We´ve spent the last couple of weeks at altitude and are now old pros so it seems strange to remember how hard it was to start with. When we passed into the Bolivian altiplano we went up to over 4000 metres, and our world drastically slowed down. You just can´t do anything quickly or your bent over catching your breath and getting the head spins. It was also a great excuse to overdose on chocolate - sugar is recommended to counteract altitiude sickness afterall. The altiplano is a really eerie place, completely cut off but almost alien in it´s beauty with red, green and black lakes; dali-esque sculpted rocks and barren deserts and mountains. Being this remote our first night was spent in a very basic hut at 4800 metres - there was no heating and with the wind whistling around it must have been well into the minus figures inside as well as out! Dave got hit by altitude sickness that night and compared it to the worst kind of hangover but without the fun of having drunk yourself into that state! The next night was in a salt hotel on the edge of the flats - walls, floors, tables, chairs and beds all made of blocks of salt - strange but true, and actually rather attractive in a bizarre way. Then we headed onto the Salar de Uyuni salt flats - wow, everything you thought you knew about distance just goes as the alien whiteness just messes with your eyes... Great for really cheesy photoes though! Our van managed to break down out there and we started walking for help and then the vastness really hit home, the van got smaller and smaller but we were no nearer our destination. It wasn´t too much of a disaster though as the driver suddenly realised we´d just run out of diesel so soon got it going again!
After this alien beauty, it was great to get into a town (however small), via the train graveyard. (Dave was like a little kid in there, crawling allover them. Strange to thing it´s where Butch and Sundance had an epic fight...) Our bus trip the next day is a whole new story though...
Sarah
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