South Western Bolivia

The last week has been unforgettable. From Sucre, we travelled West up into the Andes via Potosi. We bought bus tickets for the trip, but when it came time to board the bus, our backpàcks were nowhere in sight. After some broken Spanish enquiries, it turned out that our tickets had been issued for the bus that left an hour earlier, and our backpacks were onboard THAT bus!!!!

When your whole life involves travelling, and everything you own is in that backpack, you become understandably protective of it! The fact that our bags were on a bus that we were not on made us more than a little tense! On top of that, the next bus (the last of the day) was full, and they didn´t want to let us on! We eventually organised to sit in the cabin of the bus, along with the driver and conductor. After picking up a few unofficial passengers, there were 8 people squashed into the cabin!!! So we sat for 3 uncomfortable hours contemplating what would happen if we didn´t see our bags in Potosi. Shortly before arriving we stopped at a petrol station to fill up, and incredibly, the bus in front of ours was the one with our luggage!!! We jumped off and banged on the bus to get the driver´s attention, and happily we soon had our bags in hand! It was a good thing we saw the bus there, as the bus terminal had closed for the night, and all of the busses were stopping at random locations on the streets!!!

Much relieved, we checked into a hostel in Potosi, heart of the incredibly rich silver mining area that underwrote the Spanish economy for over 200 years. Having seen enough mines in our time we skipped the obligatory mine tours, and headed straight on to Uyuni, high on the Altiplano (the massive flat area that caps the Andes). It was from here that we did a tour to the remote, unpopulated South-Western Bolivia.


This desolate area is rich in geological sights, including the world´s largest salt pan, volcanoes, multi-coloured salt lakes full of flamingoes, steaming fumaroles, ponds of boiling mud and interesting igneous rock formations. At 4500 - 5000m, the altitude takes its toll, and turns even the simplest walk up a hill into an expidition! At this altititude, the surrounding peaks of over 6000m look like only small hills on the horizon. After four days of negotiating the dirt roads and sub-zero temperatures we were ready to head back to Uyuni for a hot shower.

The area is mind blowing, and rather than trying to describe it, we´ll let the pictures do the talking....



Today we are in Uyuni, and tonight we take a 12 hour bus ride north to La Paz, the world´s highest capital city at around 4000m.