South America

I hope you all enjoyed the break from my travel blog updates, as I'm afraid you're about to now be bombarded with 2 big ones...I've had some awesome experiences in the last week or so!

From Sucre, which in case you hadn't noticed I loved, I got a bus to Potosi (with one of the worst hangovers I've ever had. If you are ever offered a red drink in Bolivia NO NOT drink it!!). The Lonely Planet writes of Potosí: "superlative buffs will appreciate Potosí's ranking as the world's highest city, an in your face fact when you're labouring up the streets while freezing at night...in the middle of 'summer'." It wasn't that cold, but boy did I notice going up to above 4000 meters again. I thought that I was going to die after the climb up 6 flights of stairs to my dorm room with my 20kg backpack and various other bags i have managed to collect. I'm sure that the hostal woman had an evil smirk on her face when she asked if I was sure that I wanted a dorm.

I did make it though and, after a long recovery time, decided that it would probably be a good idea to explore the highest city in the world and get something to eat. So I was sitting in a cafe / restaurant (with a load of 17/18 yr olds chatting or snogging around me) eating when suddenly I heard the noise of a marching band some where near, and getting closer. It turned out to be a little procession of about 10 men and women dancing flamboiently (how do you spell that?!) followed by a band of big drums and trumpets etc. All in uniform. The atmosphere was very fun and lighthearted and all the towns people seemed to be looking out of their windows and doorways and smiling. Unfortunately I had put the battery of my camera in the wrong way so have no pictures of this fun event.

So then the next day on to Uyuni. With some relief I discovered that a girl in my dorm (Hagar from Israel) was also going there, so we decided to get the bus together (bonus as then don't have the concern of whether you'll have to sit for 7 hours next to a fat drunk man). I had heard a lot about this road as it is an unpaved curving mountinous route and so the worst buses travel it(obviously with no bathroom). But it was ok! The scenery was absolutely amazing, with fairly barren land broken by rich stipes of lush green grass and trees along the banks of rivers.

Uyuni is located down the mountain range that makes Potosí the highest city in the world, and is in the middle of no where. Literally. It just suddenly starts and then just as abruptly finishes. Apparently there happens to be a town in this particular spot rather than any other in the area because there used to be a major railway junction here. It is a tiny place with only a few main roads and is over-run with tour agents selling the gringos trips to the 'Salar de Uyuni'. Most people decide to take a 3 day 2 night trip taking in the 'salar' (salt flat), 'lagunas' (lakes) of varying colours, and desert (featuring a famous rock). Hagar was very certain about what she wanted to see, so against my better judgement I let her decide which tour company to go with. I reassured myself that this was a good idea because she speaks spanish a thousand times better than me so would get us a good trip, and we certainly got a good price, with a free night in the hostel next door...which was utterly rank, but was only for one night and had not bugs.

The trip began with a visit to the train graveyard on the edge of Uyuni. This was a bizarre place with several rusting locamotives (from between 1907-1950s) that we were able to clamber all over if we wished. Then, brushing the rust from ourselves (and hoping it wouldn't stain), we went on to the Salar de Uyuni, the largest and highest salt lake in the world. It is blindingly white here which is a beatiful contrast to the bright blue sky. There is much fun to be had on the salt flat as it is possible to take great photos that create optical illusions. I'll upload some pics soon I promise.

Our cameras exhausted we then continued on to the edge of the salt lake and stayed over night in a very small village that only had electricity between 7pm and 10pm. The stars were absolutley incredible, but I couldn't spot the Southern Cross much to my annoyance! Although it was very cold it was barable, and we all wondered why everyone had warned us that it got absolutely freezing on this tour...

After rather a good night's sleep on a bed made of salt bricks and under 3 blankets, we got up at 4.30am in order to watch the sunrise over the salar. Or at least that's what we were expecting. By 5.45am and still no progress out of the village we all more or less gave up hope. However, with the Israeli girl screaming ¡Vamos!, the driver assured us that we hadn't missed the sunrise and we all piled into the 4x4. Only to be greeted by the risen sun 10minutes round the corner. More Israeli screaming and 1/2 hour later we are on our way for the longest day's driving.

Day 2 covered amazing barren desert; I have never felt so isolated. The sand here is so dry and hard that the vehicles hardly leave any mark as they drive through on no discernable road. We saw many flamingoes on various lakes, and also an Andean fox and rabbit, and some small black birds with bright yellow in their wings when they fly. It was much colder now, as we were up at about 4200 meters on average and the wind was strong. In the afternoon we stopped at Laguna Colorada, a lake that turns red in the afternoons. While we were there it gradually became more and more red, which was really interesting to watch but painful too because everytime I got back into the relative warmth of the 4x4 it would then look redder, and therefore make a better picture. In the end I resigned myself to having a mildly pink red lake photo, but I didn't care!

The night of day 2 was passed in an even smaller village at 4500 meters and in a bed with one less blanket... At 4.30am I woke and nearly cried with the cold. Either my sleeping bag manufactures were incorrect in their assurance that it would keep me warm down to -5 or it was colder than that. Outside there was thick ice where the evening before had been a puddle. I couldn't feel my feet and wore all the clothes that were not in my backpack on the roof. Why had I not listened to all the other travellers that had done this trip an warned me that it would be cold?!

We drove for an hour and then stopped at 4874 meters beside some geysers at Sol de Mañana. I refused to get out of the 4x4 as it was even colder outside than it was in the car. But I did get a picture of the sign that said we were that high and then started to cry quietly because I was so cold (and I had a temperature). I have to admit that this was the lowest point of my trip so far and I really hope that it is not repeated! The others then got back to the car and I wiped away my self pity and we drove onto Aguas Thermales Chalvirí, with hot springs at 30oC. We had breakfast here (Lemsip for me) and then continued onto the Laguna Verde (going over a pass that took us above 5000 meters), a lake that is strikingly green. All this is surrounded by the most beautiful and desolate landscapes of barren flats and high mountain peaks coloured by different sands and a few belches of steam if a volcano was active.

This was where I said goodbye to the group that I had spent the last 3 days with, and carried on to the Chilian boarder. This was (surprise surprise) in the middle of nowhere! The most remote boarder crossing I'll probably ever make! From here I got a Chilian mini bus to the nearest town. 10 minutes into the journey we drove onto a tarmac road and I smiled to my self and thought 'Welcome to Chile!'.

And so there ends my experience of Bolivia. I have to admit that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was a genuine and interesting and overwhelming expereince. I will always have fond memories of this country and I hope that I return to go down the Death Road outside La Paz, spend more time in Sucre and visit Cochabamba and Tupiza, as well as do all the other things that there was not time to fit in. 3 weeks is not enough time for this rich and varied country.

I love Sucre! I got here at 7am Wednesday morning after a rather torturous 12 hour overnight bus journey with the driver seeming to stop every mile for about 5 minutes for no apparent reason. But I got here in the end! And I feel very comfortable in this small city.

The place has kept a lot of it's colonial buildings and perhaps this european influence is partly what makes me feel so relaxed. There is also a big young population here as there's more than one university as far as I can tell, and that makes the people here seem the most modern that I´ve come across in South America so far. Or maybe I've finally found my travelling feet after a tense few weeks! I do know that it is going to be hard to leave for Potosi tomorrow and then on to Uyuni, especially when I haven't heard anything good about Uyuni. I have to go to the salt flats though - otherwise it would be like visiting England and not going to London!

There are so many delicious pastry shops and cafés in this country. I've got no idea how the population aren't all obese! and now in Sucre there are just as many delicious chocolate shops as well as the pastry shops! I think that I may have found somewhere that will help me put back on all the weight that I've lost recently (and then hopefully my trousers will stop looking like they're about to fall off!).

Yesterday I went to the dinosaur footprints that were discovered in the late 1980s as the area is being mined for concrete. They have been preserved in Sandstone so are erroding fairly fast, but next year UNESCO are going to come to the site to see if they will grant Bolivia $8million to pour latex over the wall! The footprints were slightly disappointing though as they are on a vertical wall and about 100 meters away from the veiwing point so it was impossible to get an idea of the scale of them.

I´ve just looked up in the internet cafe that I'm in and on the wall above me near the ceiling is the biggest moth that I have ever seen! It's wing span must be at least 25 cm! Amazing - I have to keep looking to check that I'm not imagining how big it is!

Anyway back to Sucre. After all the cultural things that I did yesterday I am going to chill today and visit some of the many chocolate shops that I have managed to somehow avoid in the last 2 days

I hope that you all have brilliant weekends. Wish me luck please for the 6 hour bus journey on unpaved road that I'm going to take tomorrow!

Love from Bec

Well I´m now on my own properly! Last night was the end of the trip that took me from Lima to here, La Paz. I´ve had to check out of the very nice hotel that GAP put us up in and checked into a hostel, and the first taste of the accommodation to come...at least it´s clean though. It´s costing the same in bolivianos as the hotel was charging in dollars...(there´s about 8 bolivianos to the dollar!)

I´m planning on being here for the next couple of days, just settling down to being on my own and sorting out where to go next. And I'm really liking La Paz! It's a buzzing interesting city so different from London.

Yesterday I went on a city tour that took me through the area where all the hostels and hotels are, which is rather poor and because of this has many street vendors and markets so is very bustling and busy. This is extremely different to the rich southern area of the city where all the politicians and foreign diplomats live, where it is about 10 degrees hotter because it's about 1000 meters lower. The difference between the living standards of these 2 areas are massive; the polititcan´s area could easily have been in a European city, where as the area where we are staying could never be confused with a western area.
The 'moon valley' is located in the rich area and is a rather barren landscape of sandstone that has been erroded into spectacular peaks and troughs. I have to admit that I don't understand why it is so desireable to live next to this! Then we went back into the central and middle class area and past the church where couples queue to get married on Saturdays and the sevices are very short because of the many waiting outside! The tour took us then to a museum of masks, and I learned that masks are a large part of the festivals that happen in Bolivia, and many of these make fun of the spanish. Something that I have learned about myself so far is that I am much more interested in the social history of the places that I am visiting rather than the political history, which although is of course interesting, doesn't capture my imagination as much.

So now everything I do is up to me and that is a wonderful feeling!! I've already met some very nice Aussies (Emma and Sam) and will probably spend the next few days with them, so I'm not really on my own!

I hope that you're all getting into the excited kind of Christmas spirit. It is very odd seeing decorations for sale here that are exactly the same as those at home, but it's about 15 degrees hotter than I'm used to at this time of year!

Love bec xx