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Hi guys, a late update of our Bolivian experience... Our trip started in La Quiaca, crossing the border at dawn to Villazon, entering our new stinky home! After a rickety bus ride through the Andes, we arrived in Tupiza, and quickly mounted some horses to have a 3 hour treck around the impressive rocky mountainous terrain. We met up with 2 lovely Oxford students, who came with us on our 4 day adventure in the jeep. Our hosts were Juvernal (driver/guide) and Nelly (cook/mum) who took us on our first day to see the Bolivian village-life, and tried to feed us llama meat (which we obviously rejected, and marked the start of our 4-day super diet!). Waking up at 5 am the following morning, confronted with a 360 km journey in the cramped, bumpy jeep, we set off to see many a lagoon, of all different colours, as well as thousands of flamingoes, a hot spring, a volcano and a few geysers chucked in for good measure. Our second day was the day of hell, as we reached 5 km above sea level, and both had horrible altitude sickness, which put a serious dampener on our strength and souls.
The third day started with an amazing view of the red lagoon, followed by the most bumpiest roads known to man. Our bums were in serious pain! About an hour before our destination drama struck when a fellow jeep got stuck in the salty mud, literally on its side, and our precious driver went to rescue them. Rejecting the posh salt hotel, we decided to slum it like true gappers, and even forgoe the 1 and only chance of a shower during the whole trip, as the naughty devils tried to charge us 5 bolivianos for the priviledge. (5 bolivianos = less than 30p). The final day was absolutely amazing.. the salt flats were awe-inspiring, and an unforgetable experience. Fortunately Nelly and Juvernal mined some salt crystals for us, as souvenirs. That bit of the journey was topped off by Peter getting spat at by an angry llama! The night journey back to Tupiza was another series of unfortunate events.. Juvernal had been driving for literally 14 hours, and had to keep stopping the car, and dousing his cap in water in order to stay awake on the precarious tracks. Amongst other things, he had to deal with cows in the road, drug smugglers with no headlights whatsoever, breaking down, and a particularly stinky hitch-hiker!
The Bolivian experience was wonderful, though slightly tainted by our truly lethargic/sickly alty sickness... Still.. at least we weren't kidnapped!
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