How do I explain my 3 days in the Bolivian desert? If I were to try & explain I would use words like amazing, unforgettable, spectacular, magical. And yet they still wouldn't be enough.
We started our trip leaving Chile & entering Bolivia. The Bolivian entry was a little shack with one person stamping passports.
We'd been informed by our guide that it was windy & cold & as we got out of the van we were shocked. We pulled extra clothes from our backpacks & I found myself changing into long pants in the back of a van with another girl.
The first day we climbed to a height of 4900 metres above sea level & some of us struggled with the altitude. The headaches washed over me but I was doing ok. We visited lagoons & bathed in a hot spring.
We listened to The Beatles & Bob Marley & while our guide spoke no English we had 2 Brazilian girls on the truck who translated everything for us.
Day 2 was filled with more beautiful sights of mountains & lagoons & flamingoes. When you're there you can't believe what you're seeing & you realize how lucky you are to witness it all.
The 3 guys in my truck serenaded us with a backstreet boys rendition & it became a theme song for the tour.
On our last day we hit the salt flats. We watched sunrise over the salt lake & we watched in awe as the sun was reflected so perfectly on the lake. It was a beautiful moment & hopefully I never forget it.
We took the typical tourist photos on the salt flat & as I'd been laying down to take photos my clothes were stained with salt. I don't know how everyone else seemed to keep themselves so clean & I looked like a mess!
We finished the tour in Uyuni. A town I never want to go to again. It was the last day of Carnivale & the whole town had shut down & 90% of it were drunk.
Some of us had wanted to bus out of Uyuni that night but the bus street (it wasn't a station but a street with busses) was closed & drunk. No one was getting out of Uyuni that night!
When I finally got on a bus the next morning I was glad to see the back of Uyuni & head to Sucre, supposedly the most beautiful town in Bolivia.
And now I'm in La Paz. A big town built high up but in a valley. You're either walking up a hill or down a hill & when you're walking up, because of the high altitude, it's a struggle.
It's a big, busy town with lots of busses & cars & everyone honks their horn just to let you know they're there. The traffic is crazy & I can't figure out if Bolivians are great drivers or super crazy.
Bolivia is a mix of really old & then a bit of new. The traditional cholita women walk around wearing skirts with petticoats & long braids with little bowler hats perched on their heads. They wrap babies or whatever else they want to carry, in colourful stripey material on their backs.
I survived my bike ride down death road.
The day was spectacular. We were driven into the mountains where it had been snowing. We kitted up with pants, jackets, gloves, helmets & fancy mountain bikes.
I was nervous but for the first 23 Kms we were on paved road & it gave me an opportunity to get some confidence.
When we finally got on to death road I was ready. We were on rocky unpaved road but I felt confident on the bike. I did everything right. I was going so well.
And then I hit a barricade.
The girl in front of me had slowed down & I thought she was falling. I didn't want to hit her & I was coming around a bend so I made the smart decision to hit the metal barricade.
It was not a smart decision.
I came off the bike. I hit the barricade & flipped over it. My legs smashed through an extra wooden barricade & I lay near the edge of a cliff.
I was put in the support bus but after 20 minutes riding in the bus I got them to take my bike down. I was going to finish. Yes I was hurting but sitting on a bus feeling sorry for myself wasn't making me happy either.
Apart from feeling like a champ for finishing, the scenery was spectacular. We started in freezing cold temperatures & ended up in the jungle. We rode through waterfalls & past gorgeous rock faces. We stopped for photos & amazed ourselves at how far we had come.
Clearly it is a highlight for me.
I find myself brave & eating from markets or street sellers & I only hope that my stomach can handle it. I trade funny bad stomach stories with other travelers & we laugh at our embarrassing misfortunes.
I'm seeing beautiful countryside & llamas galore. The mud houses still amaze me. I see people picking quinoa in fields & living simple. I am drinking Bolivian fanta like it's going out of fashion because it tastes so bloody good.
I love Bolivia. It is incredible.
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