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We made it to Bolivia..........home of Coca tea, women wearing bowler hats, the worlds most dangerous road, salt planes as big as switzerland, llama burgers and bad food. We have been told exactly where the mcdonalds are incase of despertion!! Acctually we have found the food to be quite good so far although we have not eaten any local food yet.
Arrived in Bolivia via the Uyuni salt planes which are the size of Switzerland and only rise by a maximum of 9 inches over the whole area. We went as part of a tour in 4x4 vehicles with 12 in our group. Our group consisted of another English couple and two American brothers and of course our crazy driver Havier.
Over the fist two days we drove through the desert over some crazy roads that bareley existed bumping around like beans in a can. God knows how our driver new where he was going. We saw several lakes containing flamingoes, most of them had migrated and the ones left weren`t very pink as there weren`t many shrimps left but we managed to catch a couple of pinkish ones on film. On our first night we stopped at what appeared to be a reconstructed world war 2 bunker which had no heating. Once the sun went down we were left to shiver in the minus 10 degree climate. Thankfully at 9pm the lights went down and we only had one choice but to go to bed. Because it ws so cold I put on everything I owned including my sleeping bag and several blankets. I woke in the night boiling and had to take everything off!!
On our second night we stayed at the salt hotel on the edge of the salt planes. Everything was made from salt including our beds, the tables and even the walls of the hotel. We had a great dinner (the previous night we`d had fried spam and mashed potato) and then went to watch the sunset over the mountains.
The next morning we were up at 5am to drive 1 hour out to an island on the edge of the slat flats to catch the sunrise. The slat plane is so flat that our driver didn`t even turn his lights on as we drove in the dark towards the island. The driver even let some of us have a go driving. We got some crazy views as the sun hit the gleaming white salt from the island. The salt flats are quite unusual in that they are also surrounded by mountains so all you see is shimmering white edged by mountains. We then spent the rest of the morning driving cross the salt flats getting some crazy photos (will upload them soon) and looking at the locals harvesting the slat for export. Arrived in Uyuni about 12pm.
The next day we caught the local bus to Potosi which is an experience in itself. All our luggage was loaded on to the roof of this little bus and strapped down thankfully. We then took our seats but the locals only booked a seat for themselves and then tried to squeeze their 5 kids on as well, often handing them to you to look after during the journey. People even stood or sat in the aisle and every few meters we seemed to pick up more and more until the bus was so full no one could breathe. The bus also stank of coca leaves which everyone chews to relieve them from the alititude.
We arrived in Potosi about 5pm. Potosi used to be one of the richest cities in the worls about 500 years ago due to the silver deposits in the surrounding mountains. This all stopped 100 years ago when the price of silver dropped and the riches left the city which is now the poorest in Bolivia. They still mine for it today although they concentrate more on other metals. However conditions in the mines have not changed for hundreds of years and miners still only live for 10-15 years. We are going to do mine tour today so will let you know what it was like tomorrow, sounds pretty awful though.
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