After crossing the border we headed straight to the Argentinian side of the Iguasu falls. The Argie side gives you an up close and personal perspective of these monstrous beasts! It was a scorcher of a day so the occasional waves of waterfall spray coming off the falls were very much welcomed. We also took the opportunity to jump on board a speed boat that gave us an intimate experience of being drenched under a couple of the waterfalls.. It was actually kinda stingy at some points!

Argentina is famous for its juicy steaks and Malbec wine to complement. Of course being South African this was my kinda meal so that evening we headed out and had just that! I was by no means disappointed... the steak was as thick as an encyclopaedia and the wine smooth with the meal costing a total of $25, I'm in heaven! The rest of our time in Porto Iguasu was spent dodging afternoon rain storm (that the locals seems to have some sixth sense to know about), shopping and eating steak, drinking red wine and eating ice cream mixed with Dulche de Leche... a caramel sauce thickened to a jam consistency.. Yum!

Our second and last ( it was a short visit across north Argie) stop was Salta. The north of Argie has some unusual scenery ranging from one bit of wet savannah land with cows to then a dry desert with horses and cowboys. In Salta we camped quite far out of the city however due to a slight complication of a truck side window blowing out mid-motorway causing a significant delay in our journey. We drove through the night, instead of the planned bush stop and arrived earlier in Salta. We spent the evening exploring the city. We headed up a hill for a viewpoint of the city at sunset which provided amazing views. Afterwards we cruised down into the city's main plaza which boasted a huge Basilica (cathedral) with one of the most impressive alters I have seen (which is saying something after traveling through Europe). That evening we enjoyed the fine art of Argentinian steak and red wine (again). The following days in Salts were spent doing local excursions. We went river rafting in the Mountains and after a steak (no red wine this time) lunch we zip lined across a 600m wide canyon at 200ms up. The following day we ventured out to a ranch and after a two hour horse back ride we had a steak lunch ( with all we could drink red wine this time!!!) Entertained by the some what crazy ranch owner Enrique who enjoyed the wine as much as (if not more) than us.

Leaving Argie was hard (not only due to the small red wine hangover) this whole eat steak, drink red wine, siesta in the day and party till late hours definitely appeal's to my personality.

Right from the start after crossing the border into Bolivia you are able to see, sense and feel the decline in development. Bolivia by far has the most striking scenery with flat planes that lead to mountains that look almost photoshopped on the pictures we have taken. The people continue to embrace their history through cultural dress, craft, language and food. All the towns we visited boasted huge markets selling anything from fruit, vege, meat and clothes to ripoff (badly) Dr Dre head phones. The mix of old history and new foreign influence was fascinating and almost funny at times. The older women called Cholitas, continue to don the tradition dress of huge pleated skirts, white shirt with bright embroider patterns, black shawls and a small bowler hat (yep, that wasn't a typo). Apparently the most attractive part of these women is seen to be their calf and if they raise their skirt to knee level to reveal their plump round lower leg it is considered to be flirting.

We arrived in Uyuni late afternoon... Beth our leader described this place as the Midwest of Bolivia and I can see why, all it was missing was a tumble weed rolling across the sand filled street. Uyuni however boasts one of the largest salt flats in the world, 12000 kms2. We started our tour by visiting the salt processing factor which turned out to be the back part of a family's house (of course!). The salt is all processed and packaged by hand and one person can package up to a ton of salt a day. The planes themselves are almost overwhelming. We drove for around two hours and we were completely immersed in the flats with 360• of salt surrounding us. The mix between the never ending whiter than white plane, sun glare and altitude causes a changes in perspective making far off mountains looking they are floating above the ground. This perspective allowed us to take a range of great pics where people were able to sit on each others hands or eat each other whole. On our way back we visited a cactus island (the flats used to be an ocean) where we ate chicken and potatoe for lunch (Bolivian speciality) as well as stopped off at a salt hotel (made entirely for salt) and a train graveyard.

It was a four hour drive back north to our next town stop, Portosi. Porsoti has an incredible history, once being one of the richest town in the world thanks to its huge silver mine, where the city alone underwrote the Spanish economy for three centuries and as many wars. Portosi is now however one of the poorest towns in the world due to the fluctuation of silver pricing and many years of foreign dominance. The town itself was a rampage of people, buses, miners and markets. The altitude here was the highest we will see around 4300ms and I could certainly feel it almost as if was a mild hangover that wanted to make me go to bed at 8pm. Portosi had the extra bonus of poverty town pollution causing breathing to be even more of a challenge particularly on its steep hills leading to the city plaza. My highlight here was visiting the Portosi silver mine, a working cooperative mine. Our guide, Susannah first took us to a miners markets where we tried coca leaves that the miners use to boost their energy and dull their appetite as they can often spend up to 24hours in the mine at one go. Gringo's (tourists like us) use coca leaves to help with altitude and I can see why, after three minutes of letting the leaves disintegrate in my cheek I could feel the heavy hand on my chest lift and breathing was easier ( two words.. Machu Pichu!!!). The miners market is also possibly the only market in the world where you can buy TNT on the street... no kidding! Kitted out in our miner gears, gum boots included we entered the mine. This was not a tour as such as the mine is a working one which meant that at times we were dodging carts full of minerals and miners hacking at rocks. We climbed through small corridors doubled over at times and at point I had a sudden realisation that I was completely insane to be wandering around an actually Bolivian working mine where the conditions have not changed significantly since the 17th century. The spin off to this was the opportunity to sit and chat with several miners in the mine, one being 59year old Adrian who has work 43 years in the mine. It was overwhelming.

From Portosi we travelled further west to La Paz, Bolivia's fake capital. I had heard rumours of the spectacular views when entering this city and they were no lies. La Paz is situated in a valley surrounded by snow capped jagged mountains. Houses have been built high up the mountain sides adding to the overall awe factor. My days in La Paz were spent lazily shopping and soaking in the culture. I bought more alpaca and lama scarfs that one sane person needs and learnt a lot about Bolivian ways of life through a free walking tour around the city. We celebrated Halloween here, dressed up at a English (UK) pub that supplied far to many free shots! La Paz city is what I had imagined South America to be like; larger with crazy busy streets full of people, markets and animals.. I loved it! There was even a witches market were you could purchase love potions/dust and baby lama foetus's to use to bless your new home by burying it under your foundations when you build??!!

Our last cultural stop in Bolivia before hitting Peru was a visit to the Tiwanaku ruins. This ancient civilisation existed from 1500 BC to 700 AD and performed amazing feats of engineering, aligning their homes and temples with both the lunar and solar calendar, star constellations as well as north, south, east and west. The buildings were built through perfect alignment of blocks that fitted into each other like a prehistoric game of Tetris to create perfectly straight walls (you can still see it today). Pretty bloody impressive if you ask me and left me questioning why these guys aren't more famous than the Inca who only stuck around 750 years. I'm told it is because they didn't pillage like the Inca did... Oh well??!!

I have really enjoyed Bolivia, far as to say it has been my favourite so far. We cross the border again to or next stop Peru and Inca trail here we come ! Lxx