Bolivia

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From Buenos Aires we flew to La Paz via a stop at Santa Cruz. Little did we realise during the first part of the flight that someone had contacted the airport to say that there was a bomb on board our plane - the first we knew of it was when we had quite a dramatic landing at Santa Cruz surrounded by police, army, ambulances, bomb squad, sniffer dogs etc. We don´t know whether it was a real threat or just a hoax, but heard that it was still being investigated the following day. Anyway, it meant that our short stop took longer than planned - all security checks had to be re-done, and we were all moved onto a different plane, but fortunately we arrive in La Paz safely.

Unfortunately, however, Claire and I were both quite ill during our first night in La Paz from something we ate (we think from Buenos airport) but feeling much better by late morning. We were also both been hit by the high altitude and so took things very quietly for the first day, but managed to book all our tours/activities for the following couple of weeks.

La Paz itself was very busy, especially as it was carnival time, and so celebrations were in full swing, meaning the streets were chaotic with so many people out and about...they also included a tradition of the children throwing water bombs at everyone - a bit like running the gauntlet in trying to dodge them every time we walked down the road.

After a couple of days in La Paz, we headed south on an overnight bus to Uyuni. From here we headed south to the salt flats. We were in a group of 7 people, and travelled for the 3 day tour in a 4WD drive. Despite the 6 punctures that we got during the time (slightly concerning when we were a 9 hour drive from the nearest town, and the spare wheel had no tread on it whatsoever! Fortunately, however, our driver seemed well experienced in tyre repairs and replacements...), the journey went smoothly.
The salt flats were amazing to see - as they were flooded at the time of our visit we saw some great relections in them. Also visited some natural geysers and mud pools, and a few lagoons with flamingos, llamas and alpacas in and around them.
At night times we stayed in family run ´hostels' i.e. a room with beds in. On one night we had cold running water...luxury compared to the other night when it wasn´t even running - just a bucket poured over the head...in zero degrees, we were all quite cold, and made good use of the hats, scarves, coats, gloves, fleeces etc that we had. Anyway, it all added to the experience, and we all enjoyed it.

The day after returning to La Paz we continued on to Cocacabana, and went out on to Lake Titicaca, where we spent one night on the Isla del Sol. Our guide took us around the sacred sights and monuments, and explained the Inca beliefs. Here we stayed in a hostel at the far end of the island - quite a hike to get there, especially as most of it was uphill (our guide was used to high mountain trekking, so made it to the top very quickly, while Claire and I took our time, still trying to acclimatise to the high altitude). However, well worth it for the view out over the lake.

From Lake Titicaca we took a bus to Puno, crossing through to Peru.

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