are probably the most used words during our first week in south America. Has it only been a week??? We did so many things and saw so many crazy things... But let me start from the beginning.
We landed in Lima and met a guy who was supposed to be our taxi driver we booked together with our hostel. It turned out to be a private person that is working for the hostel. That's one thing you shouldn't do here, taking a cab that is not an official cab. But we got to the hostel alive which isn't that easy in Lima with the crazy traffic. I just couldn't watch the road. They must have some kind of secret signs we europeans cannot see, otherwise it is not possible that there are so few accidents. Lima itself wasn't very nice, it is just a huge city with 9 million people so we took the nightbus to Arequipa which is much nicer. We walked around in the historic center and had guinea pig for dinner, a peruan specialty. It was actually pretty good, just a bit weird seeing the little fellow on the plate.
After two days we took another nightbus to la Paz. What we didn't know was that we have to change busses at Copacabana in Bolivia and take a boat over the Lake Titicaca. We were lucky because we had a seat and a life vest which wasn't the case for everybody in the overcrowded little motorboat. But our 12 year old driver did a good job and we and the bus arrived safely on the other side. The rest of the drive we had an amazing view over the Lake titicaca and the mountains around it. Amazing landscape! But that was nothing compared to the view you have when you enter La Paz. The city is surrounded by mountains and the whole valley is full of houses. Amazing!
But we have to say, we didn't quite understand why everybody told us that we absolutely have to go to La Paz. It is an impressive city, but it is not nice. Loud, smelly, full of people and you see a lot of poverty. But anyway it is impressive to see.
We went to Uyuni the next day, another 11 hours drive by bus. We could have taken a train for half of the way but we didn't see the point in changing to train after half way. We didn't see it until the bus went offroad and continued on a road that wasn't a road. That's why people take the train to Uyuni, because there is no road!!! apparently the busses shouldn't go either because after a couple of km the motor went off and it took them half an hour to get it running again. When it went off the second time, they weren't so lucky so the driver asked everybody to get off an push!!! Not kidding! In the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere the guys including Christian had to push the bus because apparently the battery was empty! Kind of a surrealistic experience. But it worked and we arrived in Uyuni tired but nearly on time so we could start our two day Jeep tour through the salt lake we had booked in advance.
We shared two jeeps with a bolivian Family and a French couple. We could not have had a better group. The family was so nice and we learned a lot about Bolivia.
The Salt Lake was an amazing experience. It is a lake covered by up to a seven meter thick layer of salt and it is bigger than Belgium! It is surrounded by snow covered mountains and vulcanos. We were supposed to hike up one of the volcanos the next day but we just couldn't because of the altitude. The lake is about 3600 m high and the volcano another 1700m. We started walking but after 100 m we just could't anymore. Out of breath and the heart beating as if it wanted to jump out of the chest we had to stop for a couple of minutes. So in the end we only could walk up 1/3 of the volcano but anyway the view was amazing again. And we saw Llamas and flamingos! We are a bit afraid of our hike up the Macchu picchu in a couple of days but we just hope to get used to the altitude by then!