The mines in Potosi, Bolivia are dark, damp and probably the scariest place I've ever been. It's the kind of place you visit once and vow never to return. Well, that is, if you're lucky. Hundreds of men spend their days inside the mines chipping and blasting a living out of the surrounding mountain. And although the mountain has been good to some, allowing them a better living than they would get outside, it has been horrible to many more. In fact, thus far, it h...

The sun is just beginning to light the morning sky and slowly reveals the vast white desert around us. The ground is crunchy, but firm, like hard packed snow. We are standing in the middle of an ancient sea, now dry and pushed up to 4, 000 m (13,000 ft above sea level). The only things breaking up the flat expanse are mountains on the edges, 100 km away, and small islands scattered about. This is the Salar de Uyuni, the world largest salt flat and lithium reserve...

As many of you have heard, the famous Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu have been closed due to severe flooding. Since Machu Pichu is closed, we decided to spend most of our remaining time on the first leg of our trip in Bolivia (we're coming home for the summer to attend a couple of weddings and will be taking off for Asia in the fall). The day of my birthday we reached the Bolivian border where quite the birthday present was awaiting me. Our bus stopped at the borde...