Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 525

Finally our high desert tour of South Western Bolivia... lakes, volcanoes, hot springs, GEEZERS and much more! Even got to see two ancient cemetaries with personal driver and cook to boot! (Sean guest-writing)... While most tours of the Southwest start from Uyuni, circumstances found us in Tupiza, to the south, and it turned out that you could start the tour from there too - works better, because it is a little less popular and there is less of a danger of anti-climax, because you end up at the Salar salt lake last. Basically you´re travelling in a 4X4 jeep for four days to see the entire Salar region... We booked for Sunday through the Valle Mermoso hostel, but the little matter of the Bolivian elections delayed us a day, and on Monday we were due to ... read more

We did finally make it to Uyuni. Isla got there in the day and booked us on a tour, found a hotel and got to enjoy the scenery from Potosi. I however travelled in the night on the worst road, in the smallest bus, but at least arrived two hours early. Uyuni is a town that dies every night after 10pm and everyone hibernates at home within their very sexy 80s ski-suits, but then unlike every other town nearby it is born-again-bustling by 8am due to the hundred plus tourists who leave for the salt flat tours each day. First stop after about 10 mins is the train graveyard. Bolivia in the Spanish conquest hayday had an impressive train network that criss-crossed the remarkably flat Altiplano allowing smooth, fast transport to virtually everywhere. But like ... read more

After a chilled out couple of days in Copacabana we moved on to Bolivia´s capital city La Paz. Bit of a shock at first coming form small lakeside Bolivian town to the hustle and bustle of La Paz, but it didn't take us that long to settle in. We actually really liked La Paz, it was super cheap, with great accomodation and some great restaurants! The witches market was interesting, where you can buy all sorts of delights for your Cauldron including dried llama faetus's, condor claws and dried toads- delightful! After a couple of days wandering around checking out the sights we decided head off to the Jungle town of Rurrenabaque, where we booked a three day tour of the Pampas (sort of swampy wetlands), in search of Anaconda's! The flight to Rurrenabaque was entertaintment ... read more

Well, just when I thought my Bolivian experience could not get any more exciting (in a really frustrating boring way). I got a phone call in the morning to say that my bus to Uyuni would be leaving 3 hours early. "How strange", thought I. So I arrive at the bus station at 3pm. "It´s leaving on time now". Great. So I´ll just hang around for 3 hours then. So at 6.30, off we go. What lay ahead was to be unpleasant. The road once you get south of Oruro is unpaved, and extremely rough. And at night it get´s VERY cold. -15°C ouside, Ice on windows inside. Luckily, I had my 98 bolivianos (7-8 quid) sleeping bag. That generates enough static electricity to power a small city. Every time I moved I was treated to ... read more

When I arrived to Potosi I needed a couple of days to acclimatize before I could do anything, after all it's not that easy to breathe at 4070m. The main attraction here is the mine tour, in which you can go with a guide into an active mine, and observe how the mine operates. The tour is physically demanding as the mine is narrow and low, and you sometimes need to climb and crawl to get from one section to another. Add to this the fact that the air is full of dust from the excavation process, and that there isn't too much air anyway and you'll get a nice and pleasant environment. The tour started at the miners market. There we had to buy a few supplies - soft drinks and coca leaves, gifts for ... read more