Hotel Sucre Oruro

One of the best times I have ever had in my life took place in this city, and while I can´t say that this visit was quite as special, I was once again pleased with Oruro. The city´s main industry is mining, which would lead one to believe that it is unpleasant and dirty, but I found it to be quite agreeable, even if I wasn´t there for Carnaval this time around. This time we were simply stopping through en route to Uyuni, but we had a whole day to spend before our night train departed ...

A late start about 11, but it is a fairly short run to Oruro.
It is nearly a hour of battling mini buses before we have climbed out of La Paz and cleared the city limits.
Out on the Altiplano the blue skies are there but also puffs of cloud here and there. At breakfast I had watched cloud drifting into the La Paz valley, it soon disappeared as the heat got into the sun.
The flat plain seemed more mechanically cultivated, a lot of it had been ploughed ...

We went to the bus station at La Paz and got on a random bus to Oruro 3 hours south from where we could catch the train to Uyuni the next day. We lucked out and got a really nice bus, Naser buses, which cost the same as all the others. When we got to Oruro the road into town was blocked by rocks and junk, a manmade barricade. The bus turned round and took us a different way into the bus station from where we walked towards town and found the Hostal Floryda and enquired about ...

Made it in to Uyuni at 22:30 along with a load of stupid brazilian kids who were intent on getting in the way and ******* everyone off. The train journey was amazing with many picture perfect moments. Met a bloke called Adam who was travelling alone so joined us for the weekend. Walked up to the hotel we hoped to stay in but it was full so we were shown to a hostel that was pretty basic but comfortable enough.

... into my daypack for my non-existent camera. But just past the halfway point of my trip I am rested and raring to go. So I have taken a 3 hour bus trip to Oruru and have jst purchased an overnight train ticket to Tupiza, Bolivia. This is a jump-off point for trips to the largest salt lakes in the world.

... on the challenge of getting to Cochabamba, where steph was, without the help of a travel partenter. However, and this is the thing I LOVE about Canadians, when getting off the plane in La Paz I met two Canadian guys who decided to take me under thier wing for the day that I was to be on my own. The three of us and this Isralie girl we also adopted for the day spent a wonderful day exploring the witches markets of La Paz where you can buy all sorts of potions and spells for ...

... by bus. If your bus says it leaves La Paz at 1:30.....it actually won't leave city limits until about 2 or 2:30...overall expect about 3.5-4 hrs to get to Oruri. Which, btw, comes out of nowhere with strange metal sculptures as you enter the city depicting the mine and train history as well as the home of the Diablado...Bolivia's biggest Carnival site. Which is ...

... than a week in Peru, at very high altitude. and were now in Bolivia where the whole country was high altitude, so we were bound to be Bionic by the time that we arrived in Ecuador! Our ticket into Bolivia took us via an overland border crossing (these are always interesting and usually a bit edgy). At the border, we exchanged our last Peruvian Soles into Boliviano - basically receiving a bundle of notes for another bundle of ...

... grass. It was cold and we had set off late, by the time we got to Oruro it was dark and we were both shivering. One of the joys of the bikes is unloading everything once we finally arrive at our destination. Ropes, strings and bunge cords have to be undone and then redone in the morning. We are actually getting quite good at knots and nothing´s fallen off the bikes in ages! The hotel we stayed in had a telly!! But by the time we had ...

Before I forget, today is the birthday of my sister Sam and good friend George.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE! ;)

Unsurprisingly we were both still very tired when the alarm screeched its way into our dream worlds at 3am this morning.

We both got up without slumping back into the warm covers, dressed, packed our day ...