We left Sucre early this morning headed south, in search of the Silver Mine city of Potosi. During our journey, we passed by a very tiny village that was preparing for a parade to the local church. They were very nice to us and let us photograph them in their bright, colorful costumes representing the different regions. Connie remarked how funny it was that they were drinking beer prior to getting in line for the parade and heading to church.😜

Next stop Petosi…Once the silver mining capital of South America, it is located 13,000 feet above the sea level. Yelp, try walking around at that altitude! It is recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Due to the discovery of a “Mountain of Silver”, and how to extract it during the late 18th century, this small remote Inca hamlet became the economic center of Spain’s empire.

After visiting the town Square and doing the “required” 😜 people watching, we went to explore the local market. It always freaks me out when I see meat hanging uncovered and flies attempting to devour it. This market was very colorful, and had just about anything anyone could possibly want. We also took a tour of the National Mint of Bolivia called Casa de la Moneda, where we learned how they mined the silver into coins and bars, way back in the colonial area, and shipped them to Spain. After a great lunch of lasagna at a little local café, we drove several hours passing lots of lamas (llama crossing signs are quite common) and even some flamingos, on our way to the famous salt flats of Bolivia, located near Colchani in the Solar de Uyuni (ou-u-nene) region of the country.

As we were arriving after dark, the true adventure of the day began when our guide and driver took a detour out into the desert, attempting to find our hotel, Luna Salada, a hotel made TOTALLY of salt. The next hour was filled with so much laughter, as each direction they turned, involved going over ditches and ending up at a dead end….including the final one being three huge caterpillar machines blocking the road and preventing us from going off an 8 foot drop off. The driver and guide both got out of the car to assess our situation (and blame each other in Spanish) since we were in the middle of nowhere with no houses or lights anywhere around. We were laughing so hard, we didn’t have the sense to be scared.🙃 They returned about 10 minutes later with an “apparent” local in tow …who promptly got in the front seat with them and began shouting directions. Connie and I never saw his face. It was a wild ride from there on! Bottom line is we finally reached the hotel and Connie and I both agree the “local“ was an angel sent down by Tommie and Gary as they figured, we’d really gotten ourselves in a mess this time.

The Hotel is unbelievable. It is located at 11,000 feet above sea level and on the edge of the Salt Lake and Uyuni. Each room has been designed in an Andean inspired comfortable decor. You wake up to views of the Salt Lake and the rooms are extremely comfortable. It’s almost impossible to describe this hotel….it’s something like I’ve never seen before, and one of the most unique I’ve ever experienced….and to think that it’s located in the Bolivian highlands seems unimaginable.

After this exciting, yet long day, we are both exhausted and look looking forward to exploring the salt flats tomorrow.