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Breathless Potosi and Heritage listed Sucre

Potosi sits at an altitude of 4090m. We recently spent three nights there in Koala Den Hostal recovering from our four day tour and taking it easy with the altitude. We decided not to go on a mine tour, especially after see the documentary The Devil’s miner.

 

Sucre is just beautiful, a heritage listed city in the south of Bolivia. We spent five nights at Hostal Casarte Tukubamba, a relatively new hostel about four blocks from the main plaza.

We just happened to arrive on the last day of the chocolate festival. We did sample two or three of the local chocolates on offer. It would have been rude not to!

This horse was made completely out of chocolate. You can’t see it but there was a stream of chocolate running down the rocks.

We were lucky enough to see a street parade celebrating Mothers’ day and the anniversary of the local market.

The highlight for us was Roberto and his Italian cafe. Run out of the bottom of his house, we had to ring the bell to get into the cafe. Roberto found us sitting on his door step two nights in a row at 6.45pm and welcomed us in with open arms. The menu was extensive with many homemade pastas. Nick also had the best tiramisu and lemon mousse of his life. Roberto is Italian and has been living in Sucre for 12 years with his Bolivian wife and two young girls. He was a wonderful host and sat at the table with us each night having a long chat, despite the fact he had many other customers. I told him we should let him go so he could attend to his customers and his response was……….Hey Estamos in Bolivia! Hey we are in Bolivia!

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Nick braved the local barber shop for a shave and sideburn trim. The barber was surprised Nick only wanted his sideburns done and not the rest of his curls.

He told me in Spanish that you need to be careful because here in Bolivia you could lose everything!

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Giving new meaning to a zebra crossing!

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We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the local market.

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Ugly Uyuni

“Seemingly built in defiance of the desert-like landscape, Uyuni stands desolate yet undaunted in Bolivia’s southwestern corner. Mention Uyuni to a Bolivian and they will whistle and emphasize ‘harto frío’ – extreme cold. Yet despite the icy conditions, which are compounded by the fact that, no matter how you plan it, you always seem to arrive at 2am, Uyuni’s got a cheerful buzz about it. Travelers arrive and eagerly plan a trip around the Southwest Circuit; those who return see Uyuni with new eyes, as a sort of paradise filled with much-missed daily comforts.
Although there’s not much to see here, and the wind chill can strip your soul bare as you pace the wide streets, Uyuni’s isolated position and outlook elicit an affectionate respect from both Bolivians and foreign travellers.”

– Lonely Planet Bolivia

I have one word for you Lonely Planet and it’s RUBBISH!

If I was writing the blurb I would say…………
Uyuni is one of the ugliest places in the universe and is filled with rubbish. It looks like people have just taken all of the rubbish from their houses and thrown it on to the streets. There are black plastic bags as far as the eye can see. After returning from four days in the pristine wilderness travellers will be apaulled by the sight of Uyuni and will want to escape as fast as they can. Unfortunately the next bus out is usually at least five hours away. Those unlucky enough to be stuck in Uyuni for a few hours should consider a trip out to the cemetery of trains. It is again filled with rubbish but has a certain charm about it.

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Spectacular Salar de Uyuni
Day four began early at 5.30am with a drive across the salt lake to see the sunrise.

 

 

We then hiked on the island of Inca Huasi, covered in 6000 cacti.

 

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An accident was bound to happen!

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Breakfast was a picnic in this beautiful location – everyone had the same idea!

 

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Our guide certainly enjoyed Margaretta’s cake.

 

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It turns out he needed the energy to pump up our back tyre (which ended up being totally flat by the time the tour ended in Uyuni. Number four for the trip!)

 

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We spent ages after breakfast taking crazy photos!

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This gives away the secret on how the above shots were taken.

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We drove to see the mountains of salt before ending our tour in Uyuni.

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Interesting Links
Salar de Uyuni

Chinese to help Bolivia mine lithium

We thoroughly recommend taking a four day/three night tour with Hostal Salares from Tupiza

 

A beautiful backwater and a tacky tourist attraction

For two nights we headed up into the mountains to Iruya, a gorgeous little village at an altitude of 2780m where we stayed with the Asunta family.

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We spent our last night in Argentina in Humahuaca and visited what we considered to be the most over rated tourist attraction ever. There is a church tower in the main square where Saint Francisco Solano comes out and makes the sign of the cross as the clock strikes 12 pm. It made us laugh but others seemed to be taking it very seriously indeed. Thanks for the recommendation Celi!

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We stayed at Hostal la Soniada in Humahuaca