Hello All,
As promised we continue on from where we left off after arriving in Uyuni, Bolivia.
The plan was to stay only one night before moving on to Potosi. After leaving our driver at the bus station we immediately booked tickets out for the following day.
We spent the afternoon relaxing and glad to be out of the jeep which although great become uncomfortable sometime on day two of four! In the evening we caught up with a few people we had met during the 4WD tour for dinner at a place called Minuteman Pizza, home of possibly the best Pizza in South America (American owned of course) which Luke (Kim's Brother) had informed us was well worth the visit, and is a nice little place of warmth in this otherwise cold part of the world.
The following day we took the bus to Potosi. No more than one minute after boarding one of the English guys travelling in a tour group on the same bus discovered his bag had been taken from the overhead compartment! We soon locked our bags to the seats and relaxed as what seems like millions of locals boarded the bus filling the isle. The bus bumped its way to the outskirts of Potosi before we encountered a roadblock (truck drivers dissatisfied with road taxes, who would have guessed) with the driver stopping & proceeding to throw all the bags off the roof! We were fortunate to be able to walk around the trucks and catch local transport into town with a crew of Aussies we had been dining with the night before travelling on the bus behind us.
Once in Potosi we found a hostel (The Koala Den - ironic given we we with a group of Aussies), but because of the blockades between Potosi and Sucre the hostel was short on beds with some people having been stuck there for the last few days. Kim and I opted for a dorm which got interesting that night when the danish lad in the bunk below me decided to return at 4am with one of the local ladies - nothing more need be said here except that no one in the dorm slept for the rest of the night despite our constant abuse.
Day one and we visited the infamous Potosi Silver Mines (although they now mine various other minerals) , which was an interesting experience. The mines themselves are very dangerous and the chemicals in the air (including arsenic and asbestos) mean that many of the miners only live to the ripe old age of 40 before dying of respitory infections. I tried some of the miners treats (Chewing Coca Leaves and Drinking 96% Alcohol), and at the end managed to hold a live piece of dynamite for a photo, although Kim wasn't so keen (actually she hated the whole experience!).
As I said in the last post Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4060masl, so on the second day we set out on a walk, above the city to check out some ancient man made lakes built to supply the town and its refineries water. At this altitude even walking down the street is difficult let alone a walk into the mountains, so we we lucky to be accompanied by Ant and Lisa (a couple of Aussies, essentially doing the opposite to us ie. returning from the UK to Oz) which certainly helped with motivation.
Finally on day three we set out to bus to Sucre for some releif from the altitude and in desperate need of good food after several bad experiences in Potosi.
Unfortunately for us, and despite our efforts to investigate the status of the blockades this supposed three hour journey was to become a nightmare. We encountered our first (of 13) blockade 15km from Surcre which spelt near three hours of walking and riding on the back of a truck with all our gear before finally reaching a place to stay, all up a near 6 hour journey containing some extremely steep hills...
I'm pleased to say we have made it and the roads are improving as we get closer to La Paz along with the food. We are still travelling with Ant and Lisa and are planning a 3 day walk in the country over the next few days before moving onto La Paz, home of the worlds most dangerous road - and looks like I may have twisted Kim's arm to join me riding it on mountain bike!
So until we reach La Paz - Take Care,
Dave & Kim
PS. Still no photos sorry, hopefully in La Paz we can get some up.
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