South America

Potosi
Red coloured mountains loom over worlds highest city , Potosi . Almost five hundred years ago silver was discovered in these mountains and that discovery let to Potosi´s glory and tragedy . At the height of its growth Potosi counted two hundred thousand citizens which was more then Paris or New York . It was also more wealthy then the two cities combined . Rumour has it that with all the silver found around Potosi a bridge could have been built from South America to Spain . Whatever the truth is the excavation took its toll . Over eight million miners died uncovering the richness . There is something intriguing about Potosi . Because it towers 4090 meters above sealevel you are constantly gasping for air . Once is must have been a beautiful city but now the beauty is fading . What is left for you to see are some interesting churches and a museum which used to be the Royal Mint . And of course the famous mines which nowadays mainly produce zinc and lead and where the working conditions hardly have improved in the last five hundred years .

Uyuni
The trip from Potosi to Uyuni is noteworthy for two things . The breathtaking mountain scenery and the numerous ghost towns you travel through . When we were still quite a distance removed from Uyuni the city already announced itself by its litter . That is the way you know in Bolivia that you are approaching a town . The garbage gives it away . For example Uyunin is set in the middle of a sand and plastic bottle desert .

Southwest Bolivia
All the great painters combined could not have come up with such fantastic colour combinations . Everytime you think the scenery will not get better the 4 wheeldrive turns a corner and you see a mountain which is even more fiery red or a lake which has such strange colours you think the cook has slipped some LSd in the lunch you just ate .
Our guide tells us that NASA sends scientist to this area because it resembles the surface of Mars . From now on Mars is my favourite planet .
After a drive through the worlds biggest salt flat which by the way resembles a polar landscape and a visit to Isla Inca Huasi with its cactusses which seem to be taken from a western movie we travel to a small blue lake where flamingoes are feeding on algae in the freezing cold . From there we make our way through a mountaines landscape to Volcanoe Ollague and Laguna Colorade , a big red lake . We stay the night at the lake . During the night the temperature drops to minus 15 degrees . The next day we go to Laguna Verde near the Chilean border . On the way we pass the Rocas de Dali named after the famous mad painter . We bath in the the Termas de Polques which are pleasantly warm while the outside temperature is around freezing point . Back in Uyuni the five year old son of the hotel owner has to show us how to heat up the water for the shower so we can defrost our butts .

Oruro
Lama fetuses in all kind of sizes and carnival masks . That is what we saw in Oruro