Bolivia - La Paz, Sucre, Potosi, Uyuni

After a 5 day break at home (to change up my gear) I flew in to La Paz, Bolivia. I had 12 days in this amazing country and it had both ups and down. Let’s start with the down … I somehow contracted food poisoning my first day here and so La Paz was pretty much a write off for me. I didn’t see much of the city other than the Witch Market (which was fascinating) and the cinema because I wasn’t feeling up to doing anything.

From La Paz I did take a full day trip to Lake Titicaca and Sun Island. This is a truly beautiful part of the Country and I’d really love to come back some day and spend more time here on the Lake. During this day trip I got to see the scenery change from big city life (in La Paz) to rural life and then finally island land. From Sun Island we had stunning views of Peru and the surrounding mountains in Bolivia and I got to enjoy some Cocoa Tea and learn about some of the local beliefs.

From La Paz I joined up with a G Adventures tour that will take me in to Chile over a span of 3 weeks. The tour took us from La Paz to Sucre to Potosi to Uyuni and finally on a 3 day excursion through the Salar D’Uyuni and the Atacama Desert Crossing. AMAZING.

Let’s start with Sucre – It’s a smaller town but it certainly does have a lot of charm and it’s quite beautiful with its white houses all built up into the hillside. I still wasn’t totally feeling myself in Sucre (however the antibiotics and Tequila shots were definitely helping – Mom don’t read that part!!) so I didn’t do any of the daytrips or excursions from here. I spent my time sleeping in and relaxing by day and hitting the Joy Ride Café for some dancing by night. I also did the city tour here which was quite interesting and included a visit to the Museum, Cathedral and Miraflor lookout (even though I was about ready to keel over and die by the end of it - due to illness … not tequila). As a group we went to see the Origenes Espacio Cultural; a dinner theatre that showcases traditional Bolivian music and dance. It was lots of fun!

Moving on to Potosi. Potosi is a mining city in Bolivia with a population of approximately 200,000 people. The city itself is quite charming with its red brick houses (most of which have an awesome pop of colour from a lovely door or window.) We spent some time walking through the city to the main square and through the various markets; however the highlight of Potosi was definitely our mine tour. Potosi is built at the base of Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), a huge mountain rich in over 96 minerals. Miners have been extracting minerals from this mountain for almost 500 years. We had the opportunity to visit the Miners Market, put on the appropriate gear and make our way into the mine for a 2 hour visit to see what life in the mines is like as well as learn about how the miners work and the tools they use. This was a really interesting experience and I think everyone who did the tour was happy to have participated.

From Potosi we drove through the rolling, winding, half pavement and half dirt roads to Uyuni (and we saw hundreds of wild Llamas along the way. Llamas!!!) Uyuni is a much poorer town than the others we’ve visited. As we drove in to the city we were greeted with the very unique species of Uyuni desert flowers (garbage caught in the dried desert plants). There isn’t much to do in this town other than get ready for the 3 day desert crossing excursion and have the best pizzas in Bolivia, so that’s what we did.

I'll post our Desert Crossing adventures shortly!

View of La Paz from our hotel rooftop:

Local Bolivian Woman selling fruit in La Paz:

First view of Lake Titicaca:

Reed boat on Lake Titicaca:

Views of Lake Titicaca from Sun Island:

Llama!

Sucre City Tour:

View of Sucre:

Bolivian dancing in the street:

Many great nights out dancing at Joy Ride Cafe:

The bus driver fixing the emergency hatch that randomly blew off the bus(haha):

Beautiful views on our drive to Potosi:

JC and his mini table ... hahaha. I so love this one.

Lovely Potosi:

Potosi from the lookout tower:

Local women selling nuts on the street:

Street Art:

Mining supplies:

Playing with dynamite:

Getting ready to go in to the mine:

Pablo and I ... hard at work ;)

Miners:

Sunset in Potosi:

Driving through the Bolivian countryside to Uyuni:

Playing with Spanish stop signs: