Our journey from Santa Cruz to Potosi was the longest so far. The people who sold us the tickets lied to us and told us it was only 16 hours but it ended up as more than 20. It was on a rubbish overcrowded bus with no toilet. We were the only gringos on the bus. We also got stuck for over an hour in the mud in the middle of the night. Therearen´t many paved roads in Bolivia.

We arrived in the early afternoon and stayed for only two nights as we were in quite a rush to get to Peru. Potosi is a really interesting place, totally different from anywhere we´d been before. Apparently it is the world´s highest city at 3020m. As we came straight from Santa Cruz which is at sea level, we felt the altitude straight away. It took us a couple of days to get used to it. We felt really weak and light headed, and easily out of breath walking up and down hills. There were a lot of indigenous people in the town, all in their traditional costume. They looked amazing.

There was some nice buildings around and a nice square but it was a poor town. We managed to get a decent room after we went to the one recommended in Lonely Planet and found that it had since quadrupled in price. No thanks. Our room had a really good view across the city, although there was apowercut one night due to a massive storm. Luckily I was prepared with candles. I was worried about what the rain would do to the roads as we were planning to travel the next day but it turned outok in the end thankfully.

Our last day in Potosi was Alan´s birthday but unfortunately we had to spend most of it travelling to Uyuni, our next destination. I got him some very fetching llama wool legwarmers and gloves. Should come in handy for the Inca Trail in the next week or so....