Hey hey hey,

Well what a pair of stinky travellers we are, after our lovely day in Salta we got up for a 7am coach to a small dusty town called La Quiaca where we got dumped off the bus and walked a while until we found the Argentina-Bolivia border. We had 2 hours until our train so all was going well, until the Bolivian style queue struck.......this basically means all the gringo´s stand in line (like proper English folk) whilst the locals push in where and when they like. So after 1.5 hours in a queue which was about 3 metres long we eventually got our exit stamp. The entry stamp to Bolivia was much easier! We hitched a taxi ride to the train station and jumped on our 9 hour train (just in time)........we opted for first class for a change (15 quid with a meal too....) nice nice, this also meant we got the treat of not one, not two but three dubbed films....!

After arriving in Uyuni we both felt dreadful, we already had a cold/flu bug that is going around then we both suffered from altitude sickness as we had risen up to 3675m very fast. We arrived at midnight in a dazed and confused state and managed to wander straight into a restricted military zone (good work guys) from where we were rapidly ushered away. We were given directions to our hostel which we failed to follow, as evidenced by a second ´caped military officer´ having to intercept us and pretty much hold our hands to the door of the hostel. On the bright side at least they were friendly, despite the caped one only looming out of the darkness when we almost walked head on into him......not scary at all!!!!!!

We then spent a day in bed with plenty of fresh oranges and water to recover from the altitude sickness. The following day we spent the day on a 4x4 jeep tour of the AMAZING Salar De Uyuni.......Salt Flats that are around 12,000km sqd, basically massive. We took loads of pics which will hopefully be up soon. You start off with a visit to the train cemetary, then go onto a town called Colchani where you can buy trinkets made from the salt. All the inhabitants of the small town work on the salt flats or with the salt collected. Then you spend a few hours on the salt and looking at the natural thermal pools. We ended on this ´island´ (basically a rock formation) in the middle salt which is covered in cacti, can´t describe how amazing this day was. Apparently some of the cacti are over 900 years old and were absolutely huge.

In Colchani (population about 20) we bumped into Cat and Sam, our mates from before which was sooooooooooo nice! We´ve arranged to meet up in La Paz, Bolivia´s capital city (also the highest capital in the world).

That is actually where we are now, after our tour we got a night bus to La Paz from Uyuni. It was DREADFUL......let me explain Bolivian busses

1. It´s cold, and I mean REALLY cold.....easily -5 degrees
2. There is no heating
3. There is however, plenty of air-con!!
4. Seats have obviously been designed for midgets, i.e leg room = zero
5. It stinks, sometimes like fish, sometimes like cheese, mainly like s***
6. Flat tyres are to be expected (we had two)
7. Waking up to the sound of the tyres spinning and looking our of the window to find the bus in the middle of a shallow lake is apparently quite acceptable too!
8. And then there are the bumps.....aaaah the bumps! Admittedly these were only for the first four hours of the journey. These weren´t just any bumps, these were special bumps. Imagine someone seating you in a massage chair but replacing the power supply with a jet engine and you´re almost there.....and yet somehow the locals manage to sleep through. Just to give you a clearer picture, Liz has bruises (purple bruises) on her bum from said bumps.

Overall a wonderful experience, might stay in La Paz forever to avoid having to take another Bolivian bus.........!

For now we are staying in Adventure Brew Hostel, WICKED, free internet, 1 free beer every day, micro brewery on site, comfy beds, HOT SHOWERS YIPPEEE!

Anyway that is all for now, hope everyone is goind good. Keep the emails and comments coming, they are much appreciated.

Lots of love Liz and Adds

xxxxx

PS Karen, we´ve not had a drink for about a week now you´ll be happy to hear, this however, may change as of today, sorry :)