5 chickas and one awesome Boliviano driver!

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To be honest I was a bit nervous about this tour, only because we were going to be driving into high altitude reaching nearly 5000 metres and there was potential for severe altitude sickness.

But I boarded the bus anyway and drove to the Chile/Bolivian boarder were we met the 4x4 jeeps and went through immigration which was this tiny shack in the middle of nowhere. I was put in a jeep with 4 other solo travelling women from all over the world, Canada, France, England and of course me the Kiwi contingent. And of course our Boliviano driver Edgar. Little did I know how amazing the next 4 days would be.

The other ladies knew quite a bit of spanish which was just so helpful! And Edgar was just awesome, singing and dancing and clapping away whilst driving us to the most amazing places. Lots of mountains, lagoons of all different colours and millions of Flamingos. One of the lagoons we visited had the most flamingos in the world and it was just stunning. Apparently they turn pick due to the shrimp they eat and when they fly you can see the vibrant colours under their wings it´s just so beautiful!

The first night we stayed in basic accommodation in the middle of nowhere with 2 other french couples who were in another jeep. We were served by two beautiful Boliviano women in traditional dress and treated really well. As there was no heating we slept in all our clothes but this wasn´t a problem at all.

We rose at 6am to catch the sunset and headed out again for more stunning scenery. This time we saw lots of rock that had been left post volcanic eruptions and formed a stunning landscape. Edgar was really warming to us by this stage and eagerly took part in our photo opportunities he was just hilarious!

We arrived in the Bolivian town Uyuni on the second night and were greeted with Bolivian carnivale. This included lots of fancy dress both traditional dress and superheroes etc it was bright, loud and very wet as it´s customary for children to throw water balloons and spray foam. And guess who the targets were?? Yup the Gringos! We got hammered it was hilarious!

That night the driver of the other jeep offered to take us out and show us part of the celebrations which I jumped at the chance for. We arrived at a bar with a band playing and lots of Bolivianos dancing apart from one other couple we were the only Gringos in the place. After about 30 minutes it became clear that this band was just playing the same song over and over again and did so for the next 3 hours we were there, but at least by the end I could sing along 😊 We were having a great time when out of the blue a old very drunk Bolivian couple came up to us and began adorning us with streamers and lots of confetti and dancing with each of us individually it was fantastic! The funniest thing ever! We went from being outsiders to being totally accepted and very colourful!

The next day we got up at 4.30am in order to see the sunrise on the salt flats. As it is rainy season the salt is covered with about 5 cm of water and therefore is totally reflective. The sunrise was just amazing if not a little freezing as we stood in it to take photos. We spent the morning posing for photos (me posing you say? I know totally out of character isn´t it?? 😊) and having breakfast in the Salt Hotel/museum. I have no idea why you would stay here a) its an environmental hazard as peoples waste just goes right into the salt and b) there is nothing special about it at all!

We returned to Uyuni and then it was time to say our goodbyes. It had been such an amazing time saying goodbye was hard and very sad. This had been the most special experience so far it´ll take something extraordinary to top this! Oh yeah and the altitude sickness I was apprehensive about I wasn´t effected at all apart from being short of breath when walking yay!

This is definitely something to put on your bucket list!

Pics below...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275163&id=594416894&l=bb49f19c01

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