Pica is so quiet at the moment, we were the only guests in this hotel last night. In fact, Mayuru Tours had to change our hotel here a couple of days ago because the original hotel decided not to open last night. Here we are also at the lowest point we have been for more than three weeks at just 1,106m asl. We left around 09:20 and visited another church in Pica, Iglesia Matilla which was restored in 2007. Inside was a life size model of the Last Supper which looked similar to the figures we saw them setting up in the other church yesterday. After a short drive we visited Capilla La Tirana, which is a large church of timber construction. Inside is quite beautiful with the ceiling painted blue with stars and beautiful stained ... read more

Up at 4:30 for 05:00-05:30 pickup. While we were waiting met a nice German couple also visiting the Geysers but with a different company. Finally at 05:36 out bus turned up and off we went. It was about a 90 minute drive to the geysers so the guide told us to rest which was good. By the time we got there, there were already a lot of tourists roaming around and it’s not even peak season. I’d hate to come in peak season. The guide was very strict about following the guidelines, but for good reason as people have been killed at the geysers in the past. The last death was in 2015 when a Belgian woman who was taking photos, slipped on the ice into the boiling geyser. Her husband managed to pull her out ... read more

Today's tour pick-up was 07:00-07:30 but Daisy's clock was on Bolivian time still and my phone had switched off so we didn't get up until 7.10! We frantically got ourselves ready until there was a knock on our door at 07:30. Luckily we were the second last to be picked up. The group was made up South Americans, two Dutch ladies, Mary from Oslo and two other Aussie girls from Brisbane, Charlie and Melanie. Today we visited the Salar de Atacama. Which contains the world’s largest source of lithium. Our first stop at 8.45 was Laguna Chaxa in Los Flamencos National Reserve. Here we saw 3 different species of flamingos and had breakfast. We finished there at 10.08 and stopped for 20 minutes at Iglesias Antigua built in 1664 in the small town of Socaire. At ... read more

Late pick-up today at 09:30, so after a good 7.5 hours sleep I woke up at 06:00 to catch up on this blog but couldn’t publish it because the hotel’s internet is too slow. Today was basically a driving day to get to our last stop before four nights in the Atacama Desert. Soon after leaving the hotel. We went to the same spot where we watched the sunset and Issac showed us how to do some funny trick photos, which was a lot of fun. We then drove for about 90 minutes to Julaca which is a tiny town almost like a ghost town although Issac told us that a year ago there were no shops providing a public toilet but now there are two. After that we drove on with a couple of stops ... read more

Up earlier than expected this morning considering there was no deadline for a change. However Daisy went to shower first and it took about 15 minutes for the water to get warm enough and not the most volume of water either. A bit disappointing for such a nice looking hotel. Finally we got ourselves down for breakfast around 8:45 and after that I asked at the desk if they had any suggestions for just one day in La Paz and he offered a taxi to drive us around to the main spots including the Valle de la Lunar (Valley of the Moon) which is 13kms out of the city centre for 800BOB (Bolivian Bolivianos) which is $AU80. It would be much cheaper to go to each spot by taxi but this was so much more convenient ... read more