Today I am in San Pedro and have just come off a few days in a jeep traveling through the salar and the lakes round the border of Bolivia and Chile. It is amazing how much difference crossing the border makes. It is sooooooooo different in Chile. There is tarmac on the roads for one.

So La Paz was pretty good. Did a tour of the town and all that but was sadly very hung over from going out the night before so missed a little and did some wandering around before shooting out of town on Sunday to avoid the transport strikes. From there I went to Potosi. I did a mine town there and got to spark up some dyamite while chewing on coca leaves. Dyamite really does have that booming sound just like you hear in the movies. It is really cool. Went through the mine and as per usual when I'm traveling went up really high. Maybe I'm not scared of heights anymore. So I was climbing up 2 stories just on a bit of rope with knots in in (ok so the guy helped me up a bit cause well my arms are just a lil weak) and crawling through the smaller shafts and then down the scary ladders. It was a lot of fun.

I got food poisoning that night so ended up staying in town an extra day and then took off for Uyuni. The buses have been dicey in Bolivia as there are loads of transport strikes at the moment and actually checked out a demo while I was in Potosi (mainly cause I thought that they were blowing up dyamite but it turned out to be really loud fire crackers).

So did the jeep tour through the salt pains and round all these lakes with loads of flamingos. Also like geysers and hot springs round the Andes. It was just amazing. The world really is a beautiful place. Bloody cold up on the snow line tho´.

So now I'm off to La Serena for a few days to sit on the beach for a day or so and then onto Santiago for my flight.

ros from URL @ 7:17 pm