Español in Sucre

Sucre, the capital of Bolivia and the capital of Spanish schools. It's impossible to go anywhere without finding another backpacker learning the language so that's exactly what I did too, 4 hrs a day every afternoon. That left the morning free to go to the amazing market where the stalls were piled high & there'd be at least 5 or 10 stalls selling the exact same next it.

daily fruit salad for breakfast

too many customers @ sucre market

My final day in Sucre was the 203rd anniversary of independence. The president came to clap & wave from the balcony as most of the town paraded past. The previous couple of days also saw warm up parades in the morning, if I'm honest I'm not sure what the difference was other than the dignitaries & tv crew.

Sucre parades

Sucre parades

El presidente in the middle

Sucre parades

Up, up, up

Next stop the mining town of Potosi, at 4,090m above sea level its one of the highest settlements in the world.

on the road Uyuni to Potosi

From the point in the 16th century when silver was discovered the town was soon bankrolling the Spanish. When the mint was built in 1672 Potosi was one of the largest cities in the world.

Potosi mint

Today the mint is closed & Bolivia's money is produced in Canada and France.

Mining continues to this day in some pretty awful conditions. It's possible to tour the mines & meet the workers. It's fair to say mine shafts were not built for 6"+ people, luckily most Bolivians are short, but that's where their luck ends. The sheer heat, as we watched a guy put the dynamite in place, was stifling.



preparing the dynamite



in the mines

We gave our offerings to the 'Tio' mining devil, which include a 95% proof alcohol drink that is all the miners can afford & possibly one of the contributory factors to an average life expectancy of 15years after starting work in the mines.



San Lorenzo church

The views for the Cathedral bell tower were spectacular

Cerro de Potosi

Potosi from above

Sunday saw a parade through the town, which I eventually left in favour of the Champions league final.

Entering Bolivia

Leaving San Pedro de Aticama on a 3 day trip to Uyuni, we soon crossed into Bolivia & stopped at a number of coloured lakes- white and green and red, a variety of rock formations, geysers and hot springs

rock tree

red lake

rabbit with a tail

desierto Siloli

Laguna Honda

Flamingo on Laguan Honda

more geysers

The third day took us onto the freezing Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats for some early morning sunrise photos.  It warmed up later for some attempts at some unique perspective shots - once you visit a couple of bars and restaurants in Uyuni it soon becomes apparent there is very little that hasn´t been done before.

salt flats at sunrise

salt flats at sunrise

giant plastic dinosaur attack

perspective shots

salt mining drying process

Final stop of the trip, the train graveyard which is a big playground for adults with swings, see-saws and the chance to clamber over the trains.

train graveyard on the outskirts of Uyuni

Around Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama with a population of less than 2,000 people, as the welcome sign states (2002 census).  Well at least 1,800 of those are involved in selling tours or running guesthouses.

Today´s itenery a bit of an epic one to fit in as many highlights as possible before heading out of town tomorrow. 
4am start to see the geysers, an afternoon trip to the moon valley & finally some late night stargazing looking at Saturn, stars and the milky way in one of the astronomy hit spots of the world.
Yesterday involved some more bike hiring to see some Incan ruins followed by a trip to a lake allegedly more salty than the dead sea.

The  3 Marys

Inca ruins

Dune in the moon valley

geysers

geysers

death valley

salt lake

geysers

geysers

lama (edible)

The road to San Pedro

I had no intention of writing about today - after plenty of landscape pictures from the last 2 days how different could it be? Cloudy & even a spot of rain as we departed Salta, it didn't look like there would be much more to do than finish The Motorcycle Diaries and pick a new book. But a couple of hours in, back past the 7 coloured mountain, and we got into the land of hairpin bends.

typical coach meal

For posterity ì´ve also added in a picture of lunch, pretty typical from the last few journeys - this really is the adults, not the child´s version, despite the cartoon nature of the biscuits provided.  It´s definitely fair to say the Argentinians have a sweet tooth, I think I forgot to mention the tea on the train yesterday was served with sugar already added.

The following selection of pictures come with the caveat they were taken on a moving coach, through a mucky window, on a compact camera, mostly into the sun. Anyway, excuses made, you'll hopefully get the picture. 

For a fuller experience I suggest turning the heating up to 25+, shining a 100watt bulb into the right hand side of your face and playing the slideshow with Newton Faulkner as the soundtrack.

salt mining

salt flats

the new colour select button i´ve found on my camera in action

sunset San Pedro de Atacama

sunset San Pedro de Atacama