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Valparaiso: Where Art meets City
Valparaiso, or Valpo for us locals, is the countries cultural capital and a UNESCO city. As I’ve mentioned previously, Chile defies being what you’d expect from a South American country and Valpo turns that up a few notches. Sitting on the Pacific Ocean it is a major port city and the bulk of the city…
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Hello Chile. Am I even in South American anymore?
Rest Stop in San Pedro de Atacama San Pedro is strange and unusual town. Out in the Atacama desert it’s the launching point to visit the Salar de Uyuni from the Chilean side of the border, or the finishing point if you’re running that circuit from Bolivia like I had done. It’s a good way…
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Salar de Uyuni and South to Chile
Day One – Salt, salt, and more salt as faras the eye can see Waiting for the tour of the Salt Flats to begin, I stood outside the tour agency and a young Englishman introduced himself and asked if I was on the tour. This is howI met Tom, who was finishing his Central to…
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Tarija, Tupiza and to Uyuni – Glorious Wine Country and Towards the Salt Flats
It really came as no surprise that Tarija would be the most relaxed and chilled out town in Bolivia. The miners in Potosi even commented that the most beautiful women in Bolivia are in Tarija. When you’re in the wine centre of a country people tend to be a little more happier than most, and…
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Potosi – Only 4060m Above Sea Level
Back in the mid 1500’s the Spanish discovered an absolute wealth of silver in the mountains that would eventually become Potosi. For a long time Potosi was the richest city in the entire world, the silver mines funding an expansive city filled with huge lavish houses for the colonial invaders, all the while the local…
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Santa Cruz and Sucre
Rain, Coffee, Rain, Pizza,Rain Somewhat groggy from the lack of sleep, I arrived in Santa Cruz in the wee hours of the morning. The bus terminal is 2kms from the city centre and since it was only 6am in the morning, I decided to walk the distance and embrace the fact I’d probably get lost…
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Cochabamba – Gardens and Coffee
The arrival in Cochabamba bus terminal reminded me of the airport in Cairo. There was sheer chaos, hundreds and hundreds of people swarming about the place with no less than two dozen different bus companies offering rides to all parts of Bolivia. Eventually I escaped the throng of bodies and emerged into the night with…
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La Paz – Our Lady of Peace
The entry into La Paz is something to behold. When you first come into the city it’s like any outskirts of a South American capital – dirty and full of chaos. You can’t help but wonder if the rest of the city is going to be the same. And for themost part, La Paz doesn’t…
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Lake Titicaca –The Bolivian side in Copacabana
Music and fashion are always the passion at the Copa! Well not quite, Copacabana in Bolivia is a small town sitting on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The main street that runs through the centre is full of tourist orientated cafés, markets selling trinkets and what seems an endless parade of travel agencies selling tickets…
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Lake Titicaca – the Peruvian side
I’m not sure I’d call Lake Titicaca a lake. We have lakes in Australia and Titicaca is more like an inland sea than a small body of water. It’s the highest and largest navigable lake in the world and at times all you can see it water on the horizon – no land or even…
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page