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Published: July 21st 2006
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Hello Everyone,
I am writing this having sadly just left Bolivia, a truly wonderful country.
In the last blog we had just left Argentina for a brief stop in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.
We only spent one very cold night there - enough time to book a three day tour that would take us into Bolivia and the Uyuni Salt Flats.
It was a travelling friends birthday so we went to see the sunset at the ´Valley of the Moon´just outside San Pedro which was really beautiful and as the name and my pictures suggest very moon like with large sand dunes.
We woke very early the next morning and took a bus to the Bolivian border crossing - a tiny building, the road suddenly going from tarmack to cross country.
Our group consisted of Me, Laura, Laura, Blanche and a nice french couple called Fabien and Isabel and our driver/ guide Andres.
The first day we visited three beautiful lagunas - blanca, verde y colorada - the last one was the most impressive with bright pink flamingos, it changed from red to orange as the sun went down.
We also saw some impressive yet smelly geysers and
the Dali desert on an a action packed day of driving through such diverse scenery- we were already in love with Bolivia!
After a very cold night where I suffered from the altitude a bit we woke and after breakfast were back in the 4x4 stopping first at the tree of rock, again incredibly surreal. Andres has an interesting collection of tapes- a mixture of typical bolivian music and outdated dance.
In the afternoon we drove through a wetter and greener zone with millions of llamas, some sporting what looked like Christmas decorations on their heads. Driving through a small village our driver collided with a cyclist who was luckily unhurt.
We finished the day at our hotel - 30% salt and overlooking the immense salar, the largest in the world.
The following day was definately one of my best on this Gap Year- a brilliant way to spend mine and Laura´s two year anniversary.
We woke very early to drive out onto the salt flat and to watch the sun come up, slowly illuminating the sea of white.
As we drove the mountains in the distance slowly appeared and disappeared creating an image similar to spilt oil on the
horizon.
The huge salar also makes you feel like you´re not moving whilst driving. Eventually we made it to Incahuasi - an Island in the middle of the salt falt with giant catcus - a random but spectacular view.
Afterwards we took loads of cool group photos, visited a salt museum and finished the day in Uyuni, going out for a delicious meal.
The following day we continued our journey to Potosi - the highest city in the world, site of lots of once very weathly Silver Mines and meeting point for us and Mr Mark Konrad from Petersfield, England.
We hung out for a couple of days- watching the football, catching up on travelling stories, ordering Chinese and swimming in hot lakes.
Together with another English Gap Yearer we took a tour of the Silver Mines. We were given clothing, helmet with light and taken to the Miners market to buy gifts for the miners: sodas, coca leaves to chew and dynamite (readily available for anyone to buy!!)
Our guide explained about the history of mining in Potosi, the processes used as well as exportation. We visited a factory and then got the bus up to the entrance to
the mine.
Looking back I´d say that I am glad I did this tour but at the time I wasn´t so sure. Unlike your usual tourist friendly tour the mines were incredibly dusty, very hot and really hazardous. Some of the miners we met had been working in these cramped conditions everyday for the last thirty years trying to support large families. We offered gifts to every miner on the various levels we visited. We also saw an eighteen year old whose face was coated in dust.
We spent close to three hours in the mine, afterwards we were given a demonstration of how powerful the dynamite you can buy is.
Later that day we left Potosi to travel to nearby Sucre. Like all the travellers we have met we ended up spending four days in this beautiful colonial city not really doing a lot other than watching football, shopping at cheap markets and relaxing in the sunshine.
I did spend one afternoon visiting a brilliant museum on Indigenous Art with live weavers and information on the various wierd and wonderful festivals of the many groups based around Sucre.
We decided to stop off in Cochobamba, one of the biggest
cities in Bolivia for a couple of days where we met up with Ross (who we´d previously met in Buenos Aires) and his group of fellow travellers and together we had a fun night out listening to the same salsa hits that came out of all the stereos in Costa Rica as well as some eighties classics.
After watching England beat Ecaudor we booked our bus tickets to the capital La Paz which we have heard good and bad things about!
In the next episode of Breeze and Willans explore South America we ride down the Worlds Most Dangerous Road, visit the Amazon Basin and head to Lake Titicaca and Peru.
Hope everyone back home is enjoying the ridiculously hot weather, I admit we are a tiny bit jealous but then we are home soon, looking forward to seeing many a sunburnt english chav with his top off.
Nathanxx
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"Excitable" Steve
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A comment from The Hotel Tucan
Lovely stuff. And not just the photos, your turn of phrase reminds me of a young William Wordsworth. When are you back in England? Big hugs, X x PS. Most famous person we've seen out here in LA: Heather Graham