The overnight train journey took us to a city a few hours bus ride away from La Paz. The busstle of a city and the absence of spectacular landscape was a world away from the Salar. It was strange to think how a relatively short train ride could change things so dramatically. As the bus neared the city, snow capped andean peaks poulated the skyline at regular intervals. These are some of the highest mountians in the Andes and the provided a spectacular backdrop to...

The track from Potosi to Uyuni was as scenic as it was riddled with potholes. After 6hours of ascending and descending mountain roads with stunning views and sheer drop offs, we descended a final pass and on the horizon in the middle of the brown and dusty desert Uyuni slowly dissolved into sight. From a distance, as the only thing in sight, it had the appearance of an oasis. The further you are away from Uyuni the less horrendous it looks. As we drew nearer, a b...

Leaving Sucre behind us we were treated to our first taste of Bolivian roads. Tracks would have been a more suitable description as tarmac hasn't quite caught on here yet. That said, what the road lacked in substance it made up for in scenery and the 3 hour drive was actually quite pleasant if a little bumpy. Arriving in Potosi, the place had a completely different vibe to Sucre. Potosi is a working miners town and beyond that very little. The tourists that come ...

The drive to the airport, and the time it would take for us to check in would be longer than the flight. Flying with a Bolivian airline, wasn`t really something I was most looking forward to. The flight lasted a massive 35 minutes, take off, seat belt signs off, the fastest cabin crew drinks service on record, and then seat belt signs back on for touch down in Sucre. It was more like a scenic flight than a commercial passenger flight. The views of Bolivias sparse...

So far on our travels we had rarely stepped outside the supposed `comfort zone´ for a prolonged period of time. We had camped by roadsides on a couple of occasions, but Argentina, Chile and Brazil are the three wealthiest, most modern and easiest countries to visit in South America. Bolivia was supposed to be a whole new ball game, and on crossing the border, there was an acute awareness, of welcome to the third world. Bolivia is the poorest country in South Ame...