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Published: July 10th 2009
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!!! Fame !!!
This was take number 34243 Hi everyone, we hope you´re all well and welcome to the
Bolivia blog from the last couple of weeks. This was one country that we were a bit dubious about, but as you´ll read on we really enjoyed it. A bit of a step back from Chile, but it provided a more cultural view of South America as well as a view of the poorer side of the area.
So, we start at the end of our Chile adventures in the desert town of
San Pedro de Attacama. We really enjoyed this little place and were sad to leave (especially all the dogs). From here the Bolivian border can be seen high up in the mountains overlooking the town, and it was an hours bus drive there, but also about 2500M vertical too. You could really feel the altitude and even our big bag of crisps felt it as it popped half way up making Maria jump! Oxygen was available apparently.
The border area was stunning (at 5000M above sea level) although just a small hut, it sat on the crest of the mountains with a large Volcano right next door. No probs in getting out or in of
Us at the border
Yep, it really was that cold!!!! the countries, the problems started once we loaded onto our 4x4 for the 3 day trip to
Uyuni. The 4x4 wouldn´t start! Edwin, our driver then asked us to get out and push,,,,, so there we were, 6 of us, pushing a Toyota Land Cruiser, at altitude, in the Andes. About 20M later we stopped, gasping for breath, engine not working and laughing about what a great start we´d made. Luckily, after some dodgy electrics and sharing of batteries we got the beast going and hoped that Edwin would keep it going. Talk about a bonding experience with the rest of the group that consisted of 5 Brits and 1 French woman.
Then we really got started (with a new battery, that Edwin obtained somehow whilst in a desert!?!), travelling past several large lagunes such as the Blanco Laguna, Verde Laguna, and through Salvador Dali Valley. The last Laguna (Coridillo or Red) was by far the most impressive. Red because of the brightly coloured algae that grows on top of the lake. Plenty of Flamingo´s, Vicunia´s (bit like Llama´s) and birdlife. Lots of driving throughout the 3 days and so many photo opportinities followed, hot springs, mud pools, rocks
Laguna Cordillo (Red Lake)
Volcano, lake, ice, Maria..... Done - Ramsey style that looked like trees (ish), big clouds that looked like flying saucers oh, and a flat tyre too. Driving across the salt flats was amazing, so very smooth after 2 days of bumpy rocks and trails. Just like driving on a lake. Stopping at one of the islands there were some amazing cacti over 1000 years old. Also an opporutnity for lots of photos of the group jumping stupidly with the pure white salt flats and blue sky as a superb background. Passing a hotel purely made from Salt we arrived in Uyuni and headed to the train cemetery outside of town. A strange eerie, macaab place where old steam engines go to rust and die in the desert.
We stayed only a few hours in Uyuni, before jumping on an overnight tourist bus to
La Paz. The road there was the worst ever, the first 6 hours feeling like the bus would shake itself to bits even though it was a really comfy one. Arriving in La Paz in the early hours was stunning, as the city rests in a canyon and works itself up the steep slopes. A power nap later we spent a couple of hours
Rock Valley
4 days of climbing, Kev made it to the top of the wee rock washing Maria´s backpack and contents free from the Head n´Shoulders shampoo that had exploded during the bumpy bus ride. Best smelling backpack in South America right now and no dandruff.
La Paz was a excellent place for us to chill out and re-charge our batteries. There were many trips, tours and things to see and do, BUT,,, we mostly saw the inside of a local bar watching Wimbledon (ahhhh home) or walked around the hot streets looking at the locals, shoe shiners, women in tradditional bowler hatted dress, and all the shifty looking police around. Our hostal wasn´t too bad either, though you had to use a flip flop to turn the showers on and off else you started to get electric shocks. Kev topped the record with 3 shocks in one standing. Maria also did well by finding all the showers that didn´t have hot water.
Leaving La Paz we planned our trip to
Lake Titicaca. The tour bus was to pick us up from our hostal. It did, though the bus was at the top of a very steep hill, one block up. Altitude, our heavy packs and the steep slope slowed us a bit. The
Uyuni Slat Flats
Cacti on the island in the middle of the flats porter was practically running up the hill with Maria´s pack and Maria was slowing down with a stitch. Kev was trying to keep up and blowing like one of the rusty steam trains in Uyuni by the time we made it to the bus. Once on the bus for a few hours the views over Lake Titicaca were stunning, almost didn´t look real it was so big and a real deep blue. Unexpectedly we had to get a ferry across part of the Lake at San Pedro de Tiquina. This entailed us getting off and getting a small boat across, and the Bus rolling on a separate raft thingy to get across too. Funny overtaking our bus on the water and waiting for it the other side.
Copacabana is a small cute touristy type town that sits right on the Lake. Every day at 2.30 the blessing of cars takes place at the cathedral. Most of the towns taxi´s or locals seem to turn up, taking it very seriously with their cars adorned with flowers and toys and teddies and anything else they would like blessed with the car. Odd!
We took a day trip out to the
Edge of the Salt Flats
Maria with the plant she´s bringing home for the bathroom Isla del Sol, which is one of the most important Inka sites in the middle of the Lake. They believe its where the Sun was created. We ended up doing about a 15km walk from one end to the other with a couple from Kent. Really hot, high and we only had a short time to do it before the boat left. This was made more challenging by the locals who every couple of km´s wanted to charge us for walking through a patch of dirt. The first one was fine, but then it got a bit ridiculous, especially with kids every so often with the family Llama charging for photos. (See pics)
Whilst going through South America we´d been hearing stories about problems getting into Peru with protests, barricades and transport strikes. Especially into Cusco where we´d be doing the Inca Trail. So we decided to head there a bit early just in case we had problems getting through. From Copacobana we crossed the Bolivian border into Peru and headed to Puno. After all that though we arrived in Cusco with no problems at all, apart from an interesting bus journey. We´ll fill you in with the rest
At the Salt Hotel
By the salt swimming pool, next to the salt patio of the details for Peru once we come back from the Inka trail next week, hopefully without too many blisters.
Big congrats are due to the Campbell family with the arrival of little Daisy.
Catch you all soon
Maria and Kevin
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