The world's most amazing place

I've been on the bounce since sharing travel adventures with you, dear reader, and the journal now continues... Towards the end of my stay in Rosario I met an English lad in our dorm room and we became travelling companions for several days. He is also heading north so we organized an overnight bus to Salta in the far north of Argentina. We booked into a recommended hostel and it was soon time to let our hair down at the pubs and clubs in Salta for the weekend. We had a very enjoyable time and the nightlife was heaving in this beautiful northern Argentinian city.

It was soon time to move on and north is the plan. I met an English couple at the hostel in Salta who were headed in the same direction as me and we took the overnight bus together to the Bolivian border. An uneventful and efficient border crossing ensued. We then hopped on a local bus for the four hour trip to Tupiza in southern Bolivia where we met another group of three travellers, a Swedish couple and a Kiwi girl. We all looked at each other on disembarkation and went for a coffee together and Bob´s your uncle ... we had a ready made tour crew. We booked a four day Uyuni salt plains tour through Tupiza tours that very day to commence the next morning. The tour was a wonderful experience facilitated by our guide Milton and driver Juan Pablo Montoya ... somehow his name seems familiar!

Bolivia is a magnificent country to visit if you fancy natural scenery and the whole tour was on the altiplano at or above 4000 metres. The scenery can variously be described as spectacular, mind boggling, awe inspiring, even really quite nice; as you quickly run out of superlatives when describing this part of the world. If you are an adventurous soul I believe that going on tours brings out the very best qualities of the human spirit. It was an absolute pleasure sharing the experience with these kind travellers and we all supported each other in the best traditions of mateship as embodied in the Anzac spirit. Er,... maybe I'm getting a bit carried away dear reader, so please forgive the free plug for the citizens of Oz and the Kiwis!

The Salar de Uyuni is the world´s largest salt plain and is 100km by 180km. Don´t try to go for a walk by yourself! The tour also incorporated several magnificent lagoons with flamingos chowing down near the shore, the geysers at over 4500 metres and finally swimming in the hot springs at over 4000 metres. It all added up to a truly unforgettable travel experience. The end of our trip was marred by an injury to one of our crew but she is now receiving the best of medical care.

At altitude in the world´s highest country you do what you can to acclimatise, including traditional remedies such as coca leaves, coca tea and panadol. I have become short of breath just by having a mouth full of pasta. It's crazy! We have all headed north within a few days of the tour ending via Potosi (the world´s highest city at over 4000 metres) and met up again in Sucre which received Unesco Cultural heritage designation in 1991.

In summary, crossing the border into Bolivia from Argentina provides a stark contrast but I am glad to be here. The country is blessed with magnificent scenery, friendly people and is as cheap as chips. Be sure to take some deep breaths prior to arrival cause you gotta love that oxygen, it's really good stuff! Then you'll find as the saying goes dear reader,........... basically all of you should be here now!

"And there we were ... as far from any human aid as if we were in the moon." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Top 3 Hotels/Restaurants
Backpackers - Salta, Argentina
Salt Plains hotel - Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
Joyride Cafe - Sucre, Argentina

Top 3 Sights/Activities
Salar de Uyuni 4 day tour - Tupiza tours, Bolivia
Weekend nightlife - Salta, Argentina
Colonial Buildings - Sucre, Bolivia

As I continue my travels, until next time it´s signing off for now.

Tom

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