After a very long trip (36 hours) we finally arrived in La Paz. The first thing which Marco needed was an oxygen- shot at the airport medical post

Trying to get rid of the headache and shortness of breath by drinking lots and lots of cups Coca tea, we decided to explore the city. La Paz is a very laidback and easygoing city filled with extremely friendly people. It´s a city full of contrasts: mostly ugly buildings (excepts a few true beauties), the colourful Indian people who keep the traditions alive, the beautiful and playful children who are very happy with feeding pigeons, the businessmen in the student and business district... conclusion: an impressive city and a good start of our trip in Bolivia!

One day we went to Tiwanaku, an old Inca site. We left La Paz with a local minibus before dawn and arrived with sunrise in Tiwanaku. We felt like we were the only people in the world, so quiet, so pure! After good walk we arrived at the site which turned out to open just at 9.00h. We had some time to explore the village which had a true Wild West feel. The trip top Tiwanaku was even more impressive then the ruines itself...

After La Paz we moved our asses (and the rest of our stuff) to Uyuni, a little town in the middle of nowhere. It was the starting point of a 3-day trekking with a 4WD to the Salt Flats and national parks. Together with 4 Brazilians we survived sand storms, extreme cold (-25 degrees!) and salt peeling! On the other hand we also saw extremely beautiful nature from Salt Flats to coloured lagunas, wild flamingos and Alpacas (just look at the photo- link on our site).

Back in Uyuni we were covered with sand, dust and salt.... So we desperately needed a HOT shower... which we didn´t have yet in Bolivia... (smelly cats...). And.... We found one! The next day we moved our stuff to the civilized world, a city called Potosi.

Potosi is a colonial town with a rich past and future (because of the silver mines). The only thing we did here was wandering around the romantic smal cobblestone streets, drink good Bolivian wine (tip for our red wine fans: Aranjuez Terruno and Kohlberg are our favourites) and beer (Potosina), hang around in the parks and squares. Today it´s Sunday and the city is dead... we guess people here also don´t like Sundays.... There is nothing to do....

Tomorrow we will continue our trip in Bolivia and head for Sucre, the real capital of the country. Curious what we will find there...

Ciao Ciao for now