Hello,

We have finally found some internet access to tell you all about of 4 day and 3 night trip of the South West of Bolivia.

So day one we head off in our jeep with Ruben our driver and Eufracia our international cook, very pleased that we had decided to just go with the four of us because we had plenty of leg room and space to spread out. We bumped our way up into the hills from Tupiza and this very much set the pace for the day, lots of travelling along bumpy and dusty tracks but with beautiful scenery despite the big drops to the side of the track. We stopped for lunch in a little village where Andrew and Lee played football with the boys from the village, however they really noticed the altitude and found it quite hard to run about as normal.

Lunch and all food during the trip was amazing, more than the four of us could ever eat, we were treated really well with lots of salads, veggies, meat, cheese, the works. Dinner each night was soup followed by steak or pasta or the last night our favourite chicken with roast potatoes and parsnips!

The first night we stayed in a tiny village called San Antonio de Lipez, the conditions were basic, lights for a few hours, no showers and it got very cold at night way below zero but we were all pretty exhausted after the long day so sleep wasnt too hard!

A very early start on the second day 5am! As we woke up the altitude sickness started, we all had headaches and I was pretty bad, it felt like a migrane and made you dizzy and feel sick. Reuben was a total star though and gave us some pills which sorted out the sickness straight away. We saw so much today volcanoes, salt lakes, the beautiful Laguna Verde, the Dali desert which is supposed to have inspired his paintings although he never actually went there. We also went to some hot springs which were 30oC but only Andrew was brave enough to go all the way in, the rest of us just paddled our feet, it was lovely and warm after the cold night and morning. We finished the day by some geisers which bubbled away and smoked, the stunk of rotten eggs from the sulphur! Tonight we slept at 4800m above sea level and again with basic facilities.

The third day started with sunrise over the laguna colorada which is a pink colour in the sun and has loads of flamingos on it. We saw some amazing rocks that had been sandblasted in the desert, they did not look stable at all as if they might fall over any moment. We also saw four more lagunas which were frozen solid due to the temperature at the high altitude and looked brilliant white from all calcium carbonate and minerals in them. We had lunch today alfresco at the mirador of the active Ollague volcano, the whole surronding area had really deformed rocks from the lava from a previous erruption. The rocks were good fun to climb on although quite sharp. We then dropped down to 3650m above sea level and stayed in the village of Puerto Chubica, right on the edge of the salt flats. Our room had a salt floor and salt beds which was very cool and best of all for 5 Bolivianos we could have a hot shower, which was much needed after 3 very dusty days!

The final day was another early start to watch the sunrise over the salt flats. They were amazing brilliant white as far as the eye could see. The pictures we have taken and our descriptions really dont do it justice! We went to an island in the middle of the salt flat called Isla del Pescado which was covered in cactus, one of which was 1200 years old! We had a breakfast of pancakes here on a salt table! Further on we saw little water holes where the salt grows into large cubic crystals with black impurities of lithium, Andrew has got some to show when he is a teacher! There was a hotel made entirely of salt on the salt flats, although it is actually illegal to build on the salt flats so we were encouraged not to spend any money there. We also saw where they are harvesting the salt for human and animal consumption, about 18000 tonnes per year. They make more money from the tourists and it looked very labour intensive, scraping the salt into little mountains and then loading it onto a lorry to be taken away, all by hand!

Our last stop was Uyuni, which is completely set up for the salt flat tours. There was not much there except a clock tower the plaza and the train cemetary, which had lots of disused British train engines that where dumped here in the 80s, when all the useful parts had been stripped. They had been used for exporting the salt and silver to the ports to be shipped. The lads enjoyed climbing on the trains!

We have had an amzing few days and seen so many amazing sights, definately one of the highlights of our trip so far! We are going to need a few days to take it all in and recover from our colds we have all picked up.

A dusty and uncomfortable 7 hour bus journey now awaits us to Potosoi as we continue up through Bolivia with Imogen and Lee.

Take Care,

S&A xxx