Sponge Bob Square Pants, two nights in the Daniel Bracamonte and the Salar de Uyuni

I thought I´d try to be a little more creative and give each of my blogs a ´catchy´ heading. I´ve got some catching up to do as I haven´t written for a while ...

Arrived in Potosí to my hostal, the Koala Den, which I was amused to see was adorned with Sponge Bob Square Pants curtains (and I had racing cars on my duvet ... not sure what the target age group was!). I also had my own bathroom with hot water (hurrah), for which I was to be very thankful later on). Potosí claims to be the highest city in the world (4100m) and is a silver mining town (which is the main tourist attraction). I was expecting it to be quite desolate but it´s actually quite pretty. I didn´t go on a tour of the mines as I didn´t feel too comfortable about the ethics of going to gawp at the terrible conditions as a tourist (plus I couldn´t see myself crawling down mine shafts with a broken elbow).

The next day I was due in Uyuni, the starting point for trips across the Salar de Uyuni. Unfortunately I had to stay for two nights at the Hospital Daniel Bracamonte instead. I was waiting for the bus to Uyuni, and feeling terrible with possible food poisoning, and fainted and hit my head on the pavement (I have a lovely black eye to show for it). Luckily two girls took me to hospital, and they kept me in for a couple of days. Don´t think I´ve ever felt so ill in my life, but fortunately lots of drugs seemed to do the trick. It was actually quite interesting being in hospital - I think it was a charity hospital as it was pretty basic and the patients were all Quechua speaking villagers in traditional dress: the old ladies held daily chats on the bed next to mine, and seemed very friendly, even though I could hardly understand the mix of Quechua and Spanish they were speaking to me.

Salar de Uyuni and San Pedro de Atacama to come (Chile is super expensive!).