Bolivia!!

For the final two weeks of my summer holiday, Clau and I went to Bolivia. Bolivia, what can I say? The country was absolutely beautiful, the food was good and the people were really lovely...the negatives? Altitude, toilets and roads!

We left Argentina and travelled by coach to the border of Argentina (29 hours), sidenote: on the way Claudio had his residency papers stolen. We stayed a night in La Quiaca and walked to the border the next morning. I had no problems getting in to Bolivia however due to Clau's lack of papers, he was not allowed in until they could prove he had residency...after a few attempts to locate this information we eventually did and were in Bolivia!

We travelled from Villazon to Uyuni by train (10 hours), train was old school and rocked about the whole time but the landscape was amazing and after popping a sleeping pill, wasn't too bad. In Uyuni, we took a tour to the salt flats. It had rained the night before so the salt flats were wet, this meant they looked pretty dirty and were not the beautiful white colour they are when dry, however with the reflection of the sky, they are amazing. We had lunch out the back of the 4x4 and by the end of lunch it was sunny and we got to experience the bright white colour of them also. The longer I live here the more I discover of South America's beauty...the salt flats were definately an addition to my list of amazing places.
From Uyuni to La Paz (12 hours coach), worst coach journey, was freezing and didnt really sleep. La Paz was fabulous, the city itself is set in a valley so all around you the houses are built on the hillsides...very different to anywhere that I have ever been. I loved it. We went to which was really interesting and then to Isla del sol which was just beautiful, very relaxing.


We headed back and went to Sucre for a couple days. Sucre is beautiful and we loved walking around the streets and seeing the views. My camera ran out of battery in La Paz so that was a bummer as I dont really have any pics of Sucre :-( We left Sucre and travelled back to Villazon (awful journey again...heavy rain, mountain roads, crazy driver, fast speed=me thinking I was going to die). After a day in La Quiaca again we travelled 32 hours back to Buenos Aires.

Some others things:
*the food was good, lunch was always soup, meat/fish (a lot of fish) with rice, veg, fries and then some sort of fruit salad for dessert, all for approx £2 :-) Lots of street food too!
*Altitude - AWFUL, had a headache pretty much everyday. Bolivians chew coca leaves which I tried and they do help but we also discovered a Coca Tea which was tasty!
* People - A lot still wear traditional clothes and live a more tradional lifestyle, there was definately a big contrast in life in Bolivia and life in Buenos Aires.

Definately recommending Bolivia to you all.
Along with Argentina, of course.

Besos, Donna