Hi, we've now arrived in Argentina and the north west city of Salta. We had a great trip through Bolivia without any serious incident visiting some amazing sights on the way. If we thought it was cold in Peru, then we got a shock when we arrived in the town of Uyuni, a dusty crumbled old mining town high up in the Bolivian plains. We arrived in the middle of the night and tried to save some pennies staying in a cheap hostel. Big mistake, it was so cold that your feet nearly froze to the floor and we had to check out at 8am the next morning and go to the most expensive hotel in town (still only 20 quid!) to defrost. It was well worth the money as it had the best hot shower we've had since arriving in the Americas.

Got to La Paz easily enough with no trouble at the border except for some communication problems with immigration. La Paz is the world's highest city and you immediately feel the lack of oxygen. Every single task leaves you breathless, even washing your hair in the shower means needing a lie down afterwards. La Paz is a very nice busy city with lots of historical buildings and unusual sights. e.g. the witches market with boxes of llama foetuses for sale. It also has very good food with half a pig and a vegetable patch available for about 1 pound 50. Also went to a museum dedicated to the use of the coca leaf which is used by locals in its original state to lessen the effects of altitude and is used by the reat of the world to make cocaine. Interesting to learn that when coca cola was first invented it actually contained cocaine and that was the case up until about 1914! They still use the leaves even now for flavouring.

Spent a couple of days in teh capital and then got a bus to the nearest train station 4 hours away and caught a train to Uyuni to see the Salar De Uyuni (largest salt lake in the world). Fairly nice train for Bolivia except for the loud Bolivian music of Marcos DJ, seemingly Bolivia's biggest pop star, despite the fact that he is balding and looks at least 50. The American films dubbed into Spanish were also quite annoying as there are no English subtitles. Got to see flocks of flamingos as we rode through the wetlands on the way so that was good. Did a day tour to the salt lake with a group of 3 lads from north London, one of which has been living in Sticklepath for the last 3 years and comes into Hatherleigh on Sundays for the car boot sale of all things. It is indeed a small world! It was a good tour with amazing scenery as when you get into the middle of the lake all you can see is the bright white of the salt against the blue sky. (see photos which is a better way to explain!) The only things on the lake are a hotel made completely of salt where we had lunch and an island covered with huge cacti. Some of the strangest scenery we've seen so far. Only problem with the day was that our guide only spoke Spanish so we learnt absolutely nothing!

We escaped the cold of Uyuni by a rickety bus ride at 6am predominantly along a river bed which doubles as a main road in Bolivia. It was so bumpy that the windows were self opening which made the bus temperature about -20 and we had to pull out the sleeping bag to keep away hyperthermia. It also stopped without explanation in an even colder town than Uyuni for 2 hours without any shops open which was fun. We finally arrived after 8 hours (150 mile trip bare in mind) in Tupiza, a town in southern Bolivia famous for being the area where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent time before being chased by the Bolivian army to a nearby town and supposedly killed. We went along with the cowboy theme and did a good 3 hour horseriding trip into the surrounding red rocks and canyons. Very wild west. We were supposed to leave the town after the tour but turned up at the bus station for the 2.30 bus to Argentina which was then changed to 5.30 and subsequently cancelled altogether due to a road blockade or something of that nature. Instead we had to get the next bus which was at 4am the next day. Met some nice people in Tupiza including a South African guy called Neville and an English girlcalled Sam who we ate with that night.

So we got the 4am bus to the Bolivian/Argentine border and it left on time surprisingly, getting us there in 3 ish hours. Crossed the border without any hassles and got a much nicer coach on an actual road to Salta. Argentina is famous for having fantastic beef at excellent prices so our first meal consisted of a huge steak meal each, as good as any you get at home, for the grand total of 2 pound 50. Looking forward to making the most of the excellent food in the few days that we have left in Argentina before leaving for Brazil.

So off to the capital, Buenos Aires tomorrow on a 17 hour overnight bus. Have a couple of days there before heading to Iguassu Falls.

Cheers for now

Nicola and Michael