unBOLIVIAble

So we were set for our first marathon journey and we weren't upset about leaving Puno, the two hours on the lake and pizza were all we needed. The first leg of the journey was pretty amazing, going around the lake and involved us taking a ferry across it at one point, well us the passengers on one ferry and the coach on another. We got into La Paz only a couple hours late (good for SA) and, learning our lesson from before we booked our tickets for the overnight bus trip in the bus station. This left us a couple of hours after our arrival before we were due to leave down to Uyuni in the south of Bolivia. That gave us chance to get some supplies and for Mike and Caz to Skype home and pass on the good news to the rest of the Cawoods and Websters and most importantly put Mr Cawood out of his misery of having to keep it a secret for so long! Also it gave us a treat of seeing the Websters in their Onesy's must-have nightwear.

The overnight bus was as crazy as expected with no obvious rules for the road out of La Paz and then 'roads' entering Uyuni which gave us the bumpiest ride into the town imaginable. This seems to be the cause of Mike's neck aging 30 years during the trip and causing him to develop a paracetamol and ibuprofen habit to get him through the remaining bus trips and shoddy

Uyuni was just a dust town and we managed to book our trip to the salt flats the next day.

The first day of our 3 day tour of Bolivia, by visiting the train graveyard. Quite an eerie place. Rusted old trains that used to deliver the gold and silver from the mines to the pacific coast. Rich did his usual and climbed anything he could. We then headed to the salt flats to see the salt factories and museums. The salt flats cover a whopping 12,000 sq km. This explains why they are so heavy on flavoring food with salt! The day then peaked when we took perspective photos and even made a film involving a pringles tube. We could have stayed here for hours and hours. Oscar our guide, then took us to Inca Island- a small island made up from volcanic black basalt covered in coral (as it was once, many years ago under the sea) with ancient cacti (more than 4300 in total). Our tour group (which consisted of us 4 and 2 Danish girls) piled back into the Jeep to head towards our hotel. On the way we stopped off to watch the sunset over the mountains and take some silhouette Karate photos. We stopped overnight in a salt hotel- walls, floors and even beds were made up of salt. Suprisingly it was quite warm, the salt acting like an igloo. An UnBOLIVIAble day.

The next day would need to be good to beat the first, which some members of the group felt was better than Machu Picchu (tut, tut). We saw masses of wild flamingoes and different coloured lagoons, but the highlight had to be our first taste of South American police. We got pulled over by another Jeep in the middle of the desert and then came face to face with four stocky Bolivians all with semi-automatic guns pointed at out jeep. Our guide seemed to figure out they were narcotics police fairly quicky but failed to pass on this gem of wisdom and so my previously successful ploy of getting 3 days worth of wear out of my limited supply of boxer shorts went out the window! After a few unrecognizable demands in Spanish and points of an AK47 we were out of the jeep and doing our best to prove we were nothing more than very scared tourists. Thankfully without too much searching they agreed with this and let us on our way. The rest of the day seemed fairly mundane after this but involved seeing the Tree Rock (you guessed it a rock which had been eroded into looking like a tree) and staying in the coldest hostel we have been in so far, but made easier with extra blankets, water bottles and some Bolivian rum. Although the paper thin walls did nothing to stop everyone hearing Nikki balking at the state of the toilets.

An early rise for our last day in Bolivia- 4am. We headed up to 5000m altitude, to the geysers in the crater of a volcano. It felt like we were on another planet. Having to watch every step we took as the earth was very temperamental and it could set off a blast of steam 200 degrees hot. With puddles of bubbling hot mud you would think this place was at least warm, it was quite the opposite, we were unable to feel our feet. Oscar then took us to and eventually convinced at least us 4 to strip off and get into the thermal bath at 7am. It was the best thing ever. Not only were we warm, our feet thawed out and the landscape was beautiful. A visit to the white lagoon and the green lake , which looked emerald green but was toxic due to the amount of arsenic in it finished our tour and time in Bolivia. We had a fabulous tour which was made by our guide and driver from Red Planet tours.

We were dropped off and had to cross border control into Chile.

Love N & R
X