Kat and I have decided to split up, (only joking) well actually no, we are going our separate ways and the reason is my American friend Rich has persuaded me to go mountain climbing with him and attempt to summit Huanya Potosi, a local peak just 6088 meters high, thats only 26 feet shy of 20,000 ft! It will take us three days to summit and Kat has (sensibly) decided to stay behind. The group I was with turned out to be great fun, there was the instigator Rich fr...

Onwards and up to our next destination, Uyuni. The gateway town to the Bolivian salt flats, an ancient ocean now dried up forming the largest salt flat in the world at 4,085 square miles (10,582 square km). We drove out for a day trip, us, an Israeli couple and 2 Japanese guys all in Toyota pickup. This time of the year the salt flat becomes flooded with the rains, about 10cm of water cover the salt which remains in its normal crusty formation below the water. Th...

Potosi, the highest city in the world, and most famous for a giant hill full of silver, tin and very nasty chemicals. We joined a tour and paid an old miner to take us in for the day, show us around and put us to work. The next day, we started the tour with a visit to the miners market. All the miners, all 1600 of 'em are self employed, they have to buy all there own equipment, clothes, tools and dynamite and anyone can just rock up and start digging away. The mo...

Spent a week walking around the city of Sucre, all white buildings and rather fancy architecture, not what you expect when you arrive in South Americas poorest country. Turns out this is also the capital of Bolivia, Bolivia has two capitals, Sucre and La Paz. Bolivia's most famous export is its marching powder which generates around US$1 billion a year for Bolivia La Paz, which is about 12,000 feet above sea level, is nearly a fireproof city, due to the f...

The end of February arrived and so a new month brings a new country. we decided to head west across Brazil and visit Bolivia. A little bit of Internet research revealed the part of Bolivia we were heading to had been busy in the headlines... News - Bolivia city faces 'flood threat' Around 90,000 face being evacuated from the Bolivian city of Trinidad amid rising floodwater's. 82% relevance | 26 Feb 2007 News - Aid arrives in flood-hit Bolivia International aid s...