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Hello from Bolivia!
Crossing the boarder was nowhere as scary as out guide made out or the tour books!
I am in Potosi a the moment, a small silver mining city, waiting for my bus to Sucre.
Spent a dusty but amazing 4 days in the desert and on the salt flat driving in 4 x 4s! Def a highlight of the trip so far. The landscape was stunning and the pictures I have really don´t reflect the beauty.
The first day we spent a lot of time driving (pretty much all the way down to Chile), stopping to take pictures and climb on rocks and listening to everyone's I-pods . The accommodations is all pretty basic, dorms, no electricity and stone beds like the Flintstones.
The second day we were up at 4.30am (They love their early mornings here....7am is a lay in!) to see the Geysers and bubbling mud pools. These were pretty cool, but stunk of rotten egg sandwiches. At breaky we stopped at a natural hot spring for a bath, this was lovely afters spending a day covered covered in dusty and the surroundings were amazing! Then onto the Green Lagoon, the pics i have really don´t show the stunning colour. Then onto the red lagoon, which wasn´t such a spectacular colour but still pretty cool to see. I thought i lost my book today....in the middle of the desert, having read 900 pages and only 50 to go....thankfully i didn´t! Went for a little trek after i had arrived at the hostel to take in the views....felt pretty rough but i find myself not wanting to miss anything. The early starts are horrid and all you want to do is sleep, but you don´t want to close your eyes for a second in case you miss something.
The 3rd day was mainly driving to the Salt flats. Stopped off to see the Tree of Stone and did some more climbing on rocks, then onto to see the mountain of 7 colours. Then onto a few more smelly lagoons with lots of Flamingos and the last stop was a smoking volcano.
On the last day we were up early again to see the sunrise and off to the Salt Flats to take some cool pictures....watch this space.
Was an amazing few days, but by the end i was a little fed up with being covered in dust and squatting behind anything you can find in a desert....which is not a lot!
The days were so hot and the evenings so cold, minus 25c. We spent a lot of time in the evening drinking beer playing cards (I can now play games other than rummy, snap and pairs!)
Went to the silver mine yesterday. The conditions are pretty poor, can´t believe that people have worked there for 30 years. We have had a little play with dynamite and blew up teenage mutant ninja turtle.
I am loving Bolivia, the beer is so cheap her 80p a litre!!! Feeling mega unfit in this altitude, all i have to do is have an energetic shower and i feel out of breath. Bring on sea level!
Hope all is good back at home.
Love ´n´kisses
Ellen
PS. My mobile is not working in Bolivia, will be back on that on the 17th November.
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