Puking in Potosi

Trip Start Jun 04, 2009

Trip End Sep 06, 2010

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Bolivia Potosi, Bolivia
Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Well we finally made it to Potosi but 7 hours later than expected due to more breakdowns and the terrible road conditions. When we arrived we were at just over 4,000 meters and because of the unexpected extended time on the truck we had run out of drinking water so after we arrived and Steve ran the bags to the hotel he was rather worse for wear. Steve was already feeling sick but as we hadn't eaten that day we headed out into the market for something to see us through. We found a little burger place where we could also buy water and ordered two burgers and chips. Steve was obviously not feeling up to much as I had to finish his for a change! Surprisingly both our meals and the water only cost us 30p (but I think they made a mistake as even Bolivia isn’t that cheap!). However it was a good thing that it was cheap as Steve spent the entire night sitting on the toilet and throwing up in the shower – not a pretty sight! There is some debate as to whether it was altitude sickness or a bug going round as half of us have gone down with it since we hit altitude, but if it was a bug I would have thought I’d of caught it from Steve so I’m sticking to the fact that my body is more robust at altitude than most

The usual greeting we get in small towns

!

Steve needed to sleep off his horrendous night the next morning and the rest of our tour were going down a silver mine so we skipped it and Steve started to make his recovery, with coca leaves (local cure) and Boots rehydration sachets (home cure), while I wandered around town soaking up the Bolivian way of life. Potosi is a very pretty town and due to the silver mines was once the richest town in South America but that was unfortunately short lived and the buildings tell the story as you walk around. I had a good wander around the market place looking for our lunch that day and found pretty much everything you can imagine apart from lunch everything from Michael Jackson tribute DVD’s to pigs trotters! Eventually I found a lady selling some Pringles so snapped those up and thought Steve wouldn’t be up to much food in any case so I’d treat myself to a mysterious pastie from a street vendor to sample the Bolivian cuisine. It was surprisingly good considering its odd combination of boiled egg, raisins, olives and cinnamon. It was enough to make me think that Steve would be better off with the Pringles regardless of how much he wanted to eat!

As our truck was still being repaired we had to hire a local bus to take us up to La Paz for the next part of our trip which was fantastic! The seats reclined almost fully into a bed and we even got to watch a film (albeit in Spanish) so it was a very easy 8 hour trip. The next morning we signed up to mountain bike down the Worlds Most Dangerous Road aptly named 'Death Road’ but that’s another story….

See you soon,

Amy and Sick Steve

Slideshow