Breathless in Bolivia, or living the high life!!

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OK, give us a second here. It has been a while and there has been so much that we have done. 14 days (we both wish it could have been longer) in beautiful Bolivia. And all the while US citizens being choppered out of the country, massacres and upheaval. Par for the course really when you have a country that has had more coups and governments that George Dubya has had wet dreams about dropping bombs!!

When we last left you, food poisoning and dodgy bellys abounded, leaving us laid low in Salta, unable to do any sightseeing, which is a real shame as the surrounding area is meant to be a bit special.

However, nothing could prepare us for what was to come next. A bus ride from Salta to La Quiaca, the border town between Argentina and Bolivia takes you steadily from around 1000 metres above sea level, onto the "altiplano", at around 3600 metres up! The landscape changes from arid desert flatlands and Andean foothills to high altitude desert, with cactus and a marching line of 5000 metre plus mountains stretching away.

Climbing from the bus to collect our packs in La Quaica to walk to the border was a trial in itself. I (Steve) was especially hit hard by the thin air as I bounded about thinking I could do everything at double speed as normal....not a good plan....light headedness, short of breath and an overall feeling of disorientation made my mind hark back to the Lonely Planet´s advice....walk slowly....do NOT exert yourself initially. They were right and a slow trudge to the Bolivian border ensued.

The crossing was made special by smiling Bolivian police and border guards who laughed and joked in Spanish. They could have been telling us that Gringo´s were being fed to the puma population, but the smiles were nice and we encountered none of the trouble we had heard about from other travellers.

Bolivia is truly a third world country and the poorest in South America, this despite having massive natural gas reserves and other mineral and mining opportunities. It is fair to say that the Spanish pillaged Bolivia to support their own economy without putting much back into the country in the way of infrastructure which has created a massive divide amongst rich and poor.

We had a couple of hours wait in Villazon to experience our very first Bolivian bus journeys. After the luxury of Argentina and Brazil, this was a shock! Paved roads? Ha! Air conditioning? Chortle... BUT, it did feel like proper travelling again. Jammed into the back of a bus with coca leaf chewing locals and a long three hours ahead with no bathroom on board....hmmmm....we also experienced the first real indigenous people, the Aymaran people - the woman especially wear colourful skirts and shawls, with the traditional long black plaits and bowler hats perched precariously on top. We were intrigued by this and it turns out in the 1920´s, an Italian hat maker had shipped too many hats to Bolivia and the additional stock was then marketed as women´s wear - the hats are now believed to offer fertility, so nearly every women above about 35 wears this type of dress.

The chollo´s they use carry everything from household goods to babies wrapped on the backs.....and imagine the surprise on this first bus ride when one of these slings made a gurgling noise.....a 2 month old bambino on the back of this lady on the bus!!

Following a dusty and very bumpy ride through many tiny villages where children can walk two hours to get to their local school, we arrived in Tupiza. The name literally translates to "Red Rocks" in Chascuan, and the scenery surrounding this tiny little town is just stunning. Sitting at 2.950 metres above sea level, everywhere you look are mountains of all different shades of red.

We were both stricken with terrible headaches, another sign of altitude so were taking it very easy for the first day or so. One of the reasons that we came via Tupiza was to take a 4 day, 3 night tour through the South West Circuit and Salar de Uyuni with a specific company called "Tupiza Tours". They are more expensive than other companies, but we had heard some horror stories of badly maintained jeeps, crashes and other murmurings, so felt our choice was a wise one.

Beginning to breathe a little easier, we set off on Sunday the 14/9 and swiftly climbed back up to 3800 metres again on the start of our tour. We had lucked out massively with our group, an American lady called Carolina and a Belgian guy called Jacques (72 years old and travelling overland on his own!!) Our guide Archie was to prove excellent and being expertly driven over the rough terrain by Giraldo, we were totally set for a kick ass experience!

This really is bandit country!! No I mean it, really. The tiny village of San Lorenzo is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their grisly end. Don´t believe Hollywood people....it was a murder/suicide, no final run into the sunlight! They had planned and executed a robbery of a wage office, believing themselves to be home free. They did not count on the locals who shopped them and after a long gun battle they gave up in the manner described above.

We ventured higher still, having lunch at around 4,000 metres, the landscape beginning to give away to the really high altiplano, massive expanses of desert with distant volcanoes and mountains all around. Every 15 minutes there was something new to marvel about, with Archie pointing out old settlements and disused mines here and there.

Our first night was spent at 4,200 metres in a village called San Antonio de Lipez. Bright sunshine on magical multicoloured mountains gave way to a bitterly cold and uncomfortable night. With the temp dropping from 18 degrees to minus 3 in the space of about 30 minutes it was hard to adjust. Shanny bought some Llama wool gloves off a local Aymaran woman called Petrona and was immediately grateful.

It was a long and uncomfortable evening. We were in bed by 7.30pm as there was nothing else to do and it was soooo cold! Our accommodation was a simple stone room, stone beds with matresses, I think the locals would have been warmer with their fires inside the houses! Electricity had only just come to the village about a year before in the form of solar power. which has helped the villagers immensely, being able to continue working after dark and such like.

A rude awakening at 5.30am following a cold night and some musical snoring (no names mentioned) saw us head higher still, and into the Parque Nacional de Fauna Andina "Eduardo Avaroa". Passing through 4,835 metres, we then descended to 4,600 metres for lunch and a bathe in a hotpool, which is situated next to one of many sulphurous lagoons. Onwards to the Laguna Verde, or Green Lagoon. This body of water sits beneath a volcano that straddles the Bolivian and Chilean border. At a height of 5930 metres it is an an imposing sight and in the extinct crater, is the world´s highest lagoon. The Incan people used this area as a site of sacrifice and for those who chose to climb the mountain, there are some altars and ruins at the top.

The Green Lagoon itself is an eye watering irredescent green and at 4,800 metres up, the whole effect is a little hallucinatory with the lack of oxygen and incredible colours. The water is made up of various heavy metals, cobalt, sulphur and is totally toxic to drink. Another jaw dropping sight to take in all the same! We saw a lone cyclist who was biking to Chile from Uyuni in Bolivia.....we think he was French....nutcase!

We then continued to the place of the boiling tourists....he he he, mountain myth perhaps? Sol de Manaina or "Morning Sun" is a highly active geothermal area. Situated at just a shade above 5,000 metres (woooo!!) it has all the requisite geysers and bubbling mud pools. Now, in Yosemite, Roturua or anywhere else in the developed world, you are roped off at a safe distance from these super heated wonders....but in Bolivia, you can walk right up to them! I mean, a track which is about 18 inches wide between two pools and no handrail in sight?? Great stuff! Apparantely, there have been two instances of tourists not taking the advice to avoid the cracked ground and it giving way....boiled tourist anyone?? Maybe a scare story to make Shanny shiver? You decide!

We stopped in rather more salubrious accommodation that night, a short distance away from Laguna Colarada. Only better because the rooms were a slight bit warmer and there was a fire a common area....god send!!

Another early start and straight to the Red Lagoon. So named beacuse of the plankton that exists in the water and makes it glow red in the midday sun. Also here we had the absolute privilege to get up close to 3 different kinds of flamingos. James´, Andean and Chilean flamingos flock to this area to feed in the mineral rich water....they can drink all the toxic stuff and filter it out, this would kill most other living creatures. There were literally hundreds of birds and we had the opportunity to get some cracking photos....them to follow!

Being there at the crack of dawn made the light perfect and with steam drifting across the water from hot springs feeding the lagoon it was really quite gorgeous.

Further driving out of the national park saw us cross 80kms of desert. Everywhere you look is evidence of volcanic activity that happened 1,000 years ago. As the altiplano is so high, the area remains untouched and boulders which were thrown out by the eruptions still lie where they landed. You can also track the magma and lava flows down the slopes....wow....

Leaving the national park, we passed by 5 very special smaller lagoons - we were able to get about 5 metres away from the normally skittish flamingos and take more photos. Tourists in the past have thrown stones at these birds to try and get photos in flight, but all you have to do is wait and be patient and you will get your chance! Some people!!

Lunch was had at the last lagoon and we saw further evidence of mining activity and the remains of an old bread baking oven, from the 18th century.

Finally seeing a live volcano, blowing steam, this one had erupted within the last 20 years and they are basically saying anytime soon again....luckily the whole area is totally unpopulated, but the last eruption was apparantely pretty spectacular.

Onwards to what was supposed to be the highlight of the trip....Salar de Uyuni. Now don´t get us wrong, what we were about to witness is amazing, but we had already taken in and seen so many superb things, that this was just another tick off the list.

Salar de Uyuni was formed many thousands of years ago when thr Pacific Ocean was shut off from modern dar Bolivia and the lake that was left dried up. The salt flats are 12,000 square kilometres. That´s big.....when you are in the middle, you cannot see a horizon and if you have the right equipment you can see the curvature of the earth. The flats are 12m deep, which makes from roughly 62 billion tons of minerals in this area. It is the worlds richest lithium deposit and the Bolivian government are considering mining the whole area to meet the demand of the digital camera and mobile phone batteries that so rule our daily life. What a shame this would be to destroy one of the natural wonders of the world.

The flats are a seriously awe inspiring place. We arrived before sunrise and the silence was deafening. The area is truly desert like in quality. In summer the temperature can rise to 40 degrees centigrade, but in the winter at nighttime, the temperature with wind chill can feel like 40 below!!

We breakfasted on Isla Inka Wasi, which we had the pleasure of climbing to get an all round vista of the flats.....wow.....cactus that range from a few years old to about 1,200 years old. Views in all directions which strip your breath away. Once again, we are still at 3,600 metres up, so the lack of oxygen contributes, although we were slowly acclimatising.

We took the obligatory silly piccies due to the lack of perspective. So Shan can now carry a Toyota Landcruiser in her hand, stand on top of a water bottle posing like a ballerina and have Steve´s head up her bum!

Locals mine some areas of the flats for salt, totally manually, pick axes, shovels and wheelbarrows....mind boggling!

And this is where the most fantastic trip of a lifetime wound up. One more lunch in Uyuni, we visited the Museum of Rusting Locomotives, which was pretty cool in fact. After saying our good byes to Jacques, Carol, Archie and Giraldo, we started to prepare for our trip to La Paz, but that as they say is another story!!

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