Day 2 of our trip through the Salar de Uyuni had us exploring the Tunupa Volcano. This was the bit that turned the regular 3-day trip into a 4-day trip and I was super-keen to get out and do a bit of walking again. We first of all visited the mummies of Coquesa – with…
Ask me what are the top 3 things I’ve ever seen in my life up until now and I’ll tell you: a total solar eclipse (from Ceduna in 2002) Comet Hyakutake (from Siding Springs Observatory in 1996) the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia when it was full of water (May 2001) This last was a…
I’m not usually one to wander around cemeteries (despite many people loving them for photo opportunities), but I was fascinated by the Santiago General Cemetery after I was introduced to it through Tours4Tips on the Santiago Offbeat tour. For a start, it is one of the biggest cemeteries in Latin America, covering 85 hectares and estimated…
The city of Potosí in Bolivia has 2 key claims to fame: at 4090m above sea level, is one of the highest cities in the world. it is the site of one of the richest silver mines in the world – Cerro Rico Well, it was until they dug all the silver out of the mountain,…
While I was in Sucre, I really wanted to do another multi-day trek – but unfortunately the companies I emailed never responded to my enquiries (a very common and frustrating occurrence in Bolivia). I subsequently told one of the companies about this and the person I was talking to seemed genuinely horrified that nobody had…
Our final day in Parque Nacional Toro Toro we did the excursion to El Vergel and the Cañón de Toro Toro linking up with Chiflon Qaqa. The day started out with more dinosaur footprints just on the outskirts of town. This time, footprints from Ornithopods (left), more Theropods (centre) and some Sauropods (right). It was interesting to…
After a good night of sleep, Day 2 in the Toro Toro National park saw us joining up with some others to drive about an hour up to the Ciudad de Itas. This is a rock “city” that is quite a bit higher than Toro Toro (you need to take a jacket or you will be…
By the time we arrived in Toro Toro, found a place to stay and had a bit of lunch, it was 3pm. Given we were 3 people travelling together we decided to sneak in a short excursion that afternoon – so arranged a guide and headed off to see the marine fossils on the…
Having finally dragged myself away from La Paz (I really enjoy La Paz), I caught the world’s coldest overnight bus (8hrs) to Cochabamba. What is it with Bolivian bus drivers and their desire to freeze their passengers to death?! I knew I was in a lot of trouble when all the locals got on…
What happens when a city goes to build a metro to help with its traffic issues, but can’t due to the unstable nature of the soil it is built on? It goes for the opposite approach and builds a cable car (teleférico) system instead! La Paz has the largest commuter cable car system in the world…