Hey, I know I’m cheating a bit amalgamating two stop offs into one post, but to be honest there’s not too much to say about uyuni and potosi, plus I was there only for a night and was enjoying my private room status too much to explore…
Uyuni is the stop over pre, or post, salt plains, it’s predominantly catered for tourists. It is however, kind of my romantic view of what i pictured south America to be; unpaved roads, animals roaming the streets, undeveloped yet so very quaint. Mind, I’m not too sure whether this is the locals’ picture perfect view!
Amidst this, there is some darn pretty architecture, they’ve had a go at ‘modern art’ with the sculpture that frames the church, but I must admit I particularly love the toy soldiers!!!
Potosi, on the other hand, is a much larger place, steeped in history (it made its cash, back in the day through silver mining) and is a unesco world heritage site. As such, although today the silver has been depleted you can tell it was a very important town through the beautiful architecture it owns.
Despite its illustrious past, it seemed like a ‘real’ working town with most folk earning a decent buck at the local market place. I’m not sure what the bolivians take on carnival is, but by looks of my hotel they had been celebrating hard!
And this was really evident across the town. Amidst the hustle and bustle, you’d hear fire crackers, bands playing and signing. I was lucky enough to see a band dancing its way though the traffic and another having foam fun in the market place. Sounds a bit weird, but all the festivities brought a tear to my eye – and yes, that was before any wine 😉
After all that emotion, there was only one thing to do… Grab some empandoes from the market and a bottle of vino Tinto and head back to my private room with a double bed and sky tv! Actually, I ended up eating potosi bread an donuts! How was I tell the difference? X
House of Wendy travels... 