Off to Manu Chao, I hope....

---

Hi there, well I have covered lots of miles since Salta and the last entry. I think thats where I sent the last entry.... travelled north into Boliva via a night at Carnival in a small town in north of Argentina. Was a blast, not at all like Panama city last year..... Over border back into a third world country not much different than Butch and Sundance must have found it in 1909 or there abouts. Stayed 2 nights at Tupiza, a desert town 119kms from where they were shot down about then. We then spent 4 days 3 nights on a tour thru the Salta Plains to the WEst towards the Chille border. Saw great Lagunas (lakes) of many colours, ghost towns where silver used to be mined, high snow capped mountains of the Andes which border the 2 countries, stone trees ( well stones shaped by the constant wind),hundreds of llamas, geysers similar to NZ but not as tall but just as smelly, and on the last day the largest salt lake in the world. It covers 12million sq kms, the size of Corsica an island in the Med. White like ice, very hot and we had lunch in the centre and nothing for kms but flat salt, like I imagine the Anartic to be like without the cold. The tour ended at a train cemertery where there were over 40 or 50 train engines left in the desert from before WW2 to rust. Great fun playing Thomas the Tank Driver.....Uyuni, the next town was a dull dust bowl but had great pitza and cold beer, after 4 days eating dust at least we now had beer to wash it down. The trip was probably one of the best tours I have done due to the fact the driver guide was so informative and the cook Carman produced not only great meals but even balked us cocnut cake and tibetan bread for breaky. The only down side to the trip was that I got bad headaches every day from the altitude. We went as high as 4800mts and even chewing the coco leaves, which tasted fowl, didnt help. Luckily after a cupa when we stopped and litres of water in the evening I got rid of them. That meant I had to get up in the night and run to the outside loos in temps of nearly minus to pee all the time.It was all worth it thou for the scenery, and the expirence. Moved on next day over more gravel roads for 10hrs, (havent had a paved road in over a week), to Pototsi, the highest city in the world at 4070mts. Carolyn got very sick here (also altitude) and after 2 days which I visited a Royal Mint which used to produce the greatest amount of silver coins in 18th century ( potosi used to be the wealthiest city in the world due to the big silver mine which I didnt visit as its considered to be a very claustophobic and dusty trip and I didnt fancy being underground if an earthquake struck). we moved further north to Sucre the shared capital of Bolivar (with La Paz)which is much lower in altitude and Caro was well enough to fly home to the States. I hooked up with another Kiwi from Nelson and we have hung out here for 4 days not really doing much (but drinking the great fruit drinks in the local market) but yesturday bussed to a small village famous for sunday markets where all the surrounding village people come dressed in local dress to shop. As it was a big religous festival yest, the President of Bol. Moralles attended so got within 2 metres of him and also got photos of him playing football. Hes a very popular new president as hes the first Indian president in Sth AmERICA. After all the fanfare, we trucked 5 kms to another village to watch a smaller festival where the locals were dressed like conquisadors and drinking Maize wine and dancing hypnotic dances. The women who were fascinated with Kates red hair and my blonde locks insisited we join them dancing and forced the maize wine onto us. After half and hour and 3 wines we managed to escape and caught another 1950s bus home. Ended the night at a bar watching a new movie from Columbia called Maria Full of Grace about cocane smugling into ther USA. Try to catch it if u can, a excellent film. Well, thats it up to today. Are getting the bus tonight to Cochabumba about 10hrs away which means about 150km in real terms where we hope to get tickets to Manu Chao who play on Wed night, so Ill let u know next installment if we, (Kate, Tono from Spain who was on my trip to Salta Plains, and I are lucky enough to succeed). So till then take care and love from Kay xxxxxx

---

Comments

[Chris Coles]

Thanks so much
Really enjoying seeing the world thru your eyes Kay.These are all places I would love to see BUT never will. Keep safe ...and keep enjoying it all ...and keep these updates coming.