La Paz

At night, viewed from the rooftop of our shabby hotel, the city of La Paz looks almost beautiful; the sparkling lights from the all surrounding hills makes the city feel clean, friendly and personable. Every so often a light extends high into the night sky, as a firework is let off, the trailing noise almost [...]

Hablando Español En Sucre

Sucre is a very pleasant city to learn Spanish. Sunny warm days and cool nights – so we check in to a very nice hostel with a great courtyard. We find an excellent spanish teacher, called Isaac and the next week is spent going for lessons in the morning. In the afternons we go to [...]

The Famous Potosi Bus Scam

We almost get robbed leaving Potosi.First of all, trying to exit Potosi for Sucre proves to be difficult. There is a transport strike by truck drivers, over government fuel levies, and all major cities are being blockaded by convoys. Lucky for us the strikers don´t work weekends, and so the blockades come down on Friday: [...]

Cerro Rico

The mountain is called Cerro Rico, and it was once the centre of the world. The city at its base, Potosi, once had the largest population in the world, exceeding Paris and London, all because a shepherd boy, sheltering in a cave during a storm, discovered a vein of silver.
Today, the numerous mines burrowed into [...]

Tupiza To Uyuni – The Last Day

On the final day we are due to watch the sun rise over the salt flats, alas, our jeep does not move – a problem with the gearbox. After some mechanical magic by our guide we eventually get moving in time for breakfast on the Isla Del Pescado, a rocky outcrop in the middle of [...]

Tupiza To Uyunia – Day 3

In the morning everyone is drowsy and crabby after a difficult night trying to breathe the thin air. When I look out the window, at breakfast, the guides appear to have set fire to the jeeps engine in an attempt to de-ice it. They appear unconcerned to have the engine on fire so I return [...]

Tupiza To Uyuni : Day 2

There is a loud knocking at our door. “Hola amigos, vamos!”, shouts our guide Juan. It´s shortly before six in the morning and very cold. There has been problems with the jeep´s batteries and so Juan has kindly let us sleep in while he fixes the problem. After a hurried breakfast we are back on [...]

Tupiza To Uyuni : Day 1

When you study the map of Bolivia, the circuitous route past lakes, volcanoes, deserts, geysers and salt flats, that we are to take over the next 4 days appears to be a vast distance to cover; especially when you consider that the roads are only accessible by 4×4 vehicle. The classic Bolivian tour is usually [...]

Crossing The Border

The lights on the bus go on. The face of my watch shows that it is shortly after 3am. Through the ice crystals that have formed on the window, I can see that we have reached yet another police checkpoint.
My jacket, propped against the window as a pillow, has become frozen to the window. Strangely [...]