After the awful bus trip from Uyuni we were all wrecked after our Salt Flats trip. We decided to spend a few days in Potosi which is the highest city in the world at 4060ft above sea level. The altitude at this level was a killer and just doing simple things like getting out of bed would leave us short of breath and walking anywhere was especially difficult. Potosi is famous not only for being the highest city in the world but also for its mountain Cerro Rico which is rich in silver deposits to this day people still mine there in medieval conditions.
After some relaxation we headed for Sucre for a few days. Sucre is the former capital of Bolivia and is a beautiful city full of lovely white washed colonial buildings an is a UNISCO world heritage site. Sucre appeared to be a relatively wealthy city but in Bolivia you are never far from poverty and it was evident on the outskirts of the city. When we arrived we got a taxi from the bus station. Stephen sat into the front of the taxi and he noticed something a bit strange.... in front of him there was everything you would find if he had sat into the driver side, speedomoter, fuel gauge, all that kind of thing. The only thing that was missing was the steering wheel, it had been taken out and moved to the passenger side of the car, what a strange country Bolivia is.
We spent a few days here enjoying the good bars and restaurants. We also visited a limestone quarry where a few years ago dinosaur foot prints were found in the stone. One thing we wanted to do here is paragliding as its something we have wanted to do for some time but hadn’t had the chance. So having booked and paid we headed off early for a two hour drive into the mountains. We were excited and nervous. The instructor set up the gear and it was just a matter of waiting for the right wind conditions! Our drive set off down the mountain to the landing area where we would be collected after the flight. After 15 mins he returned... there was a problem... there was some kind of machinery blocking the road and he would not be able to get down to the landing point. Our only option was to go back to Sucure and get our money back. We were very disappointed our bad luck had struck again. The next evening we left on an over night bus for La Paz.
We arrived in la Paz early Friday morning after a long hellish trip where we almost froze to death. There was also a near riot on the bus when the staff refused to allow anyone to use the on board toilet. Lets just say there were some people who really needed it was quiet funny to watch.
La Paz in the capital of Bolivia at about 3600ft so our altitude problem were not over, just climbing the stairs to our room left us feeling like wed run a mile. We booked into the wild rover hostel an obviously Irish Hostel owned by Davie from Tipp. The wild rover is a mad party hostel with Irish bar, lovely food and parties every night not for people who like to sleep. Sinead and James ended up sharing a dorm with two Cork stoners who hardly left the room for the 3 days we were there and we don’t think they washed either judging by the smell in the room. On Friday we went and booked a week long trip to the Amazon to leave Monday. We spent the rest of the weekend exploring the city, and having a few drinks. On Sunday very hung over (altitude and alcohol dont mix) we went to see the choilita wrestling, which is traditional Bolivian women wrestling each other. The main attraction for the lads was we heard there would be midgets wrestling at the end however there wasn’t and everyone was disappointed. It was memorable to say the least.
