ride'm cowboy

After our salt flats tour we were pretty knackered so we were looking forward to not doing too much for a couple of days. Tupiza provided us with the perfect excuse, we ate hamburgers, hamburgers and more hamburgers and then decided that we should do something so went horse riding... It was only the 2nd time in my life i have got on a hourse, the first was when i was about 8 and it wasnt for very long, so a three hour trip seemed quite a long time. Our guide didnt speak english but my horse pretty much knew where it was going without me having to do anything so all was good. I felt like a proper cowboy cause of the countryside we were riding through, see photos. (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in the area). Tim and I now have matching bruises on our arses! Dont want to think how painfull a 7 hour trip would have been!
Another night bus took us to Tarija, the high altitude wine region of Bolivia. Wine has not touched our lips since Lima which was about a month ago, bring on the vino!

Me on my first horseride ever!

Check out these canyons

Again the rock formations create crazy shapes

The only bit of life in the desert

On our way back through town along the train tracks

More Uyuni pics

Me amazed by a puff of smoke coming out of a volcano!

Flamingos, salty lake, volcanoes.... what else do you what!

This is called the tree of rock. Due to the variety of different rocks in the region, they disintegrate at different paces, leaving crazy objects like this in the middle of the desert!

A spooky pic of the hot smelly gases rising early in the morning

Jude having a party in the hot springs

Uyuni, salt flats, and crazy high altitude desert

Almost immediately after the jungle we booked ourselves on a tour of the salt lakes from Uyuni. Talk about one extreme to another… one minute we were sweating and trying desperately to keep cool, the next minute we were freezing our arses off and trying desperately to keep warm!
On the first day, after a quick stop at the train grave yard, we headed to The Salar de Uyuni, which was once a giant salt water lake, but the water has vanished into the thin dry air of Andean altitude. All that remains is the salt, and lots of it, tens of meters thick. It was brilliant white and looked like sand, all very odd. After stopping to climb cactus ridden Fisher Island (not sure why it’s called this as didn’t see any fish) and a lunch of lama meat, we shot some perspective-skewed photographs…have a look below!

We ended our first day at a Salt Hotel which was our accommodation for the night. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, there were 3 other groups sharing with us so it was quite cosy! With a few hours to kill we played Rummie with the guys from New Zeland (really need to learn a new card game!). It was crazy sitting and later eating off tables made of salt! We crashed early tired from all the traveling and knowing we were going to be up early...

We were woken up at 6am to see the sun rise. After a tasty breakfast of stale bread and jam we got back in the jeep. We wondered what could merit such an early morning now that what we thought was the highlight of the trip, the Salar, was over. We soon found out as we crested a rocky hill and descended towards brilliant blue water cradled beneath red mountains. Around the lake was a fringe of white, like ice, ( found out it wasnt ice but potassium and other minerals) in the midst of the lake stood hundreds of pink flamingos feasting off the íce´.

Throughout the trip the landscape was ever-changing and always unexpected: the water and the rocks first were red, and then turquoise and green with minerals and microbes. We visited the surreal lake Laguna Colorada which was red, Laguna Blanca, and Laguna Verde; we discovered viscachas -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscacha - little bunny-squirrel critters, mysteriously living on rocky crags surrounded by nothing but wind and rock. We visited geysers puffing at sunrise and breakfasted after a dip in the thermal springs (it was the most amazing experience getting into a giant bath of water at 30 degrees when we were still trying to feel our fingers and toes after the freezing night).

It was all amazing and beautiful. The only thing that wasnt so good was the cold. It was bloody freezing on the second night when it got to minus 7. We all slept pretty much fully clothed in sleeping bags with blankets, to survive the night but it was pretty handy for a quick exit in the morning - we were up at 5am.

I was also plagued on the 2nd night by the worst stomach i have had in years, it was not nice for me or any of the other 20 people who had to share the very, very basic toliet! My worst toliet fear had come true!

The long car journeys passed quickly as we were engrossed in conversation with Ana and Arch (New Zelanders). Tim and I now cannot wait for our trip to NZ after all we´ve heard about it from them and hopefully we´ll be hooking up with them at some point too.


Fisher island, in the middle of the salt flats

To help with all the baggage on the tour, tim was able to shrink me and keep me in his pocket!

A flamingo eating the yummy brine

Laguana Colorada (you can see the copper red water in the middle of the lake)

Laguna Verde

More Pampas pics

turtles doing a bit of sunbathing

An aligator trying to cool down in the shade

A family of Cabybarra relaxing in the water

Jude doing some pirana fishing..... she caught one in the end, though it didnt taste that great on the barby!

Me relaxing after a swin in the river with the pink dolfins. That long thin thing in the background on the riverbed is a croc!!!

In the jungle and pampas

Ever trying to save a bit of cash we thought we´d take the 18 hour coach ride to Rurrenabaque rather than the 1 hour flight, a choice we regretted! The journey was the hottest and bumpiest ever, it was like sitting on a washing machine for hours, plus we had a screaming baby next to us!

Rurrenabaque is where you leave for the jungle and pampas tours. It´s a very laidback place cause it´s too hot to exert yourself in any way, we spent our time in the town searching for breeze and ice lollies! The muggy heat was a real contrast to the climates we had been experiencing for the past two months and took a bit of getting used to.

We booked a three day pampas tour with Fluvia, which is the longest running tour company, so we thought they would know what they were doing. 7 of us got into a Jeep for a three hour dusty, bumpy ride to the rio yacuma river where a basic wooden canoe met us to take us on a three hour boat ride. (I could hardly feel my arse aferwards!) to our camp.

As soon as we were in the water we saw crocodiles and aligators lurking everywhere, plus cabybarra and loads of different birds. It was amazing to be so close to the wildlife in their natural habitats and they seemed totally uninterested in us chugging along the river. The monkeys were a different story, attracted by the bananas the guides got out, a load of yellow monkeys jumped on board the boat and ran over everyone.

We got to our wooden camp and had tea and biscuits! Then it was back on the boat for a trip to the Sunset Bar for a beer. All very civilized. On the way back we all had our flash lights out searching out the red eyes of the alligators.

It was so hot at night under the mossie night as there was literally no air but there was no way i was going to sleep anywhere else and risk being biten loads. The sounds from all the animals kept me awake for a while and at one point i was convinced i was hearing an alligator in camp but my imagination was definitely working overtime!

We were woken up just before 6am so we could walk to a spot to see the sun rise. I´ve never seen such a pink sun. Back to camp for outdoor showers which were wonderfully cold and a buffet breakfast, I could get used to jungle life! After food we all got into the boat, we were off to search for snakes in the savana wetland areas (which weren´t wet due to it being the dry season). After walking through woods and dried out rivers we found quite a few anacondors and cobras hiding in trees. I spotted a bright green thing which looked like a snake curled in the bottom of the tree, on second glance i thought it might be a plastic rope so i was just about to poke it with a stick when we were all called over to look at something. Good job I didnt as our guide Fernando told us it was a very poisonous snake!

After lunch and some dozing in the hammocks it was back on the boat, this time we were going fishing for pirranhas! Having never fished before i was looking forward to the experience...and beginners luck caught me my first, and probably last, pirranha which was served up for dinner later.

Day 2 and we got up early again to go ´swimming with pink dolphins´. You actually just swim in the vacinity of dolphins but it´s still pretty cool when they are jumping all around you. After an early lunch it was back in the boat for the three hour trip back to the jeep to take us to Rurre. It was amazinly peaceful floating down the river watching all the animals about their business, i never would have thought that we would have been so pampered in the pampas!


Tim smiling with a very angry poisonous cobra

Me with a not so dangerous baby deer!

Tim playing with a croc...it was 40 and had no teeth!

The technical name for this animal in the jungle is - the yellow monkey

Life is hard in the jungle!

La Paz

From Copacabana we got a local bus to La Paz. About an hour into the journey we were asked to all get out. At first i thought it was for a police check, which is fairly common, but all the locals walked over to a booth next to the river and got tickets for a boat, we hadnt been told that the journey involved a boat ride so were totally confused!

Approaching La Paz is quite spectacular as the city is surrounded by snow cap mountains, the altitude also hits you straight away. At over 3,600m above sea, everything seems a lot harder to do there.

La Paz is a crazy town - people, traffic and market stalls are everywhere. The food stalls are the best, Tim and I spent most of the first day wandering from stall to stall sampling delights from sausage sandwiches to banana bread. I think I must have over indulged as the next day i didnt feel too great, Tim´s stomach was better than ever, a diet of grease obviously suits him!

We also discovered a tin building which housed rows of little stalls run by women selling steaming tea from proper mugs (we usually get tea cups) and fried egg or advocado sandwiches. Each stall offered something a little different and was dressed up to look like a cute little kitchen or front room as there were paintings and mirrors etc on the pop up walls. It was full of locals and a great place for a sandwich! The 2nd time we went we discovered a great hot drink called Api which was a purple colour with a pale yellow twist (have since found out this was sweetened corn) through it, and tasted of blackberries and apple with a hint of cinnamon...It was yum!

Apart from food, La Paz has some cool sights! We nearly went to San Pedro prison but once we´d got through the main entrance and saw all the nutters staring at us and were then told we should leave our camera in a dark cell we thought maybe we should leave all valuables at home first!


Just getting the bus to La Paz

The ladies getting togged up for a wedding

The presidents building.... complete with bullet holes from previous revolts

The main square

Some local women chilling during saturday market

Copacabana

Copacabana is the main Bolivian town on Lake Titicaca but it´s a quaint sleepy place where every one seems to eat giant popcorn snacks and whiles away the day doing... nothing.

We went there cause i liked the name and because it`s where boats leave for Isla del Sol, the sacred Inca island. The town is also known by its famous Basilica, home of the Virgin of Copacabana and its trout.

After Uros and Taquile on the Peru side, Isla del Sol wasnt as impressive but we got a good walk out of the trip and i dont think i could ever tire of looking at Lake T-it´s beautiful. We stayed in a brand spanking new room with a lake view for about 6 pounds, so we were pretty happy whiling away three days in Copacabana!


Having a beer by the local pub

Climbing up Isla del sol

The views from Isla del sol

You can see the faint terracing from the Incas on the left

On our way back to Copacabana you can see the Cordillera Real