But getting over that I've been having a ball in Bolivia. Visited three cities so far. After crossing the border from Corumbá, Brazil to Quijarro, Bolivia we got the 'death train' to Santa Cruz. This is an unbelievably bumpy 18 hour trip where every so often there was such a loud and huge jolt on the tracks I thought we were being derailed. But we survived and enjoyed a few days wandering the streets of Santa Cruz. Our hostel even had a surprise pet, a gorgeous toucan, a bird we were stuggling to spot in the Pantanal. He was fiesty, ripping the place apart and pecking at our fingers and toes but he was great. We didn't find a huge amount to do in Santa Cruz but we relaxed and enjoyed the architecture and everyone elses relaxed state.
Next we headed to Sucre and after only planning two days here we ended up spending five, we got completely sucked in. It was a lovely, small place with pretty buildings, great food and great night life. Our hostel, even though it was a little falling down was great to meet people and everyone was so friendly. In Sucre we visited the largest site of dinosaur footprints in the world and the cheesy jurassic park style museum that accompanied it and we visited the museum of indigenous art where we learned all about the Bolivian weaving and how the government are trying to revive it. Watched two women in full costume recreating the ancient art of the weaving while texing each other when they thought no one was looking! hehe.
I'm now currently in a town called Potosi, and at 4,070 metres above sea level, I'm in the highest town in the world. There is really only one thing to do in Potosi and that's visiting the silver mines that are hidden inside the big mountain over looking the town. From our hostel we headed out on a tour to explore one of the mines. We left early in the morning wrapped up from the freezing cold but were told it would be roasting down in the mines. Eek! We all doned our gorgeous miners outfits and headed off. Because these are working mines, we had to buy presents for the miners that we would be annoying with our existance in the mine, so we bought them the usual... dynamite. We got ourselves some too just for good measure. Inside the mine was a pretty scary place. When we were able to walk we mostly had to crouch as the ceilings were quite low but at certain points we had to get down on all fours and crawl from place to place. Add to this no oxegen, lots of dust and only the light on your head, it was a pretty scary experience. At one point our guide made us run after a mine cart, full speed through the mine shaft and I thought I was going to die! We chewed on coca levels to help with the altitude and the dust! After crawling back up the mines we watched our dynamite blow up in a field. Glad to be outta there, can't believe people work there 6 days a week for 35 years!
Heading for Tupiza now and then onto the salt flat. We'll be in La Paz at the end of the month celebrating Brians 25th birthday if anyone wants to join us :) x
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