La Paz to Santiago 28th June to 17th July 2008

I arrived at La Paz in the early hours of the morning, after a very long flight from Sao Paulo. It took so long as I had to go to Lima first then to La Paz.

Once I got to La Paz, in the dark it looked so calm, peaceful and beautiful. Once day broke it changed to busy, frustrating, chaotic, not sure where the beauty had gone. The streets are full of markets. Everywhere is a market. People are almost on top of each other. The buses and taxis so very dangerous, and I was surprised most of them could make it up the steep hills.

I for one was struggling to climb the hills. I was hit with altitude sickness. Going down hill was fine, but any incline caused my heart to pound and my lungs to gasp for air. Two steps were difficult. Night time was the worst, I would wake with a racing heart and a dry mouth. The outside temperature at night was below 0. We were 4000 meters above sea level. A bit of a shock to me having come from sea level. I needed to sleep with the window open to seek more oxygen.

There were two drinks that helped, bottled water with added oxygen, and coca tea. The coca tea is made from the cocaine plant. It is a natural aspirin, but does not have the same effects as cocaine.

My altitude sickness was not as bad as other people in the group. I did manage to get over it after two days. I kind of grew to like La Paz. It was a bit of a shock to see raw flesh, fish, fruit, veg, light bulbs all being sold side by side on the street. Some of the stall holders had stools, many used the floor.

The streets were very busy, the locals wore traditional dress, which for the women was a bowlers hat, four big skirts and a waist coat.

The weather hear was beautiful. Blue skies and sunshine all day long. The night sky was black and full of diamonds. We did not see a cloud at all.

We moved on to Cochabamba. We travelled by bus. The buses in Bolivia are antiquated. People sit and lie in the gangway. They try to get you out of your seats. So we discovered. Our bus journey was supposed to take 6 hours, but as we were in Bolivia anything can happen. It ended up taking 12 hours. We had to drive through farm fields as many of the roads were blocked off. To be fair there is very little difference between farm fields and the roads of Bolivia.

Our tour guide handled everything very well for us. He new that there were strikes going on. Today, they wanted to block every possible route out of La Paz. Fortunately we were able to keep going. Many times we thought we would have to go back to La Paz. This would have put us behind schedule by a few days.

The scenery was wonderful. Lots of snow capped mountains peaking out in the distance. We got to Cochabamba a lot later then expected.

The climate in Cochabamba was a lot more pleasant, very spring like. We dropped in altitude, which made me very happy. The weather continued to be clear blue skies and perfect sunshine. We did not get a lot of time here in the end. It had all the usual things to do in a city. We all mainly ate and walked around.

The night bus was fun to Sucre. The roads were awful. There is no such thing as tar mac. All the roads are rocks and dust. You can not open the window as you will be covered in dust. Its difficult to sleep too as the road is so bumpy. It was lovely to see the beautiful clear night though. There was no moon in the sky, but the stars were out sparkling. We stopped in the middle of the night in a small village for the toilet. It was fairly pleasant. I am sure it was someones home.

Again there were people sleeping in the gangways, and I am sure people sitting on the driver. One man got on with a handful of fish in a plastic bag. He got off after a few stops so it was not too bad.

When we arrived at Sucre, we were all very happy. The hotel was lovely. There was lots to do around the area. We went to a Christ figure, Botanical gardens, looked at some dinosaur footprints, and cave paintings. I went on a hike with a different tour which was beautiful. We could see some of the Inca Trail, geological patters in the rocks, the effects from volcanoes, rushing waters, interesting plants, climbing by shere drops. I was quite scared. Everyone on the tour really helped me and were so kind. I nearly fell in the water towards the end of the hike. The water was so cold. Fresh mountain water.

There was a football pitch for the local villages by the river. It was basically clay. Its seemed so strange, as it was in the middle of nowhere.

We all got a bit too drunk the few nights we were there. There were only two night clubs! I think I drank too much capriniahs again. Then we left to Potosi.

Potosi is a very poor town. Many of the locals work in the silver mine or the death mountain. In Sucre we watched a documentary on it. Its a very sad place. People work 24 hours or more straight. The conditions are very poor. Its very dark. We all went inside when we got to Potosi. Most of the time we had to crouch down or walk on all fours. There were lots of drops with great depth. We had to walk over a plank of wood. I had a panic attack and wanted to leave, but managed to carry on. The group again were very supportive of me.

I ended up with scratches on my knees, thighs and bum. We had to lift ourselves up and down and on to things. If you fell down one of the holes, that would have been it.

The mountain has lots 500 metres since it was discovered that there was silver inside in the 16th century.

Each day the miners give gifts to the devil, which is inside. It is a statue of the devil. If they feed the devil drink, cigarettes, and coca leaves it will prevent accidents happening inside and find silver.

After Potosi we went to Uyuni, which is on the edge of the salt flats. We had a day here. It is really a military town. The hotel was basic, but better then the accommodation to come. There really were only two roads and it was all touristy. All the shops were either selling hats and gloves or Internet or supermarkets.

I was really excited. Looking forward to the salt flats. We started fairly early. The group travelled in three 4x4s. The first part of the drive is just flat and barren. Not much to see. We stopped at a train wreckage. We saw the train lines that went either to Argentina for Bolivia. Then when we got back in and drove on a bit further suddenly the scenery was white and blue as far as the eye could see. The ground was pure white from the salt. It looked so much like snow. The sky was a perfect blue. As far as the eye could see was white. There were a few mountains in the distance. It was strange to think that we were on the ocean bed. The mountains would have been islands.

We stopped at one island which was full of coral. The coral is dead now, and there is lots of cacti growing out of it now. Very strange. The patterns in the salt were pretty, hexagons as far as the eye could see. Cones where the salt was being cultivated.

When we got to our accommodation there was no electricity. We ate dinner and played cards by candle night. Could barely see what the cards were. The group of 16 was divided in to two rooms. We all had to wear thermals as the temperature dropped to -20oC at night.

The next morning was beautiful seeing the sun rise. Plus that was the only way we knew it was the next day.

We all packed up the 4x4s again. We are going up in altitude again, as we were heading to the driest desert in the world that was at 5000 meters above sea level.

I could not imagine seeing so many colours and animals in the desert. The earth is mineral rich. There are reds, blues, greens and browns. The lakes are covered in ice as it is so cold. The sun is always shining, and you can feel you are very close to the sun. The ground is barren. Very few plants, a few cacti and not much else.

There was quite a bit of wildlife, chinchillas, llamas, flamingos and other birds.

The accommodation again was very basic. It was sad to leave the desert, but a relief to see lights and life in the distance as we made our way through the Bolivian boarder in to Chile. Some of the girls in the bus cheered as we were finally on a proper man made road.

Our next stop was San Pedro. We got up at 4am to leave the desert. Before we left we all got the chance to go in the thermal springs. The air temperature was -20oC and the water was 33oC. I very nearly did not go in, as I was afraid of the cold weather. I could see people's hair icing once outside of the water. Then I just went for it. It was so cold walking around in a bikini, but was so worth it once I got in the water. At first it felt like it was burning my feet. I had to get in little by little. We had all been wrapped up in thermals over night, and could still feel the cold. Most of us were cold to the bone. Once in I totally thawed out. It was invigorating. Watching the sunrise whilst in the thermal water was amazing.

Everyone that went it were calm, happy, and relaxed, and we all felts slightly mad. Getting out the water was not too bad. We all actually felt a lot warmer changing, then we thought. We had to change out in the open air. There were no changing rooms. The thermal spring was natural and was heated from the active volcanoes that surrounded us.


San Pedro is a beautiful little village, really set up for tourists. It was very hot here. A welcomed relief from the desert. A few of us went off to look at the Dead Valley and the Moon Valley. We ran down huge sand dunes. Watched the sun go down over the mountains and saw how the light changed all the colours and increased the shadows from the rocks. The heat of the sun also disappeared.

The salt on the rocks make sounds, its really eery.

In the evening we got to star gaze at the local observitory. We saw Jupiter, close ups of the moon, a double star and other things I forget the names of. It was all very good fun.

It was time for our next night bus. I slept the entire way. Think I had been drinking a lot so needed the rest.

We got to La Serena. Not sure what I felt about it. Went to the beach which was lovely, and odd. One minute it was perfectly clear, then the fog came in. We had not seen any changes in weather for a while so it struck us. The fog was really think. La Serena is surrounded my mountains and ocean. The fog stayed with us for the days we were there. The weather was much the same as in England.

The weather was not great when we got to Santiago either. It was the first time we had all seen heavy rain. Like a Brit, I quite enjoyed the rain, the change in weather.

Santiago to me though had no atmosphere. I tried to enjoy it, but it was very commercial and faceless to me. I was also quite hungover from many late nights drinking 'til very early in the morning.

The buildings here are nice and there is lots to do, but it felt like home.

My opinion my be tainted as I had my backpack stolen from the hostel I went to once the tour finished. It was locked away in my locker, I came back and it had gone. They left my valuables. Had a trip to the local police station. It was great that the group were still around. Went to moan to them before sadly saying goodbye to the group, though I should see them again in a few days.

I am now in Bariloche. I had to get a bus in the end as the airline messed up my flights. It was wonderful. Double seat to myself. Lots of sleep. Woke up and could see the mist coming from the mountains. Could see snow and ice in the distance.

Everyone here so far are friendly. Its only my first day, but I like it. It is so beautiful. The snow lines all the trees, the waters are fast and icy cold, the lakes mirror the mountains and sky.