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Hello again,
We really need to catch-up with this as my memories are fast turning into the ash from a fire (we watched a brilliant (and emotional) french film today and there was an awesome quote which went something like that...). Anywhooooo, while Jordan is manicly trying to make grounds on his own personal blog, I thought I would try to get stuck into this.
So, after scarying ourselves by biking down Death Road, our item was to visit the world´s largest/highest/greatest salt flats. It was formed from the sea water which once exsisted in Lake Titicaca (the name still makes me giggle) but was flushed out by fresh water from rivers flowing into the lake, then over the years the water evaported leaving just the salt.
We set-off for Uyuni (the town where you visit the Salt Flats from) on an overnight bus and were due to arrive in the morning on the 4th August... meaning there was a slight possibility that I could spend my 23rd birthday in a pretty cool setting. But to get there, we had to endure the world´s worst bus ride.
Before heading out to South America I had been warned what the buses in Bolivia were like and in Peru we had got used to very cushty bus travel (it puts the UK to shame but then we do have trains, which they do not). There wasn´t much choice of bus companies to go with and so we expected the bus to be a bit rubbish but actually it was ok, aside from tight legroom and annoying people. But my life! the roads! Because of the tight leg room and the annoying people, I thought it would be a good time to sample a bit of my grandfather´s legacy and take some valium (my Mum has always claimed he helped develop it) to knock me out . This, combined with it being dark outside, meant I didn´t become aware of the reason it was so bumpy until I got off... it turns out for a large part of the journy we were driving through thick snow.
Once in Uyuni, despite being a little disorintated and confused (although our pancake breakfast helped sort that out) we started our hunt for the lucky travel agency who was going take us to the Salt Flats. We quickly discovered that there was no three day tours due to the aforementioned snow and the price for the two days tours had been hiked up to the price of the three day tours. So because we wanted to save money, speed up our travels and were told the two day tour wasn´t really worth it, we went for a one day tour and the Jeep that would take us was leaving in 30 mins. Perfect.
The Salt Flats are something else, just a dazzaling white floor for as far as you can see, which means it is a great place for doing a load of funny photos (you´ll see what I mean when they get uploaded). A bit of the way in there is a rocky island and at the top of it, Jordan and I enjoyed a can of beer each (which Jordan had kindly brought earlier in the day) to toast me entering my final early 20´s year. Also, this lovely Irish couple, who were part of our tour and were on their honeymoon, gave me a handmade birthday card from a bit of paper and a some cash.
We arrived back in Uyuni late afternoon and rushed to the bus terminal to see if we could catch a bus back to La Paz as there is literally nothing else to do in Uyuni - it´s like a nuclear bomb has hit it. Fortunately there was one leaving 45mins later, leaving us just enough time to grab some food (from the best Pizza place I have ever been to. I really wanted to chat to the American guy who ran it, why he chose Uyuni to set it up, but alas there was not the time.) and then get back to the bus. 10 hours later we were back in La Paz.
Because of the short amount of time we had to plan our travels, because we changed our rough plan after booking the flights and because we changed our plan again while travelling, we were left with the gruelling prospect of travelling from south Bolivia to north Peru as quickly as possible. Luckily we once again timed our arrival perfectly as we arrived in La Paz just in time to jump straight onto another bus. Straight from La Paz, Bolivia to Lima, Peru. This wasn´t going to be a short bus journey though, it was going to be 32 hours long. And we had just done two 10 hour bus journeys. Buying that Valium was one of my greatest decisions ever.
We arrived in Lima (the place we started our travels) at about 6pm. We were devastated (not) to find out that we had just missed the day´s bus to Mancora (which was 16hours away) and so had to spend another night in Lima. This time we stayed in the Loki hostel in Lima and while it wasn´t as sociable as others in the chain we had stayed it, it was still 100 times better than the first place in Lima we stayed.
As we left Lima with not too great of an opinion the previous time we visited, we were determined to find out what it offered and with it being a Saturday, we hoped there was a good chance. After a nice meal (where I had an interesting fish plate) we went to a bar/nightclub we were recommended. We turned out to be the attraction of the locals as there didn´t seem to be too many travellers in there. Conversation could be difficult at times but Google Translate on someone´s mobile helped solved many problems. Once the bar was shut and after sensing a change in atmosphere, we decided to jump in a taxi and get the hell out of there. Back safely in our hostel, we passed out.
Our bus was at 3.30pm. I woke-up Jordan up telling him it was 2.45pm (I was still in bed myself I should add, before I´m accused of just painting him bad), he really didn´t believe me (which I used to my advantage as it meant I could jump in the shower). After the world´s fastest pack and check-out, we made it in time to the bus terminal for our 16 hour bus journey to Mancora. The light at the end of the tunnel was having sun, sea and surf waiting for us. But that´s for another entry.
Till next time,
Michael
p.s. we are off to Quito, Ecuador tomorrow and then after a few nights heading to Colombia.
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