Bolivia

---

After being dropped off at the bus station in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, we got 2 buses and finally arrived at the city of Salta 26 hours later. Near the end of our second bus journey, and only 20 minutes away from Salta, the bus broke down. We've been on countless buses and this was the first time one had broken down. It was also 1am so we didn't want to risk flagging a taxi down. After nearly an hours wait an alternative bus came to pick us up and we finally got to our hostel. The hostel Backpackers suites was excellent, as well as getting a 3rd night free, we also got free dinners. Salta is a lovely city in the North West of Argentina, it has a gorgeous plaza and cathedral, and one of the most flamboyant looking churches we have seen (church of Saint Francis). It sits at the foothills of the Andes mountains at 1,200 m so the surrounding countryside is very beautiful. It was the start of 2 weeks of us getting to progressively higher altitudes. We chilled out there for a few days, not really doing a lot. We spent one afternoon getting a cable car to the top of San Bernardo hill which gave us brilliant views of the city and surrounding countryside.

After a few days in Salta we got an early morning bus to the border crossing with Bolivia. We had to walk for a while after getting off the bus to find the border, but once we found it there was no problems getting stamped out, then walking across no mans bridge, and then getting stamped into Bolivia. So we were in another new country! It reminded us of the Indian/Nepal border in the sense that there is a really busy bustling street which has the immigration office in it, so its kind of not obvious that you've just stepped into another country. We tagged along with 2 other travellers and managed to find out where the buses were to the town of Tupiza where we were heading. As soon as the bus people saw us coming we were hounded by people wanting us to get on their bus. We just stuck together and ended up at the back of some bus, it cost us a quid for a 3 hour journey. The cheapness of Bolivia was something we had both been looking forward to and the price of things thoroughly met our expectations. We were heading to Tupiza as this was where the 4 day trip into the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) began from. We didn't realise there was no ATM in Tupiza and the only way to get money was to get a cash advance from the 1 bank in town, however with it being a Saturday that 1 bank was closed. So we did a horse riding trip on the Sunday by asking the owner if he'd be happy for us to leave a driving license with him until the Monday when we'd pay him. He was happy enough with the solution and us and another 3 we'd met on the bus enjoyed 3 hours on horseback in desert like countryside famed for being the place Butch Cassidy died.

Salar de Uyuni is the worlds largest salt flat at 10, 582 square kilometres, and it sits at 3,600 m above sea level. We did the salt flats trip with a company called La Torre (for any other travellers reading this), and we would highly recommend them. We heard bad stories of people who went with companies who let them down. For example friends of ours paid a lot more than we did but were squashed into a jeep with more people, the guide was the cook as well, the guide would drive crazy fast, and also didn't seem to know anything about what he was showing people. Our guide/driver and cook were husband and wife and were lovely people. Our guide constantly went the extra mile for example on the 2nd night he sneaked all of our cameras into the one room they could all get charged, and the same night went into the village to find more blankets for us. It also helped that we had really nice people in our jeep, there were 2 Dutch girls travelling together, and an American girl.

It is difficult to summarise what we actually did on the trip but the first 3 days were spent seeing spectacular scenery. The environment is described as an altiplano (whatever that means), there were lots of huge lakes, mountains, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs. We saw a red lake (Laguna Colorado), a green lake (Laguna Verde), lots of flamingoes and countless llamas. Although Ash did a 3 day salt flat trip the first time she came to South America, it was from a different place so a lot of what we saw was different for her. Also the stuff you see is so astounding that you could see it hundreds of times and still be amazed, it really can't be described, other than saying the landscape is like nothing either of us have ever seen before. There are lots of lakes, but it is a really dry environment. It's a weird contrast to see. The cold and the altitude also play a big part in the trip. It is freezing at night, you sleep in all the clothes you have with you and are still ridiculously cold. We didn't get much sleep on those 3 nights. You reach altitude of 5000m at one point, so its pretty high. Everyone suffers from headaches and heavy breathing as standard but luckily nobody in our car suffered much worse. Our last day was when we drove over the salt flats and took hours taking pictures. As there is nothing to give you perspective on the horizon you can took crazy photos where it looks like you're standing on people and things like that. We got up early and started to drive across the flats in the dark, then the sun started to come up and it was magical. The moon and sun were reflecting off the salt as there is a sheen of constant water on the flats so its like a giant mirror. We stopped and had breakfast at an island called Incahuasi in the middle of the salt flat. You can walk to the top of the island and it gives you great views, it's also covered in cacti.

At the end of the trip, and after saying our goodbyes, we were dropped off at a town called Uyuni. Most people hang around for the buses at night and then leave, we decided to rest for the night in the town and then get the bus to La Paz the next day. There's not a lot to say about Uyuni, it was fine, other than having lots of tour companies for the salt flat trips, the locals aren't bothered about tourists. They accepted that we were there but it didn't feel like they needed us, we were left alone which was nice. We spent the afternoon being able to watch Bolivians doing their normal thing.

We arrived in La Paz, the highest capital in the world, from an overnight bus, and we spent 3 days there. By this point we were getting pretty sick of cities so we didn't enjoy it that much. It has some great markets so we spent a lot of time wandering about these. The day after we arrived it was New Year for the Aymara people who are the people of that region in Bolivia. It is called Winter Solstice. So there was a big festival going on, lots of people dancing in their traditional dress and lots of drinking. The day after New Year we stumbled across the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, giving a speech in the main square. There were lots of locals about and they were all in their traditional dress, it was very colourful and a great spectacle to see. Morales is the first native president since the Spanish conquest 500 years ago, the others before him have all been European descendants, crazy when you think about it.

Whilst in La Paz we had been deliberating over how we would actually get to Peru. The normal route is via bus from Copacabanna which sits on the banks of Lake Titicaca. However due to violent protests that border crossing had been shut for a while. It was causing all sorts of problems for travellers who had booked the inca trail months in advance and had paid for it, and now couldn't get to Peru without flying. As we had time and could be flexible we decided to get the bus to Copacabanna and see if we could get a boat across Lake Titicaca. Copacabanna is again pretty high at 3,800 m, so we had become very acclimatised to high altitudes at this point. The town itself is really pretty and worth a visit. A lot of people do day trips from La Paz which is a real shame because once they get there we bet they wish they had stayed for a couple of nights.

A couple of hours away, by small boat, is an island on the lake called Isla del Sol. It is one of the greatest natural and cultural monuments in the world. When the Spanish came they discovered an inca empire, and remains of it are still there today. It is gives you great views across Lake Titicaca, which is one of the highest lakes in the world at 3,800 m above sea level. Again a lot of people do organised trips to the island which only last the day. We had read that it is far better to spend the night on the island. So we left our big bags on the mainland and headed to the South of the island by boat. This is where the largest inca ruins are, there is ruins of a settlement located right on the side of a hill which looks out over the lake. A very beautiful place to have lived. After spending some time at the ruins we began a 3 hour walk to the north side of the island. The walk was stunning. The path sits right on the ridge in the middle of the island, so you had 360 degree views of Lake Titicaca and snow capped moutins almost the whole walk. We had lovely sunny weather, some friends we met later in Peru were only 2 weeks behind us and they had snow when they were there so had a totally different experience to us. We arrived in the small village of Yumani at around 3pm and had a drink before we found somewhere to sleep. Yumani sits at the top of a hill so again we had stunning views right across the lake. We found somewhere to sleep easily and finished the day off with a standard 3 course Bolivian meal. We need to mention these actually, for £2 you could get a 'menu of the day' which consisted of 3 courses. The first was always a vegetable soup, then the main would be fish or meat with chips, rice and salad, and then pudding would be pancakes or a hot drink!! They are amazing value, and we could find them everywhere in Bolivia, so we ate these pretty much everyday. Isla del Sol is very relaxing and quiet, we could have easily spent more time there. To anyone reading this who is planning on going, do not do a day trip, it is so easy to do it yourself and much more enjoyable.

So after our relaxing mini break to Isla del Sol, we had to spend the day finding somebody who knew about a 4 hour boat across to Peru. We only found 1 person out of maybe 15 agencies that could help us. We're still not quite sure how legit our boat across was but none the less we made it to Peru, and got our stamps in and out. We were basically taken in a mini bus (there were other travellers there and not just us) to the Bolivian immigration office, stamped out, and then met by a Peruvian man who led us into Peru, where we got stamped in, then led us across farm fields to the edge of the lake. We waited for about an hour at the edge of the lake until a speed boat appeared. We were taken by locals in rowing boats to the speed boat, and then it took 4 hours to get across the lake to the Peruvian town of Puno. The funny thing was, even though there is a large port in Puno, our boat docked in some grassy reeds on the outskirts of town. We were then told to walk to the main road and hail a taxi down. It all went smoothly and we got to Peru without forking out the price of a flight. It was then the start of our month in Peru......................

Lots of love T & A xx

---

Photos

Salta
Cable car going up to San Bernardo hill

No mans bridge
crossing between Argentina and Bolivia

Horse riding, Tupiza
We look embarrassingly like we're in fancy dress. However these are in fact our normal clothes (except the hat and chaps obviously)

Cold Tom and Ash
1st nights accomodation on salt flat trip

Our group
This was our jeep for 4 days