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Published: June 13th 2009
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After spending a week in the Amazon it was time for a complete change of scenery as we planned to head south to the Bolivian salt plains. Although these plans soon changed after finding out that some angry locals were blocking the road down there so no buses were running! so, instead we headed to Bolivias official capital, Sucre which turned out to be the nicest city we have visited in Bolivia - much more laid back than La Paz anyways!
Aside from yet more colonial churches, one thing Sucre is now famous for is having the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world. They were discovered in 1994 by the quarry workers that still dig next to the site. As you´ll see from the photos the tracks spread all over the cliff face and are almost too impressive to be real!
Not knowing what else to do with the couple of days we had in the city we popped into the tourist information and were given some sketchy directions on how to hike to a collection of seven waterfalls outside the city. Following their instructions we took a bus right out of the city to its last
Lou helping make a hole for the dynamite
The blew this up while we were only about 10m away! safety first... stop and started walking a few miles down to a little village. Not knowing where to head next we stopped and asked an old bloke who just pointed to a dog that had been following us and said ´Guide´. Not having any other options we put our faith in the dog (now known as the Bolivian littlest hobo) and followed him as he trotted off.. to our amazement after following the dog for well over an hour we arrived at the waterfalls! Definetely the best tour guide we have had in South America and he only wanted a few crackers as a tip.. a very surreal yet tiring day!
After a long day hiking it was time to head further South to the highest city in the world - Potosi. One of the main reasons tourists stop here is not only to get breathless above ground but to also do the same below ground and take a tour of one of the many silver mines that lie in the mountain above the city.
After stopping at the market to get presents for the miners including dynamite and bottles of 96% alcohol (what a combo!) it was time to
take our 2 hour tour underground. Despite Lou´s claustrophobia even she managed to stoop and crawl through the labyrinth of dark tunnels to witness the appauling conditions these guys work under, although they earn a decent wage for Bolivian standards it´s certainly a hard life - there´s no way that either of us can complain about our jobs again after seeing that!
The next day it was time for yet another bumpy bus ride on probably the dodgiest bus so far as we made our way to Uyuni to book our tour of the salt plains. After booking with ´red planet expeditions´, the next morning we were loaded onto a toyota landcruiser with 2 Brazilian guys, a french and a spanish girl and headed onto the largest and highest salt plains in the world! Its an amazing sight - just a vast sheet of white as far as you can see. After stopping at the train cemetry, a hotel made of salt and an island of coral, it was time to take some comedy photos (you´ll see what we mean) and then the scenic drive to our first night accomodation which turned out to be another hostel made of
salt (unfortunately they havent figured out how to make salt radiators yet - it was a bloody cold night!)
The next day we travelled away from the salt plain over what can only be deascribed as a landscape that looked like mars and spent that night in what can best be described as a glorified barn. Given we were at almost 5000m above sea level it was absolutely freezing, think it got down to about -7 in the night, so pretty sharp without heating - especially for the Brazilians!
Early the next morning to warm up we drove up to a volcano to see some Geysers before stopping off at some thermal baths for a quick dip. Being in 35 degree water was nice but drying off outside when it was about 1 degree was not! It was then time for a 12 hour jeep ride back to Uyuni with more spectacular scenery before jumping on yet another bus for the 11 hour bumpy overnight journey back to La Paz.
One of the main reasons for getting back to the crazy city a few days before we fly to Costa Rica was so that Neil could hire
a mountain bike and ride down ´The Worlds Most Dangerous Road' or Death Road it´s also called (lou caught the minibus down as after not being on a bike since her canal accident it didn´t seem like the best of ideas to ride down!). Basically the ride starts at about 4600 meters above sea level and the first 30km are downhill on a new tarmac road which was really good fun given the speeds that can be reached (you just have to remember to dodge the trucks)! Then it was time for the proper death road, another 34km downhill, but this time on a 3.2m wide gravel road which for the majority of the time has a 600m drop next to it..
At its peak about 45 people a month died by falling off the road which is how it got its name (mainly in trucks and buses) but this has been much reduced by a new bypass that has been built, although crazy lorry drivers still use it. As for cyclists the Lonely Planet tells you that 8 people have died riding down it (although this unfortunately increased by one a few weeks ago) so given that 100´s
a week ride down it we guessed there was a good chance of making it down alive..
Well anyway, It takes about 4 hours in total to get down, as you have to stop for traffic, food and to be told of the dangers ahead, but it´s a day of nothing but sheer excitement. There is nothing like riding down a gravel track perched on the edge of a 600m fall riding so quick you cant peddle, the whole bike rattling, and trying not to look at the amazing views.
Anyhow we both made it down in one piece (even though I did promise to take it slow but ended up being the fastest in the group..)
If that wasn´t enough exersion, the next day we took a trip up to the highest ski resort in the world which now comprises of one ski run and a broken lift (and not enough snow to ski this time of year) but from there we climbed up to the top of Chacaltaya mountain (5395m ASL) for amazing views for miles around - even as far as out old friend Lake Titicaca..
Anyhow its our last day in Bolivia
today so we are off to fill up our bags with stuff from the massive markets before heading off for a well earned rest on the beaches of Costa Rica.. it´s a hard life!
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