Potosi, day 1 - Bolivia

After the salt flats we came to the highest city in the world's, elevation 4060m, we took a night bus after a quick eat in a lonely planet recommended restaurant that turned out to be pricey and not that good.

Looked like we were the only people actually going to Potosi (pronounced poto-si by the way) as everyone else was going to the more interesting Sucre but that was OK. The bus want as comfortable as previous travels but nothing a sleeping pill wouldn't resolve.

We got in around 2 am and got a cab to the hotel, roads looked like there had been a party and a few drunken people dotted the streets, got to the hotel fairly fast and good surprises it was a heathed room! Yay!

After a good sleep and a long shower we ventured out on the streets to get a feel of the town, this is a miners town and due to government being in the verge of changing (therefore no security over what will happen next) they work Monday to Saturday in shifts to cover 24 hours and ensure they can mine as much silver as possible, that means they only have Sundays left to test and enjoy family so the city was fairly deserted.

However we found the Sunday markets and to our surprise there was celebrations going on, parading around were people of all ages, classes, colleges etc dancing to a time played by the band who matched with them. It was very folkloristics and I loved it, at one point we even ended up by mistake joining the march and dancing along the locals (it was just some simple steps).

The elevation definitely affected us, breathing shallow breath and feeling a bit tired but certainly not as much as we were scared to think by reports from other travelers, having been at high altitude in the past few weeks must have helped and soon there was little effect leftover.

Rosy didn't like it much, or the city, i guess she may have been tied or maybe not what she expected. After all it was Sunday and most things were closed. Pasquale didn't seem to like it much either although not as strongly as Rosy.

For dinner we went to a lonely planet recommended place (seems the norm now to do that) which was quite good actually, not even as pricey as it could have been. I tried the brochetas Gipsy style (skewered meats) together with a spinach soup and it was great, Pasquale wasn't so lucky with his roasted vegetables.

We went to bed early even if we didn't need to, I couldn't sleep and heard the fireworks and was a bit gutted I didn't stay out to see the end of the celebrations. Oh well, another time.Read more