Bolivia

We entered Bolivia on a rickety minibus after taking a night bus from Cusco to an undetermined point somewhere near the border. After passing through the farcically relaxed security and getting stamped in we took a second, equally clapped-out, minibus to the small town of Copacabana which sits on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It quickly transpired that there was no ATM in Copacabana that accepted foreign cards but fortunately we had enough Peruvian Soles and US Dollars to fund a stay of two nights.

On the second day that we were there we went on a day trip to Isla del Sol, an island in Lake Titicaca, and did the three hour walk from the Northern end of the island to the Southern end. Isla del Sol is the birthplace of the sun in Inka mythology and as such is regarded as an important site in the history of Inka civilisation and, predictably, is peppered with ruins. The walk itself was really enjoyable and had some amazing views but was marred to an extent by the amount of charges the locals levied on passing gringos. It got to the point that we were having to buy a new ticket every few hundred metres to be allowed access to the next part of the island. To be fair these didn´t amount to much but it did get slightly out of hand.

The following day we got a bus to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. This was a fairly normal bus journey apart from the point, about an hour after leaving Copacabana, that we had to cross the lake. There was no bridge so all the passengers had to get off and take a boat whilst the bus was taken over on a separate, much slower, raft.

We ended up staying five nights in La Paz. We spent quite a lot of time just wandering around the city, especially in the area where there are hundreds of market stalls. There is one place, known as the witches market, that sells all sorts of strange things, including llama feutus´s. These are said to bring luck. On the second day we were in La Paz Clare and Maria arrived and we had a big night out with them and some others from the hostel. We ended up at the infamous Route 36 nightclub and stayed there until the early hours of the next morning.

Most other evenings we spent time at the hostel bar where they organized activities such as killer pool and a pub quiz. One exception to this was on the Sunday evening when we went to Cholita's Wresting. This is essentially a very poor imitation of America's WWF wrestling, whose selling point is that some female wrestlers wear the traditional Bolivian dress. The costumes worn by the men included Raphael from the Turtles, a skeleton and a red indian. There was even a midget getting involved at one point. They all put on a good show though and it was worth going to.

On another day when we were in La Paz we went mountain biking down the 'worlds most dangerous road', also known as the Death Road. The total length of the route was 62km, with a descent of 3550m. The first part of this was on a normal tarmacked road so the cycling was fairly easy. It was really cold though and we both wore two pairs of gloves! There was even snow at the top of the mountain where we started.

It was at the half way point that the Death Road itself began. It is a bumpy, gravelly, narrow road that corkscrews down the side of a large mountain. Fortunately a new road opened two years ago so now Death Road is used mainly by cyclists and the minibuses that follow each group. Our guide told us that on average 55 people died each month on Death Road before the new road opened. No one really knows how true any of these figures are though as every group seems to get told different statistics.

We left La Paz on a night bus and had a very bumpy ride to Uyuni due to the state of the roads. We arrived at about 5.30am (earlier than expected) and were shocked by how cold it was - it was definitely the coldest we´ve been since leaving the UK (although probably not as cold as it currently is in the UK)! We ended up going to a cafe where we had a very early morning fry up, then waited in the office of our tour company until about 11am when we set off on our trip to Salar de Uyuni (salt flats).

Our first stop of the tour, which came shortly after leaving Uyuni, was the 'graveyard of trains', a site next to the railway line that connects Bolivia and Chile where some of Bolivia's earliest trains, from the 1850s, have been left to rust.

Soon after this we found ourselves driving through the vast expanse of the worlds largest salt flats. The next place we visited was a salt factory where they processed the salt from the flats so that it was fit for consumption then bagged it up for sale in shops. They produce 2000kg a day. It is quite typical of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, that the one thing they still have an abundance of fetches such a low price in the market.

After leaving the salt factory we drove a bit further to the salt hotel. This is a building that is made almost entirely of salt that has a few bedrooms and another, quite large room, that houses a number of sculptures which are carved, predictably, from salt.

After another hour or so of driving we arrived at Isla del Pescado (Fish Island). This island basically involved a lot of cacti, a lot of rocks, and had a path that led to the highest point. From the top there were amazing views of the salt flats but it was hard to see in what way the island resembled a fish.

We ate some llama for lunch then all took the opportunity, provided by the vast whiteness of the salt flats, to attempt some rudimentary trick photography.

The rest of the day was spent driving to the end of the salt flats then across some more rugged and rocky terrain to reach the hostel in which we were spending the night. The hostel was in the middle of nowhere so there wasn't much in the way of evening entertainment. We all had dinner, played Yahtzee (with dice made from salt), drank some wine and had a fairly early night.

Our first destination the following morning was a viewpoint where we could see a volcano that was half in Bolivia and half in Chile - still active apparently. The viewpoint, and surrounding area, was formed entirely of volcanic rock which was quite fun for walking and climbing.

We then went on a tour of various lagoons. All of these were impressive in their own way and were nearly all populated by flocks of flamingoes.

We also stopped off to see the Arbol Piedra (stone tree) which is a fairly impressive topographical feature. There were also more volcanic rocks to be climbed at this site, although climbing the arbol piedra itself was forbidden (and probably very difficult). That night we stayed at a very basic hostel which had neither showers nor heating. It got ridiculously cold and we all ate dinner in hats whilst wearing almost every layer of clothing available to us!

The next morning we all had to be up at 4.30am so we could see the sunrise and drive to Sol de Mañana where there are a number of geysers. It was all very beautiful but because it was so early in the morning it was ridiculously cold and we weren't keen to leave the warmth of the jeep for long periods of time! Our guide told us at this point that Salvador Dali had once visited the deserts we were driving through and had used them as inspiration for some of his famous pictures.

We then drove to some hot springs where there was a large man made bath to warm everyone up. We also had breakfast there, which was fortunately served indoors.

We had time to fit in one more lagoon before driving to the Bolivian border checkpoint where we said goodbye to our guide and the two Bolivian girls in our group. Our guide wasn't that good though as he wasn't particularly friendly and didn't speak English - Mike ended up translating quite a lot of the Spanish for those in the group who only spoke English.

At the Bolivian border we transferred to a bus and went to San Pedro de Atacames in Chile. This was actually a last minute decision based largely on the fact that going to Chile vastly reduced travelling time to get to our next destinations in Argentina. San Pedro is a laid back little village with dusty streets and a nice central plaza. We spent two days there enjoying the warmer climate as well as the Chilean cuisine and wine (well, we mainly drank boxed Clos actually!).