. The airport is higher (4060 meters) then the city, which is only at a breathtaking 3660meters! Thankfully as we had already spent time at altitude it didn’t cause any major problems for us - though the hills were never easy to climb ... read more