Hello! Sorry for the massive delay in this blog post...if you have read my other blog post you'll know that I messed up my laptop in Brazil so couldn't finish my Bolivia blog...I am now home and the laptop is fixed (wooo!) so I have just finished it! (As you know I am not currently sitting in a hostel room in Paraty, Brazil...but that's when I started the blog so i'll leave it like that!)

Hola! I am currently sitting in our bedroom in a hostel in Paraty in Brazil, in my bra and pants as it is absolutely baking and there has been a power cut in the whole town so there is no air con or fan! (Sorry if that's too much information - but it is crazy hot -I'm not trying to rub it in - but seriously I'm melting!)

Anyway...so Bolivia. I think the last time I wrote we had just arrived in La Paz, Bolivia and said goodbye to Pablo, our tour guide for Peru and some of our friends who we had been travelling with for about 3 weeks.

Bolivia is the hemisphere's highest, most isolated and most rugged nation. It is among the earth's coldest, warmest, windiest and steamiest countries. It has among the driest, saltiest and swampiest natural landscapes in the world. It is one of the poorest countries in South America, but it is also one of the richest in terms of natural resources, although it is a landlocked country which greatly affects it trading opportunities. I knew very little about Bolivia when we arrived and I was excited to learn more about this fascinating country.

So...We had an extra day in La Paz before we met our new tour guide for Bolivia, so we set out exploring the city. Three brave people from our group went off for the day to cycle 'Death Road' - a very famous bike ride. I didn't really fancy it as the name put me off and I thought my Mum would probably never forgive me - but in hindsight the three brave people had a great day and said it wasn't as scary as it sounds and the scenery was incredible - so maybe one day I'll go back to do the ride!

While they were off being adventurous the rest of us decided to explore the 'Witches Market' - a market where they sell potions, various ingredients for spells, dead baby llama skeletons as well as the usual touristy stuff - t-shirts, bags, crafty things etc. It was fun to walk around and see if the style of touristy stuff had changed between Peru and Bolivia (It hadn't changed much but things seemed to be a bit cheaper).

After a wander around we decided to go to the Coca Museum to learn all about the history of the coca leaf, the many different uses of the leaf, the drugs industry, the Coca Cola industry and different laws about the growing and usage of the coca leaf. It was really interesting to learn about it and find out about the problems associated with the growing of the coca leaf - there are lots of political arguments about the coca leaf and lots of misunderstandings about it.

A few facts I remember:

-They still use coca leaves in Coca Cola today,

- Coca leaves are not a drug and chewing them doesn't have any ill effects (apart from making your teeth a funny colour if you chew alot)- it is used as a stimulant (the porters chew the leaves to walk the Inca Trail) and it suppresses hunger.

Anyway...we had a fun day exploring the city, going to the main square and seeing the main political buildings - La Paz isn't officially the capital of Bolivia, but it is Bolivia's largest city and the centre for commerce, finance and industry - it is the governmental capital. Sucre remains the judicial capital of Bolivia.

That evening we met up with our new tour guide - Soledad (or Sole - pronounced Solay) - a lovely Bolivian lady from La Paz, who has been working for G Adventures for 4 years, she was 28 years old. She told us about the trip, took us for dinner and so began the next adventure - 11 days in Bolivia!

The following day we set out on a long journey from La Paz to Uyuni - which started with a 4 hour coach journey, followed by lunch and then a 7 hour train journey to Uyuni. The train was quite posh but very sticky as the air con was broken in our carriage, so we spent most of the journey sitting in the dining cart to cool down! We arrived in Uyuni at about 10pm and checked in to our hostel. Uyuni is a small town situated in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia's southwestern corner - the main reason tourists stop here is to see the salt flats - the world's biggest salt flats - measuring in at more than 4,085 square miles! The salt is 10m thick at the centre. I have wanted to see the Bolivian salt flats for a long time - ever since I saw incredible photos of the reflective white expanse of salt! Check out this photo essay about the Bolivian salt flats: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027166/Bolivias-salt-flats-sky-ground-merge-like-heaven-Earth.html

The salt flats are unique and beautiful - you won't find anywhere on earth quite like Salar de Uyuni. So it was with great excitement that we set of the next morning for a 3 day/2 night adventure on the salt flats in 4x4 cars.

The adventure started with a visit to a local village on the edge of the salt flats where families work to mine the salt, drying it and processing it, before selling it on to local shops. We were shown the process of mining the salt - 25,000 tons of salt are removed from the salt flats each year- but with more than 10 billion tons of salt in the desert there's no chance of running out any time soon! After a brief talk about the salt we drove out on to the salt flats - as it was the wet season the salt was covered in a thin layer of water but we could still drive over the top of it. We climbed out of the cars with bare feet and paddled in the water - it was unlike anything I have ever seen - it was so surreal - it was like being on another planet - white salt as far as the eye could see - reflecting the clouds and blue sky above (after a bit of rain - where we gloomily huddled together to take photos - before the sun came out and the environment changed dramatically - it is so much more impressive when the sun is shining!) We spent a good hour or so taking photos - playing with the lack of perspective and pretending to be chased by dinosaurs, llamas, climbing out of a Pringle tube, standing on people's hands and various other awesome things! (You'll have to see the photos to understand what I'm talking about!)

After experiencing the amazing salt flats and being blown away by the beauty of nature we headed back to the town for a yummy lunch and incredible birthday cake as it was Dee's birthday (my roommate)! In Bolivia apparently it is a tradition to give the birthday person the first bite of the cake and then smash it in their face so they get covered in cream! We were totally unaware of this - so were rolling around laughing as Dee got cake all over her face! Poor thing! That's one tradition I won't be bringing home with me!

After lunch we had a really long drive to where we would be staying for the night, another village in the middle of nowhere! There was a huge thunder and lightning storm on the way across the salt flats which was quite dramatic!

When we arrived at our destination we discovered we stayed in dorms - there were lots of other tourists staying at the same place as us - it felt a bit like guide camp! We had 2 drivers and a chef with us, who cooked us very yummy meals.

The next day we were up early to enjoy another day exploring this incredible landscape. We were now away from the salt flats but in to a very rocky, rugged landscape. We stopped at various interesting points, a big rocky area, the 'stone tree' - which is a strange rock formation that seems to grow out of the ground, various lagoons and a very active geothermal area (with bubbling mud puddles and geysers of hot air) - it was fascinating and it looked like the landscape of an alien planet - totally surreal and beautiful. I couldn't believe all the different landscapes I was seeing. At the end of the day we ended up by the Laguna Colorada (red lagoon) - which appears red because of the red sediments and the pigmentation of the algae - we got our first glimpse of flamingos in the wild - I was so excited to see these beautiful creatures in the wild. We drove on to a natural hot spring where we jumped in to the hot pool and bathed in the hot water before jumping out in to the very cold air and rushing to get dressed and warm again! We returned to the red lagoon for the night and chatted about all the amazing things we'd seen that day.

The next day we drove around the red lagoon to get a closer view of the thousands and thousands of flamingos - it was incredible - they were literally as far as the eye could see. It was a wonderful experience to be so close to these wonderful animals and to see them in their natural habitat. We all stood at the side of the lagoon in silence, listening to the noises of the flamingos and watching in fascination as they spread their huge wings and flew across the lake, so close to the water that their bodies were reflected perfectly in the still water. It was breath-taking - one of the most beautiful experiences of the trip.

We visited another great lagoon that day for lunch, where there were llamas and mules grazing and viscatchas (rabbit/chinchilla type things with long whiskers and a long tail)scurrying between the rocks. Before we returned to Uyuni for the night we stopped off at the train cemetery - an area on the salt flats where there are the remains of lots of rusty trains. The trains were mostly used by the mining companies, from 1892, to transport minerals to the Pacific Ocean. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly due to the mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned thereby producing the train cemetery. It was amazing to see the trains in the middle of the salt flats and to be able to climb all over them - it was like a massive train playground. It was amazing to imagine the places that these trains had traveled too and people who had travelled aboard them. I could have stayed there for hours taking photographs; it was a perfect photo shoot location!

That night in Uyuni was the first example of what we were going to encounter for the next few days - it was the start of carnival and nationwide celebrations that lasted for days - so nearly all the restaurants were shut but we managed to find a decent pizza place for dinner!

The following day we travelled to Potosi - one of the highest cities in the world - at an elevation of 4,090 metres (13,420 ft)! The city lies in the shadow of Cerro de Potosí - a mountain sometimes referred to as Cerro Rico ("rich mountain") - the mountain is the reason for Potosi's historical importance as it was the major supply of silver for Spain during the period of the New World Spanish Empire (from around 1556 to 1783). Potosi was founded in 1545 as a mining town; it soon produced huge wealth, becoming one of the largest cities in the Americas and the world, with a population exceeding 200,000 people.

While we were in Potosi we watched a documentary film called 'The Devil's Miner' - which follows the lives of a 14 year old Bolivian boy and his 12 year old brother who work in the mines above Potosi - it is an amazing documentary and brings to life what the miners have to go through on a daily basis. It is claimed that over 8 million people have died in the mines.

Our time in Potosi was mainly spent joining in the local carnival celebrations from the pavements…meaning we watched people parading past in fancy costumes, followed by brass bands as they got pelted with water balloons and foam spray! We thought we had better join in the festivities so we got dressed up in our waterproof gear and armed ourselves with water balloons and water pistols before taking to the streets and finding ourselves 'ambushed' by the locals! We got absolutely soaked and covered in foam but it was a really fun afternoon! The next day we went to visit a museum about the Spanish colonial mint before travelling to Sucre.

Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia - it looked like a really interesting city but due to the carnival celebrations everything was shut for 3 days (shops, most restaurants, museums and churches) so we spent the next 3 days preparing for our own carnival celebrations and wandering around the city admiring the impressive buildings. Luckily the markets were open so we could pick up vital carnival supplies - water balloons, wigs, masks, foam spray and bbq food! Our wonderful tour guide Sole had arranged for us to celebrate carnival with her friends from a local restaurant - they were hiring a brass band to parade around the streets with and they invited us to be part of the fun! It was an amazing experience and we spent the next few hours dancing around the streets and getting soaked by onlookers who were surprised to see a group of foreigners dressed up in brightly coloured masks and wigs! We then went back to the closed restaurant and had a huge bbq on the roof terrace with all the employees - it was a really memorable day and it was great to feel so welcomed into the traditional celebrations. We are so grateful to Sole for making our time in Sucre so special - such a lovely lady.

After Sucre we said goodbye our wonderful guide and friend Sole and flew to Santa Cruz in Eastern Bolivia. We enjoyed our last day in Bolivia by exploring the local markets and picking up some last minute Bolivian handicrafts before meeting up with our leader for the Brazilian part of our trip - Fernanda.

I really enjoyed Bolivia and the incredible variety of scenery and landscapes it had to offer. The people were so kind and welcoming and really wanted to teach us about their country - they were so proud of their heritage and traditions, they wanted to share everything with us and encouraged us to tell other people about how amazing Bolivia is. I feel a lot of hope for the future of Bolivia and I can feel that it is opening up to tourism as more people venture off the beaten track to explore more of this wonderful country.