Bolivia is great sure I've been as sick as a parrot (more on that later) but this place is finally what I've hoped for in South America. The scenery is spectular, the culture very unique, the people lovely, sure it's much tougher travel, the food is just ok, the wine just passable and the internet is frustrating but everything is as cheap as chips.

God it seems an age since I last updated but guess it's not really that long ago. It's just that I've probably fitted so much into the last week or so that
I'm losing track of time. Oh a warning... this is quite a long post.

Anyway we left Chile via the Atacama Desert and made our way to the Bolivian border or should I say Bolivian hut in the middle of nowhere that represented the border. We payed our bribe (2 US$) to get into the country, got our passports stamped and then jumped into 4 x 4s for one of the most amazing journeys on my trip so far 3 days crossing the desert and the Salar de Uyuni.

For the first couple of days we were mainly in the desert, stunning views of lakes, hot thermal pools, volcanoes, vicunas (kind of like a camel/llama) and
beautiful pink flamingos. One big problem struck me though I got altitude sickness real real bad.  On day one we hit 4950 metres above sea level at the gyser basin and it was then that the thumping thumping headache came on, followed by my body attempting to deposit everything that has ever been inside and this carried on for over 3 days (let me say when you`'ve
no bathroom it's not the best experience). So with sick head, tummy and no ability to eat food we finally got to the Salar de Uyuni on day three and WOW WOW WOW. This place is the world's largest salt flats (actually Bolivia seems to have lots of the world's largest, highest, most dangerous) and is 3653 metres above sea level and covers 12,000 sq km (you can actually see it from the moon or so I'm told) and it's completely surreal. We spent a day on the flats taking stupid photos, visiting a cactus island and a salt hotel and just generally having some fun and then it was all over. We said goodbye to our crew at Uyuni town were we finally got showers and a toilet to use (they were put to good use by everyone) and I had an early night and then full with Immodian I jumped on a bus the next morning for a 7 hour ride to Potosi.

Now another Bolivian world's best... Potosi is officially the world's highest city at 4070 metres above sea level. It's an old mining town and also
used to be one of the world's richest for the amount of silver it produced. It's a beautiful old colonial style city with narrow cobbled streets, old churches, lots of plazas and thousands of people all squashed in to the little space it actually takes up. We had two nights here and other than walk the streets soaking in the atmosphere, the main thing to do is to go on a mine tour. Most of the group went in the morning, but with my clostrophobia and as I was still suffering from altitude sickness I just decided to stay in bed. The best decision I think, but those that went said it was a real eye-opener to see, harrowing but worthwhile. Boys as young as 12 start working in the mine and the average life expectancy for the miners once they are down there is 10 to 15 years so far over 8 million people have died due to working the mine (I'd say that was pretty horrific). Later that day with sickness subsiding I actually got out, ate for the first time in 4 days, checked out the town and climbed the cathedral where I found myself on top of the highest building, in the highest city in the world... now beat that!! Oh and Singing Jonny you'd be proud to know that I even made it to Karoke...

So after Potosi it was another luxury bus ride (ha ha) to Sucre where I now find myself. I actually love this city and have already been here 3 nights which have gone far to quickly. So far I've been invited to and danced at a local party in a house behind our hotel, visited Tarabuco market - a fantastic local market in the mountains selling anything from coca leaves to llamas
to nike hats to silver bracelets (guess what I purchased). Yesterday I went hiking in the mountains (tough considering the altitude and also the hangover
caused by the night before!!) and today I'm going to visit the local orphanage. As you know I'm currently travelling with GAP and part of the money I paid goes to a charity  this orphanage happens to be the charity chosen by GAP that my money went to. We're going shopping soon to take in presents for the kids and I'm sure I'll let you all know how the visit went on my next posting.

But for now, I think I've bored you far too much (and believe me I've only skimmed the surface of what I've been up to) so I'll say adios amigos, tomar cuidar de.

xxx