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Published: November 20th 2008
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well here he is folks in all his glory! he got a bit mashed up trying to resist being pulled out but i think you get the idea. i asked if i could keep it and they were only too happy to let me!! he sat in a jar for 2 days before i got some alcohol to put him in and then started leaking. i first noticed it as i was opening my bags for the immigration officer on the border with chile, where they made us sign over and over again that we were not bringing any animal products into the country!! whoops! just kept cool and they didnt notice anything, only i could smell it!!! any way so he went in the first bin i could find i am afraid so this photo is all that remains, apart from my memories of course!!
before this happened i spent about 10 days in bolivia. i would have liked to have had the time for more but am on a tight schedule to get to my wwoof place in chile so only had few days in bolivia. the first few were spent in la paz, one in the hospital,
which is always an interesting experience, i dont think you can say you have visited a coulntry until you have been in the local hospital!! i was just relieved that they did give me a local anasthetic and antibiotics so i didnt hvae to worry too much!
i found the area of la paz i stayed in to be quite grim, it was in the market area and while it was very good for popping out for food, it didnt have much else going for it. i found the people to be quite rude and unfriendly which was a shame cos i have heard good things about bolivia. i kind of lost the motivation for la paz and just hung about long enough to get arm sorted then headed south to uyuni and the salt desert. now this place was something else, it actually inspired me to write a poem!! no, you cant hear it!
the town itself is in the middle of nothingness and everyday sand storms blow through it. you cant set foot outside without your sunglasses on because the light is so strong. i arranged a tour of the salt flats for 3 days which would drop
me off at the border with chile at the end.
we were 6 in a jeep with a driver (blind in one eye!) and his wife, the cook. first we went to the train cemetry which is where the trains first used to get salt and minerals out of the desert were abandoned when a new line was built and appear to have just stopped in their tracks, eerie!!
the jeep then rattled and rolled for hours each day over the whitest desert ever, sunglasses essential again and an imagination because the scope for comedy photos was endless. the perspective playing gangs of tourists were a funny sight. the whole of the salt desert was once an inland sea trapped when the andes rose up, then evaporated leaving upto 7 m salt in places! in this are several islands, one of which has these giant cactus growing on it, and flowering while we were there which was lucky. there was also a coral arch on this island which proves it was once under the sea.
i have taken so many pictures of just white and blue! it was excellent but the pics probably dont do it justice.
we then went
to some lakes which are rich in minerals and are full of flamingoes! they are actually really noisy, chirruping all the time, it never occured to me that they made a noise! when the wind blows the colours on the surface of the lakes change like washing paintbrushes in water. all the while the sky is a brilliant blue and light fantastic.
on day two we went to a volacano which is smouldering on the chilian side but not onthe bolivian side, they seemed quite proud of this! i suppose you would be when you have as little as bolivia has! then to a spooky part of the desert where the wind has carved rocks into bizarre shapes. it really was incredibly windy here, on of which is called the tree rock, can you all see why?!!
the next morning we all had to get up ridiculously early to see the geysers at sunrise. it was spooky again, where the earths crust is so thin that this grey goo bubbles up through it and blows off steam. it kind of looked like the earth had acne. from there to the thermal lake which is as iot sounds and breakfast before
heading towards the border.
on the way we drove through dalis desert, as you do, and honestly was dalis desert! completely orange, sky completely blue, and strategically placed smooth rocks on the horizon.
photos dont really capture what it was like, but the colours were sensasional and views stunning, our tour was excellent, food brilliant and the best thing to do if you are in bolivia. sadly the only bad thing was a bully in our jeep. i feel i have to point this out because its a public site and others might have the misfortune to meet him. he was called steve and was a jehovas witness, to add insult to his shame! he was a complete evil little sod and i hope he has a terrible accident while on his travels!
you didnt ruin it for us steve, you must try harder next time!!
i got dropped at the border which was just a hut in the middle of the desert where both sides looked the same, i waited a bit then over the horizon comes a vision, a mirage, a shiny, new, white minibus, with all panels present and wheels turning smoothly. i thought it
was a mirage, but then remembered that i was waiting to go to chile!! the chillian bus was superb and took us all towards chile. within a mile of leaving the border we were driving on a proper tarmac road, with yellow lines and no craters or holes or donkeys on it. i thought about asking the driver to stop so i could take a photo but realised no one else onthe bus was thinking the same so i kept quiet! after the above mentioned issue at chilean immigration (the only professional immigration office so far i might add) i arrived in san pedro de atacama, a sleepy little hippee oasis in the atacama desert (the worlds driest). i stayed there for a couple of days enjoying the arrival in a more developed country. the attitudes are more developed too and it was reallynice to just chill out for a day.
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