Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 510

We caught a flight from La Paz to Sucre on 26th August with the idea that we would spend some time doing more spanish lessons in Sucre. Becky and Tim were still there and we met with them. Sucre is an absolutely beautiful place. Very european looking and quite middle class for Bolivia. It houses one of the foremost universities in South America we were told. The majority of people are well dressed, the buildings are sparkling white (because there is a law which requires the buildings to be painted annually), all in all its beautiful. That is until you are unfortunate enough to catch someone pissing in the street! We saw quite alot of this. Men stand openly pissing into the road looking at you as you walk past, old ladies pull a Paula Radcliffe ... read more

Great cruise across Lake Titicaca in what turned out to be virtually our own private catamaran. Only one other guest - who by a strange coincidence was called Marianne, had red hair, sung alto in a choir and had two girls and a boy (although there the similarities stopped!) Sailed to a fantastic island (Island of the Sun) where supposedly the Incan religion was born. Marianne, Lauren, Marcus and Polly were blessed by a shaman - so expect to see the difference on their return (I´ve been watching, but haven´t seen any results yet). On to La Paz, a sprawling and busy city - every road seems to be a street market selling everything from "Abibas" and "Redock" training shoes to wedding cakes to avocados as large as melons. Noisy, sometimes smelly, but fun. Unfortunately a ... read more

Firstly I must apologise if some of the details in this blog seem vague and slightly hazy, but it way by the request of many of the people we met inside the prison that they remain anonymous. The photos here are also only from the outside. This is also a much backdated blog due to the fact that we have been in some non internet accessible places. We actually went to the prison on the 11th of August. Getting Inside It was the day we arrived back from Huayna Potosi and we were in the pub celebrating with a large meal and a few pints, it was in this slightly tipsy state that the three of started talking about the prison and that we wanted to see it, up close and personal like. The prison used ... read more

Throughout our travels through South America we have heard many stories of the world's most dangerous road in La Paz. The road is about 64km long - I'm not sure if you can really call it a road, mainly a small dirt/gravel track winding down a very steep mountain. It claims the lives of about 150 people a year and a record 350 a few years ago due to the single gravel track, 400m vertical drop and no barriers. This road simply isn't safe for any vehicle to travel up or down. So the first thing we did was arrange a mountain bike ride down this trecherous road. We decided to go with the highly recommended Gravity Downhill company not because their bikes were the best with excellent brakes but for the free t-shirt you get ... read more

As previously mentioned after arriving in the southern Bolivian town of Tupiza we booked a four day jeep tour of the Salt Lakes in Uyuni which proved to be absolutely brilliant and probably the best thing I have done on this trip so far. Awakening nice and early we were greeted by our guide Wilf and our cook for the 4 days Julia, who couldnt speak a word of english between them. Coupled with our appauling grasp of spanish this was surely to be an entertaining few days. The fun really began however when after no more than 10 minutes Leeroy realised he needed the toilet. Rather embarrassed by his weak bladder he finally asked Wilf to stop the van and told him he needed a piss. For the next 4 days whenever one of asked ... read more