Zebrafish

Copacabana is a nice sleepy place to be. People make pilgrimages to the cathedral here and many sell religious souvenirs in the plaza. There are also quite a few dread-locked hippies around selling trinkets to the new tribe of backpackers. We hiked up to 4000m and a graffiti-ed cluster of rocks once used as an Inca temple with stunning views over the town.







It was exciting being back in La Paz, one of my favourite cities. As iconic as Rio with its +6000m mountains peaking between skyscrapers in this giant metropolitan bowl.  And its indigenous markets selling everything from llama foetuses, home lighting, latest hollywood DVDs for $1 and visionary san pedro cactus. The christmas market outside San Francisco cathedral was full of items to create your own miniature nativity scenes, from little plastic cows and virgins to tinsel and mangers.

We found a great museum for musical instruments. such as small guitars with the sound-box created from an armadillo shell... some you could even play! We also found the same food stalls where 11 years ago I ate a great steak sandwich!



In Plaza San Pedro we were offered a tour of the notorious prison. Although the stories inside sound fascinating we decided not to go as paying $25 in a poor country to a criminal for a tour is probably not a good idea. Brad Pitt´s production company are making a film of the this tourism phenomena which will likely stop the tour guides and certainly the cocaine shop inside.

We took the overnight bus to Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4060m. With the discovery of silver by the end of the 18th century Potosi became the biggest and wealthiest city in Latin America. With its coin mint it was the greatest source of income for the Spanish economy for 2 centuries. Today its a very poor place, yet the buildings retain some of it´s heyday grandeur and its people are extremely warm.



We celebrated Johanna's birthday here and checked into the best hotel we could find. Being close to xmas we were short of time and so she ended up having quite an unusual birthday.





We took a mine tour starting from 4800m and crawling down 3 levels by the torch light on our helmets in a cooperative run mine. With world mineral prices from London set low, there are very few miners working at the moment and so they are glad of the extra income they receive from tourism.

The miners work 12 hour plus days in this pitch black, low oxygen, cramped environment. The ceiling is covered in asbestos and arsenic, yet the miners forgo dust masks as it is so hard to breath at this altitude. Pushing railed carts, carving holes in rocks for dynamite and carrying rocks, life expectancy is only about 40 years and many start as children working with their father.



Red skinned with horns and a huge erect penis, an icon of the devil is worshipped by these Catholic men for safety while underground. On average 40 people die each year from collapses. On Fridays the miners offer their god coca leaves and 100% alcohol then start drinking themselves into oblivion to forget their hard lives. Saturdays they rest.

Our guide worked here until he had an accident carrying heavy sacks of rocks up a shaft. After months in bed he promised his wife not to return and learnt to become a tourist guide. Next year he qualifies as a school teacher and is leaving the mine, he is grateful to be one of the lucky few but refuses to get his chest examined as he prefers not to know.

Johanna was given a special birthday candle, a plastic bag of dynamite with burning fuse, a scene straight from a silent movie! After photos, the stick was hurried 200m away where it created a huge explosion.





Uyuni is reached by a remote desert road, it's become a small traveller hub since I was last there. We set off on a 3 day 4WD trip to Chile with Marcelo & Ursula from Cusco and Mike & Gemma from Auckland and our driver accompanied by his wife, our cook and their young son.



The giant salt lake at 4000m is the remains of an old sea, isolated in distant ages by the rising Andes and since dried out. Standing in the middle of this sun drenched landscape, you vision is simplified to the bipolar blinding white land and deep blue sky.



Lunch was fried llama and quinoa at the surreally beautiful Isla de los Pescadores with its giant cactus and fossilised coral rocks. That night we stayed at a hotel made from salt just above the edge of the lake.





You pass though a treeless, red mars like desert surrounded by hills and smoking volcanoes. And in the afternoon passing a succession of lakes with white mineral caked edges, some red or with hints of green populated by flamingos and vicuñas.









Awaking from our austere dorm at 4.30am we drove off in darkness to reach the Sol de Mañana geyser basin. The rising sun cast through the rising sulphur clouds and cold at just below 5000m. There are no fences and you are free to wander between bubbling pools of hot mud while small jets of sulphur escape by your feet.



At breakfast we bathed in a hot spring pool then took photos of the Daliesque rocks and the perfectly aquamarine laguna verde before crossing the border into Chile and arriving in the completely different world.



The town of San Pedro de Atacama despite its remoteness is quite a trendy place, full of good restaurants and a distinctly European, pricey feel.  It contrasts greatly with Bolivia and it feels sad to say goodbye to the indigenous Andes so suddenly.

The Atacama desert is perhaps the driest desert in the world, the night skies are exhilarating for star gazing and for this reason the majority of the worlds biggest telescopes are nearby

We had a flight from Santiago to Rio for xmas, to meet Timo, Johanna's Dad and his partner Birgitta.  And so we skipped through northern Chile with a 24 hour bus journey, which went surprisingly well as the bed like seats were so comfortable.

With just a quick flavour of Santiago we hope to come back to this interesting city later on. There appears to be a new optimism in Chile, as it gradually recovers it's confidence from the dark years of Pinochet, and there is a wonderful memorial statue to Salvador Allende in front of the presidential palace. 

Although the concrete centre and discount shops felt quite run down and reminded me of Birmingham's bull ring in the 1980s. In-between Chilean life burst through in its cafes and cool palm trees plazas where chess tournaments and friends are taken seriously.