Then in Chile. WHAT!!!???

After visiting the salt flats in Uyuni, the largest and highest salt flats in the world, we set off to Laguna Colorada in the deep south-west of Bolivia. You haven't missed the blog about Uyuni or Laguna Colorada yet, I still need to write them. Please be patient.

I do like Bolivia, don't get me wrong, but as someone brought up in Europe, there is one essential thing missing: paved roads. Almost all the way down from La Paz to Uyuni and then on to Laguna Colorada, there were NO bloody roads. Dirt tracks, some tracks left by other drivers and we did actually need a guide to direct us to the Laguna. I had a seat at the very back of the truck and it did my back in a bit. Although Renee, our tour leader, let us use the roof-top seats for a while so we could enjoy the stunning scenery a little more, I'm a city kid at heart and it took me half a bottle of shampoo to get the dirt out of my hair.

But why am I talking about Bolivia when the title of the blog is Chile? Well, what a bleeding nightmare that was. After negotiating the Bolivian border without any problems, we hit the "tarmacked" road (cheers throughout the truck) leading through "what we thought it to be and trucks used to get away with it" a 60-kilometre stretch of so called no-man's land to Paso Jama, the Argentinian border. Well, suffice it to say, we didn't get away with it. When the Argentinians saw that our passports had a Bolivian exit stamp, they refused to let us in because, officially, we had come through Chile. So we had to get back on the truck, turn it around, drive some three hours to San Pedro de Atacama where we were searched top to bottom and finally let in. After a quick dinner, we pitched our tents at midnight at the back of some hostel and left quite early in the morning for the road we had started to call our home. Around lunchtime we finally hit the Argentinian border again and now, in possession of a valid Chilean entry and exit stamp, they let us in without any problems.

Lots of stunning images on the way - especially the clouds.

Stuck in La Paz

There will be Presidential Elections this Sunday and we have encountered a slight hick-up. As no-one will be allowed to travel on Sunday, mainly to prevent people from voting in different areas and more than once, we will be stuck in our La Paz hotel. As Evo Morales seems to be well liked by his fellow Bolivians, the results seems to be a foregone conclusion.

Cholinas with their bowler hats and scarfs wrapped around their shoulders dominate the street view. For miles, the local street markets - neatly divided by the products on sale such as electricals and ironworks in one road, wool in another - wind around the La Paz streets behind our hotel. If you need something, you are bound to find it here. The bowler hats of the Cholinas don't seem to be sitting on their ears, instead they appear to be perched on top of their heads - without ever seeming to fall off. Oh, and they don't really like to be photographed. That's when the hats come off and they are quickly held in front of their faces.


One area I particularly liked was the Festival/Carnival area where lots of colourful costumes and masks were displayed. In London, there is a special Latin American carnival festival (or carnaval as the South American call it) where these costumes can be seen in action.

Just south of La Paz, a mud-cum-rock area is called Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna) because of its appearance. Water seems to be the cause to these rock formations that look very much washed out. Honestly, I didn't know they had these kinds of rock formations on the moon. I'm being sarcastic, of course.

Tomorrow I'm off to Tiwanaku but there might be a problem because of the impending elections as we may encounter road blocks etc. Ah well, we shall see.