Bolivia

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Getting up early to catch some sort of public transport is common to us now! Once gain we caught a bus to a lovely small place just over the border of Bolivia. It was still 3380m high but it was actually quite hot and i burnt my face!!!! Not good! This city/town was very quaint with no traffic therefore no pollution - RESULT! It was still on Lake Titicaca, but the other side! It felt like quite a hippy sort of place where people have visited and just got stuck there! There was a lot of small market stalls on the road selling loads of jewellery!! Yessssssssss!!!! However, there are some cons about it being such a small place; there were no ATMs and we only had a tiny bit of money we had exchanged on the border. Anyway, we found this place where you can give them your credit card and passport, and they will give you as much cash as you want. So, as I am the ´money-get-outter´, I queued up to get money out for me and El whilst she phoned her dad on his birthday. Anyway, turns out the system wasn´t working so I couldn´t get any money out and Ellie had a racked up a 28 Bolivianos phone bill without knowing I couldn´t get any out! Noone spoke English there either so we had to leave Ellies passport as a deposit, walk back to the hotel to get my US$38 to exchange which took forever as nobody in South America ever has change - not even money exchange people!! Quite bizarre!!! Anyway, we paid the phone bill then Ellie had to change her travellers cheques as she had no money. This took another age as we found out the guy wanted a copy of her passport!!
3 hours later we had a bit of money and a 5 second delay, 4 min phone call under our belts! Never again!! The rest of the time here we spent lookin around the market stalls (and not buying anythin because we didn´t want the same money palava!) and drinkin beers on the waterfront! At the altitude of 3880m, they´re quite effective! Ellie treated herself to trout, chips, rice and salad all for under a pound!! It´s like being back in Thailand!

Later that night we went for a few drinks but we couldn´t find a bar so had to go to a restaurant where I ended up buying food because I felt guilty!

The next day we did pretty much the same apart from we added a pedallo in there!!! Very cheap and something different! We obviously didn´t go into the water because it´s freezing!! We also had a walk around the Cathedral!

That night we actually found a bar which had live caribbean music, and of course we later found ourselves in a club! We didn´t get back until 4am and had to leave in the morn for La Paz and hadn´t packed!! But we our experts now at packing so takes only a few mins! Anyway, we made our bus which had the worst engine in the world! Chugged for hours along the road where we reached our destination - La Paz - Capital City of Bolivia! We hadn´t really thought of what we were doing there even though we had booked our hostel, we didn´t have a clue where it was! The bus driver asked us where we wanted to get off and never before has there been more than 1 stop in city so we didn´t have a clue! The 2 English guys next to us (Ben and Rob) didn´t know where our hostel was either but decided they were going to try and get a room there too so we jumped in a taxi with them after we had decided to get off at the terminal (notoriously famous for petty theft!). We hoped the taxi driver would at least know where the hostel was......but no! I had to text Jo, Rachel, Mum and Dewi to see if they could find out on the internet for me!! Rachel and mum came up trumps! Thanks guys! I understand why the taxi driver didn´t know where the hostel was because there was no sign outside, just a door off the street (I think it had only just opened!).

We arrived, went out to get food with Ben and Rob and then Ellie had a mid afternoon nap whilst i played cards with Ben until people surfaced! That hostel was the sleepiest hostel I have ever been to! I ended up sitting in that one seat for about 10 hours as more and more people joined us!! We went to a club at 1am with Rob and Chris (different to the ones from NZ) swinging off wooden beams above the dancefloor like monkey bars!!
That night was a fun one with lots of antics inc: a Garfield costume, the bad guy off Donuld Duck costume, 11 people in 1 taxi with driver trying to fit 2 more in the boot, monkey bars, oxygen room, mad old man dancing on stage and saying to us ´Bolivia welcomes you!´, going to another ridiculous club until 5am (Viviennes), Chris talking on the taxi driver´s radio asking how the other person was in spanish and telling them his name........and many many more............!

The next day we slept until 2pm!!! We were very tired as we hadn´t had much sleep in the past few days! Then we checked out the Witches market!! Where ever we went we could not get away from market stalls.....not that I was complaining!! We had to buy more warm clothes because we had heard it was FREEZING in the salt flats!! So we both bought a 100% al paca (llama) jumper, scarf and hat!! We now fitted in with every other South American traveller!!!
We obviously bought more jewellery!! I bought a wooden ring for 3 bolivianos (about 20p!!) I won´t take it off now! I felt like I should buy anything, even things I didnt need, because it was all soooo cheap!! But i held back! Sort of!

That night we went out for a meal on the road 20th October (very strange name I know) and then Chris took us on a sort of pub crawl (we called it ´The Chris Bus´!). We ended up in a club called Traffic and that was that really!

The next day was the most frustating day of my travels!! We woke up, Ellie passed me my bag as I was on the top bunk, I checked I had everything from the night before (it was all safe and sound), looked at the photos on my camera, then went on internet without my bag, came back an hour later to get my phone and found there were 2 men fixing the door handle, then went upstairs for an hour, came back to get my bag as we were going out and found that my camera was nowhere to be seen!!!!!!!!!! I checked my bed thoroughly thinking I had left it in there........nothing! After about 10mins, I came to the conclusion it had been stolen!! And the only people it could be was the builder men or maybe the cleaners at a push!! All I know for sure is that it had gone!! I was sooooo annoyed because I had tried to upload my pics the day before because I hadnt done it for the whole of South America but it didn´t work!! I had lost them all!!!
Anyway, apart from being very annoyed all day we (me, El, Rob and Chris) visited the ´posh´ area of town!! We thought there would be loads of malls there but there were just proper shops as opposed to market stalls! I found it weird walking into a shop! Hadn´t done it for so long!

That night we just watched a film (´300´ - hated it!), ate pizza and went to bed! I didn´t have the best nights sleep as for some unknown reason, my dinner decided to come up and see me again!! Not pleasant!!

Anyway, the next day was check out day! The boys had gone on the Death Road - one day cycle trip that quite a few people die on each year!! We nearly did it but ran out of time so had to leave La Paz! They survived which is good to hear!

I had to go to the police station to get a statement for my stolen camera. Then we just wasted time until it was time to get the bus.

Our next destination was Uyuni on an overnight bus..........again!! This one was the worst though as after about 2 hours the road wasn´t paved!! So it felt like you were sitting in a very excited masssage chair!!! Also, this was the coldest bus ride ever!! Luckily we got given blankets but I don´t know why they dont just put the heating on!! The driver was in an all in one ski suit! He knew what it was all about!

After a deprived nights sleep, we arrived in the ghost town that is Uyuni at 6am!! We didn´t have anywhere to stay and we hadn´t booked a salt flats tour (that´s the only reason you visit this dump!). So we just walked around for a while trying to find the plaza. Once we had succeeded in this, we finally booked a 2night/3day tour to leave that morning at 10.30 am.
We actually didn´t end up leaving until about midday after stopping for tyres and who knows what else!!
So there we were, 6 of us: me and El, Jane (Ozzy, lives in London), Susan (Scottish, lives in London, Jane´s travelling buddy), Jean-Phillippe (aka JP, Quebec), Alex (JP´s mate from home) and the driver Christophe; chugging along in the jeep on the unpaved roads! Our first stop was the train cemetery! All it is is a load of old unused trains in the middle of nowhere! Got some good pics on Ellies camera!

Then we set off properly in search of the famous, world´s largest salt flats (10,582km squared) at 3650m above sea level! Pretty soon we caught a glimpse out of the left window of a huge white area that looked like snow! Then we stopped where there were lots of mounds piled up ready for collection! We saw this as a perfect photo opportunity!

A bit of history: some 40,000 years ago, the area was a lake called Lake Minchin. When this lake dried up it left the salt behinf forming what we see today. The lake contains 10 billion tons of salt.

We then stopped at the Cactus Island!! I have never seen so many cactii in one small area!! We climbed to the top of the island to get an amazing view of the salt flats!! They seemed like they stretched for miles and miles. Here we had lunch, beautifully prepared by our driver Christophe (steak, pasta and salad). After lunch we were allowed time to take the photos we had been so longing to take the whole day! We ahd all our props at the ready (Kermit the frog, red wine bottle, Shrek, ball......the list goes on - check out pics!). For some reason, me and Ellie were the only people who could get the angle right to take the illusional photos! But we got some good ones in the end!

Then we were off again in our little Jeep heading for our next stop which was where we would be sleeping that night. The accommodation was in the middle of nowhere and was very cute! Freezing but cute! We had our own room but we may as well have all been sharing as the partition between them was thin cardboard! We drank the bottles of red wine we had bought for props for the pics! Kept us warm! Christophe cooked us a lovely dinner - traditional soup and chicken and chips! My favourite!!

We set off early in the morning (even though we were the last to leave again because of Christophe!) and we headed to some rocks that were part of volcano. Again we got some good pics here. Then we stopped at a lake with a few flamingos on and many Llamas wandering around. I also spotted 2 foxes who were waiting for us to finish our lunch to get the scraps!

We were then driven to this famous rock that stands alone. By the way, all this driving took hours. We got some more pics here. We the arrived at our accomodation for the night - once again, in the middle of nowhere! We went for a walk to take photos of the beautiful sunset over a lake with snow capped mountains in the distance! That night´s happenings were pretty much the same as the night before - ate, drank red wine and listened to music! We had heard through fellow travellers that the 2nd night was a lot colder than the first! We were freezing the night before so O wasn´t looking forward tot his nights sleep! I slept with 4 jumpers on - one being a big hoody and one being a fleece, tracksuit bottoms and leegings, thick walking socks, 2 hot water bottles, 3 blankets and a sleeping bag and I was still freezing!! Well it was minus 25 degrees!!! We had to get up at 5am to drive to the geysers! I did not want to get out of bed! But it had to be done, so we all piled into the jeep and off we went! We were soooooo cold!! Luckily, the Quebecan guys were proper ice climbers so they had brought big goose feathered jackets which helped to keep is girls warm! I dont think I thawed out until the next day though! The engine of the the jeep nearly blew up because they haven´t discovered anti-freeze in bolivia yet! Also. the dash board lights didn´t work and Christophe didn´t even have a torch! You would they would be prepared for these situations asthey do this trip twice a week! Very strange! Anyway, all was good in the end and our engine survived the baltic condiditons! We first stopped at the geysers which were 5000m above sea level! By this time it was light! It was a case of run out of the car take a few pictures and run back into the slightly warmer car! There were craters there and I felt like O was on the moon! We were bascially peering into an active volcano that was bubbling away!

After another lengthy drive we ended up at Lake Colorado which was perfectly still so formed a mirror image of the snowy mountains surrounding it! Very picturesque!

Next stop - thermal pools! Me and El had forgotten about this part of the trip and the stupid woen in the office hadn´t reminded us! So we were bikini-less! There was actually nothing less i wanted to do at that time than get into a bikini!!! But Ellie managed to borrow one off Susan so they all bathed themselves in the natural thermal pools at 5000m as I was on camera duty!

Then it was lunchtime and then a short drive to the Chilean border to drop Susan and Jane off as their next stop was San Pedro. After our goodbyes, we started our 7 hour drive back to Uyuni - then there were 4! I basically slept the whole way back which made the journey go a lot quicker!

Back in Uyuni, the boys got whisked of straight away onto a bus for La Paz whist we were put in a hotel for a few hours until our train at 2am!! Cold cold cold! By this time, we hadn´t had a proper nights sleep for a week! But we still pushed ourselves on to fit everything in our tight schedule!!

OUr train ticket we had got as part of the dalt lakes trip package so we were unfortunately in 2nd class aka cattle market! 3 people had to squash onto one seat! When we found our seats. there was a young boy lying on the floor of where my feet should go!! I soon realised that the other had no intention of moving him so I sat down! For 6 hours, my legs were under my seat at a 45 degree angle on the balls of my feet!! They were dead for the whole journey and my knee seized up! NOt the most comfortable of journeys I have to say!

We arrived in Tupiza at 8am, walked through the market to try and find somewhere to stay (hadn´t booked again!) then gave up and got a taxi to a name of hotel we had heard of! We did our usual errands - laundry and internet - then slept for 7 hours by mistake!! We got up at 8pm and booked a triatholon for the next day!! Not your usual triatholon mind - ours consisted of cycling, horse riding and in a car! Then we went back to bed!!

We got up early the next day ready for our trip, only to find that we were the only people booked on it so it was going to be very expensive!! We decided to leave it until the next day when hopefully more people would book! Tupiza wasn´t thrivong to be honest so we did our usual walk around and read in the square to try and fill our day up!

Up early again to actually go on this trip which luckily a lot more people had booked on now! So we chose our bikes, put our helmets on and we were off!! As I did my first ascent, I realised my gears didn´t work!! I was in for a tiring day! We were still at a high alititude and the roads were sooooooooo dusty that it was pretty impossoble to breathe!! 12 km later I made it to our stop without having to get off once and walk with my bike - I was very proud of myself!! We were then driven to our lunch stop! The setting was amazing! Here was where Bitch Cassidy and the Sindance Kid was filmed so it had that Wild wild west theme to it! After lunch, it was horse riding time! The horses took us up the mountain to a canyon and then back again!

Then it time for another bike ride!! We were driven 1000m higher up to the top of another mountain which had spectacular views and were dropped off with our bikes and we had to make our own way down!! This was a pretty scary task as the bikes werent amazin, the breaks were pretty useless, the roads were very steep, there were hairpin bends and it wasnt paved so we were cycling iver a dirt track and gravle with huge boulders every so often and a sheer drop down the side!! obviously there was no sort of crash barriers or anything to stop you from plummeting to your death if you fell! I wasn´t actually as scared as I thought I would be! After 5 mins I got a lot of confidence and whizzed down!! Breaking all the way gave you cramp in your hands though!! Cars and buses going the other way added to the riskiness!!! I thoroughly enjoyed that 17km bike ride and would happily do it again!! It was like the unheard of Death Road!!! Great fun!

The next day it was time to get going again - next stop ARGENTINA!! Our bus cost us all of 20p, even though it did break down a few times, you couldn´t complain! We sat right at the front on the top level so it we had the best views of the last bit of Bolivia!!!

Bolivia was one of my favourite countries so far!! I would definately go back to do the jungle and the mines!!! Another day maybe......

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