Bolivia so far

Well this is the first time Ive had internet connection since Monday, It´s also the first time I´ve posted anything since leaving Argentina and arriving in Bolivia. I spent the last night in Argentina listening to a Pena, which is live Argentinian music. Bands play with a series of pan flutes, drums, and other native wind instruments. I enjoyed a fine cut of llama meat, with a glass of Fernet and coke, my new favourite liqour at the moment. The departure from Argentina was awesome, left beautiful Tilcara for greener pastures in Bolivia. The only problem was that the pastures were a desert and they didn´t necessarily greet me with open arms. I took a night train to the border, hopeing to arrive around 6am when the border opens, since I heard the line can take up to 3 hours if you don´t arrive early. The bus I got on arrived at 5, pitch black, and having to walk to the border only knowing that its about 20 blocks away, without a direction. No one else was white, or a traveller, or spoke english. I asked in my best spanish which direction to walk and finally found someone who just pointed down a road. I started following someone, hoping they too were going to the border, and I ended up walking into Bolivia without anyone so much as asking me a question or making eye contact. I realized I should turn around, and sat at the immigration desk for 2 hours by myself until other travellers arrived around 7. I guess it didn´t open until 7:30am so I had a long wait. Once across, I took a bus to Uyuni, to do a 3 day trek of the salt flats, which was amazing! A group of us, mostly 23 year olds from Ireland, England and Argentina hired a jeep and took off. The salt flats are these huge desert like lands made of entirely salt. There was a bit of water on top so it reflected really well, and was something I´ve never seen before. We rode on top of the jeep, did some minor rock climbing that was probably unsafe because none of us are rock climbers, but it was a small climb. We saw an active volcano, some geysers during the sunrise, and visited a train grave yard. The circut went around Southern Bolivia to the North East of Chile, we arrived back in Uyuni on day 3. The group said there good byes, and it was off to Potosi for me, an old mining town that boomed in the early nineties when they hit huge silver deposits. I did a tour of the mines, which was pretty eye opening too the lifestlyes of the town folk. Kids as young as 15 are working in the mines, the air has tons of toxins, asbestos, and accidents are common. We crawled through small holes, slid down narrow openings, and gave gifts of coca leaves to the miners. Because of the poor condition the average life span of a minor is dramatically shorter, many getting lung diseases after 10 years of work. We also bought dynamite, which you can by from the corner store, for the miners to use, it was pretty surreal holding sticks of dynamite in your hand that cost about $3 Canadian. Now I´m writing from Potosi, and taking a night bus to La Paz. The elevation here is around 4000 meters above sea level (13123 ft), making many things the highest in the world (Im hoping to play golf on the highest golf course in La Paz). A couple people have had bad altitude sickness, including headaches, light headedness, and shortness of breath. So far I´ve only noticed shortness of breath when doing minor things, like walking up stairs....or maybe it´s all the cheap junk food I´ve been eating. Anyways, I´ll post pictures when I get a chance, the internet is so slow it takes about 25 minutes to load one photo. Chow

Greg