Kristy & Adam - South America Adventures

Hola from Bolivia,

Hope you`re all well!! We have just made our way across to the Chillian border after finally getting out of La Paz and doing a salt flats tour.

We ended up meeting up with the couple we had met in Cuzco, Peru and took a private 4WD tour with them.
The bus ride from La Paz to Uyuni was an overnight bus that took about 13 hours. We made our way out of the city on paved, sealed roads, then after about an hour we were on unsealed roads for the rest of the trip! It wasn`t too bad, but for the last two hours of the trip it was very bumpy and up and down hill so I had my head in a plastic bag during that time (I think you know the rest!!) Wasn`t very pleasant but I survived!
After a few days rest in Uyuini we boarded a 4WD equipped with a cook and english speaking guide and made our way out to the salt flats & coloured lagunas.

We made our first stop at a train cemetary where all the old and rusted freight trains have been dumped after many years of travelling to and from Bolivia and Chile. We then made our way to the salt mine and saw the process of how the salt was collected and dried out, refined and packaged. We also took a quick stop to see a hotel made completely out of salt. We then drove to an area called fish island, the whole area had many giant cactus and a great view of the salt flats. We ate Llama steaks for lunch cooked in a mini gas bbq by our cook then we made our way to our first nights accomodation. The accomodation was very basic but not too bad considering we were in the middle of no-where!

The second day we left the salt flat area and crossed into the desert to visit various coloured lagunas (Coloured lakes) and saw many pink flamingos. We visited an area called Colorado Laguna (Red lake) The lake was awesome very very red in colour, due to the algae and minerals.
Our accomodation the second night was also very basic.

On the last day of our trip we visited an area to see some gysers and mud pools, then onto some hot springs it was blowing a gail and far too cold for me to strip off down to my bikini so I chickened out We then went onto visit the Laguna Verde (Green Lake) which was green in colour due to the wind mixing up the minerals in the water.

After a long 3 days without showers we crossed the boarder into San Pedro, Chile. We are staying here for a few days then making our way down the coastal areas to the capital Santiago. We have just extended our trip by another month so we are now visiting the lakes district in Chile aswell.

We will be home just in time for Christmas. So till next time stay well and keep in touch.

Kristy & Adam

P.s Will have photos online in a few days

Hola from Bolivia!
Hope you`re all well! We are now in La Paz in Bolivia. We crossed the boarder from Puno in Lima to Copacabana and spent two days there (Its a lovely beachside resort according to two English people we spoke to! Not really....) We were meant to visit some more islands from there but we decided not to as we needed a few days to unwind and relax after all this travelling we`ve been doing. Sometimes it really takes it out of you Ha ha ha....
Anyhow we are now in La Paz and its a bustiling city of millions, there isn`t a lot to do here, we have spent the past few days shopping at the markets for more Christmas goodies, walking around town, doing some desperately needed washing and just chilling out really. Its very different to where we have been in South America so far, feels a little more dangerous, and there are loads of beggers on the street, you can definately see there are many people who are much poorer here.
We just found out we will now be stuck here for 3 more days...JOY....the train drivers have decided to strike and now we have to take a bus instead on Saturday! So I think we might go and check out the cinema`s and see what`s on, Apparently all the flicks are in English which is great news for us!
When we make our way out of here on Saturday we are headed for the Salt flats in Uyuni. So till then....
Take care & Keep in touch
Kristy & Adam