Hola!
From Potosi we travelled by a private van to another small town near the Salar de Uyuni... (I forget the name of the town). The only highlight there (the hotel was really nice, comfy homey rooms) was this Israeli run restaurant that was so slow.... we waited 2 hours for food whilst playing uno and other games... but when the food did start to come out it was all stale and horrible... so we paid for the drinks and just left. Bolivian restaurants on the whole do leave a little to be desired.
I´m not sure if I mentioned but South America is full of Israelis! So at last, the little bit of Hebrew I remember is coming in handy!
The salt flats were fun... vast, white... amazing. We dug for salt crystals (this is when I realised that there was actually water under the salt flats) and the salt crystals (some multicolour) smell like suplhur. We stayed at a little salt hotel where everything was made of salt. No heaters... no shower ... one toilet between about 20 people. (We had 4x4 drivers and 2 cooks). There was almost a full moon... it was beautiful. Freezing.
The next day we saw a volcano, lava formations, lagoons.... and desert. We stayed in mud huts and were all so cold that we played Uno that night in our sleeping bags. We awoke at 5 am to travel to the geysers by sunrise and then some had a dip in the thermal springs.... I wasn´t game and decided instead to try my hand, so to speak, at ice skating. Yes, the thermal springs carved their way through a frozen lagoon... my fingers are still attached but are still recovering from the cold. I also didn´t jump in the thermal springs as I wasn´t keen on getting chillblaines. (spelling?)
Yesterday (May first) we crossed over to Chile... Bolivian immigration was a little hut in the desert. Then we hit this amazing bitumen road with signs and lines and everything... this took us to Chilean immigration and customs where we all had to clean our shoes and have our bags checked. They liked my cat but didn´t find Sharky.
We are now at San Pedro. A hip border town brimming with gringos, cafes and tours.... of the atacama desert, the volcanos etc. The internet here is very slow and I´ve been catching up since Sucre. No photos just yet, they would take forever to upload. We catch a nightbus tonight, 20 hours to Le Serena... the coast... and then we head to Santiago which is where many leave the tour and 9 new people join.
I hope everyone is well and happy. Enjoy some two minute noodles and tuna on my behalf and someone feel free to email me the update of McLeods Daughters.... !
Love,
Mez
