Podcast: Bolivia
May 6, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | Podcasts, South America, Travel
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
[Download MP3 | Add to iTunes | Subscribe to Podcasts]
In this Podcast from Bolivia I head from Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca (birthplace of the Incas) to La Paz, the capital (and highest capital city in the world), where I go on a mountain biking trip down the most dangerous road in the world - the Death road. Finally, I head to Potosi (highest city in the world), then onto the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in the south of Bolivia
Links
Video of Salar de Uyuni salt flats
Photos of Salar de Uyuni salt flats
Photos of Potosi
Photos of the Death Road trip
Video: Salar de Uyuni tour, Bolivia
May 5, 2009 | Thomas | 2 Comments | South America, Travel, Video
This video is a ten minute edit of some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen - starting with the Salar de Uyuni (the world’s largest and highest salt flats) in Southern Bolivia. Salar de Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States. All the video scenes were shot on a 3 day/two night tour from Uyuni and at altitudes of between 3,650 metres and 4,500 metres.
Links
View my Salar de Uyuni photo slideshow here
Thanks to Joshua Knight for providing the song ‘Further’. Please visit his MySpace site at www.myspace.com/joshuaknightmusic
Listen to my Podcast from Bolivia here
Photos of the Salar de Uyuni tour in Bolivia
May 4, 2009 | Thomas | 2 Comments | South America, Travel
I’ve decided to give the photos for my three day Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) tour in Bolivia their own post. A selection is below, and the rest are available through my Flickr photography account. These Bolivian landscapes were the most breathtaking I have ever seen. You can view a slideshow of these photos here.
Links
Listen to my Podcast from Bolivia here
Video: Salar de Uyuni tour, Bolivia
Potosí, Bolivia
May 3, 2009 | Thomas | 4 Comments | South America, Travel
It is claimed Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4,090 m (13,420 feet). It lies beneath the Cerro de Potosí — sometimes referred to as the Cerro Rico (”rich mountain”) — a mountain popularly conceived of as being made entirely of silver ore, which has always dominated the city.
The Spanish founded Potosí in 1545, then set about plundering the wealth of Cerro Rico using slave labour. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have died as much from the altitude and cold as from the harsh conditions inside the mines. Potosi soon produced fabulous wealth, becoming one of the largest cities in the Americas and the world with a population exceeding 200,000 people.
Potosí is now a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. I spent a couple of nights here, struggling for breath due to the altitude, and wondering around the town’s 2,000 colonial buildings, and a couple of the museums including the old mint.
I didn’t go in the mine, I was too scared.
Links
The Death Road, Bolivia
May 1, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | South America, Travel
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, the Death Road in Bolivia is statistically the most dangerous road in the world. It has of course been turned into a tourist attraction, with twelve separate ‘adventure sports’ companies in La Paz offering Death Road mountain biking trips.
I decided to attempt it myself whilst in La Paz. The day began with a guest house pick-up at about 8am, and we drove from La Paz up to the starting point - ‘La Cumbre’ - at about 4,700 metres altitude. We’d imagined a nice sunny day, but for the last 30 minutes of the journey, we drove through sleet and snow, and we feel silent.
The company I’d chosen - El Solario - had promised to supply a waterproof raincoat, which turned out to be little more than a porous rag, and the state of the Trek mountain bikes left rather a lot to be desired - with chains falling off and brakes not working before we even began. These kind of ‘mechanical issues’ don’t inspire confidence when you’re about to descend 3,500 metres (in altitude) down the Death Road!
The first 20KM were spent freezing and wet, hurtling down rainy sealed roads with very low visibility as we passed through the cloud line. Soon we headed off-road onto the real ‘Death Road’ which is unsealed, and has no crash barriers at all along its nearly 40km length. We would intermittently stop whilst our guide described who had died (and how) in particular spots along the way. The worst accident involved a head on collision between two buses in the 80s. Both went over the edge, and sadly all 102 people lost their lives. There have also been 12 mountain-biking tourists killed over the years.
As a biking trip it was great fun. The views were superb, and biking downhill for nearly 60KM (and 3.5KM in altitude) was definitely a huge adrenaline rush. But was it really dangerous? On one occasion I came close to losing control on a bend, with a lethal drop to one side. This slowed me down immediately and for the rest of the trip but on several occasions I still nearly flew off the bike on as I connected with a rock or two. I’m sure a lot of people are considerably more reckless than I was and I’m also sure that for these people the Death Road could easily bring about a sudden and premature end….
Links
Photos of the Death Road biking trip, Bolivia
The Death Road on Wikipedia
Video: Isla Del Sol, Lake Titicaca
April 29, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | South America, Travel, Video
This video shows the beautiful Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, the site of the main Inca creation myth - it was here legend has it that Viracocha (the creator god) had his children Manco Kapac and Mama Ocllo spring from the lake and found Cusco and the Inca dynasty.
I took a boat to Isla del Sol from Copacabana, and walked the length of the island during the day - only 7km, but at this altitude (nearly 4,000 metres) it felt three times further!
I apologise in advance for my infantile presenting, I obviously just have no idea whatsoever.
Links
Photos of Isla Del Sol and Copacabana, Lake Titicaca
Copacabana & Isla Del Sol, Lake Titicaca
April 28, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | South America, Travel
I decided to break up the journey between Puno in Peru and La Paz, the capital of Bolivia with a stop in Copacabana and a trip to Isla del Sol (Island of the sun). Isla del Sol is the site of the main Inca creation myth - it was here legend has it that Viracocha (the creator god) had his children (the first Inca) Manco Kapac and Mama Ocllo spring from the lake and found Cusco and the Inca dynasty.
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at about 3,800 metres, and the waters are a beautiful blue, reflecting the sky, surrounding hills and distant snow-capped mountains. There’s something other-worldly about the whole lake Titicaca area - it’s almost as if the lake exists in a region between heaven and earth, but in neither.
Having arrived in Copacabana about three hours after leaving Puno, we stayed the night in Copacabana and caught the earliest passenger ferry the next day over to a small village called Challapampa in the North of La Isla del Sol. About 45 minutes walk North of the port, perched on a cliff with breathtaking views across the lake lie the sacred rock, and ruins of the Inca temple of the sun.
From here we spent a few hours walking about 7km South across the island towards Yumani. It may not sound far, but at this altitude, on the undulating island paths it took a good three hours with a few rest stops. The walk was truly spectacular, the views across the lake towards the mountains in the background were unforgettable.
We arrived in the small village of Yumani close to sunset, and quickly found a very cheap room (US$2) with views across the lake towards the mountains, and settled down for the night.
Links
Listen to my podcast from Bolivia
Video of Isla del Sol & Lake Titicaca
Photos of Isla Del Sol and Copacabana, Lake Titicaca