Welcome to Bolivia

So the journey to Bolivia was interesting. The bus wasn´t the best, but was ok, took about 3 hours to get to the border. You just go in a queue, get your passport stamped, change some money, then walk under an arch across the border, then go get your passport stamped on the Bolivian side...there are no guards stopping you on either side and no-one checks you´ve had anything stamped either side. I guess people come and go alot, so they´re not that fussed. Bizarrely we had to go through seperately from out tour leaders Lula and Paula as apparently the Bolivians get annoyed with Peruvians leading tours in their country, so Lula nad Paula had to pretend they were just travelling for fun! had a bit more fun when they suddenly decided we needed to get on a different bus bus which was v small and one of our group ended u wich a bloke basically hugging her for the whole trip to Copacabana where we were going to have lunch. Alas it´s not the nice Brazilian Copacabana and doesn´t even have Barry Manillow. We had a meal in a reaturant which was to re-visit me later and then just about got on another bus to La Paz. The bolivians think nothing of selling too many tickets for buses and another group had a massive argument will the bus company which Lula had to go sort out as she spoke english and spanish. Set off to cross a narrow bit of the lake where the bus got put on a barge and we had to take another boat cos it´s too dangerous to go with the bus as it may capsize. Fortunatley it didn´t and we got to La Paz that evening relatively intact. It was the last day of the tour for a lot of people and Andrea´s birthday so we went out for a meal at a place called Mongos. It was a very amusing evening and good food and a nice end to the trip. Alas that night I got pretty sick, we think from the lunch, probably the pizza as a few others got ill. Spent the day feeling rubbish, but still went on a city tour and to the Valley of the Moon which is a sand formation at the edge of the city and does indeed look like it could have come from the moon. Also met the new group for Bolivia that night and discovered that we weren´t leaving the next evening, but the next morning. Everyone seemed cool though. Had a mad night as for some reason they were celebrating the name of the street. They have a lot of celebrations in Bolivia, I think cos it´s not the best place to live! It went on till 12pm, but I think we got off lightly as apparently they had another celebration the next night which went on for 12 hours!
The next day took a 3 hour coach ride and a 7 hour train ride to Uyuni which has nothing going for it other than it´s next to these amazing Salt Flats.

The Salt flats are amazing, a lot of time spent in 4x4´s but was worth it for the scenery. Spent the 1st couple of days seeing amzing coloured lakes, mountains , mad rocks in teh shape of trees and lots of flamingos. Accomodation was a bit basic and outside was about -20 celcius on the 1st night, but 2nd place had beer, so that was ok.Got up v early to go to the Salt Flats yesterday (4am) and watched sunrise over what´s best described as an island of cactii in the middle of a sea of white, was amazing and then did some funny photos before a few of the guys got to drive the 4x4´s. One girl,Rachel drove ours and got a load of speed out of it, overtook the others, but their car was a bit newer, so could go faster. Was v good fun though especially as there was no speedometer. Anyway, that was great, but then we had the worst coach journey i´ve ever been on...we had the coach to ourseves, but it was sooooo bumpy you can´t imagine and my insides felts like they were being liquidised for 7 hours. Go here to Potosi just about intact though and ate at the one nice restaurant. Heading to the Salt mine this afternoon which should be fun.