Hostal La Casona Potosi

My next destination was Potosi: the highest city in the world at just over 4000 metres, and lying beneath the great Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), which has in the past provided the town and the country with massive amounts of silver and other minerals. This resulted in mining being the major industry, and Potosi once being one of the largest and wealthiest cities both the Americas and the world. Now i know i usually have some complaints about the buses, especially since arriving in Bolivia.. bu...

(At the time of writing this is out of sequence, but while I have time on my hands waiting for my bus and whilst everything is fresh in my mind I thought it best to get this done - and it sounds like the weather has just turned so I could be here while - well it was either thunder or someone used too much dynamite in the mines.) Anyhow, I arrived on Monday afternoon - 4 hours later than planned as the 7 o´clock bus never showed up - but I got my ticket changed, had breakfast, went to the doct...

So I´m actually writing this on Friday the 22nd, but due to glacial internet connections in Bolivia, I´m behind. Made it to Potosi late Weds night. I had found a flyer for a hostel in Uyunni at the "extreme fun bar" where all of the new friends from the salt flat road trip met up before leaving town. Now riding with A (czech dude since border) and T (french dude since hotel in Tupiza). we opted for the lñate bus bus, taxi to the hostal. Having other folks around def. makes traveling in third ...

OMG, i just came back from a tour of the huge silver/zinc mine in town*. This was the most incredible (and outrageous) tour i think i have ever done. First of all, this is a real, active mine. They allow some tour groups to go through because they sort of oblige the tourist to buy supplies that they need. These are 1) coca leaves** 2) cigarettes 3) grain alcohol 4) dynomite 5) soda. These guys basically work 10hr days on nothing but the above supplies, worshiping Tio, a kind of earth devil to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eORes-rl qlk

Julio had forewarned us that the trip from Uyani to Potosi was going to be hell on earth. Local bus, hot,cramped and smelly, windows that couldn't be opened because of the dust, no air con, and overloaded with locals and their goats, pigs and the like and that it would be over 6 hours of gruelling travel. How pleasantly surprised we were when we find that the bus although not as good as the bus we had taken from La Paz was so much better than our very low expectations. The seats were quite co...

Well, we got into Potosi, the silver city of Bolivia, last night after a rather interesting and beautiful ride from Sucre. The sky was lit up with some amazing lightning storms, and the clouds painted the sky with the pinks and oranges of the sunset. So, we arrived and got to our hostel. Word of caution...La Casona Hostel isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'd probably say that they should have finished their renovations before they let people sleep in their rooms!! Anyway, I haven't had much l...

09/11/2008 (SUN) My bus to Potosi leaves at 10am. I woke up, had my breakfast at the hostel and then went to the post office to send my postcards. Then I went to the bus company's office to load my backpack and board the bus. The ride was terrible! My seat was not adjustable, so I had to sit up straight for the whole 6hrs, not to mention that it was a very bumpy ride. However, the view along the way was superb. The bus got into a small accident with a truck along the way, and that cause anoth...

Continuing on along the gringo trail (I love that it is refferred to as that!!!), and again running into Eilis and Gary, I arrived in the mining town of Potosi (highest city in the world). It is very different from Uyuni and is very much a working town. Decided to first do the sights, the town has a very 'ceraminc' skyline seen from Torre de la Compañia, and also decided (on a Lonely Planet recommendation) to see the Santa Teresa convent. It wasnt exactly 'bad', and the tour guide lady was go...

We left Uyuni at 10am on Thursday for Potosi which was a 6 hour bus ride. The bus was actually fine again - the seats were quite comfy. We were near the back and a guy was ****** and kept going at a woman. Ror said she was hitting him a few times. I was oblivious to this until I took off my earphones and a woman went up to tell the driver. The bag boy came down and took the man away from the back - it was disgusting - he was falling all over the place and had blood on his face. I was really s...