Hihotel Copacabana Santa Cruz

Got the bus to Potosi (the world's highest city apprently at above 4000m) and had the same salesman selling the face cream again which was weird! Started chatting to an American guy. In Potosi I had the intention of finding an easy way to the tourist town of Ulyni to do the salt plains tour but the only buses left at night, just like in Oruro and would get me there around 3 or 3am which wasn't ideal. The only option was to get a bus to Tupiza, which again was at night but got me in at 4am whi...

Managed to get a couple of hours kip on the pane and landed at 6.00am Bolivia time, after an extremely cheap breakfast in the Airport we headed via taxi into Central Santa Cruz and stayed in a the HI Hotel/Hostel for about 10 quid. Did managed to wander around the city during the day and it was pretty ****, big and industrial. May have been lovely maybe 50 years ago, but now a lot of the buildings were delapidated and crummy looking. Had a lovely restaurant where we got lunch for 1.50p each b...

After what seemed a relentless journey from Brazil I arrived safely in Bolivia´s fastest growing city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The flight had been fairly arduous as not only did it involve four stops and a change of plane halfway through, we were also faced with continuous delays during the journey meaning I did not arrive until 4am! And as bad luck would continue to have it my first choice of accommodtion was unavailable so I had to check into an alternative hotel. Thankfully Bolivia is a w...

We took a 24 hour train ride from Quijarro, Bolivia back to Santa Cruz, we heard that the train is dangerous because it runs off the tracks, but we didn't expect it to happen to us. We stayed at Hotel Copacaban. The train itself is not a pretty sight, crowded, smelly, and make sure you don't sit next to the bathroom. It makes stops at small towns where you get bombarded by people peddling all kind of goods, those were actually kind of a lifesaver, since they sell fresh fruit as well, which ma...

After the last entry I went to the airport but planes were all cancelled like the trains for 4 more days. I wanted the train anyway so back I went to the bus station to buy a train ticket for the next available day, Monday the 7th. They said that the posh train is all booked up but the "tren de la muerte" was available. If you know any spanishor french or even english and a good head for guessing you can read that as 'death train'. But hey it would be an experience. Gave me a few more days in...

The highs and lows of Bolivia -

Bolivia is all about altitude. It seems that we can pick whether we´re going to enjoy a Bolivian town based on the altitude.

Santa Cruz is basically at sea level. The people in Santa Cruz consider themselves more Brazilian than Bolivian which probably explains why they are so friendly and speak in Portenol (Portuguese and Spanish mixed up).

Coming from Paraguay it was great to enter a city where there were really nice people, great food a...