Well hello everyone, First of all sorry for not updating since La Paz, between Rick and I being ill in Potosi and the Bolivian internet connection not being great, plus us having fun it’s been an impossible task! (It’s a hard life).

I’ll now try my best to bring you up to speed with what we have been up to – here goes.

 After leaving La Paz and not seeing very much of it due to Rick and I having colds and not much energy to do anything – its hard enough to breath at 3000mts without a cold! We headed over to Potosi which is the highest city in the world again unfortunately due to me still having a cold and Rick now having a bout of AS we spent our time here in bed. The others mean while got to go down the silver mines and blow up some dynamite which we were a bit miffed at missing out on but hey ho.

From Potosi we headed on down to Uyuni, the drive through the desert was amazing. We were not to sure about Bolivia for the first few days as it didn´t seem to have good vibe to it, but this drive soon changed our minds it was amazing the snow capped mountains in the background of a desert was just unbelievable and very strange to see. After about 7 hours we approached a town in the middle of no where, slap bang in the desert. Ricks exact words where – who the f**k would live here, well we were about to spend the next two days here in Uyuni. A strange town this was at first but after a few beers in the finest beer garden it soon began to grow on us! The next day we headed out to the Salt Flats – We did not really know what to expect on arrival, but at the shore we were taken aback in front of us stretched 12000 KM of pure salt – does not sound that great huh – well it was the one of the most amazing things we have every seen and as there was also about 10inches of water on the top it looked even better. It looks like the sea with mountains floating its wired and hard to explain but WOW. Also as there is no horizon or much in the back ground so we had loads of fun playing around with the perspective and taking silly photos – check the pics out for a better idea.

After Uyuni we headed on down to Tupiza driving through Butch Cassidy and the sun dance kid territory which when your sat on the top of the truck is excellent. Tupiza is a pretty small town not much to apart from relax or go of in to the country side on bikes, horses and 4x4s which is exactly what Rick and the others did, yes Rick on a horse and a mountain bike all in the same day it made for a very amusing day especially when the mountain bike did not have working breaks or the horse for that matter! As for me well I left them to it and chilled out all day in the square drinking coffee and wine reading my book and eating ice cream ahhhh bliss. Next was the boarder crossing in to Argentina which took ages but we made it through, after a 70 k drive we decided to set up camp for the night – we sometimes do bush camps which is basically pull up at the side of the road and pitch up for the night. This was a slight understatement for this one, as we pulled up at the side of the Pan American high way and pitched our tents in an empty river bed, we all had our fingers crossed it would not rain or a huge lorry would not come of the road a plough in to our tents – oh living life on the edge. To be honest it great fun waving at all the bemused truckers as they drove past while we danced on the side of the road after a few drinks to Bob Marley and Queen. After packing down we started our drive to Salta, we soon realised the huge difference between Argentina a very affluent country and Bolivia the poorest country in South America. Argentina is so lush with greenery and the most beautiful mountains we have seen so far on SA the colours and formations are wonderful. So we head for our campsite and on arrival where taken aback by the shear number of people there it was like bleeding Euro camp, when you have been away from the hustle and bustle for 8 weeks it’s a total shock to the system, plus it is the holiday season for Argentina. The camp was fine and with a swimming pool the size of Windermere lake ok maybe half and that is no joke we soon were in high spirits again. Salta is very European and the Cathedral is the grandest we have ever seen, I would say gaudy to be honest gold leafing draped every where a bit of joke when there are poor people begging outside. Rick is now going to learn the Spanish for God has your money go and ask him. Unfortunately, the weather turned and it spent most of the day in a torrential down pore so we spent most of the day drinking in the square side café! Damn. From here we headed out to the valley and pitched up near the river which was ace and the following day got ready for some adventure sport in the form of White water Rafting and canopying which was excellent. I was bit nervous about the white water rafting but I need not of been it was so much fun, we hit the rapids and off we went paddling for a lives we flipped the boat a couple of times but its all part of the fun! Next up was Canopying Which is basically very high wires zipping across the valley and 150 to 200mts from the river bed and between 250 and 700 meters long at some speed this was so much fun and seeing the valley and a condor at this height was amazing I was so close to that condor I thought he was going to nip of with me. Well adrenalin rush over we headed back to base to tuck in to a meat feats Argentina style. Next stop Cafayate where we are now, so far we have been to 3 vine yards and we have another 2 to go later this afternoon, hitting them at 10am was a laugh I have sobered up now just in time to hit the next ones, and later on we will hit the town for more steak and wine. Its tough being us. Rick passes on his love he is out shopping for my birthday pressie at the moment typical leave it to the last minuet. Well now I have brought you up to speed I will load the photos up and hit the wine again, check the old albums as I there may be some new pics in there to. Take care.

Kim and Rick

P.S Happy Birthday to Nikki and Julie oh and ME X