Bolivia - the big change

So it´s been a while since anything has been posted here. It´s a shame that the internet is so slow as so much has happened and I can´t seem to upload any photos (I´d be here until Xmas if I tried).

Coming into Bolivia
The last week or so has been pretty travel-intensive. We took the 4x4 route from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia. We saw lot of lakes of different colours (blue, green...and red?), listened to a lot of electro / new romantic songs from the eighties (when was the last time you heard ¨Big in Japan¨ 10 times within a three-day period?) and reached an altitude of 4,900 metres - which at that height does strange things to you, particularly after a can of coke and a glass of wine. The scenery certainly was spectular, sweeping sand dunes, huge rocks and some scattered, ruined industrial outposts.

The salt flat at Uyuni (the salar) was pretty mind-blowing - a place where it´s difficult to work out where the watery salt surface finishes and the sky begins. It´s like a mirror and made for some pretty surreal photos (will try and post sometime. Hmmm...not sure about that). We also ate lunch in a hotel made completely of salt.

The trip was three days in total and took in a one-night stay high up in the plains (at about 4,800m above sea level) in a pretty simple, gringo-filled refugio. Luckily the altitude didn´t have too much effect (apart from post-coca-cola silliness). However, it wasn´t so forgiving for everyone - the toilets were not a pretty site the next morning at 7am.

Uyuni itself was completely different from San Pedro - a complete change from Chile over a relatively short distance by South American standards. The poverty is much more noticeable here and Bolivia definitely seems more hard-done by compared with its Southernly neighbours.

So it was two nights in Uyuni and then off to Tupiza, in the southeast, on one of the scariest bus rides ever. Seven-hours on a local bus covering a distance of less than 200 km, winding up and down, tettering along the tiny mountain roads of the Cordilleras, at every turn only centimetres away from the 100ft sheer drop below. I didn´t want to lean out the window as it would have tipped the bus over the edge! The "in-fright" conversation wasn´t that great either with the elderly Bolivian lady wearing a top hat and no teeth.

Tupiza
Tupiza seems like an okay place, as does our hostel (it has to be at the bargain of 3 pounds per night per person). The town has a laid back feel to it and is set amongst the red cliffs and mountains of the Cordilleras, which are covered in various types of cacti. However, there isn't a huge amount to do here a part from horse-ride and eat pizza. Therefore, our extended stay here (5 nights) has been because I have fallen foul of a Bolivian stomach bug, rather than because of any Tupiza-related charms (which are limited in number).

Let's see what the rest of Bolivia brings.