What do flamingos and Salvador Dali have in common?

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The drive towards La Paz was spectacular, over the basic houses and fields were large mountains dusted with snow. The arrival into the city was breathtaking for a couple of reasons, the city is the highest in the world (3650m), but only holds this title since China invaded Tibet, and the view of the city sprawling out down the valley below a large volcano was a sight I wont forget in a while. Sadly my first day in La Paz was a bit of a disaster due to some dodgy Turkish meal I had on arrival, so I spent all day rolling around and visiting the bathroom. I did manage to book up my trip to Salar de Uyuni and over night bus for the following evening. The next day I was feeling much better so a group of us headed out for a long brunch as it was my last day and Dana (a fellow traveller, from the good side) 30th birthday. We ordered some Bloody Mary´s to celebrate… hilarious, there was no tomatoes juice obviously so they simply blended some tomatoes; it was a Bloody Mary smoothy, yuck! After that delight we did a spot of shopping, I managed to pick up a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s poncho; it is kind of crimson/brown with vertical stripes - pink, yellow, green, red, orange, very autumn! I love it, defo be wearing it in London winter. I really like La Paz it is very gritty, people, buses, cars everywhere, the electrical situation is out of control, about 50 or more lines per power pole … fire hazard for sure. The place is like one big market, there are hardly any shops everyone just sets up on the footpath. The buses are magical, check out the photos of them, crazy stuff. After shopping Paul and I headed out to the Valley of the Moon, the taxi ride there was great, racing through the suburbs and red lights. The Valley of the Moon reminded me of Bryce Canyon USA, but smaller and a clay colour, plus you could see housing and a gold course, it was a bit of a laugh though. But not as funny as the Coca Museum, it was all about traditional uses of the coca leaf plus cocaine. Here some interesting facts; 1) Segman Freud was the first person to make the use of cocaine fashionable, 2) the French made a wine that contained 12mg of cocaine with 28mg alcohol and the Pope gave it an award, not surprise he was probably WASTED! So that was my 1 day in La Paz, I said my goodbyes and headed for the night bus.

The night bus relatively easy, got on went to sleep (with a little help) and woke up in Uyuni. I met up with a lovely girl from San Fran, Vera, and she decided to join the same tour I was on. The poor girl had been strangled and mugged in La Paz, she was very strong to get through that and carry on. The rest of the group was great as well, one London student, a girl from Argentina and 2 crazy Sth Korean guys. Just after 10am we were zooming off towards Salar de Uyuni… first of all a family of llamas wandered across our path, soooo cute a few photos later and a few minutes later we arrived at where they process the salt. There was no tour or guide so it was all a bit strange, however the lady there selling stuff complemented my poncho! Then we were off into the actual salt plains, and oh my god it was cool! Bright, bright white salt, there was also a layer of water (rainy season; however we have perfect blue skies for the entire 3 days!). I just had to dip my finger and have a taste, yip it was salty. Took lots of photos then we were off over the salt and water racing towards the salt hotel. The salt hotel was made of salt and charged an outrageous price to use the loo, probably because there were no bushes to go behind. Some more photos later and we were on our way to Fish Island, it is called Fish Island because it looks like a fish from afar, logical. So the salt plains were amazing it looks like there is no horizon, there were smiles all around from those in the jeep. Fish Island was the craziest place, right in the middle of the salt plains was this volcanic type rock with massive, some over 10m high, cactuses, MENTAL! After climbing all over the island and taking some time out to look at the marvellous view across the salt to the surrounding mountains we had lunch. The food on this trip was fantastic, especially given we were in the middle of no where, however it was a carb festival, not so good when you are just sitting in a jeep all day. We then drove on to our hostel in a tiny town, most buildings were made from clay bricks or concrete, the place was basic, but clean. On the way we drove past lots of Vicuna (they are from the llama family) and quiena (sp) plantations - this is a local pulse, like lentils kind of.

The second day of the journey was just as fabulous as the first, but maybe more so because it was FLAMINGO day! The day started with a wonderful drive through some barren lands, very, very flat plains, it is actually the widest part of the Andes range. So flat. There were snow capped mountains and volcano’s surrounding us. Our first stop was to view a steaming volcano with orange rock formations in the foreground. Then we headed for the main attraction, flamingos. And they were as amazing as I thought they would be. The lagoon was mirroring the surrounding mountains and the pink and white flamingos as they cruised around feeding and peaking at each other. I took an insane amount of photos, I just love those birds they are magnificence! And then during lunch a little fox wandered up to check us out, brilliant! They tore me away from the flamingos and we past some more flamingos, a green lagoon and then a terracotta lagoon. We drove further through dry arid land, passing a mountain boosting 7 colours. Then we stopped at some strange rock formations right in the middle of no where, rather weird. More driving to Colorado Lake, 52sqkm; it was pink, white, dark blue and full of flamingos!!! Around 4000 of them, it was a spectacular sight. We then entered the national park; De Fauna Andina Eduardo Auaroa, a mouth full really. Through out the day were passing many Vicuna, I have no idea what they were eating up there. Our dorm was basic and clean… it was a cold night at 4600m. But they had a cute little viscacha, rabbit type thing with a long tail hopping around.

Super early start, 5am and freezing, I basically left the hostel wearing everything bar my sleeping bag. Off we went towards the geysers, they were situated in a crater at 4850m. Bubbling mud pools, some very violent and multiple geysers all around. There were zeros barriers, you could walk around willy-nilly, crazy stuff anywhere else you would be 20meters away not just cruising around stepping on baby geysers. Didn’t stay too long due to the fact it was still FREEZING. Headed towards some hot pools, yuck, there were lots of unwashed travellers jumping in, due to hygiene reasons I didn’t take a dip, plus I didn’t take my togs. 3 day old bread for breakfast was on the menu, yummy. Then we were off again, zooming towards the green and blue lake, it was so pretty with the reflection of a cone volcano in it. On the way there we past a particular landscape which had mountains that were kind of pointy coloured, white, pink, orange and browns, and in the foreground were natural piles of rocks. According to our driver Salvador Dali had visit this place in Bolivia and taken inspiration, and thinking about it this vista did remind me of a few of his pieces … how cool and random is that! When then commenced our long journey back we rested a bit back at Colorado Lake, great, cause I could look at the flamingos some more. We took a different route back to Uyuni, but to be honest I kind of slept most of it, me bad! We did pass through the train cemetery which was a little bit wacky… just a whole lot of rusting train engines in the middle of no where. Said good-bye to the crew and I boarded the bus at 7.30pm woke up in La Paz at 9am, great.

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I spent most of the day doing admin stuff, just as I was about to leave for the airport I got notification my flights had been cancelled. No airplanes.... hmmm. So I am booked on a 7am flight tomorrow, and I think they confirmed there was a plane, great. Hopefully I will still get too see a little of Mexico City, I suppose we’ll see, roll on Central America!

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