Hola!
Well, another country checked off the list as such, Bolivia went by far too quickly with only a week and half to try to experience it...although we did manage to fit a heck of a lot in in that short time - as per usual!
La Paz was big and dirty and manic 24 hours a day and it probably wasn´t a favourite. We were staying in the dodgiest place yet with live wires hanging down through the ceiling, the hot water heater sparking above our heads in the shower and open light switches in the bathroom next to the shower with no curtain to stop the splashes! Not to mention the 10 flights of stairs to get up to the room...an experience that´s for sure... But from La Paz we got to go up to Death Road and mountain bike down it at breakneck speed on a gravel road with a sheer cliff on one side, now you can´t have more fun than that really. We started at 4640m above sea level and cycled down 64km and 3364m of gravel road, defying death the whole way and managed to reach the bottom with no loss of skin, teeth or broken bones, and with enough energy to keep hold of a cold beer - well earned I think! Seriously good fun and much recommended if you´re ever in Bolivia!
After that adrenaline pumping ride, we left La Paz on our way to Uyuni where we spent 2 days on the largest salt flat in the world, driving around in 4wd jeeps taking crazy photos of each other standing on other peoples heads and falling out of salt shakers. It was a great couple of days, climbing over Fish Island covered in the largest cacti you´ve ever seen, and then the next day climbing a volcano on the edge of the salt flat to get a fabulous view of miles around. The most exciting part of our adventure was when our fabulous driver spent the whole of the first day falling asleep at the wheel! Now that was something that none of us had learnt to say in spanish yet - wake up! But with continued loud coughing, sneezing, laughing, and even a couple of songs thrown in there for good measure, we made it to safety at the end of the day....good thing that there´s not a lot that can go wrong on a large flat piece of salt right? We did miss one stop that our driver slept through when everyone else pulled off but not to worry, when we caught up with everyone at the end of the day, they said it was kinda boring anyway! We were pretty grateful we didn´t have to send the recordings of our ´final words´ home though...yes we did make them - watching them now is pretty funny actually! So a great couple of days, Sleepy Sam the driver was on his best behaviour the next day, bit of a bummer really coz I was ready to jump into the drivers seat if he feel asleep again! But made it back to Uyuni no probs, and Sleepy Sam only got half a tip!
Sucre was the next stop, the official capital Bolivia. It was a lovely town with fabulous chocolate shops that we all made use of for the day we were there. And then it was on to Potosi, the highest town of its size in the world. We had just a day there also, but it was enough. A few of us had a tour of the Silver mine there, climbing 2kms into the side of a mountain at 4500m with no ventilation and miners working all around you in horrendous conditions, it wasn´t a fabulous time, but it was a very worthwhile experience to see how hard life is for people still. You should have seen my jaw drop as 3 men pushed a trolley past me carrying 2 tonnes of rock, it was incredible. After a couple of hours underground as such, and after inhaling about 2kg of dust and dirt, we emerged into the daylight and got to go blow up some dynamite! That was wicked, it was so loud and the whole ground shook, but it was good fun.
And that was Bolivia really, it was too short to really get into the culture, but from what I saw of it I liked it. The people were friendly, the landscape quite harsh and dry in most parts, but it was wicked.
After Bolivia we crossed the border into Salta, Argentina for just a few days, enough time to lie beside the pool at the campground and soak up the sun, and then go white water rafting and zip-lining, both of which were wicked. The rafting wasn´t too tough, it was more of an opportunity to attack each other in the different rafts with water, great fun for a couple of hours. After a wicked Argentinian bbq for lunch - the best steak ever!, it was off to zip-lining where they shove you in a haress, clip you onto a wire and then send you soaring across rivers, between mountains, and over canopies. It was wicked! The longest wire was 500m long and we were hundreds of metres up above the ground, definitely got the adrenaline pumping!
Now we´ve crossed over the border again, out of Argentina for now and into San Pedro, Chile. Got up at 3.45am this morning to see the Tatio geyser which was worth every minute of lost sleep, it was so cool. It was minus 5 degrees, in the Atacama desert, the dryest place in the world and we could´ve been on another planet with all the geysers and thermal vents. It was awesome. We´re off to see the Valley of the Moon in about 10 minutes so I´m going to have to leave you now and run back to camp. But I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, I´ll be thinking of you, those at home in Kiwiland and everyelse all over the world, while I´m lying on the beach enjoying my South American christmas. Take care all, be safe over the holidays.
Senorita Ronita xxx
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