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Published: February 28th 2012
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Welcome to Bolivia, the worlds best views and worst toilets!!
We started in a mini van of 12 people at 8am and were driven to the chile/Bolivia border where as always we waited for almost 2 hours just to be stamped out of chile. We then made it to the Bolivian border which for once was fast and painless. We were given breakfast here then we were divided up into two groups of 6 and sent to our jeeps! In our jeep we had a german couple and a Swiss couple, lucky for us the Swiss spoke perfect Spanish as our driver didn't know any English. He was super cute and his name was clementine and he had no teeth! The german guy looked like David guetta and the Swiss guy looked like a barrister from work, weird! Our jeep tour had begun!
The tour went through southern Bolivia and finished ina town called uyuni. The tour is all at bight altitude, we reached heights of 4700m all through the mountains. Our first day was through the national park. We got to see the most beautiful lagoons, the three main ones were green, blue and red. The red one
has to be one of the most spectacular things I think we have ever seen. It houses the most incredible flamingos and has to be not only the most beautiful things I've ever seen but also the most peaceful. It was a perfect tranquil setting and once again the only way to really describe it is through Pictures. We also got to experience a thermal bath at 3000m, with tempertaired of 37 degrees. This is where we experienced the worst bathroom of te trip. We wanted to get changed into our swim wear so we shuffled over to the bathroom. The first problem we had was they charge you. It's only 10p but we only had £5 so a Brazilian guy paid for us. Then we entered hell hole. The smell I can't describe except that I was close to puking on myself. The loo was a weird sort of hole in the ground and I hope I don't see one that looks like that again. Despite the loo it was worth it for the thermal spa. At lunch time we were taken to our hotel. It was a shack In the mountains by the red lagoon. We slept in
dorms of 6 and the only facility they had was a toilet, a proper one at least but no showers. We had mash and sausage for lunch then continued our tour of the lagoons. Night time was freezing. There was no electricyu where we stayed so we both slept in all the clothes we own just to stay warm. In the middle of the night we big woke up because we couldn't breathe due to the altitude and yet we both loved every minute of it.
Out second day of the tour was just as amazing as the first. We went higher into te mountains and into the desert. Here we saw lots of different rock formations and coloured mountains. Once again it's not worth me describing so we have put some pics up. We has lunch in the middle of the desert by the coloured mountains,perfect! After lunch we began our drive into one of the towns. It was the weirdest town I've ever seen. It was empty except for the band playing music in the square. We stayed in a shack, even weirder than the first. It was had a tin roof and our room had a straw roof. All the doors were tin! This once had showers but outside and it was freezing. The loo, well let's say it gets smelly with over 12 people using it. We had dinner (chicken and chips) and crashed out, luckily it wasn't as cold this time.
On our last day we finally made it to uyuni and the famous salt lake,salar de uyuni,not only the largest in the world but also the highest. First we went had lunch in place where the walls,the table and the chairs were all made from salt and we did a little bit of shopping in the Market. We then climbed aboard our jeep and drove to the salar. We have included pics because once again it's difficult to describe. The salar was flooded due to the rain season but we think it made it look even more surreal. The salt was covered with water and we were able to walk along it. It was like walking on water. The salar is so huge you can't see the end of it. Our clothes were covered in salt but it was an experience we will never forget. That was the end of our tour 😞 we went back to the town and checked into our first private room in two months. In the morning we hoped on a 9 hour bus to sucre. It was the worst bus for sure. It was old and dirty and let's just say the roads in Bolivia aren't quite finished. The kid in front of us puked all over her seat so we had the added bonus of puke smell and we couldn't open the window. At least it wasn't me for once. Despite the rank bus the scenery was by far the best we have seen on all our bus routes making it more than worth it!
Let's see what adventures sucre and la Paz holds for us......
AGAIN PICS TO FOLLOW!
M and H xx
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