Sucre

We are now in Sucre, a beautiful little town, with a colonial feel obviously with a big Spanish influence. Its been a great place for a 3 day relaxation and exploration of the area. Our first experience was vsiting the dinosaur footprints - quite amazing how these have been fossilised over time.

Unfortunately on our hike we had a terrible accident, and our tour leader fell off a cliff edge. A shocking experience for everyone to witness but he was so lucky to survive. James and some of the guys were true heroes getting down to him and carrying him out the canyon - we have visited him in hospital and he is very lucky to be alive

Rest of our time has been relaxing and exploring the city.

On Saturday (8th January) we are off to Santa Cruz (the last of Bolivia) before heading to Brazil and the Pantanal (jungle area of Brazil). From there its Bonita and then the amazing Iguassu Falls. I leave the tour there for a night in Rio and then its back to London on Tuesday 18th January. Will try update again before then but if not then i will catch up with you all after that!

Hope you have enjoyed reading some of my adventures - its honestly been a once in a lifetime experience!

Potosi - silver mining town

Next stop in our travel across Bolivia was in Potosi - a silver mining town very rich hundreds of years ago but is now one of the poorest towns in Bolivia. The main attraction is a visit into the existing silver mine - a REAL experience of a third world country.
We started with getting our mining overalls, and then headed to the mining "market area". Here you can buy dynamite and ammonium nitrate, apparently only for sale to miners who buy this on their way to work - but i didnt see any control of this at all. So, as you do, we bought some dynamite to blow up a cake that one of the guys had bought for an experiement. We headed to the mines and standing about 20m away (under control of our miner guide) they blew up the cake - an incredible experience watching this cake getting blown to pieces up but quite a strong feeling from the shock waves! After this we headed inside them mine for a tour lasting about an hour ... needless to say we were quite happy to be back out afterwards!

Looking good ..

With the dynamite and ammonium nitrate

Cake ready to explode

After the "controlled" explosion

Inside the mine

Uyuni salt flats and desert

After La Paz we headed to Uyuni for a 3 day 4X4 excursion in Solar de Uyuni - some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. Definitely a must see if anyone is ever in Bolivia

Our first stop was to the train "cemetry" where the old trains from 100 years agohave been abandoned on the side of the railway line. This was the railway between Potosi (our next stop) and Chile carrying the minerals from the mines.

And then on to the spectacular sat flats - the photos speak for themselves ...

Fun photos on the salt lake - this kept us busy for a while!

Our first night was spent in a hotel on the side of the lakes, in a hotel made of salt - literally. Look at the salt on the ground

Next day we saw the only active volcano in the area (behind me below)

And then on to the flamingo lakes

And the famous "Tree Rock"-  old volcanic rock eroded from the strong winds in the area

And then on to where we stayed for the second night - Laguna Colorado. This lake is multi coloured due to all the salt and minerals in the land. The area is very rich in all kinds of minerals.

Our third started very early with a visit to the geysers

 and the hot springs

On our way back through the desert area - looks like a road to nowhere

Although we were very happy to get back after feeling very dusty and wind swept after the 3 days, the scenery we saw was definitely worth it!

Death Road Mountain Bike Ride

 A very cold start at 4700m - including rain, wind and snow!

At the start of the gravel road, weather had started to improve at this altitude aready.

 View of one of the corners

It was an awesome day, definitely worth the cold in the morning and the adrenalin rush around the corners!

Lake Titikaka photos

The beautiful lake Titikaka

The local women came to welcome us when we arrived on the island for our homestay - our "mama" was third from the left looking left

 Me on my bed for the night, looking a bit apprehensive!

 We hiked to the top of the mountain on the island, beautiful views

After dinner they dressed us up in traditional gear - probably to laugh at the gringos - i was so uncomfortable in all the layers. Think i am more comfortable in western dress

 On our way back in the morning we visited the floating isands in the lake - literally made of reeds and floating on the water (anchored with rope and stones and can be moved around)

Beautiful views from the top of a Puno hill after a small hike to see an old necropolyis, pre Inca times

Cusco to Lake Titikaka and into Bolivia

After a relaxing few days in Cusco after the Inca trail and Christmas, we left for Puno which is on the shores of Lake Titikaka - the highest lake in South America at 4000m.
I have unbelievable views of the lake that i will post when I can download my photos. We had a very interesting experience staying with a local family on one of the islands in the lake - our VERY basic Spanish (together with hand signals!) was just enough to find out where the toilet was and what time dinner and breakfast would be - the bare essentials. But the bed was comfortable enough even though the roof felt like it was going to blow off in the night along with the torrential rain that comes with the rainy season in South America ...
But all in all an interesting experience to see how the locals live, very far removed from the way of life we are used to. But extremely happy with their lifestyle, refreshing to see.

This was our last stop before leaving Peru and crossing into Bolivia. Our first city in Bolivia being La Paz - the town to experience the death road mountain bike race! What an experience .... details and photos to follow - but highly recommended!!
Another experience we had was the road blockades being staged at the same time we were there due to the government subsidy for petrol being cut by the government - interesting times but standard for a third world country and very standard apparently for Bolivia. Lucky we are used to protests, and luckily the ones we saw were non-violent. Needless to say after a few days of protests (some parts of the country had violent clashes and protests) the government reinstated the subsidy and life is back to normal here

Will upload some photos as soon as I can
Happy new year everyone, may 2011 be a great one for all

Merry Christmas!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas
Will update again soon
miss you all
lots of love
Carol
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