Potosi and the Salt Flats tour

We decided to stay only one night in Potosi (the worlds highest city). After arriving at 7am we set about finding somewhere to stay and then headed into town to book ourselves a tour for the day. We went to an agency recommended to us and got a tour of the local silver mine for half the price of the rest in our group!! The mine has been open since the Spanish invaded and has some 10,000 people working in it. The conditions however are poor and many of the miners die young due to lung conditions bought on by the aspestos and other carcanegenic dusts. The conditions are also quite hard with little changing in conditions or equipment used since the Spanish. During the time the mines were owned by Spain and they used slave labour some 9million people died in the mines in a 100 year period!

The tour was pretty good although the tour guide was a little bolshy. We went down about 1km into the mines through very crampt shafts and saw many of the miners working. We also saw a statue of their god which they bring offerings to to bring them good luck in the mining and safety.

Into the depths.....

The god of the underworld....if you look carefully you will see he is EXTREMELY pleased to see me!!

Crawling around in tunnels made for people half my size.......brilliant!

The mine apparently goes as deep as 4km underground where it gets to temperatures of 62C+. There are no lifts or proper ventilation. The workers have to walk into the mines the same way as we did and are paid by what they find rather than a salary. It is extremely hardwork and certainly not something I would ever want to consider doing.

One of the workers. He fills the sling with rubble for eight hours a day with nothing more than a shovel!

Never a sexier miner!!

After the tour our lunatic of a tour guide let us pose with lit dynamite.....even in your mouth! Needless to say Alana and I declined, fearing our heads may blow off much like Wile Coyote's!!

The most dangerous woman in Bolivia?? Possibly!

After Potosi it was on to Uyuni to start our Salt Flats tour. Uyuni it turns out is possibly the biggest dump Bolivia has to offer, although we have been assured by other travellers there are worse! The town is solely there to mine the salt and cater to the tourists wanting to see the salt flats.

We had a great group consisting of Alana and I, another Brit (Ian), his girlfriend Dominique (German), Max (Dutch) and Cecilia (Italian).

The tour started with a trip to an old train engine cemetery on the edge of town. There used to be quite a few trains running through Bolivia but now there are only a few destinations still in operation.

Toot-toot!!

The cover of my new album titled 'Another wet 3 day tour'!!!

After the train cemetery we headed to the Salt Flats. Yet again due to the rain our experience was slightly different as the flats were now more of a lake. We did still manage to take some silly pictures however and got some amazing pictures of the sky being reflected in the water.

Our first night was a long, long journey as our driver seemed to have no idea where the accelerator pedal was.

The town we stayed in was like a ghost town.....we only saw a sign of life at the place we stayed. It was pretty spooky and I wouldnt have been surprised to wake up and find some lunatic standing over my bed holdig a dripping knife!

Thankfully the night didnt hold any such excitement and we awoke the next day to a breakfast of stale bread and tea.

We visited lots of lagoons on the second day, some which were different colours and many with Flamingos.

We also saw the Siloli Desert and the Stone Tree.

Stone Tree

Our second nights accomodation was somewhat interesting. It seemed we were sleeping in a schools classroom. There was no running water and the only heat came from an old wood stove.

It was another early start in the morning, although when we awoke we found the other groups that had also stayed with us (in different rooms) had already left for the day!

We went first to visit the Geysers and Fumaroles which although were quite impressive were similar to those in Rotorua. Alana and I were keen to move on from there to the Hot Springs which were our next destination. The water was 32C and given the outside tempetature was about 10C this was a very welcome stop. We stayed in for about ½ an hour before heading onwards to Salvador Dali Desert and visiting the last of the lakes on the tour - Laguna Verde.

Hot Pools! So good.

Laguna Verde

Once we had completed the lakes, Alana, myself and Cecilia were taken to the Chilean border to cross while the others went back to Uyuni.

The border crossing went off without a hitch apart from the bus driver almost falling asleep! Cecelia asked someone at the front of the bus to talk to him to stop us hurtling off the roads to our imminent deaths. He turned out to be Ecuadorian (now living in New York) and joined us in our quest to find a hostel in San Pedro.