Arrived in
"Can we get a taxi with youuuuu?" and made our way to our hostel, safe and sound. No acts of scaryness here. Phew x 10.
Spent the next few days checking out the sites from on high. Here we are, high.
Had lunch and a cocktail at altitude and were drunk immediately. Excellently cheap. Then went wandering round the Witches market (da da daaaaaaaaa!).
Riddle me this... What will bring you good fortune from your favourite Inca God (Pacha Mama innit)? What item will make you prosperous beyond your wildest dreams? What also doubles as a dog chew? You got it...
A llama foetus! These scraggy little beauties hang from the stalls in their droves, coming in all different shapes and sizes. Some with hair, some barely with skin. We got you one each as a present. You can thank us later.
Did more shopping, chatting, drinking, deciding what muppets we would be and eating. We then booked our tour to the salt flats. But first, The Bus Journey. 10 hours overnight... long, but do-able, si?
Picture the scene... there is a storm a-brewing which is starting to flood the city streets, there is thunder, there is lightning. Surely the bus will be cancelled. Surely. Not so. All Grouchos are herded onto the tourist bus and given chicken and rice. We declined. "Estoy Satisfecha, Gracias".
10 hours = 16 hours, 3 breakdowns, LONG delays, best chocolate we have ever had in our lives, bus stuck in flowing torrent, Groucho-brigade recovery service (see below), cracked windscreen, desperately need toilet (toilet vile), cheery driver (surprisingly) and postponed tour. Character building?
Started tour to the salt flats and nature reserve first thing the next morning. Let us introduce our group... Max (his real name?) the very safe and lovely driver. The chef (we just called her Chef) who loved us loving the vista. Our new best friends, Matt and Gina, French sibling duo, and us (Bert and Ernie).
First stop... The Train Graveyard (da da daaaaa!).
Abandoned trains in a desolate landscape, and us climbing all over their rusty carcases like A.D.H.D. apes. No "Do not touch the trains" signs for us. No health and safety mumbo jumbo. Get in there!
And then... The Salt flats...
Shoes off, running, jumping, flag flying. Wished we could stay there longer but other miraculous acts of nature beckoned.
Rocks. Massive rocks. Weird shaped rocks. They are big, we are small… see…
All at the base of an active volcano, spewed out a gazillion years ago (approximately).
Dragon Rock. Like Fraggle Rock, only scarier (and no Doozers, sadly).
But how quickly the vista changes, me hearties! Multi-coloured lakes, multi-coloured mountains, multi-coloured flooring (sand? Snow!?) and same coloured flamingos (pink) in their thousands!
The lakes were mineralised, accounting for their techni-coloured dreamcoat impersonation. They were red and orange and green and white and purple and violet and cream and yellow and BLUE.
Alright Geezer!!
Freeeeeezing cold, pre-sunrise at 5.30am. These bad boys get a-brewing early. Bubbling, hissing and spitting. BRILLIANT sulphur based fun (our favourite type of gas enjoyment). Watched the sun rise from a hot spring, astride a lake. Jammy jam sandwich-heads.
Needless to say, this trip was truly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Top gun fun and we loved every minute.
Here is a mini llama for your perusal…
Love from A & H
xxx
p.s. Happy Valentines Day (especially to the boyfs)!
p.p.s. This took us 3 Bolivian hours. We hope you enjoyed it.
What amazing adventures, Girls, in just a few days! How wonderfully exciting it must have been for you.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant blog, as always, and gorgeous pics. Thanks so much for taking the time and going to all the effort of writing it, and slooooowing uploading all the photographs. In the first one, I assume Amy is swallowing a mini-Hannah...or maybe it’s a Salty Frog...? Apologies, Hannah, but it’s a little difficult to be sure, from such a great distance!
Thank goodness you found Your Friendly, Neighbourhood, Cockney Skinhead to protect you, upon arrival at that horrendously-seedy bus terminal. Reading about such places is enough to give your parents horrific nightmares!
The amazing technicolour llama jumpers sound gorgeous. Hope Hannah L.D. Purdy’s is washable! Not entirely smitten (English understatement) with the idea of all those poor little llama foetuses hanging about, though, so you can pass mine on to a local witch, thank you very much, and I’ll square it with the Inca Gods.
Your Mini Living Llama, however, is highly approved of; and extremely worthy of a big cuddle, if only you could catch him for me.
Yesterday, Louise and I were discussing how we’d love to visit the Salt Flats, and various other places in Sweet S.A., but only if we could be air-lifted in and out, to avoid the loos, sundry horrendous hotels and overland journeys, so reading about your ten, I’ll give you sixteen, bus journey only confirms that idea...especially since some of it was obviously spent OUTSIDE the bus, pushing it through muddy rivers! The Best Chocolate in the Whole Wide World would be a consolation, certainly, but, upon reflection, we’ve decided to leave our characters unbuilt.
Exactly WHY have all those trains died and been left unburied on the Salt Flats, mewondereth...? Result of sixteen hour journeys, plus breakdowns? Wrong kind of salt on the line? “Due to man under train at Clapham Junction...” ????
(Wrong amount of text on the line, here, so breaking this comment in two, at this point...)
(To continue...)
ReplyDeleteI can imagine how difficult it must be to describe the stunning beauty of the Salt Flats. (Magritte, eat yer cloudy heart out.) Loved the leaping pic, and the one where you are perched on a giant box of breakfast cereal. Watching a sunset there must be glorious. No doubt, you have taken hundreds of photographs of that particular location, so we look forward to seeing the rest, on your return home.
Found the following info on the Salt Flats, which you may know, already, of course, having read the guide books:-
“The salt flats had been part of a sea captured by the Andes, but then evaporated, more than 8,000 years ago. They are the largest, by area, in the world, covering 74,440 square miles, at an altitude of 3,800m above sea level. Satellites use the salt flats for calibration because of the reflective surface, size and flatness of the area.”
Was it confusing to the eye at the Salt Flats, making you wonder where earth and sky actually met? Oneness and manyness must have often merged into otherness. But, once you’d achieved oneness, you probably moved on to twoness, so no problem, there, then.
Adore the E.C.G.W./Family Dragon Logo. What a fascinating, natural sculpture in that amazing volcanic landscape. Shame about the lack of Doozers, though, but perhaps those hundreds of pink flamingoes made up for it, somewhat.
I was a Multicoloured Lake (always meandering about in colourful hues), in my youth, so I have a definite affinity with them. Come to think of it, I knew one or two Frothing Geezers, too (minus high altitiude to aid them in becoming drunk even more swiftly, thank goodness), but no Frothing Geysers, unfortunately. I reckon the latter are undoubtedly much more fun than the former.
As you continue to march boldly into Regions Unknown (to you), Amsie, you might like to know that an exhibition opens in Cambridge, today, at your Rellie’s Place (Scott Polar Museum): i.e. The British Graham Land Expedition (1934-1937), which spent three years exploring the Antarctic Peninsula, proving it to be part of the Antarctic mainland, and not islands, as previously thought. Even Google has a pic on its Home Page, today, to celebrate. Well, it’s a photograph of Shackleton, actually, but it’s all connected!
http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en
Thanks, again, dear Girls, for such a wondrous update. Continue “to boldly go” where no A.E.E. and H.L.D.P. (but plenty of split infinitives) have gone before, and we look forward to hearing from you, again, soon: via face-to-disappearing-face-lips-out-of-sync Skype, email, and on this brilliant blog.
Ooooooodles of Love
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Brilliant blogging again girls. I absolutely love your pics and descriptions. They tell such a fascinating story of your journey. I have to admit that I thought that Amy was just about to eat a frog (or some other local delicacy) in the first picture. It wasn't until I enlarged the photo that I could see that it was Hannah! The salt flats and the flamingos are just incredible. I am more than a little jealous because I have always wanted to see them in their natural habitat. But what stunning and varied landscapes! The optical illusions of the salt flats to volcanic rocky areas. Great dragon. Great train graveyard.
ReplyDeleteHope you are making some interesting friends along the way (like minded people no doubt). I guess you will be wending your way northwards soon so I wish you a very happy time there. Everyone sends their love and the blog is being followed by many people who think that its just great. All our love, mum xxx
The salt flats look fantastic and I am still trying to work out some of the photos.
ReplyDeleteGreat to talk last night. Matilda is amazing!
Sorry but I do not have time for more today other than to say that this was another fantastic blog. Thanks girls; I know how difficult the conditions are for producing these things. Many more are looking at them and appreciating them than are actually commenting on them. Have a great time in Columbia. PL took the snorkelling kit off me in a black dustbin bag back to work just like an old bag lady!! Sorry Pier but blame Amy not me.