Rob's Rave and Silvina's Stories Living life at the end of the world
Bolivia
Endurance Travel – A Break in Carmargo
Finding a Ticket Onward Our bus finally arrives in Carmargo at 2pm. After climbing off, I look around to see if there is a bus to take me to PotosÃ. Just as I am looking, a bus pulls up behind us with a sign to PotosÃ. Thinking that it is about to leave because the [...]
Endurance Travel – Making it to Carmargo
Leaving the City Leaving the city entrance behind us we began our ascent up the first mountain. We had beaten the blockades and now had a free road ahead of us. Our climb soon gave us some spectacular views over the city and valley basin of Tarija below us. As usual these roads had a [...]
YWAM Tarija – An Early Childhood Centre
Here I am in Tarija, staying at the YWAM base here. This base is not like many of the bases of YWAM in that it does not run courses or training. What it does however is something very important for the community. Run by one woman who is occasionally assisted by temporary helpers, this base [...]
Endurance Travel – The Final Leg To Sucre
Confusion It is 7.45pm and I am on the bus and moving. It is all quite strange really. People without tickets were clamouring to get aboard as they closed the door and took off. They said that we were going to return to this plaza again but I am unconvinced, and very glad to be [...]
Endurance Travel – Beating the Blockades
Well, I have just arrived in Sucre this morning. By all rights I should have still been in Tarija. The transit strikes were extended another 24hrs and there was supposed to be no exit from the city. But I found one. It has been 28 hours of tough, sleepless, and sometimes entertaining travelling. It is [...]
Salar de Uyuni – A 3 Day Tour
I have just arrived in Chile after a three day tour of the Salar de Uyuni – the largest salt lake in the earth. The tour covers a lot more than just the salt lake, which was only the first day, but every part of the entire tour revealed amazing sights and incredible views into [...]
Salar de Uyuni – Day Three (3)
At five in the morning we had packed our jeep and were on the trail, wrapped up in multiple jumpers and with gloves and beanies and a sleeping bag wrapped around our legs. It was very cold, almost freezing without the sun, and our destination would be even colder. Looking down on the thermal hot [...]
Salar de Uyuni – Day One (1)
We started from Uyuni township in Bolivia and the first day was spent on the salt lake. By the end of the day we had only just left the huge salt lake to stop for the night in a small township called San Pedrito de Quemez. We slept this night at 4,200 meters. Driving on [...]
Salar de Uyuni – Day Two (2)
The second day took us into wild places in the Andean mountains, reaching altitudes of up to 5000 meters in our Toyota Landcruiser 4wd where seven of us managed to fit in quite comfortably. During the second day we saw lakes filled with flamingos, a smaller type of llama called a vicuña, and other wild [...]
Sucre by Photos
Riding down the main street of Sucre on a motorbike. Sun setting through the colonades of the lookout plaza. Bolivian mother carries her child in the common way in a cloth on her back.
Two Days in Sucre
Upon arriving in Sucre, I called my friend Sonia and was taken to the home of some YWAMers nearby. This was my reason for being here – to work in this home and help the King’s Kids branch of YWAM develop their own web site. Looking down on the city of Sucre from its highest [...]
Four Days in La Paz – A Photo Journal
Many things happened in La Paz. Serving the homeless with food, helping Mission Adulam with their communication needs, shopping for various items in the crowded markets, and working out my way back and forth from El Alto on top of the hill to La Paz in the crater below. These photos tell just a small [...]
Photo Visit of Tarija
Here are another series of photos of the city of Tarija, taken during the first day of the transport strikes. A man works on preparing more goods to sell in his street-side shop. Old buses like these are very common here in Bolivia.
A Day in Uyuni Town
Uyuni Upon arriving in Uyuni, I started the hunt for a 3 day tour of the Salt Lakes and many other bits and pieces that you can see here. This is my first and only point of being a tourist in Bolivia and is what everybody has told me that I must go and see. [...]
Flowers and Insects of Cochabamba
While at the orphanage, I saw some flowers that I wanted to take photos of. When some of the younger children saw me taking these photos, they suddenly started coming to me with flowers plucked out of the field. Instead, I told them to take me to the flowers while they were still alive. These [...]
Sick in Santa Cruz
The First Day On Saturday I arrive in Santa Cruz. The directions that I had been given to determine when to ask the bus driver to stop were very good. However I was not dropped off until almost 2 kms further down the road. During the night a bad cough had become worse, taking my [...]
Church in the Plaza – Cochabamba
It was only one day that I was able to spend at the orphanage, and by the evening of that day I had returned to the church where I would stay the night before leaving early the next day for La Paz. Although not all, many of the cities in South America have their own [...]
Leaving Entre Rios
We arrived back just after 6pm and drove straight to the bus ticket vendors. The first place we visited had a bus leaving at 7pm. The second one had their bus being loaded as we arrived, and ready to leave almost immediately. That was the bus that I wanted to get on, but after racing [...]
Stranded by Transport Strikes
It was yesterday that I was planning on leaving Tarija. Today I am still here. I missed my bus by only 10 minutes. But that may have been a very good thing. Buses block the road and the bus terminal so that nobody can provide a service while they are on strike. You see, in [...]
Visiting the Las Lomas Community
I was planning on getting the 6pm bus out of Entre Rios to Tarija. It was already 5pm and the flooding had reduced enough to allow the buses to start travelling the route again so there was a good chance I would make it. The road to Las Lomas. Just before leaving however, Pepe wanted [...]
Bus to Cochabamba
I have just arrived in Cochabamba after a 17hr bus trip that should have been 9hrs and it cost me (and everyone else) 100 Bolivianos instead of the normal season price of 30 Bs. Yowch. Trapped on the mountain for 7 hours. Not only that, but I left Santa Cruz to come here so that [...]
A Country Church Service – Entre Rios
On my last day in Entre Rios, after the plumbing had been fixed and the leadership training had finished, we all climbed into a couple of cars and headed out to a small church in the country to celebrate together. Fineke teaching in the church. The day was wet and raining, and the rivers had [...]
Targeting of Tourists in Bolivia
A new warning for tourists in Bolivia has just arrived telling of how gangs using fake clothing and identification of police are robbing tourists, especially in the La Paz region. This sort of event is not new and has been happening for some time now. Apart from the two scenarios listed below, locals have also [...]
Train to Uyuni
When I first planned my trip through Bolivia, I was hoping that I would be able to ride the train back to Argentina. It is supposed to be a very picturesque journey that is worth the ride. People seated in the dining cabin of the train, waiting for it to leave Oruro.