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I have literally landed back in civilisation after four days discovering the wonderful landscape of Southern Bolivia. After a nice chill day on Tuesday, Steve, I and a random american headed for a walk up a canyon behind Tupiza. We got chatting to three guys from Argentina as you do while taking a breathier and so we ended up having a late long lunch together. One of them is currently doing a PHD in History so I acted as Official Translator as I was so deemed afterwards while Steve very excitely fired questions at him. He seemed to fill in lots of gaps about Inca history that the guides missed out putting lots of details in context.
Wednesday morning we grouped in the Tupiza Tour office excited finally to start our four day tour. There was slightly too much Fiesta on Tuesday so from what I could gather from their hurried spanish some of the expected guides didn't show. Alittle too drunk by all accounts so after a few frenzied phone calls our guide and driver appeared. The next four days would be spent with two other french couples so it's been lots of ´mais oui, en fait.. I seem to have learned to tune out effectively reading a book in two days but my ears soon became attuned to an old familiar language and relucantly somewhat I started speaking alittle french. At times Chloe would remember to translate but otherwise I was left to awaken my senses and followed the rapid french coming from all angles!
As soon as we left Tupiza picking up our cook from her home and a couple of boxes of eggs from the market, everything from the 2 ring hob to a spare barrel of petrol was pilled high on top of the jeep the landscape changed and we began our bumpy ride ascending rapidly admist the breathtaking views of the surrounding valley. I hope the photos capture alot more eloquently the beauty and variety of the landscape. 9 hours later we stopped at the ghost town of San Antonio where we would spend our first night. I strolled around for 20mins before tea slightly amazed but more so slightly haunted by the emptiness which seemed to envelope the place.To think that is someones daily reality was shocking. It was set against a beautiful back drop of snow capped mountains but there was something so haunting about the silence and stillness of the place. Having tea later a cat jumped up on my lap. I´m sure my scream must of woken someone up!! The french thought i was hiliarous Oh for heavens sake its´only a chat!". Interestingly our cook revealed to us last night stories of apparent sightings of Women weeping not far from San Antonio so my instincts weren't too far wrong! We were all bundled in together in one room so it was on with the thermal leggings , socks, track bottoms, top, fleece. Yes abit of all I possessed, zipped myself into my sleeping bag to try and insulate myself from the serious drafts!Secretly I was more petrified that I would wake to find the cat on top of me. I wouldn't of been able to cope with that!!
The next morning raising in the dark we were on the road by 5.30. As the sun rose the landscape glowed and it provided some wonderful warm light for some great shadows and contrasts. I started reading The Memory Keepers daughter the previous day so after settling into the jounrey i recommenced where I left off .The french seemed amazed that i could read as we bumped along the track.After India i can do it anywhere! You could hardly call it a road but it is one of the those books that creates great characters, so much so that you feel that if the main protagonist crossed the street you could recognise her and all her different moods. Shortly before lunch time we pulled up in front of Laguna Verde. Not so green in reality but a spectacular shade of turquoise set against the back drop of the snow capped Licancabur volcano. I was almost sorry to put my book down , I was getting to the crucial part, would the truth surface!Ahh yes it always does as my mum always says in great wisdom! Although the scenery did make up for it! Afterwards we backtracked alittle and lunch was assemebled. Bless Flora our cook. Every morning she got up at the crack of dawn to cook everything over two rings bringing a cool box with it all ready. We stopped in what apeared to be a desert with one little random wall and she provided us with a feast. The wind hollowed, the sun blazed and we sat tucked behind this little wall taking in the breathtaking scencery around us .You´ll see from the photos. Afterwards we stopped by some Agua Calienetes /( hot springs). Braving the cold air it was on with the bikinis and we floated away in the warm water taking advantage of the opportunity to wash abit! I might add it was our only shower for the four days! fruity i know!! ahh well everthing was so dusty it was on with the same dusty clothes every morning!
Well I´m going to have to leave it there for now. I have to meet back with the others in 5 mins for our 7 hour ride back to Tupiza!! I´ll finish this over the coming days and upload some of the hundred photos!! really there are hundreds but I´ll be selective. I'm on route to Northern Argentina back to visit my argentinian family for a week .It will be a novelty to be static for a week and I am so very excited about seeing them all again after four and half years. XX
9.50pm. Well we made it back in record time and after stumbling across an internet place after dinner I thought I'd take advantage and finish the blog. I seem to get promoted to front passenger seat on the way back. Well to be fair i think Flora was feeling alittle odd with the driver so when I got back to the car she had planted herself in the back seat and there was no budging!The hairy raising bends seemed all the more real on the journey back but we made it back in one piece. Anyway back to the blog.
A ritual seem to develop each evening as we landed to our accomodation. I can't really call it hotel as it was anything but hotel standards, not to mind 5 star. Day two felt abit like a concrete barracks in the middle of the desert. We laughed with Francoise, a carpenter that there would be seriously no need for his skills here. A serious slap dash mass of bricks and concrete. It's a miracle the roof stayed on and amazing we slept on what were effectively concrete slabs underneath the mattress. Tea and biscuits were served before dinner and after alittle chat and review of the day everyone cracked out their diaries. I mean not just our table but the gang besides us a well , everyone diligently scribing the days events and places names. It was quite comforting to see that I am not the only one who is pedantic in this manner. Some of the artist amongst us even sketched and illustrated some of the days sightings. Impressive! After alittle sing song we headed to bed en masse again early in preparation for our 5 O Clock wake up call, made alittle easier by the presence of pancakes for breakfast. Bless flora again.
Day 3 started with the Laguna Colorado and our amazed gasps as the masses of Flamingo's came into sight. I headed down the bank excitely obviously scaring them away.Chloe was quick to point out I should have been slower. Ooops..je suis desole! Anyway it was a beautiful scene , a beautiful blend of colours, shades of pink and golden from the sun. Flamingos and lagunas seem to be the theme of the day as we passed five more and stopped at another for lunch. As you can see from the photos I got abit carried away with flamingos but I just loved the colours of them.
Things got abit hot under the bonnet later on so we had to stop to let things cool down. Quite luckily we stopped in the valley of rocks. As you will see from the photos it provides some serious good raw material for an endless guessing game of what do I look like? Things held up to get us to Uyuni but we had to find a mechanic and spent half an hour calling a random doors to see was one in. The climax of the trip was the salt flats near Uyuni. We stayed in alittle ' hotel' made from Salt last night. Yes, we had a quite finger lick to verify its authenticity!yes salt not sugar!Everyone was up at 4.45 this morning to head out to see the sun rise over the flats. It was worth it. We scampered on top on the jeep watching the sun come up over a wonderful mirage of blues and pinks. Honestly it was like a watercolour with the colours excellently blended so it was hard to tell where the land finished and the sky started. Unfortunetly for us the flats are quite water logged at the moment but it didn't damping the spirits as we invented more poses for us to shoot. As you will see you can get some great optical illusions.
I have definitely written far too much for one blog.Apologises, i hope it doesn't bore you. I'll update the photo's next week when i won't crash the whole system.
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