31/03/08

Vilimar - Our first stop in Bolivia

On our way here today i think i discovered the birth place of dust. Man it was dry and dusty and just when you thought you would never see water ever again we would come accross an amazing lake.

Villimar, in the middle of nowhere was a nice place to meet our first Bolivian locals. We arrived here late but that didn´t stop the local kids from putting on a musical performance. I thought one of them would drop off to sleep while standing though.

1-2/04/08 Uyuni

After playing a bit of b ball in the morning (at 4000m plus its not so easy) we left Vilimar and headed for Uyuni.

Now up in the Bolivian Altiplano, from Uyuni we ventured out to the amazing Salt Flats. The sal flats are the biggest in the world. The depth of the salt in the middle is 120m. It is realy amazing looking around and seeing nothing but a flat white from horizon to horizon. Truely worth the visit and you can even do some tricky stuff using the flatness to trick the eyes as to the actual size of objects.

3-4/04/08

Potosi - The highest city of its size in the world (4,070m).

Potosi was once a booming city (the largest in the Americas) due to the Cerro Rico mine which over shadows the city. Silver used to be the main mineral mined. The minimum age for working in the mine is 12 and in the lower levels there is an average of one cave in a day and three deaths a month.

We went on a tour of the mine and as part of the tour we purchased and gave miners gifts of dynamite, amonium nitrate (for a bigger bang), coca leaves, biscuits and some 96% alcohol that nearly caused a cave in in my body! All of this is available to anyone from a local miners market for a couple of dollars in total! They use the coca leaves and alcohol to get them through the day without having to go to the bathroom. Its far from the best way to make a living and while we were in there an explosion went off about 50m further along the mine.

After the tour we had a dynamite and amonium nitrate demonstration. All i can say is that both made a big bang (amonium nitrate combined with dynamite is def a bigger bang) and we couldn´t find the frozen chicken or pumpkin we used!

I liked Potosi with its mine overshadowing the city like a giant pyramid. Aparently the mountain which contains the mine has reduced in heght by arount 100m since mining began some 400 plus years ago.

6-7/04/08

La Paz - The highest Capital city in the world (3,636m).

La Paz sits in a cauldron with the mountains rising up on all sides. While in La Paz we amongst other things went to a wrestling match which was interesting to say the least. Wrestlers dressed up as spiderman and a tenage mutant ninja turtle fought it out. It was very funny until the women came out to fight. These girls scared me for real! I didn´t think i would ever see a woman flipped by her pony tails or have a can of softdrink smashed into her face. Even the crowd was ducking for cover as the blood started and the bottles flew. Oh lets not forget the midget who got droped out of the ring...OUCH!

Mountain biking the most dangerous road in the world was the next item on the agenda. An amazing day as we biked downhill for about 95% of the time (off road). The scenery was yet again amazing as we cycled from 5,000m to around 3,000m (cant remember exact alt). I had one small stack but otherwise survived what was some of the best fun i have had on a mountain bike.

One of the lads had some good fortune for when we were stoped for lunch his tyre blew. Could have been lights out if was on the bike. Five hours of great fun!

08/04/08

Copacabana (Lake Titicaca)

An amazing inland sea which is about 195km by 45km. Copacabana is a lovely little resort town which affords spectacular views of the lake and is especially striking at sunset.

On to Peru...