Uyuni to Potosí

My ride here to Potosí has included some of the worst roads I have ridden on yet. So, I was plesantly suprised to follow a brand new asfalted road from Agua Castilla to Potosí. Beautiful scenery too. On the first night out of Uyuni I camped beside the road on a llama track.

I cooked my dinner with the tent flap open and with the stars out. Dinner consisted of pasta, tin of peas, stock cube and, at the last minute, some instant mash. Oh, and some raw rice. For some reason it was in the smash container and made the entire dish nearly inedibly crunchy. I managed half of it. Such a waste of the peas (they're a bit of a treat).

Potosí is an interesting place. You don't realise you have reached a city until you are 500m away from it. It is hidden away in a complex network of mountains. The road weaves its way in with pleanty of climbs and drops. It is (claimed to be) the highest city on earth at 4090m. The city is built on the side of a hill in rather an inconvenient way. There is a mountain that looms behind, Cerro de Potosí (4824m). This is the key to the existance of the place: a silver mine. The story goes that some dude was wandering about and pulled out a bush from the ground and saw some silvery bits attatched to the roots. By 1745 the spaniards were digging the stuff out like there was no tomorrow. It became the main source of silver for the Spanish empire.

In other news... I am an Uncle!!! Caroline and Alejandro have a little girl called Emilia Mar.