Bolivia

so.. with a mind full of thought we proceeded to La paz. The highest capital city in the world. A great city a stinky city. managed to do alot of shopping, bought alot of things for friends and family and now have the struggle of getting it to you all. The bolivians i love, i love Bolivia. The women and their funny charlie chaplin hats sat on their heads whilst they wear their fancy dresses and embroidered blankets. The lama fetuses of tradition, you place them under the house and they bring good luck.

The following day we embarked on Death Road. The moist dangerous road int he workld with a bus going over it just 10 days ago and all passengers being killed. We were to mountain bike down it. 80km from 4700 metres to 1200 metres, in the jungle. It was amazing. A grit road with sheer drops that were stomach churning just looking at them. The brakes would want to be working, it was razy. Full speed i dread to thin t what speed we were doing. It wtook ohours we fell we laughed we cried at the site of dead buses all along the stretch.. well in the distance at the bottom of the valleys. I stupidly thought the bus taking us home was taking a different oad and soon realised it was taking the same road back up. 5 hours later after a hair raising experince of a mini bus of us trying to go up and many 7% beers later after i had been afraid of the monkeys biting me.. we got home. And with a t-shirt telling us we survived.. ha! great day though!

i am so far behind on this thing i donno if i can catch up.. so i met the gruop back agin in Argentina in salta. The wankers of the group had left and the dinamics had improved so much.

A big walk up a hill in Salta a beautiful city gave us an amazing view of the smog ridden air. I tried my hand at horse riding again and loved it. A day with a true cowboy, a groucho that was awesome called enrique.. some magnificent views and some great red wine at the end of it.

Onto the road journey to Bolivia and a road block. Probably one of the highlights of the tour as the truck stopped at the side of the road and we stayed there the night. The road was blocked as the native andes people were trying to gain rights to the land so there fore blocked peopel passing through. 2km´s of traffic and a big party.. some argentinian wine to wash it all down with and a really memorable night.

We were in fear that we were gonna have to stay ont he road till it opened and the guide andy was going to take us lot over the barracade to take public transport to the next destination. Becasuse James the driver was gona be alone i chose to stay with him for company.. but as this was decided the barracade came down and on we travelled.

Bolivia here we were and what an amazing place. We stopped the first night in Tupiza, an unexpected stop and fter sleeping int he truck the night before it was well needed. A tinty little town that gave a great spirit to our first experience of Bolivia.

A massive drive the next day as the roads were blocked somewhere else so we drove off road all day down rivers and streams and through the most incredible terrain i think i have ever encountered. From rolling hills, the dessert flats, cliffs and mountains.. rugged to steep to flat.. th ecoloyrs were beyond me and the mountain people as we increased in altitude have to be as hard as nails. Watching as we drove past them and their flocks of mainly larma and sheep in their funny bowler hats and colourful blankets.. an amazing sight that wont ever leave me.

We got to Uyuni a sleepy dive of a place where we were to embark on the salt flats the next day. Bolivia is immediately very poor, with beggars everywhere.. it has amazed me as it is so incredibly different.. so amazing in ots beauty yet it has no money and the realisation to a westerner that lives in a world of so much money is that we really dont need so much.

The salt flats were mind blowing.. white for as far as the eye could see.. we drove for over an hour over them as we neared an island, fish island full of massive cacti.. wow! A cacti grows 10mm a year and these were massive.. it was incredible. So peaceful... a beautiful day.. followed by a great hotel where we drank sangria until dark.

From here we went to Potosi, once the greatest city in south america, a silver mining city in its day and now poor run down city striving to be as it once was.

On our way here we went past the place that Butch Cassidy robbed his last train.. not much of a place either but in its day it must have been a silver centre.

Ptosi was mind blowing for one reason. I went on a mine tour, somethign i may chose to never do again because its quite clausrtrophobic but also because it was a real eyeopener at what goes on out there. It upset me alot to see the conditions these miners are in and what they are working for. Absolutely nothing, mining only tin, zinc ad a little silver very little these days. These miners drink 96% alcohol, eat cocoa leaves all the time for altitude and are generally in the mines for between 12-24 hours a day for maybe a pound in payment. They were wankered when we came out of the mines, abused by the alcohol.. maybe happy but the last 2 men that we saw really made me sad.. to look into their eyes they had nothing in there.. they were sad.. they begged us for our buscuits and dinomite and they were struggling for survival.

I´ll end this here as this was the biggest eye opener i have ever had in life. I work in a commercial environment wher money is sen as a neccessity. These giys had nothing, they worked their arses off for somthign taht years ago was a rich ting and was once there. 6000 workers worked in these mines stil to this day.. the smile that a biscuit gave them even though it couldnt replace that lost soul that had gone from their eyes.. it was a momentous happiness.. short lived...i wished i could have done something else..

we walked away and i still havent stopped thinking of that moment.. of those eyes.