Bolivia

Hi everyone

We are in Bolivia now, and it is possibly our best country so far. It is really different and crazy. Crossing the road is worse than trying to cross the road in cows guts, Harare!!! The cars are so old, 4x4´s just like ours (lollipop). The people walk all over the place and lots of them still wear traditional dress. All their fabrics have fantastic colours and I couldn´t help myself buying a few odds and ends. Everything is sooooooo cheap. We can have a good maincourse plus drinks for less than 10pds (for both of us). Our first stop in Bolivia was Uyuni, where the salt flats are. We stay in hotels the whole time as it is so cheap. The rooms are fine but the wiring in the bathrooms is shocking, literally. We´ve been lucky so far, but some of our group have been shocked while showering because the wires for the lights or shower (electric) are inside the shower - madness!! Anyway, its just another interesting thing about Bolivia. The Salt flats were probably one of our highlights so far. It really is incredible to imagine, they are 12 000square meters. All you can see is white, we´ll show you some photos. We ended up fooling around on the salts and taking lots of photos spelling out Oasis etc with our bodies. A wonderful day, I even tried some acrobatics and nearly broke my neck - not as supple as I used to be! From there we moved on to Potosi, where rich mountain (mining silver) is. Potosi used to be the richest city in the world in the 16 centry but now is so poor its sad. The silver is running out and the poor bolivians have been exploited by the Spanish and the gov, although my understanding of politics is always a bit suspect. We got to go into the mine which was an eye-opening experience. The mining families have their tiny houses right outside the entrance to their tunnel. The tunnels are tiny and there are huge wholes everywhere, where the miners have used dynamite. They still mine using a pick, wheel barrow and dynamite in the most horrendous conditions. We were only down there for 45mins and we were all desperate to get out. We did get to let off a bit of dynamite though (11yr olds can buy dynamite from the market and help in the mines). Potosi is situated at 4200m and we had a few people suffering from altitude sickness. Baz and I are more or less ok, suffer from shortness of breath like everyone else but not to bad. A 50m run feels like a 500m run, the inca trail is gonna be challenging.

Next we headed of to La Paz, where we are now. It is a gorgeous but completely crazy city. Baz is riding "death road" today, the most dangerous road to cycle in south america. I gave it a skip and decided to do some souviner shopping instead. We are staying in a nice hotel but baz and I landed with our bums in the butter as we scored the best room in the hotel somehow. It has a huge bed, on suit, a lounge, kitchen etc that we share with another 2 couples. Our room looks more like a honeymoon suit. We also had a dress up party last night which was hilarious. Baz went as Robin hood, men in suspenders, and I went as a chicken. We ran out of drinks and had to go shopping in our outfits. Cause quite a stir amoungst the Bolivians who giggled and wolf whistled at us.

Well, got to get to the post office now so best end off.

Lots of love to everyone
Baz and Jen