South America part 2

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Due to the original plan being changed regarding the route I was going to take, it meant I had to go back on myself a little bit, which was fine as I don't think you can ever see everything in just a few days. This was certainly true of Copacabana as there was almost half of the town I didn't see previously including a beautiful church and a religious monument on the top of a hill. Shaun, Lanners and I ventured to the top for sunset over Lake Titicaca which would have been lovely had there not been clouds which blocked the final part of the sunset! We also decided to take in some water sports action in the shape of a Donald Duck pedlo which looked ridiculous with 4 adults, some shoddy life jackets and a duck head fronting the thing. Whilst on the water we noticed some jet ski's zooming around so Lanners and I decided to rent one for a short time to go around the shoreline of Copacabana, was so much fun as they were fairly new and pretty fast. We headed over to the Isla Del Sol, again somewhere I had been before, but this time we had a beach day where we played football with some local kids who used the beach to walk home along. We then walked three hours to our hostel, taking in the views and local beer along the way. The following morning Shaun, Lanners and I walked to the very south of the Island to look at some ruins that were there. We again ended up playing football with two little children who loved kicking the ball over the fence into a little field. Each time Lanners had to climb through the barb wire to retrieve the ball which they thought was hilarious!



We headed to La Paz after Copacobana which I was really pleased about as I had only been there for a couple of nights and didn't get to see much. Due to the miners strike it actual meant we had no choice about how long we spent in La Paz as you couldn't get any transport south until negotiations were made regarding taxes. So it gave us plenty of time to walk around to various parts of the city and do a city walking tour which started by the infamous San Pedro prison. The prison is actually run by the 2000 prisoners in a way to encourage them to be independent. They can choose to set up business' inside the prison such as a coffees shop, handcrafts, barbers etc. The prisoners then sell to each other or get their families to sell the handcrafts on stalls outside the prison. There are some other interesting stories about how the prison guards make life more 'comfortable' for them if the price is right, including allowing girls in for the night! Not sure if David Cameron will go for this method of prison service as it all sounds a little but shady to me. After the prison we headed round to a huge fruit and veg market where pretty much all of the stalls were run by women. The guides told us that you usually go back to the same lady each week and they almost become like family friends asking about your week and family, giving you some freebies along the way. The most surprising fact I learnt here was that Bolivia has over 1000 different types if potato, with some being dehydrated and frozen for up to 25yrs...just in case something bad happens?! The best part of the tour was the witches market with some 'interesting' looking women on the stalls. The majority of these stalls had Lama foetus' hanging from them, apparently the Lamas aren't killed specifically for the stalls, the witches are given the foetus' by farmers if the babies don't survive. They had all sorts of potions and lotions for sale, I wasn't keen to try and of them as frankly the women just looked a bit scary. We met some call people of the tour and ended up going out with them that night which was cool, however, it meant I woke up at 1pm the next day. I'm pretty sure that is a lifetime first for a lay in.



Our next stop after La Paz was Uyuni in anticipation of our Salt Flats tour. The town itself is pretty small so didn't take long to explore that afternoon. Just as well as the overnight journey was a truly horrific bus journey over roads that were just dirt tracks which the driver didn't seem to feel the need to drive slowly on. There were several occasions I was actually lifted out of my chair as we flew over bumps. We all arrived feeling pretty groggy and headed straight to bed. The next morning we started our tour, with all 6 of us in a jeep with a driver who spoke no English but wore some dazzling crocodile shoes. He was aptly nicknamed Gator after that as none of us remember his actual name. It was so strange to actually be visiting the salt flats as I have seen so many pictures and it has always looked so impressive. We stopped for a few hours at a place called 'Fish island' which was a lava rock with lots of cactus trees growing on it. I walked to the top and the panoramic views were amazing: brilliant white salt flats all around with volcanos and mountains on the horizon. Beautiful. We then drove a little bit longer, again this was an adventure, as the driver drove for vast periods of time looking at his phone or at one point with his eyes closed!!! Yes, the salt flats have no obstacles and go on for miles and miles but even so, let's not be cocky Mr Driver. We finally arrived at our hostel that was made from salt, including the bricks and furniture. We had a quick coffee and then headed off to see the sunset. Possibly one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen. The sky was constantly changing colour and when you looked in another direction it was like that part of the sky was doing its own mini sunset. I've attached some pictures, although I'm not sure they really do it justice. Being there is definitely the only way to truly appreciate the sheer multitude of colours we saw. Day 2 of our tour led to us driving a fair way to take in several Laguna's which featured a number of bright pink Flamingos. All they seemed to do was stand in the water and poke around for food, a pretty simple existence I guess. Due to the sunny day it meant we got some great pictures with the reflection from the surrounding mountains showing in the Laguna. On our way back to Uyuni we stopped in some lava fields, something I have never seen before, with thousands of mounts made from lava. It would have been so much fun to have visited there for longer as you could have had a great time climbing over them, jumping from one to another.



Once we had returned to Uyuni we had a few hours to wait until we boarded our 2.50am train?! This journey turned out to be one of my favourites as it was so much comfier then a bus and we woke up to a man telling us to head to the next carriage for our breakfast. The following few hours allowed us to soak up the scenery as we headed South towards the Bolivia/Argentina boarder. The mountains went through a stage of being almost bright red and when we stopped in Tupiza it lived up to its reviews of being similar to a Wild West movie and in fact has previously been used as a location for Western movies. We arrived In Villazon ready to head through customs and get a bus to Salta. Well we arrived and then got mislead into buying a ticket for a bus we were never going to make. Fortunately, the guy at the bus station took pity on us and booked us on a later bus. This meant we had to wait 4 hours and then get off the bus at some random bus station at 2.45am to wait for another bus at 7am. Mixed into that we had 2 police checks meaning we had to get off and have all our belongings searched. We finally arrived in Salta pretty drained after a shaky start to Argentina.



Thankfully that seemed to be the only negative thing I can say about Argentina so far as Salta was beautiful and the people seem very friendly. We stayed in a small but friendly hostel which even included an annoying Siamese cat that tried to grab your feet as you walked! We decided to be a little but cultured and head to a museum on the main Plaza which featured some mummified children that had been sacrificed by the Inca people hundreds of years ago. The children were found in 1999 on top of a 6000m mountain in the Andes. A very interesting but disturbing story about how these children came to be there as part of a ritual sacrifice. Not sure what I make of it to be honest. After that we headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art which had a few good photography pieces but was pretty average I'm comparison to some museums I've seen. We cooked our own dinner that night which was a novelty but actually really enjoyable as the food in Bolivia us pretty dull and whatever you order it comes with rice and chips! Not great for the waste line. We had a few drinks and played some bowling where I scored an all time low score of 58, very disappointed with myself. The next day we headed to San Lorenzo, which is a national park 7km outside of Salta. It was a really chilled way to spend the day, roaming through the forest whilst climbing up the rocks forming the river that ran down the mountain. We took a picnic and sunbathed at one spot by the river. That evening we decided to indulge in the all you can eat BBQ we had heard about. The best steak I have ever tasted in my life! It literally melted in my mouth. We must have eaten so much meat as they kept on coming with various parts bits of pork and beef, all cooked to perfection. We did make the mistake of asking what one bit of meat was and he pointed towards his stomach, so I'm pretty sure I ate pig stomach or intestine?! Cheesecake for pudding was the finally part to a really lovely day. We had forgotten that it isn't unusual to start eating your meal till quite late here and when we left at 11.30pm people where still coming in for their meals. I don't know how they can start to eat such a big meal at that time of night!



I am writing this blog on the bus to Mendoza, home of red wine in Argentina. I'm really excited to visit the different wineries and sample their red wine. The buses here are so luxurious, we have just had a meal with wine and even played a game of bingo. Just about learning my numbers as I only missed two out of about 14 so I'm pleased with that, little bit of progress. Wine tasting up next...

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