23rd/24th May Uyuni Salt Pans

Up and off to Uyuni, staying in a hotel next door to an army base (!), ready for our visit to the the largest Salt Pan in the world, a vast area of....erm...well....salt, created by the evaporation of some pretty huge lakes by volcanic shenanigans.
So that's next door to the army base, you say




Francois wanted to see if it tasted of salt.....it did




Me and Jeanne loving the views




Piles of salt ready for taking away for use








Me! Popping out of a wine bottle




My favourite of the mucking about shots - Lisa tells off Tony and Geoff




Trying to get us all to jump at the same time is apparently like herding cats




Some people are SO competitive when it comes to pics




Moi, Anthony (nb - clothed) and Mikkel




Me and Mikkel




Just me and lots of salt




The visit involved lunch at Cactus Island, a visit to a train graveyard and frolicking about taking photos on the strange expanse of salt. A great day out.












Kirsten, Lisa and me

19th to 22nd May, Death Road and Potosi

Having barely ridden a bicycle since childhood, I thought riding "The World's most Dangerous Road" aka "Death Road" in Bolivia was a spiffing idea. There's an modern alternative road now so without the heavy traffic, it's not as dangerous as it was but with narrow bits, shingle road and steep drops, it's still one for the brave. We started out at a breath-taking 4700m altitude (snow), rode through heavy (and very cold) rain, and ended up in the Amazon jungle (1200m). The first 20km or so is tarmac so you get used to the bikes on that before doing 35km or so on the rocky Death Road proper.

A snowy start


A misty middle


Stopping for a break on a 400m high ledge








Lots of crosses at the side of the road - always reassuring


I was very nervous to start off with but soon decided that riding downhill was much like riding a motorbike so I was soon zooming away.

It took about 3 days for these trainers to dry


The finish line


Having survived the bike ride, most of us decided that 1.5km of zip lining was in order. My first zip lining experience, it seemed like the superman harness was the way to go to start off with.

And.....celebrate!


Celebrate with a beer and an injury waiver form for zip lining!/i>



Superman harness. I can fly!!!! (ps - the chap is not sat on me and yes he was needed.....to pull the brake)



Brake woman, BRAKE!!!


Then it was back into the bus for the drive back up the road we'd ridden down....in the dark....again with some rain! Aided with rum and coke, a pole, music and flashing lights, I'm fairly sure that the bus ride back up was more dangerous than the cycle down! A brilliant day and one of the best bits of my entire South America trip, largely cos I was pretty nervous and did it anyway. Yippy-kye-aye etc!

Rogan doing a bit of pole dancing


Francois outdoing everyone on the pole dancing


Sue and Kirsten happy to be alive



Having been caught in protests and road blocks on the way into La Paz, we left at 6.30am to avoid them on the way out.....only to hit a town on route to our next stop, where no amount of sweet talking could squeeze us through, keeping us there for 5 hours. Bolivia likes its protests and road blocks. It's not a country you can travel through quickly. So, we had a frosty bush camp on our way to Potosi. Some went down into the Silver mines (threats of asbestos put me off) and we all ganged up on Kirsten to celebrate her birthday.

shush, is she there yet?



Suprise! The relief is that she did not have to meet the police to discuss dodgy truck parking, as she may have been led to believe



Potosi has a LOT of churches







Ooh, that's a nice cloud! Let's take a picture.

14th to 18th May, Lake Titicaca and La Paz, Bolivia

On our way to our hop off point for Lake Titicaca, we bush camped in the grounds of a little tourist spot for some funeral pyres. Notable because some of us 'upgraded' to camping inside the museum......with some interesting friends.
Feeling sleepy?




Jeanne says goodnight to Horace (he's the skeleton with the head; we didn't name the headless one/i>




A visit to the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. It seemed quite a nice place to live in summer but the reed islands wouldn't be quite as nice in the rainy winter. The inhabitants of the islands further out that the tourists don't visit survive on whatever they can fish, either for themselves or to trade. I confess to being a little disappointed at the commercialism of the islands we visited, with solar power, tv's and a bar but I'm sure their comfort is more important than my romantic ideas of what the floating islands should be. Still, with families living in tiny little huts, it's hardly cutting edge. The people we visited were very lovely and let us poke around in their homes.
The ladies welcome us to their family's island








Inside one of the family homes




Mikkel with one of the island kids




Want me to peel your reed for you? Yummy but stop eating the floor!




Next stop, another Border, this time into Bolivia. Super quick border. Hurrah. First stop was in Copacabana, a popular hop off point for the Islands of the Sun and Moon where the Sun and Moon were apparently born. A few popped over to those, whilst the rest of us mooched round town and enjoyed the sunshine.




Next stop La Paz, which we got to via a very choppy 10 minute boat ride. Anthony grabbed the only life jacket and whilst I didn't see him snatch it from the hands of a child, it's possible that did happen. Watching Kirsten watch the truck lilt violently on its own barge was cruelly entertaining to watch.
Ithaca getting on board her barge




Karen and Steve with a chilly looking local




Stayed in a shockingly decorated hotel with studded faux leather walls downstairs and sticky back plastic type stuff on the walls which I would say was designed for badly covering tables rather than walls. Tasty. A very hilly city with some amazing markets and a great view of the city from our roof.
Stylish




Plastic 'wallpaper' and gaffa taping the curtains to the wall to try to stop a draft (my own personal contribution)












The witches market.....baby llamas. :-(




Many types of potato



A trip to the Valley of the Moon. Can't imagine why it's called that