uyuni salt flats tour

I did a 4 day trip from Tupiza to Uyuni which ends on the Salt Flats. There was a lot of driving involved. I really like the optical illusion photos on the salt plains but they are a pain to take. And the salt is really really uncomfortable to sit / lie on. It was a great trip but I was so happy to leave Bolivia at the end. And I just love Argentina - where I am writing this from.

Tupiza

Tupiza is a small town in the south of Bolivia. It's probably only 50 miles from Tarija but it took us hours and hours on a hideous bus journey to get there. There were landslides and we were sat still for hours on the side of the cliff while people cleared it with their bare hands. At one point later on everyone got off the bus to move rocks out of the way. Finally we arrived safely and checked into a nice hostel with a pool. The next day we did a "triathlon" around the area which was a jeep ride, cycle (not downhill like they said!) and horse riding. It was brilliant with beautiful scenery which isn't quite captured on my pictures but here they are anyway.

Tarija and Valle de la Concepcion, Bolivia

This is the "all you can drink for £25" party we went to. Clearly this was where all the rich Bolivians were hanging out, and we were very obviously underdressed. There was also a collection of the most horrible dresses Heather and I had ever seen. All in all it was a fun, if messy, night.

Bolivia is not known for its wine, and for a good reason. It's crap. However it was really nice to be able to drink wine again after only beer or the occasional cocktail (usually involving raw egg) over the last few months.

Erik, Heather, Gideon and I headed on from Potosi to Tarija to visit the bodegas. Needless to say we got very drunk. It was really fun, and the best wine we had was a bottle for £1.30 in a cheap eat place where we had lunch. The roads were still blocked due to Evo's "gasolinazo" 100% gas price increases which took place on 26th December. The government had been subsidising gas for the last 7 years but said it was going to stop as so much was leaking out and going into Chile and Argentina. The days following this announcement have been interesting. Buses put their prices up 50%, taxis 100% and soooo many strikes and demonstrations. At least in Tarija there was no dinamite being blown up on the street. Today Evo has announced he's revoking his decision so hopefully the country will calm down a bit!

Death Road, Bolivia (near La Paz)

I was really nervous about doing the "Death Road" bike ride as it's supposedly the most dangerous road in the world. I truely believe that whoever put that name to it has not been to Guatemala!

The cycle was pretty easy, and only really dangerous if you're a complete idiot and fall off down the side. Saying that people do die, which is really sad. One English guy died but they think he passed out before he went off the side. His parents donated an ambulance to the region which is a very nice gesture. Weirdly 50% of deaths are Israelis....but we couldn't figure out if 50% of the people who do the cycle were also Israeli. Strange statistic though.

Anyway, it was one of the most beautiful rides I've ever done. The scenery as you can see is beautiful and it was all in all a really really fun day out.