One of the women who had made us breakfast came to see us off. She was dressed in a large gypsy-style skirt, with many undergarments making it puff out like a lampshade, and a plain green jumper. She looked like she had once been tall, but had fallen into her arse. However I suspected that underneath all those layers she wasn't as dumpy as she appeared. Draped around her neck and hanging loosely from her body was an old apron, and perched right on the tip of her head was a black bowler hat. She happily posed for a photo and waved us off as we started our way along the bumpy gravel road.

I'll be adding some more stuff on this wonderful part of our trip, when I have time, until then keep reading about NP Los Glaciares.
Conquistadore helmets, Silver Mines and salt lakes.
Tarabuco is a small colonial town about 65 kilometers from Sucre. This town is shaped by incredible cultural values and offers many rich experiences. Here the residents have conserved the traditional dress and customs of bygone times, which they show off in their entire splendor in the market that takes place each Sunday.

The Tarabuco market is an opportunity for everyone to take part in the beautiful weavings that are famous for this area. We enjoyed bargaining for the magnificent crafts that the local artists have to offer.
POTOSI
The legend tells that the Peruvian Indian, Diego Huallpa, was the original discoverer of the Potosi silver. One day he was herding his llamas, when he realized that two were missing. He set off to look for them. By night fall the cold took over and Diego had to stop to build a fire. He built his fire at the foot of the Mountain Potojsi. The tale says that the fire grew so strong that the earth beneath it started to melt, and shiny liguid started oozing from the ground. Diego then realized that he had discovered something the Spanish conquerors had a great appetite for. The Spanish eventually found out about the silver, which later lead to Potosí becoming an important mining center.

Large-scale excavation began in the mines of Cerro Rico (rich hill) immediately after Potosi's foundation as a town and the first silver was sent to Spain. A mint, La Casa de la Moneda, was established in 1672, to coin silver and has later been constituted the largest civic monument in South America. At that time many churches were built and the city's population increased to nearly 200,000, making it one of the largest and wealthiest city in Latin America and in the world. During the early 19th-century, struggles for independence caused many churches to be looted and people started to leave the area. After independence in the early 19th century, attempts were made to restore Potosi's economy, but it was never quite recovered.
To this day, Potosi still sits on a tremendous treasure in the form of magnificent architecture and history. The town is well known for its cultural content and beautiful paintings. On December 11, 1987, in Paris, France, UNESCO declared Potosi a World Heritage Site for the richness of its history and architecture.
We decided in the planning stages of the trip that we would only use busses for relatively short trips, the idea of spending 40 hours on long distance busses wasn't particularly attractive as I can't sleep on trains, planes or busses and so get a sore back and a tired head, while Rosemary suffers motion sickness unless she doses up heavily on drugs which leave her fuzzy and nauseous.

Consequently we approached the bus trips from Sucre to Potosi (5 hours) and then to Uyuni (8 hours) with some trepidation. As it transpired both experiences were good, the busses while old and broken-down looking, performed well, although slowly, and coped with the often atrocious road conditions well. Interesting was the habit of the drivers mates picking up local hitchhikers once they had cleared the suburbs and dropping them off at tiny villages or mining sites along the way. These passengers did not have reserved seats of course so they sometimes sat the whole family (of six or seven) in the one spare seat or just stood quietly in the aisle for four hours until they got to their stop. The small sum of money they paid went straight into the drivers pockets.
Excerpt from UNESCO:
"Considered, in the 16th century, to be the biggest industrial complex in the world, the extraction of minerals relied on a series of hydraulic mills. The site consists of the industrial monuments, the Cerro Rico, where water is provided by an intricate system of aquaducts and artificial lakes, the colonial town with the Casa de la Moneda, the Church of San Lorenzo, patrician houses and the "barrios mitayos" which were workers' living quarters."
SALAR DE UYUNI

This 9,000 sq km (4680 sq mi) salt desert at an altitude of 3650m (11,970ft) is the largest salt flat in the world. It was once part of a prehistoric salt lake which covered most of southwestern Bolivia. The local campesinos armed with only picks and shovels harvest salt from this ancient lake filled with an estimated 10 billion tons of fine salt.

Situated in a semiarid climate, the Salar has an average annual rainfall of about 10 inches. During the rainy season, from December to March, the Salar maybe covered with salt water to depths of 25 cm; however during the dry season, the salt water evaporates to a layer above or below the surface.

We did a three day trip with Colque Tours - was magnificent in every way - entirely exceeded anything we'd imagined.
The adventure continues ..... click here to read more.
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