Portales Cochabamba

Hey gang,<br><br> My apologies for the long delay since the first travel blog entry, but days are hectic with activity and local computers are slow to upload photos. These are both just blameshifting excuses for my lack of dedication to the crazy world of internet correspondence - i.e. I am lazy.<br><br> Anyhow, after covering thousands of miles and snapping hundreds of photos we changed the rythym of our itinerary and settled down for a spell in the ...

... but this country is turning me against them as the ones here are evil! we have two in the house that i live in, they arent dangerous but they arent the cutest of things- u wudnt want one for xmas! An idea of what they look like: Imagine the dirtyest mop you gave ever seen, and then put legs on it!!<br><br>Bye for now, sorry for the abrupt ending but sister wants to use the comp!!<br><br>Love u all!!!!! and believe me, im missing u alot!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

... br><br>We were surprsed that the trip only lasted 3 hours and were a bit dazed when to got out of the van at Villa Tunari. A taxi took us to the hotel, El Puente, 4 km outside town. It was set in the most beautiful tripical gardens. We rested in our room and then went for a walk through the forest to the stream. There were loads of ants, carrying heavy ...

... bus - I read somewhere that Bolivia has the worst bus accident record in the world and most of these occur at night! Anyway, I chose a toursit bus for the first leg of the journey - if you are going to die do it in style!! In any case, the road was unpaved and bumpy that he was unable to go that fast. <br><br>On approaching my destination, Oruro, I looked down for my shoes which were nowhere to be seen. My neighbour lent ...

... llama fetus anyone?), and it possibly has everything you could ever need in life... food, clothing, animals, furniture, electronics, household goods, secondhand clothing sent from the US, anything and everything .. in addition to the dead animals and other items to be burnt in the monthly offerings to Patchamama (Mother Earth). Its incredibly interesting, and i have to be honest and say i do go there at least twice a ...

... Stromleitungen und hundert meter tiefe Abgruende. Sicherlich superinteressant einen Einblick in diese Unmenschliche Arbeit zu bekommen... so weit geht meine Abenteuerlust dann aber doch nicht. In den Mienen und an den Folgen der giftigen Daempfe sollen hier bereits bis zu 6 Millionen Arbeiter gestorben sein. Also rumpelt unser Bus weiter in die Hauptstadt Boliviens, Sucre. Hier gibt es zumindenstens eine nette Plaza, eine Menge alter ...

... bringing a pack back, but my bag's too full of souvenirs. Hehe. All the Little buildings are made from salt bricks. Quite funky really! Then onto the Salar. 12,000km2 of pure, whilte, flat expanse, stretching around you. We stopped to look at salt "mountains" - mounds of salt piled up to dry. Then the salt hotel - a hotel made of...surprise surprise...salt! Placed right smack in the middle of the Salar. Then the Isla del Pescado. The world famous island in the middle of the ...

... go to the hostel I'd booked myself for a 4 hour sleep. I wondered to the main plaza (Uyuni is TINY! built originally by a franco-italian architect who thought that it would be a huge booming town due to all the mineral exportation to Chile, so built it around large wide streets, but then the town came to nothing, except to provide for tourists, so very funny looking!). Dropped my bag off at the tour agency, and encountered some North American sounding tourists who I joined to ...

... familiene deres hjemme i Norge ogsaa, og at de hadde begynt aa vaere ganske skeptiske mot alt og alle. Vi ble sittende ved et lite bord og prate, og fikk vite at de hadde sitti 8 maaneder naa, og at dommen enda ikke hadde falt. Minimumsstraffen var 10 aar... Det var tydelig at aa sitte i boliviansk fengsel ikke var goey, men at de etter forholdene hadde det bra. De fikk tilsendt penger fra Norge, og det var ikke mye de manglet, eller ikke fikk tak i der inne. Men fengselet var lite ...

... of hand luggage. Quite a bit of struggle, that. <br><br>But fortunately, the bus stopped, and this time it was a nice bus and no vomiting ladies or pee-smelling guys beside me, but this cutest, friendliest young man! The only thing that could have been better, was that I had thrown every piece of luggage I had, into the downstairs compartments so I couldn't reach it to get a sweater, so it was a bit of a chilly night! We were in La Paz 8 hours later.<br>