Hola!

We arrived in La Paz, Bolivia after a long journey across the border (controls at the border were not very strict - we could have smuggled someone easily). My opinion of La Paz was that it was like a Peruvian city, just more smelly and dirty.

On the night we arrived in La Paz we had a goodbye dinner at a restaurant which put on traditional dancing and music. Some of the masks used in the dancing were really freaky - I'm not sure how authentic they were. Anyway it was a nice night out, but it was sad to say goodbye to Barbara.

I didn't do much on my free day in La Paz. I did manage to change my flights home to 2 days earlier though (the idea being that I will have time to go to M&S and buy some new underwear, go to North Shields for fish and chips, and go strawberry picking - oh year and to catch up with family and friends of course!!!). I also went to the witches market for a look around and a shop. At the market alot of the stalls have dried up baby alpacas and lamas on them - apparently this is to bring good luck?¿!

That night we met our new tour leader - Brian from Toronto. We also have one new group member for Bolivia, a 26 year old from Brisbane. Brian is ok, although he seems to be having problems getting a visa for Brazil so who knows whether he will actually be with us for the full 3 weeks!!

From La Paz we caught a bus then a train (we were on it all day!!) to Uyuni. It was about 1030pm by the time we arrive there and it was freezing!! The hotel had no heating so I quickly gathered together as many blankets as possible and put on lots of layers so that I could sleep. Luckily we were only staying at that hotel for one night (as it was a bit smelly and lacked hot water). The next day we all piled into 4x4s to go on a three day exploration of the salt flats and the lagoons in the mountains. The salt flats were amazing - I've never seen anything like it. At one stage we were on an island in the middle of the salt flats that was covered in cacti!!!

The next day wasn't so good we just drove around looking a mountains, the desert and lagoons - but for hours and hours!! Without an English speaking guide I soon lost interest (why GAP don't provide a guide on this trip I don't know!!). Furhtermore that night we stayed in a place that was freezing (I wore about 7 layers that night), with no running water and extremely smelly toilets shared among about 30 people. Not nice!!

That morning we got up at 5 am to got and see some gysers. They were nice to look at but again without a guide a bit of background info I'm not sure the 5 am start was worth it (I'm having a real grumble today aren't I?!). It took about another 7 hours of driving to get back to Uyuni. It won't surprise you that I was very happy to be back, especially as we had changed hotels into a one with hot water (powered by solar panels), and a few radiators!!!!! WOW!!! The hotel was run by an American man who married a Bolivian, so Pizza was available for dinner - I added a local twist to the pizza by having lama as a topping which was quite tasty.

Now I am about to leave for Potasi where the silver mines are. Its going to be another long day on a bus!!

Enough of my moaning!!!!

Bye for now,

Louise x