San Pedro de Atacama, Salt Lakes, La Paz!!

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The journey is incredible from Salta to San Pedro, just breath-taking no kidding the scenery changes every 20-30 mins, over a 10 hour bus journey is ALOT!!!

highlights, was 7 coloured mountain, such shades of green, pink, oranges, reds, purples, blues, just amazing all thanks to the diff minerals making up these mountains!! then canyons, rock formations, blinding white salt flats, winding our way up to an altitude of 5,000 m above sea level, you can feel it, as you get out at argentina, chile boarder, wind cuts through you despite hot sun, and air is so thin, you've never had to concentrate on breathing quite so much before!! descending only slightly into the beginning of the driest desert in the world!!!

San Pedro is unlike anywhere else i've been thus far, the locals themselves will claim to be neither part of chile or bolivia and indeed there is a uniqueness about this place, mud houses smalll streets, but more than that the relaxed laid back attitude that you but can't help notice as soon as you get there!! we find our way to our hostel, so beautiful with a local artist having covered the mud walls with paintings of animals, designs n local women!! we check out the many tours, settle on star gazing space for next night, take it easy, wandering around sampling local cuisine. the 'we' by way is rhian we've been travelling together since mendoza! we're later joined by simon another guy from trip!

i cycled out to valle de luna on second day a distance of 19km each way, in blinding midday heat, i decide its wise i don't go all the way, as i've no phone, no way of contacting anyone n the valley is completely deserted!! ironically enough, but there is nothing like the exquisite beauty of having such a place all to yourself, as all other tours bus you out there in the afternoon when its cooler, i made it prob 10/12km out, before deciding to come back!! but cycling is def the way to go around san pedro, even if you run the risk of dehydration, or getting lost several times😉 got back in time for our star gazing tour, INCREDIBLE i've def found a new hobby, seeing the plough just above the horizon instead of its 'normal' place straight overhead was def one way to confirm how far south i've travelled, finding saturn, mars, the biggest star in the sky along with several famous constellations just made the whole evening unforgetable!!

next day i rented bikes out again, this time to old inca ruins, was ready to bike further until a crazy wind whipped up a sandstorm, to the point where 'I got sand in places i didn't even know i had' (ref guess anyone?)i reluctantly turned back to the SPA where i found a great tree to climb n hang out in, till later that evening, where i had proper music session, teaching a girl from tazmania some of ireland's best hits on her guitar!! i also was given a beautiful painting of valle de luna by one of the local indian artists, some lovely ppl, didn't want to leave!! but the salt lakes were beckoning so on we went!!

we joined a small group of six and crossed into Bolivia for first time, leaving chile and argentina welll and truly behind, first of three days we see more lakes of varying colours (from green, to red to white to black) scare off more than one flamingo colony, discovered their colour red coming from the red algae in the lakes (who knew) we reach our acc fr first night, freezing cold, but hot food, go up on the hill continue star gazing trying to remember all i learnt from my tour!! next day we find some very cool rock formations i shapes of trees, faces, plenty of fun things for me to climb up n sadly fall down, have total of 6 bruises on my legs now, three from biking, rest from rock climbing or falling to be more precise!! but great photos, totally worth it😊 we stay in small village next night, great food, conversation, everyone excited for grand finale of salt lakes themselves next day!!

which turned out to be little bit of anti climax, for me, due to recent heavy rainfall alot of flats flooded most tours don't go out that far, incl ours sadly so got to see it, but missed cactus island n few other big features, finished up early enough in Uyuni, booked our night bus to la paz for 8pm, hung around n got food.

VERY VERY BUMPY!!! still managed to get few hours sleep, woke up in la paz in time for sunrise, incredible city centre in narrow valley with rest of city built up on hills, taxi to wild rover, an irish hostel i've heard about again and again since i got here!! met up with our dutch friend from san pedro, lotte, walked around, found witches market which actually sold dead baby llamba carcases, some still with fur!! not impressed, every tourist quickly spotted with collection of llamba jumpers, hats, socks!! will prob give in and buy something, as la paz is wonderfully cheap after expensive brazil, argentina n chilean countries!!

Yesterday i did World's Most Dangerous Road on bike with Pro Downhill, were fantastic, and while certainly had its scary moments, the view alone is incredible, starting from the dizzying heights of 4,700m above sea level, you drop to 200-300 metres, full suspension bikes, solid breaks, full face helmet and knee n elbow pads, ur ready to go!! wat i wasn't prepared for was coming across a car crash from just night before, car went straight off rd down a 300m ravine, what was worse was we got there bfr rescue so you cud see the strewn bodies of six car victims, around the burnt out car, so tragic and sadly so common on this road!! some locals were there and after ensuring there were no survivors, all we cud do was leave a small stone memorial in their stead which will be soon replaced with another cross on this lethal rd, this brought home all to real the tragedy this incredible beautiful part of the world as seen, we made it all the way to the base in one piece, celebrated our luck with a drink then brought to a beautiful hotel with an outdoor pool surrounded by lucious green vegetation covered mountains.

next stop with any luck Amazon jungle!!! but with heavy flooded roads n slightly dodgy small aircrafts it may be one adventure i'll have to pass on!!

thanks for reading nuala

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