Hi Guys,

As you can see I have finally moved on from La Paz and I am currently in a city called Potosi. Potosi is famous for both being the highest city in the world and for its rich silver mining. Here is an account of the last few days.

On Friday, I officially started my tour with Dragoman. After a bit of confusion on my part as to where I was supposed to meet my group, which it turns out I was completely in the wrong hotel, I eventually met up with the group around 6 in the evening. The group appeared ok, with a good balance of 6 guys to 6 girls, however it was slightly awkward as the rest of the group have traveled down from Quito in Ecuador for the past 5 weeks, so know each other really well. I guess it felt a bit strange joining an existing group, however everyone so far has made me feel extremely welcome, so no complaints there. That evening after a briefing from our leader we went off to dinner together, which was really nice as it enabled me to get to know my group a little better.

The next day, Saturday was a challenge and a half... It is fair to say in my 7 months of traveling I have tried to put myself out of my comfort zone quite regularly and done activities that on any normal circumstance I would run a mile from. Well, our leader asked us who wanted to cycle down the worlds most dangerous road and I found myself signing up for the trip, afterall how bad could it be?...

We started the day bright an early around 6 in the morning, after a very quick breakfast we made our way to the meeting point of the tour. After about an hours upward drive to an altitude of 4700 metres above sea level, we were all given our gear and equipment and had an in-depth safety briefing, until we were on our way. The start of the trail was not too bad, as it was on a concrete road that gently descended downhill, I found myself just happily drifting down without the need for any peddling. We then got to a point where our guide mentioned that we have a 5km up-hill climb which on flat ground would have not been too challenging, but being so high up and with feeling the effects of the altitude was a bit of a struggle. Regardless we all made it. It was after this section that things started to get a little more challenging, dangerous and bloody scary. This section was the official start of the worlds most dangerous road, descending on a graveled track, winding around sharp bends and looking down to oblivion. I am not sure if it was the bumpy road or my sheer nerves but I found myself shaking uncontrollably as we continued our descent passing these cliffs that just simply drop for miles. Anyway, I found myself concentrating like never before on the track ahead of me, all the time I had my hands gripped on the breaks to the extent that my hands went white. I am not sure if I am doing a very good job at describing this experience but for those that know me well, know of my fear of heights can probably understand how I felt at the time. Luckily our guide who was extremely thorough with his safety instructions kept saying that you should go at your own pace. So whilst there was a fair few in the group that I class as the fearless who bombed down the hill, there was others that lets say were slightly more cautious and then there was me, at the back of the group about 20 minutes behind anyone else, fretting, gripping hard on my breaks and trying desperately hard not to look down. Anyway, we eventually made it to the bottom and were rewarded with a t-shirt and most importantly a beer. I was so happy to finish the ride, looking back I am glad I did it, but to say that I enjoyed the experience would be slightly generous, I mean its not called the most dangerous road for nothing.

Anyway, on Sunday we finally left La Paz, after 10 nights I was definitely ready for a change. So once again we got up early, had another rushed breakfast before boarding our bus/truck. Our guide, Dan has a tendency to get annoyed with anyone calling our vehicle a bus as really it is a big truck that fitted with seats inside. Still, I am not the only one who has pleasure at winding him up and calling it a bus, hehe. So we left about 7am and finally reached Potosi around 5.30 pm, after spending about an hour quite literally stuck on the road. As we rather ambitiously attempted to go down a road with cars packed at both sides we entered a spot of difficulty when trying to pass another bus. Eventually we got through and checked into our hotel before enjoying a great steak dinner.

This now leads me onto today. As I previously mentioned, Potosi is renowned for its mining silver. So one of the major attractions of the city is a tour of the local mines. Once again, although I would not really class it as a fear as such I am not found of tight spaces and generally being underground. However, I once again signed up for the tour, along with 6 others from my group. So after collecting our overalls, helmets and head torches we made our way to the mines. Upon entering the mines you really sense how cramped the conditions are and begin to straight away feel sorry for all the miners. Our tour of the mines involved lots of, mind your heads and big hole to the left/right chants from our enthusiastic guide. We got to try and do the work of the miners, which involved digging, pushing huge mounds of dirt in a wheelbarrow etc, and generally lots of scrambling on our knees, up and down the mines. Even though once again there were times where I was quite literally cacking my pants, squeezing through these tiny spaces and passing these huge holes, I loved the tour. It was so interesting to learn about the miners working conditions etc.

Anyway, this afternoon we have all kind of separated to do our own thing. So I enjoyed another cheap 3-course lunch for under a dollar before wandering around the colonial streets.

Tomorrow we are due to head down to the Salar de Uyunai, salt flats. I am really excited about this as it is supposed to be a fantastic and yet surreal experience, looking out to miles of pure white salt crystals.

Anyway, I hope everyone reading this is well and that you are enjoying the typical summer weather back home. I will look forward to seeing you all soon.

Take Care,
Jon