Bolivia part one

Ay up.

This is the first post of my brand new blog. It may seem a bit strange to begin telling you what we have been up to after over two months of travelling but that is just the the south american way. Things may be a bit late and may not be exactly what you were either anticipating or hoping for but they will always arrive eventually, in some dishevelled form or other.

So we are now in Cusco in Peru which is beautiful to be quite honest. Very touristy but with enough bars and restaurants and old buildings and things to not notice too many over grown americans or australians barking their instructions to the locals. It´s nice to be able to just relax in nice surroundings after a month in Bolivia. That is not to say Bolivia wasn´t incredible, becuase it truly was, but it is just such a contrast and can be quite hard work travelling through it.

I´m not going to go back to day one of our travels and our arrival in Buenos Aires, as quite frankly thats too much effort. But for those of you willing to read more i will attempt to paint you a lovely picture of our expolits through the mountains and valleys of Bolivia not forgetting to mention the odd incidence of burning tyres and tear gas explosions just to keep you nicely perched on the edge of your wee squeaky seats.

Bolivia to date was my favourite country, (I know there has only been two but i´m still allowed to pick favourites). It was such a huge contrast from anything in Europe, everything was different. People, buildings, roads, landscape and most definitely the smell which at times could get slightly over-bearing, but quite often it just turned out to be Maya and another of her little accidents. She always had a smile on her face tho so she must have enjoyed them!!

We started in a really quaint wee town called Tupiza where there were very few tourists and very little to do other than enjoy the sunshine with a cool cold pint of Taquina or Hauri or whatever other rocket fuel, amonia like beer they gladly sell you. Saying that i did go horseriding and managed to complete the task looking like the man from Del Monte much to the amusement of my darling girlfriend. Who by the way had a shetland pony compared to my stallion. The riding itself was very serine and calm as the horses knew the way and just led us through some amazing landscape which mainly consisted of large rocks. You will soon gather that Bolivia is largely dominated by large rocks. There doesn´t appear to be any flat land in the country. Which is kind of why the bus rides similar to that of a day at Alton Towers.

Anyhow i digress. Something i might do frequently. Also be wary that my vocabulary is slipping a little hence the over use of 'incredible' and 'amazing'. I hope this doesn´t become to grating.

Back to the story.....After i leaped off my stallion taking minutes to reach the ground and lazily stepped over Maya´s My Little Pony we set off on an incredible four day adventure culminating in the awe-inspiring Solar de Uyuni, or salt flats to you and me.

We weren´t alone on our expedition as sat in the rickety 4x4 were no other than our Dutch travelling companions for Bolivia, Robert and Rianne, who were typically tall although left the tulips and clogs at home which was a shame. Also there was our driver cum guide, Juan Carlos and his aunty Margerita who was to be our cook for the trip. Although her finest hour probably came when she fully chomped down a huge apple despite having only one tooth. It was a sight we all cheered and will probably never forget. They were both really cool actually and knew the area really well. They had previously lived in one of the tiny isolated villages we passed after a days driving and we might Margerita´s grand-mother, who was in her 90´s. Was nice to see.

The four days were fairly contrasting. The first was pretty much just a case of getting to where we needed to be which meant it was largely spent trundling through the middle of nowhere on dirt track roads with Celine Dion flexing her troat muscles from the CD player. Not nice. The day was still cool tho as we saw some cool wee villages that were truly in the middle of nowhere and were just great to witness first hand.

On the second day things really hotted up, although may sound a little repetitive written down here. It largely consisted of Laguna´s whether they be red or green and just normal water coloured Bolivia has them all and we saw a fair few of them on day two. For me Laguna Verde (aptly named as being indeed a laguna and green) was the most incredible. It´s backdrop of the mountains and just the intenstity of the colours were just from picture postcard. It could have lost a bit of its magic when Juan Carlos told the it is that the water is that colour because its toxic due to porceline and magnesium or some other chemical element . My spanish isn´t quite up to the periodic table just yet. Most of the laguna´s come complete with cool pink flamingo´s which are funny wee creatures but really interesting to watch close up. I liked to watch them run before they take off; they kind of run with the necks pulling their bodies along and their spindly legs struggling under the wait. Very amusing. Other than that there was a really cool hot spring which was nicely deserved after two days in the jeep. The water was incredibly warm and cosy and i didn´t want to get out. We also saw some natural geysers which were cool to see but really stank.

Congratulations to those who are still with me here. This could take a while longer yet....

Day three was pretty much more of the same with similar equally incredible scenery and a few more laguna complete with flamingo´s just incase we hadn´t had our fill. The highlight of day three was definitely seeing a proper real live volcano which was quitely smoking away. The landscape around it was intriguing what with all the dried lava and what-have-u.

After three days came the big finale which thankfully wasn´t staying in a hotel made (supposedly) entirely of salt as that was a bit pish but the salt flats themselves. It´s a bit difficult to explain why they are so cool because they are really just a flat fields of salt, but they are really good fun. Because they are totally flat you can take loads of weird pictures whcih mess with perspective and things. Anyhow we were on them for the sunrise which was nice, although the reflection off the slat is a bit bright. Because they are so flat you can also just about make out the curvature of the earth which is nice, if thats how you get your kicks.

That pretty much sums up the four days which landed us in a crappy place called Uyuni, which is where most people set off from to do tours of the salt flats and hence it is a town which is totally dedicated to tourists which makes it just abit character less and depressing. So we sharply exited their after one night to head for the city of Potosi, which for us was a bad idea as it was grotty. I think i have mentioned to some already that Potosi is disgusting. It is famous for its mines and the atrocious condtions that the workers wotk within. A great reason to be famous i´m sure you´ll agree.

The city and its skankiness was just a testiment to its claim to fame. Men go there to work in the mines, which gives them a life expectancy of roughly ten years after they start working. Soon enough they die and leave families without an income and poverty ensues. The city it self is the highest in the world of its size but has very narrow streets and dirty smog laiden walls. Really wasn´t very nice and on our last night we saw a guy pissing on an elderly crippled tramp much to the hilarity of his mates. Pretty much summed up the place for us.

I think that will do as a first installment. Congratulations again to those of you who managed to stick through it. You´ll get your reward in heaven i´m sure. Please feel free to comment on anything if things aren´t clear or if you have questions then please ask. Doesn´t mean i´ll answer but there´s no harm in trying.

I will try and write more before we set off for Machu Pichu on the 28th. Just for those impatient readers out there i´ll give you a sneak preview of part two which will include tales of mass protests in Sucre complete with riots and tear gas, the mediocrity of Cochabamba and then the cool delights of snakes, monkeys, jungles and rafting in the jungle village of Villa Tunari. Should be a pleasant read even if i do say so myself.

Anyhow I do hope you are all well and that this little installment finds you in fine fettle. I do miss family and friends back there in Britain, but be assured that I am indeed having the time of my life and its nice that i can sit here and drivel on about it to anybody who will listen.

Bye Bye for now
Rob

p.s for those of you who have not noticed we have finally managed to put up some more pictures on Maya´s bebo site so take a look if you can.