Ok well, I’m in Potosi now but leaving at lunchtime to go to Sucre. But rewind a few days…On Monday we left San Pedro in Chile and began our 4wd crossing of the desert. First we went through border control, which was quite funny experience. Just a ramshackle building in the middle of a desert, a bolivian flag and a tiny room with no phone, computer etc and a toothless bolivian who stamped my passport. We had 3 4wd between 14 of us, 3 drivers and a cook who prepared all our meals. And… we were all pleasantly surprised when we got amazing home cooked food as Jose our tour leader said it would be crap (I think just so we didn’t have high expectations!). The crossing was across the altiplano which is ranges in altitude but is from 2000 to 4000m above sea level and characterised by geysers, lakes, volcanos, and lots of llamas and flamingos. The first day consisted of several stops to see the lagoons. In the photos, you can see them, the blue lagoon which is because of the presence of arsenic, the pink one because of the algae that’s in it. We also stopped at some hot springs while we waited for lunch, which was nice to get rid of the dust! Then we travelled on to our stop for the night, at a place called Villa mar. A tiny place, where we only had electricity for a couple of ours but had an amazing 3 course meal for dinner. The next day we just travelled more across the desert, a very bumpy ride with not as many interesting stops but we saw lots of llamas and had a nice lunch in a paddock with them! We did stop at “Rock Valley” where were loads of massive rocks that have been weathered by time and the elements. We stayed the next night in a Salt Hotel, but I’ve forgotten the name of the town. Really cool, all the bricks, beds, tables, chairs were made of salt and the floor was covered with it as well. The nest day we had to leave at 4am to get to the slat flats in time to see the sun rise. After a steep climb up an island called Fish Island in the middle of the Salt Flats, we watched the sun rise and walked around the island, which is covered in cacti. (Is that the plural for cactus!?) We drove across the salt flats – a huge expanse of white salt, which is 10m thick at some places. During the day we stopped at a few small towns, where the kids all came running up to us to try and get money/food of us in return for photos of them.. I gave one a texta I had in my bag. Bolivia is very different from Chile. For a start, it’s a third world country so it’s much more basic than Argentina and Chile. Also, it’s the cheapest country in South America whereas Chile was the most expensive. Also, there’s a much higher population of indigenous people – either Aymara or Quecha. It feels a lot different to where we’ve been previously, and it looks more like the tourist photos you would see of Bolivia. Women in big skirts, with coloured shawls, often used to carry a baby on their back, and big long black plaits with little hats on top. On the third and last day of the crossing, we stopped to see how Salt is refined by hand- The families are all involved in the work which looks pretty back breaking. We figured out that a one kilo bag would cost one pence if you bought it from them. We also stopped at a “train cemetery” where the dump all the trains they don’t use anymore – most of them were ancient and were used to transport salt and silver across the desert. The desert crossing stopped in Uyuni where I wrote my last brief entry.. We then got on a bus to Potosi. It just happened to be the worst bus journey so far! For a start it was meant to pick us up at 1 and arrive at about 6 ish. Instead it was an hour late, and we didn’t arrive til 11. All the road was a dirt track so incredibly bumpy, and full of twists and turns and steep cliffs at the edge of the road. At one particular moment, a big truck was coming the other way and we both had to inch along the road.. I closed my eyes at that point… Pitch black, no street lights (well obviously) or reflecty things in the road and only the cars lights to see the way.. needless to say I won’t be doing that journey again in a hurry!So Wednesday night we arrive here and went straight to bed. Potosi is the sight of the famous silver mines. It was discovered in mid 1500s and had been mined since then. All the silver mined here was used to make the coins for Spain and shipped back. At the height of its success, Potosi was about the same size as London at the time and bigger than Rome and Paris! They used to ship all the latest fashions from Paris here as well – probably on the dodgy road we travelled along! So yesterday we went to the Old Mint in the morning – which is a museum where we saw the old machines they used to make coins – giant oak cogs that were pulled by mules. In the afternoon we did the tour of the mines. Wearing plastic outerwear, gumboots and hardhats with lights, we ventured into the mining tunnels. We took with us presents for the miners – coca leaves with the catalyst to release the effect, handmade cigarettes, TNT, ammonium nitrate and fuse for the explosions! The miners work up to 18+ hours a day, and consequently they drug themselves up with coca and alcohol to keep going – the alcohol they take down is 96%! And they take little sips of it all day long. At the moment there are about 20 000 miners working the Cerro Rico De Potosi (Rich mountain of Potosi) but we saw about 5. Some of the tunnels we walked through and others we had to crouch down. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it, as it’s not recommended that asthmatics go down, but I was fine and more worried about the small spaces if anything! We sae one miner prepare an explosion and then waited a few metres away while it went off. Then we saw 4 others bashing away at huge rocks they had exploded that morning. I had a go with the mallet thing to see if I could break it.. surprise surprise, I wasn’t even close! All in all, a good experience but I’m not itching to go back down there again. Even now, the conditions are crap and we saw little children just wandering around the mountain. One group of kids, all about 6 were selling little rocks to tourists. We were all a bit subdued when we came back, as John – one of the guys on the tour said – He’d never felt so lucky to be born into a nice middle-class Western family. Anyway, that’s about it for now. Sucre I hope will be nice, as we’ve been told our hotel is really nice with a buffet breakfast, oh can’t wait! Haven’t had altitude sickness yet, but a few headaches and slight tummy aches. Others have been hit much worse, so I’m counting my lucky stars at the moment. Oh, speaking of stars, that was the only good thing about the bus journey here – because of the height, and lack of pollution, the stars were so so bright and I saw the Southern Cross for the first time since leaving home! Lots of love xx