Hola!

So I am in Potosi in Bolivia and have just spent 30mins writing you a splendid 6 paragraph blog entry when out of nowhere, the page disappears! ARGGGGGG. Those of you who know me well know I have little luck with computers. So here goes again (apologies-it won´t be as good as the one that evaporated into thin air!)

One of you has informed me that she is pleased that Roses has written the last couple of blogs, because she believes if they were written by me the content would be nothing but food. So I thought I´d get that over and done with in one paragraph to live upto expectations. So we have seen lots of cute llama here and also felt the need to eat it. Good job too, it was most yummy. Here in Potosi, Bolivia we have eaten a 4 course meal for 3 pound 50! Love Bolivia!

So we said goodbye to Chilly Chile and embarked on our adventure to Uyuni, Bolivia from the Atacama desert. The first stage of the adventure began when we left San Pedro and suddenly turned off road heading towards a mountain. We soon stumbled upon an adobe hut with a wooden hand painted plaque reading "Bolivian Migration". THIS was border control. We were so shocked that a country with such drug trafficking problems, would make it so easy for people to drive into Bolivia without stopping at border control. You wouldn´t even know it were there if you didn´t know how to get there, astonishing. We spend the next 3 days with our fab Bolivian tour guide Miguel and a fun group of people from all round the world. It was lovely that in this short period of time, the 7 of us were getting on like a house on fire. We stopped at various lagoons on the way: the blue lagoon, green lagoon, red lagoon and coloured lagoon. Each was as beautiful as the last. To me it was somewhat unexpected to see so many lagoons in this dry, hostile desert. This time of year they were particularly striking as they were partially iced over but also covered in a white mineral called Borax (in Spanish). The fierce winds that blew, formed a pretty ripping effect as different colours of the water blended together. Many of these lagoons had hot springs and were also inhabited by beautiful pink flamingos.

Our experience of the desert was by far different to the common misconception that they are vast expanses of sand and nothingness. The mountains were red, green, white, orange, yellow. We drove through snaking canyons, flat planes with nothing but grey, majestic rock protruding out from the sand in shapes that lead to their naming "The Dali valley". Later on in the trip this colourful, lagoon landscape suddenly turned into grey planes of clay with little life and mountains substituted by hills and grey sky. It was here that our jeep got stuck in the clay. We all got out and followed instructions to collect flat rocks to place under the tyres. Luckily, as we were walking towards the nearest rocky hill at 4500 in high-speed wind, two other tourist jeeps drove by. We flagged them down and they were kind enough to lend a helping hand. Very soon, we had 3 drivers digging the wheels out of thr clay whilst 18 tourists struggled to the hill and back carrying rocks. I felt a great sense of acheivement the moment 8 of us pushed the jeep out of the clay. What a great bit of team work.

Soon after, we arrived at our "refuge" for the night. Of course no heating or hotwater (water at all at that matter), Llamas pacing up and down with colourful string hanging from their ears and the occasional visit from a Bolivian child wishing to sing a song in exchange for "school materials". One of the most surreal moments for us was when two little girls were singing to us, Shuichi was writing on his laptop, Llamas were running around like headless chickens and the wind sounded like it was about to tear our roof off. All we could do was laugh. That night was the most uncomfortable night´s sleep of my life. Despite the 7 blankets, the cold was unbearable. Thankfully the following night´s hostel was mildly more inhabitable despite being made entirely of salt.

Our third day involved visiting the salt flats of Uyuni, a UNESCO world heritage site. They are spread over 12000km2 according to our guide, which we found difficult to comprehend. In the middle of this expanse was an island named "house of the Incas", once a coral reef under a vast lagoon which dried to form what is now the salt flat. It was covered in cactuses and provided uninterrupted views of marvellous mountains on the horizon, sometimes with mirages, preceeded by seemingly endless expanses of dazzling white salt. It was utterly silent which made it all the more amazing. We later stopped on the flats and had an hour of fun taking advantage of the lack of horizon which afforded pictures which play with perspective (one day we´ll get round to uploading these but all the Bolivian internet cafes we´ve found only allow us to upload a picture an hour!), such as those of us stamping on the jeep, walking into someone´s mouth, being vomitted out of the same, and so on.

Our last stop before Uyuni was lunch at another salt hotel with a seating area outside enclosed by flag poles for each country. We were lucky enough to be there for the planting of the Palestinian flag, accompanied by chanting and cheering. It was an amazing atmosphere.

Much more to come RE Bolivia and its remarkable cultural differences compared to Chile. The experience has been quite a lot to take in.

Hasta Luego!

Clara xx