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Hello
I hope you enjoy the pics i just uploaded…. That was a marathon uploading session and took almost 2 hours!!!!
So now a run down of my past few days. Bolivia is a crazy place. There is just awesome scenery here, combined with extremely poor people and very bad roads. I really recommend coming here but be prepared for basic!On New Years Day, after the prison I hung our with the rest of my group. Catherine left to go to the airport at about 5am on NY day, and I{ve just heard from her that she had a very traumatic journey full of illness and medical attention - mainly related to the altitude. Happily she seems to be back safe and sound. I really can{t wait to go down to lower altitude now. Every morning I wake up at about 4.30am with shallow breathing, not being able to get enough oxygen in. I{m pretty well acclimatised but apparenlty the last bit takes about 3 months at high altitude for the body to fully adjust. I think we only have about 4 more days up high before going down to a more reasonable level. At the moment I{m at 4,100m in Potosoi in Bolivia.
On the evening of NY day my new room mate arrived - she is called Elaine and is Bristish.5 people who I started with in Lima flew home and my group gained 6 new people - 2 single girls and 2 couples. From the old group we{re left with me, the 3 NZ guys (Tim, Liam and Ben), 1 English Guy (Ben) and the SA couple (Nicky and Jaque).After 11th jan there will only be 5 of us going all the way to Rio.
2nd January
In the morning our new tour leader introduced himself. He{s called Neil and is half Britsih, half Peruvian. With the new group I got on a public bus from La Paz to Oruro and then straight on to a train to Uyuni. All of the public transport in S America so far seems to have loads of leg room. On the train you could even choose the direction your chair faced and pivot it around! The bus was 3 hours and the train 7 hours, so pretty exhausting! On the train we went through the most dramatic scenery and amazing sky. The sky was so dramatic that it felt like a bible scene. We rode through an enourmous lake filled with flamingoes!!! I was really disappointed about not seeing many in the Galapagos but this more than made up for it. Some of them flew along side the train. So elegant!
When we arrived in Uyuni there were massive storms. The thunder and lightening was surrounding the hotel and striking loudly. And the rain was ridiculously heavy. The next day we were to start a 3 day 4 WD expedition to the salt flats and we were told that the rain could cause a problem as the roads are so rough and prone to flooding. In fact when we returned our guide said that he wouldn{t be going out again in the rainy season. Looks like I had perfect timing!
3rd Jan
The rain had stopped over night and the tiny town was left in massive pools of water.Between the group we had 3 4 wheel drives. To start with we drocve out of the town into the wilderness. It took a few hours to get to the flats. On route we stopped in a village that mines the salt. Everything is very dusty and a lot of the buildings are made of salt. When we finally hit the salt flats I could not believe my eyes. I{ve seen pictures but they do nothing to adequatley describe the scene.
The flats have an area of 12,000km square and seem endlessly vast. The part we first drove through was flooded with about 10cm of water. This meant that as well as being blindingly white, the flats reflected the sky perfectly and make the surrounding mountains appear to be mirages. The flooded area was so emense that I can{t imagine how much rain must have fallen to create a lake out of the area that is usually a salt desert. The cars also made for a spectacular view...the reflections made me feel like i was on Top Gear. You can probably see from the pictures that i got carried away with the photography... trust me, this is a very small selection of the pics i have on my camera!
After several hours we stopped and got out. There was no point in wearing shoes so it was a bare foot job. The water was suprisingly warm because of the sun this is where the fun pictures started. It was so pleasant walking about in the water with the salt extending as far as the horizon.Next it was on to an area that had not flooded. It didn{t feel like we rose at all but we were clearly in an area that was higher, although still flat. The unflooded planes gave a different effect. This time even more blindinly white with the potential for so many fun pics. The white makes the perspective completely out of persepective. The salt was dried into hexagons with ridges . And the heat made furtehr mirages ofthe mountains. I{ve run out of ways to describe the spectacular.... just imagine the most breathtakingly white sparklying landscape and extend it as far as you can see......Everything was covered in salt!
That evening we stayed in a salt hotel. It was made almost entirely of salt... even down to the beds, with salt crystals on the floor. There was electricity for a couple of hours, so after this time we used candles. The candles illuminatated the white salt. There was a gorgeous sunset, at which point i realised just how sunburnt i had got ojn the flats. My legs stay stubbornly white, just like the salt!
As there are now 3 girls on our own we are rotating who gets their own room. Tonight was my turn... luxury!
4th Jan
I woke up at 5.30am to see the sunrise and it was absolutley freezing. A few of us were up with cameras (mine a bit inadequate for the job!). It was obvuiously spectactular. It{s amazing how it made me go from feeling cold and miserable to awake and uplifted, just by watching the rays. I had a go at some pics, but again they don{t do the seen justice.We got back in the cars and drove away from the salt through an avenue of volcanoes. One of them can is still smoking, although no eruption is expected at the moment. The view point for the volcanoes is in a lava field with loads of strange shaped rocks.
Afterwards it was on to a series of amazing salt lakes. These lakes are not dried up but have a salt crust at the edge. They are all pretty shallow and have flamingoes!!! I can{t believe they like such salty water and extremes of temperature. The lakes reflect the surrounding mountains and clouds..... again.... spectacular! Some of the lakes are strange colours. The mostfamous ones are the Red and Green lakes.
We got to the Red Lake on this night. It is vast with red stripes caused by algae and a chemical reaction wiht the salt.That night we stayed in extremely basic accomodation. When we arrived it started snowing! After the snow cleared up and we{d had a bit of red wine I went with a couple of others to lie down outside and look for shooting stars. I saw 1 satelite and 2 shooting stars (and got freezing!). The stars were fantastic. I think Orions belt is upsidediwn in the southern hemisphere.
5th jan
Another early start of 5am. This time we went off without breakfast into another alien landscape.... Bubbling and spouting Geysers. They were sooo hot and I can{t imagine that you{d be allowed that close to them anywhere else in the world. It felt like Mars. The steam and sulphur coming off made it impossible for any good pictures, but i{m sure you can appreciate how the natural under floor heating felt.
Then on to some natural hot baths. I just paddled, but by the red lake of flamingoes. I had some kind of perfect moment was i sat and watched the steam rise around the flamingoes with Simon and Garfunkel playing from a car in the background. Yes, it was cheesy but unbelievable as well.
We drove on through the desert to the green lake. Whenwe arrived it wasn{t really green and instead refelcted perfectly the snow capped mountain above it. Then the wind started and gradually the lake turned a fantastic turquiose before our eyes. The green is arsenic so no flamingoes here!
On the way back to Uyuni the journey was 5 hours long....... sooooo long! We stopped off at the train cemetery, which should have been great but was nothing after the previous spectaculars.I really recommend all of the above. It is fighting for position with the Galapagos... and that is saying something!
6th Jan
Yesterday we got on a 6 hour bus to Potosoi (not worked out how to spell it yet). Potosoi used to be the biggest city in Peru becasue this is where the Spanish famously came to exploit the silver mines, as well as the local and african slaves. Now it feels like quite a poor place with delapidated colonial buildings.That{s all the excitement for now.... can anyone really be readingall of this????Big love
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