11th April 2005

Well the last 6 days have been a mixed bag and that is a big understatement. Before we left San Pedro, we went on a day tour in the desert to see all the strange formations of cliffs through the time (it hasn´t rained in these parts for over a 100 years) and we got to see the sunset over the rocks, which was nice but not as nice as the sunset in Caye Caulker - nothing could beat that.

On the 6th we left San Pedro to go to the Bolivian border (in the middle of nowhere). Where we left Kinda to split up in small groups to go across the desert and salt flats for 3 days in jeeps. I never realised just how exciting going across a desert for that long could be. We saw some truely amazing sites including Flamingos, rabbit like creatures, Llamas (different varieties - yes there are different varieties of Llamas), the only active volcano in Bolivia (which as volcanos go was pretty boring). We travelled up to over 4000m above sea level and 7 of our group started to suffer from altitude sickness quite badly. Not me of course, not even a little headache - i ended up feeling bad because i was ok though!

The final day of travelling was over the salt flats, which was by far the best day. Miles and miles of nothing but white of salt on the ground, hope my photos do it justice. Then out of nowhere there is an island in the middle with 10 foot high cactus´s on it.

We ended up in the small town of Uyuni and stayed in a eal nice hotel (just what was needed after 3 days crossing the desert in smelly clothes). The place was run by a man from America and he was real friendly and has the best pizza in south America there, well i liked it anyway - don´t expect you to go over and try.

The next day started with a shock. As i was packing the bags on the truck outside the hotel (and also outside an army barracks) the guards were doing there duty and securing the perimeter. Unfortunately one of them ran up and knelt down 5 meters away and pointed his very large machine gun at me! I decided to walk very quickly to the other side of the Truck! Anyway, we got back on Kinda and set off for the town of Potisi and to visit the silver mine there. It was over 200Km to travel in tricky mountain roads and we got to within 40kms of the place when we were stopped by a road block in a small town. They were blocking the road not letting anything pass. We found out that the bus company had put the bus fares up and they were very upset by this (lucky they don´t live in London). They were not going to budge untill the fare was reduced again - rumour was that it was going to be soon, ha! The blokes all got out to try to look like we meant business and that was the 1st time we heard the dynamite being thrown. The blokes quickly decided that they had a very good cause and were sympathetic with their needs!

We stayed one night camping near by hoping they would let us poor tourists through but after plenty more dynamite thrown, doesn´t make good sleeping, they didn´t so we gave up and turned back and went on a long 2 days hard drive to La Paz (capital of Bolivia and highest capital in the world). It included another free camp by the side of the road but these are becoming fun now!

So here we are in La Paz. Hoping for a better few days now, at least it´s a nice hotel with a tv!!!