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We have been in Bolivia for a week now and its been an amazing experience so far.
We ended our time in Argentina with a suitably large fillet steak and bottle of red wine (neither disappointed!) and caught the bus to La Quiaca. We arrived at 7am and walked over the border to Villazon immediately. It was amazing to see the difference in countries straight away, even after the shortest walk across the bridge! We decided that Villazon was definitely not the best place ever so we decided to get a bus that afternoon to Tupiza..that left us a whole 7 hours to kill though. We went to get some breakfast and found a cafe that served coffee, but not milk and stale ham and cheese rolls...our thoughts went back to that fillet steak of the previous night..!
After vising the markets, we spent the morning sitting in the square, reading and then went to find some lunch. We came across a pizzera which, surprise, surprise, didn´t serve pizza and basically ordered the only thing on the menu..a set lunch. We got a vegetable soup to start (with the ubiquitous dodgy meat in it) and decided that we would skip the rest! Needless to say we were happy when 3.30pm rolled around so that we could board our bus and leave our least favourite town so far. Matt - I had this awesome experience in the park there - I was snoozing on a park bench and all of a sudden was shaken from my peaceful seista by an old man. He proceeded to mumble a load of Spanish right in my ear despite me protesting that I did not understand. Next minute he gave me a huge hug and a slobbery, prickly kiss on my ear. I was a little startled (!) but when I saw the tears in his eyes I realised that all he wanted was a hug and we did communicate after all!
THE BUS TRIP..what an experience! There are no tarred roads in Bolivia so that means a rather bumpy ride in chicken bus style buses! In addition, not everyone gets a seat so there are people choca block in the aisle...brilliant = its festive and not without humour! After our bone shuddering, teeth chattering ride, we arrived in Tupiza and headed straight for our hotel. We have been amazed with the prices here...everything is so much cheaper than even Argentina...were paying about 6 pounds for a double room with TV! We booked ourselves onto a triathlon tour for the next day and then went for dinner with an Aussie girl that we had met in Trevelin. Im pleased to report that the food in Tupiza was a damned sight better than Villazon!
On Wednesday we set off on the triathlon tour...this involved a cycle, horseride and jeep tour. I (cath) made it a duathlon, Im ashamed to say, as the dirt roads and ill fitting helmet made me think twice. Matt raced ahead of the pack and was waiting for us when the jeep arrived. We went on a walk to the nearby river and took some photos..the scenery was amazing. After lunch in the lovely warm sunshine, we headed off to the horseriding. This was loads of fun and we got to do a bit more on the horses than just walk sedately..there were times when I did wonder whether I would manage to stay on but I made it back in one piece! We stopped at one of the canyons to take photos and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. The last part of our day took us to the top of some beautiful mountains and the final cycle. If the ill fitting helmet was the decider for me that morning, the 600m descent on gravel road down hairpin bends put me off this one...Matt, of course, was not daunted and came flying down the mountain. One school boy error on his part...he flew down with his mouth wide open (no doubt to let out the aaaaaahhh) sounds, and proceeded to struggle to breathe and talk for a day or two! It was a fantastic experience though...we really enjoyed the day. We got back to the hotel and booked our 4 day Salt Tour (not letting the grass grow under our feet after our lengthy Salta stay!).
Thursday dawned and we were very excited about our Salt Tour. Our group included Frankie (Irish) and Nathan (South African) = we had met them in Salta on our last day in a rather frustrated post office queue! Alice (USA) and Mette (Danish) = Alice and Mette were doing there PHDs in Princeton and out here for a months break. We had a great group and everyone got on so well. Freddy was our driver and Honas our very brilliant cook! We set off in the jeep and were met by incredible views at each corner we turned. There were Llamas all over the show and the odd herd of goats to hold up the traffic! We even managed a game of football at lunchtime, but this was very short lived as the altitude of nearly 4000m was not too forgiving! On our way we stopped in a town and Nathan and Matt challenged the local kids to another match but they were given a run for their money! We got to our hospedaje at around 6.30pm, covered in dust but very happy after our good day. The accommodation was incredibly basic (6 beds in the room) and the temperature was definitely close on zero but most of us managed to have a good nights sleep...even if breathing was a little more difficult than usual!
On day 2 we set off early and reached the ghost town first...this was a whole community that had left the town and their houses many years ago. Basically the Jesuit missionaries had come to the town and got the indigenous people to help build the church. These people were believed to be ´Diablo's helpers' (devil's helpers) as they worshipped another God, so when strange things started happening (people dying, houses falling down) they decided to leave. It's a strange thing to see as there is this huge town just lying in ruins. The only sign of life was a bunch of cute little vescatcha (sp?), little rabbit like creatures with extra long tales who were unceremoniously named devils helpers by the guides. This was as they danced around a bush grass fire laughing hideously --- whoo aaahhh haa haarg !!!! We reached the hot springs in the afternoon but were a bit disappointed by the size and temperature...the wind was howling so we chickened out! We saw the Laguna Verde and the geysers, which were both fascintating. There is a small anecdote in the geysers which magnifies on a national scale. Under the previous president a few years ago the Japanese were invited in to investigate harnessing the geysers for electricity. When the current president took over they were kicked out and all development stopped. On a national scale Bolivia is so rich in resources but so poor and it is in part due to them not being willing to use natural resources. We arrived at our home for the night, and were going to get bleak about the cold, but then Honas, our cook, produced chicken and chips and all was forgotten! We never stopped being amazed at what these guys produced for us with very little equipment.
Our 3rd day started with homemade cake for breakfast, so we knew it would be a good day! That day we arrived in touristy territory this being the stretch that gets hit by the Uyuni tours (we went from Tupiza the norm is a circuit out of Uyuni - ours was way better!). This was a series of lagoons (Colarado – red being the main one) some of which were inhabited by the much awaited flamingos – both the pink and white varieties. Unfortunately we were not able to see the massive flocks (there are up to 10 000 in the area) as there had been a seriously cold snap 15 days earlier. There were a fair number of bodies showing the hostile environment up there – not even the foxes and cats had come out to feed on the bodies yet and that is saying something! We did get some pics though of these graceful birds. We were pretty happy to have missed the cold snap as the area is not exactly the warmest place on earth during the night!
In the afternoon we visited a small salt flat..our jeep was starting to splutter but Freddy fixed it like MacGuyver and we were on our way in no time. We made it to the hospedaje in daylight so Matt and Nathan went down to watch a local soccer match, although they were forbidden to play! During our last dinner, we were treated to some singing and music by 3 of the local children...it was memorable! We all headed to bed early as we had a 4 am start the following morning to see the sunrise on the salt flats. After much hilarity and an excellent ghost story from Matt, we all went to sleep!
We left at 4.30am the next day and did the hour and a half drive to the salt flats...we arrived in good time so had a game of football to ward off the cold and then took some fun silhoutte shots! The sunrise and the sights that followed were absolutely indescribable (hopefully the photos will give you some idea)...it really was a great climax to our tour. We drove to another spot called Fisherman´s Island, and while we explored, Freddy and Honas made us delicious pancakes! We spent the rest of the morning taking fun shots and then visiting the salt hotel.
The first day we were at 3500m to 4000m and the second day we were between 4000m and 5000m most of the time at 4500m. The scenery over the route was stunning and very hostile - at that altitude the sun beats down during the day and the cold lies in every shadow waiting for the sun to go down. In winter, when we were there, temps can go down to -15degrees evidenced by frozen streams and rise to 20 in the day). The real survivors up there are the vecunias, llamas (domesticated cousin of the vecunias), sheep, zorros (foxes), gatos (cats), vescatchas (devils helpers!), smaller mamals and a fair number of birds - including the flamingo of course! There are llama estancias few and far between inhabited by a few hardy individuals. There were llama bones in some areas evidence of a terrible winter in the past in which vast numbers of beast and to a lesser extent man had died. It has been aptly described a surreal place on earth with rock formations reminiscent of a Dali painting, very little water evident and vast expanses of desert like land the only vegetation being clumps of grass. Well worth visting my (Matt) favorate place so far!!
After another great lunch, we headed back to Uyuni where we spent the night and went to the famous MinuteMan Pizza restaurant for Llama steak pizza! We also made the most of our first shower in 4 days!
We booked our bus seats to our next destination = Potosi, with Nathan and Frankie, for Monday morning...
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